13 Rules: NBA Random Thoughts - April 13, 2024

[00:00:00] All right, it's time to talk basketball. I'm Jose Salviati, editor at TheBeachBasket.net.

[00:00:04] He's Steve Priscielo, a longtime educator, vice principal, and athletic director and

[00:00:08] this is the 13 Rules Random NBA Thoughts podcast, the best 15 minutes of Random NBA Thoughts

[00:00:14] online. This is your first time listening as always. Thank you. We're grateful. We're

[00:00:20] so happy you found us. Welcome. This podcast was born out of the content and Steve's

[00:00:24] random NBA thoughts articles which he publishes weekly. Steve and I have exactly 15 minutes

[00:00:30] to discuss what's on his mind around the NBA. Today we're going to talk about his latest

[00:00:35] NBA 13 rules rather NBA Random Pots article which focused on the Western Conference and

[00:00:41] we do have some bonus content today. So make sure you stick around for that near the

[00:00:47] end of our show. All right, Steve, you ready to talk basketball?

[00:00:52] I'm ready. Let's do this. I'm going to start the timer now. The shot clock is going like

[00:00:58] I mentioned this week's NBA Random Thoughts article focused on Western Conference teams.

[00:01:02] We did Eastern Conference last week. Make sure to check that out if you didn't listen

[00:01:07] to that podcast. So we're going to discuss the teams in the West that are most likely

[00:01:14] to succeed with the playoffs just around the corner. And as I mentioned, we also

[00:01:19] have some bonus topics. Let's say the end of the show. All right, let's start first

[00:01:25] with a true contender. Right? This is one of the Western Conference teams that is nobody

[00:01:31] would be surprised to see them in the finals of the Minnesota Timberwolves. They're the

[00:01:35] best defensive team in the association defensive rating. They have a superstar and Anthony

[00:01:40] Edwards. They have Carl Anthony Towns back yet they lack playoff experience as a cohesive

[00:01:47] unit, right? As a team. So I got to ask you how important is that and how far do you see

[00:01:53] this very good Timberwolves team going? Well, if you look at the history of the playoffs,

[00:02:00] rarely the teams come from nowhere and win big the first few years. So I'm banking

[00:02:05] that and Carl Anthony Towns hasn't had a lot of success of any in the playoffs.

[00:02:13] Anthony Edwards is a great player. Probably second team wall NBA. He's not he doesn't have any

[00:02:19] experience go bear does and it wasn't great experience. Right? Those are the best guys

[00:02:23] on the team. Towns is just coming back. I don't I don't see it and it's really

[00:02:28] interesting in the last couple weeks. Minnesota has been staggered. They've

[00:02:32] been getting picked off by a couple different teams when you think they'd be

[00:02:36] peaking. So taking all that stuff, all that information in mind. I don't see it

[00:02:43] and this is even though they are the best defensive team according to

[00:02:48] defensive ratings in the NBA and they've got a lot of good players. I really

[00:02:53] think if they can keep the team intact and salary and everything else, the

[00:02:57] future is only going to get brighter. But it is really difficult to see a

[00:03:01] team come from nowhere and go far and I think we can put Oklahoma City in

[00:03:07] the same category. Playoff experience is big. It's a whole different game and I

[00:03:13] just don't see it happening. You know off the top of my head as you were as you

[00:03:17] were saying that I was thinking has there ever been a team that made it

[00:03:21] with an inexperienced team and the first team that comes to mind. I don't

[00:03:25] think it's the only one but Shaquille O'Neal's Orlando Magic right? It

[00:03:29] was Shaq who was Penny Hardaway. They were one and two. They were Batman

[00:03:33] and Robin and they made it to the finals. They did not farewell against the Houston

[00:03:37] Rockets but they made it. I can't think of any other team. Can you?

[00:03:43] Well no, I thought about it before. The Eastern Conference back in Shaq's day

[00:03:47] wasn't real strong. The Western Conference has got the defending champions in them

[00:03:54] and they're pretty good. In my mind right now I would take them as the

[00:04:00] favorites but to come out of the West is a hell of a lot harder than coming out of

[00:04:05] the East. So you know with all that in consideration you don't know what

[00:04:09] happens and then we don't know about injuries. I mean you know here we go.

