The Shot Clock Pod - Week #24

[00:00:00] Hey Paul, I'm Jose Salviati, editor at ThePeachBasket.net. He's Steve Percello, long-time educator, vice principal, high school basketball coach, athletic director, and currently outdoorsman. And this is the Shot Clock Pod, the best 15 minutes of NBA Random Thoughts online anywhere. If this is your first time listening, welcome. We're glad you found us. This podcast was born out of the content in Steve's 13 Rules, random NBA Thoughts articles, which he publishes weekly. Steve and I have exactly 15 minutes to discuss what's on his mind around the NBA.

[00:00:30] Today we'll discuss his latest 13 Rules, Random NBA Thoughts article, where he shares his thoughts after the final Week 25 of the 2024-25 NBA season. And if you're not watching, but listening, you just need to know that Steve is enjoying the great outdoors today and it's just a great backdrop of a blue sky. So I just want you to imagine that in your brain as you listen to Steve's random thoughts. Steve, are you ready? Ready. All right, let's do it. Let me start the clock. And we're off.

[00:01:00] All right. You started this week by talking about the Los Angeles Cyclics. It's been a heck of a season for this team. At the start of the season, everybody counted them as a play-in team and I think they were headed in that direction. They made a shocking trade, changed everything. Got off to a great start, then hit a bit of a bump. Now they're riding high again.

[00:01:20] And you pointed out they almost beat the best team in the association, the Oklahoma City Thunder, twice in Oklahoma City. If it wasn't for one weird technical on Luka, they probably would have taken both. So they go to the playoffs with momentum and rest. What do you make of the Los Angeles Lakers?

[00:01:39] It's really interesting. If you compare them to the Dallas Mavericks of last year, I think the Mavericks are a better team. But by going out and beating Oklahoma City the way they did, and then almost beating them a second time, what they showed the rest of the division is, you see, can be happy.

[00:01:58] I don't know if it'll be the Lakers, because they'll be a three seed. They'd have to beat only in the final, in the Western Conference Finals. But I think other teams like Golden State are lurking and thinking there's a chance here.

[00:02:12] Where before it was like wishing upon a star. A lot of things have to break right. They showed vulnerability in those games. And that, I think, is the biggest issue. And the fact that OKC is not that experienced in tough situations makes them a team, though they are the best team in the league right now, they can be happy.

[00:02:35] But it's really interesting how that all changed last week. What are they seeing out in LA? Oh, you know exactly what they're seeing out here. The Lakers are back. The Lakers in five. We've proven blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Listen, I'm going to put on my Thunder hat for a minute, OK? Those games did not matter to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Neither one of them, OK? They had far and away the best record in the association.

[00:03:02] And I'm not saying they didn't play to win, but I don't think they cared. If they lost, it didn't matter to them. Now, the games were important and the Lakers went out and battled and played well. But there's still holes in that team. I think they're super strong offensively, but they've got some real challenges on the defensive end.

[00:03:24] Here's where I'm going to disagree with you. I think Oklahoma City was challenged. They knew if they lost two straight, not a good thing. And they had to show their superior. And I'm going to give you a contrary. The Knicks played Boston last week. Now, we all know, everybody knows the Knicks are 0-4 against Boston, Cleveland, and OKC.

[00:03:47] What did Boston do? Now, they've had guys sitting out. Only Al Horford sat that game out because they knew they didn't want to give the Knicks any reason to think things were changing. And then the Knicks lost to Detroit after that, and then they played Cleveland. Very interesting. The other night, Cleveland had two guys sitting out. I believe Mitchell and maybe Jared Allen, but there's two guys out. Cleveland was down by 20, and they came back and won that game.

[00:04:17] Nobody wants to give the Knicks the thought that, you know what, this was earlier in the year. Now we're OK. Everything's good and all that stuff. So I think Oklahoma City realized, we don't want to make this harder. And it's going to be harder because now the Lakers are going on the court believing they can be surprised at success as much as expecting success. And that's a big change.

[00:04:42] No, that's a fair point. And that might speak to the inexperience of the coaching staff. If I'm right, and the Thunder maybe didn't put the foot on the gas like they should have, maybe that's on the coaching staff. Right? Let's send these Lakers a message. Or maybe they did, and that was the message, that the Thunder aren't ready. We'll see.

[00:05:00] I think they tried, and they could. And for the life of me, I don't see the Lakers winning a title because I just don't think they have enough. They've got enough offense. They play well. J.J. Redick has been better than anything anybody ever saw. 100%.

[00:05:17] You need a big. You need a big. You know, how, again, let's just go into the future. Let's say they play Boston or Cleveland in the finals. How are they going to match up if Boston leaves the two, this is Horford out there? And we saw Horford can defend anybody.

