What variance means here
A team whose habits are half-installed will execute well when conditions are calm and poorly when they are not. That is not a character defect; it is the ordinary appearance of partial learning. Calling it inconsistency implies the ability exists and is being withheld.
Look for narrower progress
Development shows up in specifics long before it shows up in outcomes: fewer breakdowns on the same coverage, better spacing in a familiar action, a rotation arriving on time. Those are checkable week to week, unlike the vague question of whether a team has turned a corner.
The cost of the label
Language shapes patience. A team described as inconsistent invites intervention; a team described as unfinished invites teaching. In an environment where rosters change annually, the second framing produces better decisions and is usually the more accurate one.