[00:04:13] We could talk about you know if Murray doesn't get healthy Denver becomes

[00:04:19] not the best team so there's so many you know X factors involved. Yeah end of

[00:04:24] the day often it's the healthiest team right that has the best chance to

[00:04:28] win it all. Yeah unfortunate but that's the way it is. All right well you wrote

[00:04:33] about the Western Conference teams and then I took the liberty of kind of

[00:04:37] bundling them into categories right? One of the I bundled three teams right that

[00:04:42] you discussed into a category I called might need a little lot right? These

[00:04:45] aren't contenders but you wouldn't be surprised to see them if they get

[00:04:50] lucky along the way okay? These are the three I'm going to ask you which

[00:04:54] of these three has the best chance to represent the West in the finals? The

[00:04:58] Los Angeles Clippers, the Dallas Mavericks or the Phoenix Suns?

[00:05:05] That's a great question and naturally I'll give you a half an answer but

[00:05:10] the the Clippers they've got the three old guys

[00:05:16] you never know. They can they probably have the most

[00:05:19] pure talent and they're good defensively

[00:05:23] to do it but I'm going to qualify it and throw out

[00:05:26] Dallas out there because the two of them are probably two of the best

[00:05:31] three players of the three teams or maybe four players.

[00:05:36] The key here in Dallas has played good defense and that's what's turned it

[00:05:39] around can they continue in the playoffs to defend

[00:05:43] that well? They're playing great defense and

[00:05:46] they're putting Luca and Kyrie who aren't going to make any

[00:05:49] defensive teams in the future so that makes them hard but you want to pay

[00:05:54] more attention to the Clippers. I know James Harden's playoff history

[00:05:59] isn't good but Colline Leonard is still great when he's on the court if he can

[00:06:03] be healthy and Paul George if you watched him

[00:06:06] last Sunday against Cleveland or Saturday or Sunday last week

[00:06:10] he just he took the game over he was hitting shots with people all over

[00:06:14] they're dangerous and you never know with Harden some days

[00:06:18] he'll go get 40 and the next days he'll get 10 but if those three guys are

[00:06:23] playing their best basketball boy they're dangerous.

[00:06:26] Yeah and the thing I'll say about Harden because you're right right

[00:06:30] offensively he's up and down right but the one thing he's been super

[00:06:34] consistent at has been facilitating he's averaging eight

[00:06:38] eight and a half assists or so and it seems like he regularly gets those

[00:06:43] eight to ten to fifteen assists a game

[00:06:45] he's been so good even when he shot his off. You're on the west coast

[00:06:50] who do you see is the best team? Yeah yeah I appreciate you asking

[00:06:54] because I was going to volunteer the information actually

[00:06:58] I think of those three I agree I think the Clippers are the best

[00:07:02] of the three but with a huge caveat right we haven't seen

[00:07:06] Kauai Leonard play for I think the last four or five games

[00:07:10] before April 1st. Yeah it's troubling it's troubling now you know

[00:07:17] the optimistic Clipper fan and there's not a lot of them because Clipper fans have

[00:07:21] grown to be pessimistic by nature but the optimistic ones are just

[00:07:26] thinking you know the Clippers had pretty much short up the number four spot

[00:07:30] so they're getting Kauai ready for the playoffs I get that

[00:07:33] but he needs to get his legs under him and he needs a little bit of run

[00:07:36] so I'm a little concerned but assuming Kauai is healthy you know the the sun's

[00:07:42] you know as good as they are with Durant and Beal and

[00:07:47] the other guy who's the other guy?

[00:07:52] Yeah you know I just I don't think they put

[00:07:54] any they don't scare anybody the Mavericks are such a fun team to

[00:08:01] watch but like you said I mean they're two best players our

[00:08:04] liabilities defensively so the Clippers are the best team of those three

[00:08:09] assuming they're healthy. By the way when you talk about being on the west coast

[00:08:12] and the Clippers I equate the Clippers to the east coast New York Mets

[00:08:16] sure same thing where just people we were better yet

[00:08:20] the New York Jets because they're just used to something going wrong

[00:08:25] yep and and so I get it I get it. Yeah Clipper fans are absolutely

[00:08:31] waiting for the the wojtuit that Kauai is out they're just

[00:08:35] waiting for it and nobody will be surprised should it happen

[00:08:38] hoping when when you're a fan when you're a fan it's very important if you like