[00:05:34] And how would they match up with Cleveland with Allen and Mobley? If you could tell me, start thinking, okay, but I don't see it. I just don't see any of it. And you're putting a lot of pressure on your ball defenders because there's no big to back them up. They got trouble. I just, you know, but I've seen crazier things. Yeah. No, it's good for L.A. in that. Showtime is back. Luka is doing some things that we haven't seen in the Laker lands. It's Magic Johnson.

[00:06:02] The guy is, he's incredible and he's fun to watch. But yeah, they've got to build around it. But anything they get this season is going to be gravy, but it's going to be an interesting off season for the Lakers and an interesting playoff season for the Lakers. But let's move on. We got some, a few other things to talk about. You spoiled this one, but I'm going to go ahead and say it anyway. The New York Knicks are 0-8 against the Cavs Celtics and 0-2 against the Thunder.

[00:06:25] Do the math. That's 0-10 against the top teams in the NBA. That's tough. So I got to ask you, are they due to win some or are they done? First of all, I don't say they're done because if Jalen Brown, if that injury is legit and he's not playing well, they got a shot against Boston. And if they get to the finals, they'll run this team back in the Eastern Conference finals. Yeah.

[00:06:50] So are they done? I don't think they have, they're good enough to beat a Boston or Cleveland. However, there's variables. And one of them is Jalen Brown. I don't think they defend well enough. I don't think their five starters are as good as Cleveland's or Boston's. You don't know. And don't forget.

[00:07:11] And they don't defend. And Carl Anthony Towns gets put into the pick and roll and he's dropping and guys are banging threes on him and are going to the basket when he comes out and beating them. So they just don't have enough defense. And if they use Mitchell Robinson, I mean Towns becomes a four. That could be a problem. But who's he going to guard? Let's say if they played Boston, who's he guarding? He's going to guard Tatum? Come on. Or he's going to guard Evan Mobley? Come on.

[00:07:38] You can't be serious about that. So there's issues here that the way they're constructed makes it difficult. They all have some talent. They have a lot of talent, but I don't know if they can do that. Yeah. Are they a team that resets or reboots if they don't have success this year? Yes. Rumor is Kevin Durant is what they're in. Yeah, yeah. I've heard that. I've heard that for Cat.

[00:08:05] Let me go further. I'll say this. If they lose in the first round to Detroit, what do you think happens? Tibbs is gone if you lose. Which could happen, by the way. Detroit's a good team. Yeah. Yeah. And what else? They're going to make a deal. They're going to dump somebody. And the guy that's probably going to go is Mikael Bridges because they've got to make a decision on his contract.

[00:08:28] He's got one more year after this. So they're not going to get what they gave up for him, but that's the situation they're in. Yeah. No, it's always a little tougher for teams like New York and the Lakers and Boston. These franchises with some history. Because you're expected to always compete. And when you don't, not enough. Talking about the potential and the possibility of Tibbs losing his job, a couple of really good coaches have.

[00:08:54] The Grizzlies and Denver Nuggets both fired their coaches oddly really late in the season. Something you don't see. Shocked. Everybody. And interestingly, you see a different path forward for those teams, the Grizzlies and the Nuggets, specifically because of one particular player. What do you see in the future for the Grizz and the Nuggets? Obviously, Jokic just keep you hitting. But there's another piece to it too. I don't know if the Memphis players wanted to see their coach fired.

[00:09:22] I think when you start reading about what's going on in Denver, I think a lot of the players wanted him out. And they had enough of the feuding between him and Calvin Booth. So a little different situation. So Denver gets a new coach who they like. And Adelman, what that might mean is they might play. And don't forget, when a new coach generally gets hired, they have a good stretch right away. We saw that in Sacramento with Christy.

[00:09:52] That's right. Just going to use that as an example. Christy in Sacramento, they came out 1-8 out of 9 or 9 out of 10. And then they settled back into being a mediocre team. And by the way, that's a team that has to really look and think about time to change everything because we're not good enough. Yeah. I'm getting off the subject, but that's the differences I see with Denver. And Denver with Jokic, they can play anybody. Interesting one point to notice.

[00:10:21] When Jokic scores big, they lose. Which means if you're going to play, you want him to play off the score all game. You don't want the distributor because the distributor can kill you. He can, when he gets everybody in the game. So that's an interesting thing. So everybody's been thinking like, do we double him? Do we play him straight up? And maybe he gets off a little bit and then he doesn't distribute.

