With the Carmelo Anthony situation behind him and a three-year contract extension signed, George Karl has seemed at ease.

"It seems like the spirit of everything is moving in a very positive way for me," Karl said. "And also, it's kind of closure on a bad year, and hopefully starting into a great year and a great run. I thank the Kroenkes, Stan and Josh. Coaches don't usually get two chapters. But the Melo chapter had a lot of excellent basketball, a lot of good wins. And now everybody is happy with the newness of what is happening." 

Karl received a checkup on his health on Tuesday and received a 'great report'.

"I think I have no problem with our team right now," said Karl. "I think we know the challenges and we have a respect for the challenge. We know that (whether it's) Houston, Phoenix, there are going to be 2, 3 good teams not make the playoffs this year. I thought in the past sometimes we didn't respect the challenge. And because of that, we'd get beat by a team we didn't respect.

"I hope everybody doesn't think we're going to be any good because I'm pretty confident we're going to be (darn) good."