[00:08:44] three sports four sports two sports one of the teams has to be a hard luck

[00:08:49] team. You can't root for all winners you need

[00:08:52] to have some bad luck in the course of the season

[00:08:55] well the Clippers. I'm a New York jet fan so I take my pain

[00:08:59] in football season. The Clippers the Jets the Nets have contributed mightily to

[00:09:04] that particular category in their franchise history let's move on to the

[00:09:09] third topic because I think this one is incredibly fascinating

[00:09:13] this is a very likely and very interesting scenario playing out for

[00:09:17] the playing games in the Western Conference this year

[00:09:19] we might see a winner take all game between

[00:09:23] the dynasty that was the golden state warriors

[00:09:27] and the winningest franchise in the NBA

[00:09:31] the Los Angeles Lakers. I was waiting for a comment I didn't get one I

[00:09:36] maybe it was kind of later but I gotta ask you I will

[00:09:40] which team should that match have happened which team moves on

[00:09:45] well you got to go by the track record they've played two games in the

[00:09:49] last couple weeks and golden state won both

[00:09:52] I have to think they're the favorites

[00:09:57] you know you can't even if the Lakers were playing

[00:10:01] Denver Nuggets you can never sell LeBron

[00:10:06] sure yeah right it's hard to say nor can you sell out

[00:10:10] Curry right so it's a very difficult thing the only thing I have to go by is

[00:10:14] the track record and then the the warriors beat

[00:10:18] them twice so I think that and then I think

[00:10:21] also I think I think the warriors are a little bit deeper

[00:10:26] um I think Draymond Green he makes everything go

[00:10:30] you know and I don't know if the Lakers have that

[00:10:34] so I just and then Kamenka's rising and he's a player

[00:10:38] yeah and then the two rookies Jackson can't shoot

[00:10:41] but he can play and he does all the dirty work and Bojemski or whatever

[00:10:45] he's a nice player indeed I equate him

[00:10:49] to an East Coast paint and pritchard does all the things on the court that just

[00:10:54] drive you nuts but he's always he's always doing something that does drive

[00:10:58] you nuts yeah he's always around the ball

[00:11:01] and and he can make the shots he just does a lot of things

[00:11:04] so I kind of when I look at the Lakers

[00:11:09] I think Reeves is a very good offensive player

[00:11:14] you know then I'm struggling to find you know other really

[00:11:17] the usual Russell if it's Tuesday maybe Wednesday

[00:11:20] you know you don't know what day it is right it's hard it's hard

[00:11:24] so that's my my you know a couple set so if I were a betting man I would

[00:11:29] I would bet on on uh on the Warriors but like I said LeBron

[00:11:33] always a factor absolutely the most intriguing matchup

[00:11:37] uh and this isn't even the playoffs this is to get into the playoffs it's

[00:11:41] just unbelievable um I think it's going to be a great great

[00:11:45] matchup and you got to give the nod to the to the Warriors

[00:11:49] um but yeah it who knows what'll happen

[00:11:52] all right excited to see how that plays out this last topic is the bonus content

[00:11:57] we promised now Steve wrote about all of the Western Conference teams that have

[00:12:01] a likelihood of really advancing and doing some some good in the playoffs

[00:12:07] uh we will link to that article below this is not a Western Conference team

[00:12:11] but it is a team near and dear to his heart if you're watching us uh you already know

[00:12:16] what team that is um the Boston Celtics are the best team in the association

[00:12:21] undeniably they hold the number one spot in our objective power rankings for all

[00:12:26] but three weeks this season they're number two in defensive rating number one

[00:12:30] in offensive rating they're they they're a juggernaut I mean they have just

[00:12:35] they've been phenomenal yet they're very recent 118 to 109 loss to the New

[00:12:41] York Knicks in what was a meaningless game for the Celtics has you worried Steve

[00:12:47] and I gotta ask why first of all it wasn't a nine-point game it was about a

[00:12:52] 29 point game so we got to understand that if you look at championship teams

[00:12:59] they don't get beat like that they don't get beat like that

[00:13:04] and the way the Knicks were pummeling them the other day going to the basket

[00:13:07] wall at some point somebody has to step up and do something about that meaning they

[00:13:15] were getting unimpeded layups left and right in the third quarter in the second quarter

