13 Rules: NBA Random Thoughts - April 27, 2024

[00:00:00] All right, it's time to talk basketball. I'm Jose Solviati, editor at thepeachbasket.net. He's Steve Prisciello, longtime educator, vice principal and athletic director And this is the 13 Rules Random NBA Thoughts podcast, the best 15 minutes of random NBA thoughts online

[00:00:16] This is your first time listening as always. Thank you. We're so glad you found us. Welcome to the podcast This show was born out of the content and Steve's NBA Random Thoughts articles. He publishes them weekly

[00:00:29] Steve and I have exactly 15 minutes to discuss what's on his mind around the NBA. Today we'll discuss his latest 13 Rules Random NBA Thoughts article which focused on coaches on the hot seat playoff edition

[00:00:42] And we'll also talk a little bit about some of the series and get his thoughts on how things are going for some of the teams That is the introduction. Steve, are you ready? Ready Let's do it. I'm gonna start the timer now

[00:00:56] And we're off. All right, you listed among some other random thoughts. You listed the coaches that were in trouble after the first round of the playoff series

[00:01:09] And I want to start with one that I think is probably the least likely to be in any trouble and that's Joe Missoula His Celtics are tied 1-1. Game 3 is tonight

[00:01:21] You did say that he belongs on the list only if the Celtics lose against the Heat. Lose a series, not a game But honestly, how likely is that? How much trouble do you think Joe is in?

[00:01:34] Well, if you go back to last year when they were getting swept by Miami Ownership was ready to give up on them Only because they came back in those three games and brought it to seven games That saved kind of kept them going

[00:01:50] This year, if you're a Celtic fan and you watch the games You'll notice that Wick Roseback, one of the owners who used to sit under the basket Under the opposing teams corner that basket, under that basket

[00:02:05] He's sitting about three or four seats away from Missoula and that Celtic bench If you notice that, you got to do a little bit of thinking And it tells you something's up where there's not total comfort among ownership And Wick Roseback who has an ego

[00:02:25] He usually lets his people run it But he said something in a Celtic game they interview him every once in a while And he made a statement. He just said That basically in the games last year after they lost to Miami

[00:02:43] He said I sat and I told, when we met I told I guess the GM, I guess Brad Stevens and everybody else That you have to make changes Kind of tells you that he's a lot more involved than you would think

[00:02:57] So I just put in two and two together I think if they lose to Miami, which I don't think will happen It'll be a colossal, colossal blunder They will be the laughing stock of the league and something has to be done Right

[00:03:15] So that's, and it leads me to Missoula All right, but that's, you don't envision that happening I mean it's not likely. I don't see the heat winning this series do you? Like there's no chance If they shoot over 50% from three for the next three more games

[00:03:33] How likely is that? Not good, but last year Caleb Martin, last I looked, never missed a shot And Vincent didn't miss a shot So you know, you NBA with the three point shot It's a lot different nowadays Right Which leads me to another point

[00:03:51] And I know our expulster has been getting a lot of credit But one thing I will say on this He, right, and you know it's I had a conversation with somebody last week They're in the first game

[00:04:03] The Miami can't play the game straight and just expect to win They've got to do something that's out of the ordinary And they're doing it, shoot threes And they were getting space, open space for those guys I believe there's a stat I saw of shooting threes and all

[00:04:22] And I think when a Celtic was more than six feet away In other words wide open three They got it somewhere around 80%, 90% that game So Boston's got to adjust And they should have adjusted it half time What that means, they had to close out on the three

[00:04:39] And worry about the layup And hopefully Kristoff could clean that up But they didn't do that And then the other thing was Spolstery did a lot of different things defensively He switched up a lot Did Boston, and again Missoula is going to get the blame

[00:04:54] Were they ready for it and did they counter Boston tried to go down inside What was Miami doing going to Pursingus Miami basically had Caleb Martin on them But then they doubled from the back Now Common Sense tells you

[00:05:09] If the doubles coming from there that weak side corner Is got to be wide open Why wouldn't we skip the ball That's the things that Boston didn't do And Spolster appeared to be one step ahead of Boston Alright You know it's tough man I'm looking at his record

[00:05:30] Last year, last season just thrown into this role Unexpectedly led the team to 57 wins And that loss in the conference finals This year even better 64 wins This is a very good couch If you just go based on wins and losses This guy's great