[00:10:51] I love that observation. One of the things we do here weekly is we document the top performers in the association by average. And Jokic regularly is the top performer in assists. First time all season, he was the top point guy. 47 points in three games played. He averaged. This was when he had a 61, 61 point triple double. He averaged 47 points over the course of one whole week, three games. Denver lost all three games. I was shocked. But it goes to your point.

[00:11:20] When he is a score, the team isn't as good as when he is a facilitator. Did you know he's going to average a triple double for the season? Oh yeah. Third person to ever do it. Yeah. Who are the other two? Oscar Robertson and Russell Westbrook. Russell rested it three times. I didn't know that. I thought it was four. Four? I thought. That's a present. People forget because. Three or four. That's amazing. Westbrook is one of the best players in the last 15 years, 10 years, whatever.

[00:11:50] He was great. Was great. Now he still can be a problem. Yeah, but he could also miss an important layup and make a dumb foul. So that's a topic for us today. He can only shoot. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Let's finish with this. Because I love when you do this and you do this fairly regularly. And that's call out a player who may be flying under the radar if you're not a big NBA fan. And that's Davion Mitchell. Who incidentally started in Sacramento. We just talked about the Kings.

[00:12:20] Now this is a player who isn't a great shooter. He makes winning plays. How does a player do that? And who does he remind you of? Players like that, every team wants one. He's all about winning. And he does, everything he does impacts the winning as opposed to what he does. And there's not a lot of players walking around like that. And it takes a gen, and Miami will appreciate him and they'll pay him because he's restricted, I believe, at the end of the year. They get these guys and they're winners.

[00:12:50] Marcus Smart is the closest thing I can think of. And Marcus Smart, when he was with Boston, he did all the dirty things that got you over the top. He's the guy diving on the floor. He's the guy, you know, we're making a big block. He's the guy, even though he's not a good shooter, but he was a clutch player. That was Marcus Smart. Davion Mitchell is like a junior Marcus Smart. And Smart made a lot of money being the way he plays.

[00:13:17] So I think Davion Mitchell will do the same because I'll tell you what, I would think every team in the league would want him. And what's he going to make next year, Christine? 15 million is not a lot of money. Yeah. Yeah. And he's a spark. He's just a hard-nosed player that you like. Yeah. Every championship team has a player like that. I think of some of the, to me, some of the greats in that mold, right? Guys like Alex Caruso, guys like Michael Cooper, Marcus Smart, who you called out.

[00:13:47] Who was that player in the 80s Celtics? In the 80s? Probably a little pain in the neck. Danny Age. Danny Age, yes. Yes. Yes. And they were both, DJ was great, but Dennis Johnson, but Danny Age was always a pain in the neck. And he annoyed every, and you need that. The thing I'll say to you, the guy that also is another instigator or aggravator is on Detroit. Holland.

[00:14:17] He's another aggravator. He gets in fights every other night. But he's tough and he's high energy players. Caruso wasn't a high energy player. He was a defender. Higher energy, high energy players like Mitchell, like Holland, Marcus Smart was. They get everybody playing hard. Everybody's playing hard. They're going full style. And there's a value in that. And by the way, Marcus Smart... It's like the game changes. Oh, go ahead. Right.

[00:14:46] Marcus Smart is a $20 million player. So he made, and I think he had, this is his second contract of that. So he probably made well over $100 million being that player. And... That's awesome. Yeah. He didn't have to put the ball in the basket to make that money. That's awesome. That's motivating somebody who heard it, I hope. Because that's pretty impressive. Yeah. These are the kind of guys who, when they come into the game, everything changes. And every championship team, every one of them has had a player like that.

[00:15:15] I think the Detroit Pistons of 06 had their entire team. It was made up of players like that. Yeah. They did in 06. I'm thinking of the 80s when they had Blaine Beer. Just, that's something you can't like. Yeah. No, that's different. That's different. That's different. Maybe we'll talk about that down the line. Because that, yeah, that's a different type of player. But that's it. Our time is up. You heard our buzzer go off. Thank you, as always, for listening. Make sure to read Steve's entire 30 Rules Random NBA Thoughts article.

[00:15:43] We'll link it below wherever you're listening or hearing this to get more NBA Random Thoughts. He wrote about more stuff. We want you to read it all after week 25 of the 2024-25 NBA season. Join us next week when, what, man? We're talking about the playoffs next week. Probably just the playing, right? We're talking about the playing. And we'll have... Yeah. Right? The play is next time when they start. The real playoffs. So we will come, yeah, next week with some thoughts after the play-in tournament.

[00:16:13] See how that works out. Please consider subscribing, liking, commenting. All that stuff matters to us. And, yeah, again, join us next week on the Shot Clock Pod. The best 15 minutes or so. A random NBA Thoughts on the line. Talk next week. Hey, Steve. Thank you.