[00:13:20] somebody I'm not saying polar Kevin McHale but somebody's got a challenge

[00:13:24] somebody's got to step up and I guess what I'm questioning is the heart

[00:13:29] and we're going to find out in the playoffs they're the best dance the most talent in

[00:13:33] the league what went on against the Knicks I understand losing by two points because the Knicks

[00:13:38] need the game but not the way they lost and we're going to find out if that heart is there or not

[00:13:45] this is a very big series a very big play for Boston because if they don't if they don't

[00:13:53] come through I would expect some changes coming because the owners are putting out a lot of

[00:13:57] money yeah and if they're not getting anything back I don't know if they want to do it

[00:14:02] and we're going to again I'm going to keep saying it championship teams don't get bomb like the

[00:14:09] Celtics did and it was two in a row Milwaukee took them out easily the night before so it

[00:14:16] doesn't happen and usually a good team will figure it out and at least make it a game they did it

[00:14:23] and and it just it was striking to me and it was very disappointing as a person who likes the

[00:14:30] Celtics and has watched their games all year this wasn't a one-time thing this was something

[00:14:35] that's happened a few times is here when you're getting beat by 20 and you have more tower

[00:14:40] you make a comeback and then I'm going to give you something else the two games against Denver

[00:14:47] really both of them were one or two possessions it goes the other way did Boston make the plays

[00:14:54] that would win the game no they didn't down the stretch I remember the second one Tatum

[00:14:59] had a wide open three from the corner to put him in the lead would have been less than a minute left

[00:15:03] he missed it and he had a horrible game so you just look at all these things and you start

[00:15:09] thinking about it and oh boy I've not seen championship teams do this you know naturally

[00:15:15] you can be wrong and I hope I am but I haven't seen it so the warning signs are there

[00:15:21] that it could be difficult so far from I might be reading into what you said and tell me if

[00:15:27] I am but it sounds to me like you know Boston with a lead doesn't concern you they're going to hold on

[00:15:33] they're going to win that game but Boston in a close game well no no that concerns me too okay

[00:15:38] go to Atlanta beat Atlanta by 27 and they lost that game a couple weeks ago so it always concerns

[00:15:45] me with them because I just don't know you don't know what happens like with them some nights when

[00:15:51] everything's falling they just boil you out and the other factor on this very interesting thing

[00:15:55] up to about a week or two ago they were the third or fourth team all time in margin you know

[00:16:02] plus minus or points there were over 10 points a game plus against other teams meaning they've

[00:16:11] averaged winning by 10 that's counting the losses and it's one of the top all time but you know

[00:16:17] what yeah it's easy they could blow anybody out but when the game gets close I don't know

[00:16:23] where they are if I go back over the season they've got a lot of losses that were close games

[00:16:30] and and that tells me something also about the stretch okay I you know it's

[00:16:41] it's it's it's hard to sympathize with a fan of a team that is 63 and 18

[00:16:51] going into the playoffs at number one after holding down the fort at that position for 99%

[00:16:58] of the season I just I'm sorry if you go back to 2008 going into the series when Boston

[00:17:06] won the playoffs and they struggled some of the games in the playoffs however

[00:17:12] if you watched them during the year you had you thought they were going to win it

[00:17:17] at all times this year when I turn the tv on I don't know what to expect if the threes aren't

[00:17:25] falling things get bad and one more piece they're a very good defensive player team yeah very good

[00:17:33] when they want to be okay they can turn it up and turn it down it's not consistently good defense

[00:17:41] and that's not good things you just can't turn it up and down during the season all right

[00:17:47] all right that's the hot take that's the bonus content from Steve there's concern in Boston

[00:17:54] that's it the buzzer went off I made the mistake of having my phone on silent so sorry about that

[00:18:00] but uh did go off we as usual violated the shot clock it's kind of what we do but please make

[00:18:05] sure to read Steve's entire article linked below to get his thoughts on all of the other western

[00:18:10] conference teams we didn't get a chance to talk about all of them but he addressed them all in his

[00:18:14] article please um join us next week uh we're going to continue on until the season is over

[00:18:22] with our 13 rules mba random thoughts podcast undeniably the best 15 minutes of mba random

[00:18:27] thoughts online we'll talk next week thanks Steve take care all right let me turn off