[00:05:48] But for franchises like the Celtics For franchises like the Lakers You've got to win it all A wise man told me That when you're coaching a team You have horses and you have ponies Boston's got a bunch of horses And by that I mean They're good They're talented

[00:06:13] So they're going to win a lot of games The key is to bring it home now Right Alright We'll call it a warm seat for Joe Missoula But there are others on this list That are literally in the hot seat This guy, again I think warm

[00:06:32] You didn't explicitly mention that this guy was in trouble But you did call out that he wasn't the coach You thought he was And that's Nick Nurse What's he doing in these playoffs to make you think he's less innovative than advertised

[00:06:45] And I know you have an interest in this series What do you think about the Knicks against Philly in general? I think first of all It's interesting It's almost like a car If you watch enough NBA games The situation with the Knicks

[00:07:02] Where Brunson hit the three and it's still down two With 30 seconds, 20s, whatever it was left It's almost automatic you call a timeout And you bring them all to your friend No no no no after the basket went in You don't even take it out

[00:07:17] Oh I got you, got you, got you And so therefore If you turn it over up there You have enough time to react and defend When you turn it over Where Maxi turned it over You don't have a chance It's a scramble

[00:07:34] So now it might end up with an open shot Which is what happened twice When you look at it And that was the big thing The other thing I thought about was It's kind of obvious that NBA can't jump In a situation like that

[00:07:51] Why wouldn't you go with two bigs And put Paul Reed in Because maybe then You would have gotten the rebound Or you could have taken NBA down And put somebody, a big person in Just for the possession And you got to time out and get the ball back

[00:08:07] But the point being You'd want somebody that could rebound Heart and Steam was really When he got that rebound was unimpeded I mean he was just right there And he was able to kick it out Without a problem So it wasn't a box out

[00:08:23] Nor was NBA jumping much on the court NBA so good But he couldn't do that Then you go back to the Miami game And I pointed out last week Miami threw that zone at them They didn't have a clue Not a clue what to do He's innovative

[00:08:41] He's played boxing once He's done all kinds of things And preparation is pretty good there However, I don't know how Good a coach he is Game coach during the game If he makes those decisions that are good Interesting Alright Well he's one of just a handful

[00:09:03] That actually has a championship And that's going to That gives you legs as a coach As an example Alright moving on You wrote this and this is verbatim The Phoenix sons are in trouble Now interestingly You wrote that before game three

[00:09:21] So you wrote this article a while ago Now I think they're dead in the water Does the franchise give Frank Vogel Well I think he's a good coach Another season Or do you think he's done in Phoenix He's done if they get swept He's done He's

[00:09:39] First of all the new owner Matt Ispia Thought Well first of all he came in And thinking he's going to win And have three stars and all that stuff Obviously, you know he was wrong And I don't think it works In the salary capped NBA

[00:09:55] To be able to have three stars And a bunch of role players You need more And he didn't And then he hired Vogel He's a sound coach But I don't know if there's A connection between the three guys There are three best players And I don't know

[00:10:15] I kind of question how good Booker is good But he's the only player on a team I don't know And by the way the years are moving quickly Now on Durant Meaning he was great two years ago But he's starting to not Be what he was

[00:10:33] That leads to a problem For Frank Vogel because the owners Really think about what do you do Well you don't want to trade Booker Durant you could try to trade Somebody probably would take him Nobody a Bradley Beale He's got a lot of money coming

[00:10:49] So now what do you do You run it back and you get rid of the coach Is the only real thing left Yeah What a tough job man I mean I feel for somebody Like Vogel who has the championship as well But he just man

[00:11:05] He just he flamed out in LA And now two in a row My guess is he'll get another chance Because again you win a championship You got legs that gives you some credibility But what a tough job He's the least respected Championship coach That I've ever seen

[00:11:23] But don't forget they wanted that bubble thing So you know that's That's an interesting championship But you know it still He's the least respected I've ever seen Interesting all right Well speaking of that Bubble championship the team that Won that bubble championship I think it was their 17th

[00:11:43] Which is the all time leading Franchise in NBA history In a half I think that'll be 16th Let's talk about the coach Currently in LA Darvin Ham he does not appreciate it here And it's pretty toxic Man I mean it's really bad

[00:12:01] I hope he and his family do not Have social media accounts But Chandler Parsons Former player Said something recently And you have been defending coach Ham In other articles and conversations you and I have had But Parsons said That no coach could coach the Lakers

[00:12:19] To series win over the Nuggets It's as simple as the Nuggets are a better team There's nothing you can do In another article you called out some things That are outside of the coach's Purview there's things he can't do So I want to give you a platform

[00:12:35] Right now To tell Laker fans to talk to Laker fans Who are just calling for this guys firing Why moving on from this coach Might be an overreaction Well first of all I suggest Ham Rents not buys But I hope he's done that in Los Angeles

[00:12:53] But to be serious now The LA I don't know if it's the media I don't live out there I don't know what exactly It might be but they always blame The coach And what you have is When a guy sitting away from the team

[00:13:09] Eating a sandwich or whatever the heck he's eating And not part of the huddle There's a problem You can see there's a problem When another guy the pro claim Self-proclaimed defensive player Gives up eight baskets In the fourth quarter to his man You can see there's a problem

[00:13:27] And maybe They're not really taking responsibility here And it's easy because you can push it off On the coach I thought the most Strongest statement Or most interesting statement Was Anthony Davis saying they were unorganized Wow Wow At some point Anthony you got to look at yourself

[00:13:49] You really have to look And decide 50 million or whatever he's getting Is he Earning it in a way It's easy to go to town on the worst Team in the NBA When the playoffs come you have to play And really I don't know D'Angelo Russell is another one

[00:14:09] I don't think they're a very well put together team And I don't think they really like each other In a big way Because the fingers get pointed as soon as things go wrong And Darwin Ham is the popular choice So You know, yeah it's putting a bandaid

[00:14:23] On a huge cut Or you know Because you really got to look at your personnel You've got to get a team that gets along And likes playing together And I don't see that with that team So there's a lot of A lot of problems

[00:14:39] And we're pointing at a coach And Chandler Parsons is right They feel Jackson is going to win with that In that situation Again, horses Not ponies Yeah You brought up something very interesting About not liking each other And you know it's interesting because

[00:15:01] I've always said it doesn't matter Whether you like the player You're passing the ball to or not As long as you're winning If you're winning games It doesn't matter if you like each other And the players don't care so much But when you start to lose

[00:15:17] That's when those You know, the fact that you may not like Another guy It starts to matter And it really snowballs from there I mean, you know, Shaq and Kobe famously Didn't see eye to eye And they won I think the Oakland A's of the 70s

[00:15:35] You know, one World Series without Necessarily liking each other And I'm sure that there's other examples But if you don't like each other And you don't win Well, I think The tip off on this thing You're right to some extent Professional attitude You're not professional

[00:15:55] When you make a comment If you didn't play well That you wouldn't work enough You're not professional When you're over in the corner Eating whatever it is you're eating Rumor is that he was also on the phone So he's taking Taking his phone out So

[00:16:15] You know, you want to be professional And if you're going to put a team together You want good locker room people The only question I have is Are these good locker room people When they turn on each other In a minute I don't know about that Yeah

[00:16:35] Man, dark days ahead I think for For the Lakers Because like The Heat, I don't think they have a chance And that series May very well be over End of day to day We got to game four Today. I will say though

[00:16:53] I want to call this out just equal opportunity AD certainly gave up points At the end there and as the leader He's got to take that responsibility But 32.3 points 13.3 total He's been as good as he can be There's only so much you can ask Statistics are for losers

[00:17:11] Nobody cares about that You want to win the game You know what You can get your points, it doesn't matter When you win What do you do when the game is on the line Is what you look at And I don't know about that piece

[00:17:27] I don't see enough Laker games But I don't know about that piece Because You know, yeah, the stats look nice Then you say your team is unorganized Well to me that's like I don't want to take any Negative Anything negative about me

[00:17:45] I want to point at somebody else So you don't point at me That's weak Alright I can't defend that So I'm not, that'll be the last word Today because our time is up You heard the buzzer go off We once again have a shot clock violation

[00:18:01] But it's kind of what we do here Please make sure to read Steve's Our article, we'll make sure to link it below Get all his thoughts on the playoffs We just talked about a few things That he highlighted in his article this week

[00:18:13] But time is up, thanks again for listening We really greatly appreciate it Please consider subscribing Join us next week on the 13 Rules NBA Random Thoughts Podcast The best 15 minutes of NBA Random Thoughts online We'll talk next week, thanks Steve Take care