13 Rules: NBA Random Thoughts - March 16, 2024

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

[00:00:17] This is your first time listening as always. Thank you. Welcome. We're glad you're here We're glad you found us. This is the podcast that was born out of the content in Steve's NBA Random Thoughts articles

[00:00:28] He writes them weekly. 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. Steve are you ready? Ready. Let's do it Shot clock starts now This week

[00:00:48] Steve's NBA Random Thoughts article focused on what teams need to win and it's that time of year, right? When we start to think about this, what does my team need to make a run in the playoffs?

[00:00:59] We're gonna start in the east with a team. We talked about before That's always scary in the playoffs. That's the Miami Heat I wrote down and I'll read it They're the poster child for team you don't want to face in the playoffs because they're that good when

[00:01:15] The games really matter. What do you think they need to advance in the east? Need health Tyler heroes has to be healthy for a while. Although they made their run without him last year They need Terry Rozier to start shooting them all better

[00:01:32] He's shooting 29% from three since he got there and that's that's not Terry And I think I don't know if Terry's that good an offensive player with Charlotte He had to be where he took a lot of shots, but the point being

[00:01:45] Terry, you know going back to when he was with Boston He wasn't he wasn't the offensive juggernaut He you know he could get going but but he's not but they need points out of him and then the bigger thing is

[00:01:59] Jimmy Butler. He's 34 years old. You expect another another run like he did last year And by the way when you look at that run Somewhere around the third or fourth game in a playoffs against Boston

[00:02:10] He started sagging off and if you really analyze that Caleb Martin was the MVP and I guess I just don't see Miami having enough talent The one true heat player that's really a heat player, you know with all that Culture stuff culture here is damn

[00:02:30] He's a player and he goes and plays every as much as possible But he gives you everything he's got every night, but six eight six nine centers are gonna have a rough time Yeah, it's not easy and you're asking for a lot

[00:02:43] Butler the first thing that happens when guys get older going back to Butler first thing that happens is they get older They're not getting 25 every night. They're going out some nights and having bad nights where they get in 10 or 15

[00:02:56] That's what's happening with Butler the one thing I'll give him credit He sees the change in this game. He's taken more threes and he's shooting 42% so maybe that can mask his You know Becoming less efficient offensively, but I don't think they have the talent to go for

[00:03:13] You know the other thing that happens with aging players that are great and there's a distinction there, right? But the great aging players like you said they know how to conserve, right? So they might take a game off and drop 10 points or maybe it's not a good game

[00:03:29] But you know whatever you have great games. You got bad games, but then when the playoffs come There's no more back-to-backs, right? There's no more grind You've got one team to prep for so those really great players

[00:03:41] You know you what you what you see oftentimes in those in those playoff games is they rise up and all of a sudden They look like they were ten years like they played ten years ago because they've got one team to prep for

[00:03:52] They've got two three games between game Two three days between games and I think that's a part what may a part of what makes the Miami Heat so dangerous Because you're gonna have the best of Jimmy Butler for seven games assuming no injury

[00:04:06] Well what what i'll say to you about that is If the bucks are playing them in a series Who's the best two guys on the court? Yeah, yeah, yeah, no the bucks the bucks if the bucks have the best

[00:04:18] If the self have the play in them in a series, who's the best three guys on the court? Who's that team? The Celtics Oh the Celtics Yeah, no, no the best three guys are probably all Blasting guys Right

[00:04:30] If the Knicks are playing them, you know the best guys on the Knicks And then we can argue about the second best guy. Yeah, so my point being Generally the team with the most best player wins

[00:04:43] They're they're giving away a lot. They did it last year, but it's a year older And I don't know. I mean last night I watched them with Detroit They put them away, but they they didn't have an easy time of it

[00:04:57] Yeah, no agreed. I mean at the end of day I think the Miami Heat are gonna fall short, but um They're they're not gonna be an easy out. I think I think we can we can we can pull

[00:05:07] They gotta get through the play in they have to get through the play in first Yeah, right, which is you know, that's a topic for another day

[00:05:15] I'd like to get I think we should absolutely dedicate time to your thoughts on the play and not now because we only got 15 minutes But I now that we've had enough time with the play and I think it's time to reevaluate

[00:05:27] But let's move to the west now and and uh, you know in our little prep So you gave me some heat on this brahman go ahead and say it as written In the west the team that you don't want to face in the playoffs might be

[00:05:39] The Los Angeles Lakers I said might And I am a west coast guy admittedly You wrote that they recently found a spark and they did in a guy that was um Dominating the trade rumors out here for the Lakers. They didn't trade them

[00:05:54] He has been their spark is that player enough for the Lakers to advance in the west We can only wish um First thing i'm gonna say is bill barsell said it right You are what your record is They're fighting for ninth place But but what's interesting to me

[00:06:15] Is when diagellal russell assumed the point and took the ball out of lebron's hands Mm-hmm They started flourishing And I go back to when they blew out boston and boston a couple weeks ago a couple months ago And they didn't have lebron or ad

[00:06:35] And if you think about it he And that he went wild he couldn't miss and he had the ball in his hands And uh, the other I can't think of the name off the top, but there are other there are other player um The white mama

[00:06:51] Yeah, austin reeves. He had a great game. So you wonder You know, does lebron make it a little more difficult for those guys to perform as well as they could I still think though if diangel russell's

[00:07:04] On his best. I I don't I don't see it. I don't see it. Don't forget anthony davis' record against teams with good centers Isn't too good. He's ointen against sacramento

[00:07:16] So, you know, I don't know if he plays well against big p stars star big man. Yeah, it doesn't I don't know it doesn't look good

[00:07:25] Yeah, there's that's getting a lot of heat out here a lot of publicity out here in the west that ointen record against the bonus specifically It doesn't make any sense because I wouldn't call the bonus a big

[00:07:35] I wouldn't call it. I wouldn't even call him a great bit. He's a he's a center. He's a very good player But you know, he's he's not yoke it. She's not mb'd Um So it baffles me, you know that that that record baffles me We're an easterner

[00:07:50] You look at him and you watch him when he's not playing He looks like he went california You know, he's got he's all decked out and it just you know He's got earrings everywhere and all kinds of stuff and it just you just think like

[00:08:04] For an easterner you look at that and say that's soft. He's soft That that's all I'll make that comment Okay All right, you know as in california and I feel like I should be offended. I'm not sure but we're gonna go ahead

[00:08:19] You don't have all kinds of tots and And earrings and and all the other stuff and decked out in nice clothes. So you're okay. You you could pass that Thank you All right, moving on let's go back to the east and a team, you know really well

[00:08:36] And a team that undeniably arguably I don't even think there's an argument has been the best team in the association Since the since game one. That's the boston selts Now they've shown some weaknesses though and they lost some games that you know, they probably shouldn't have lost

[00:08:51] What do you think that boston selts team needs to advance and win it all? They They need to exert their personality And when I say that I mean this when a team of miami type team tries to muck the game up

[00:09:07] And throw everybody they've got to just stay with what they do which is Dribble get out of the basket and then kick to the open shooter They all can shoot And just play the game that way by moving them will get the other team in rotation

[00:09:23] Defensively and find the open shooter and beat them They do that when they they did it the other night against phoenix when they do that They get wide open threes and they shoot a high percentage When they don't do that and they get taken away

[00:09:38] Meaning they get into the muck and they play the same way They struggle because then they go to ice on ball and they're not good when they isolate The other thing they need to do end of game They've got to get away

[00:09:51] From jason tatum getting the ball on the block or down in the lower post area and go one on one They've got to get away with that from that and and what they might need to do and i'm sure it's on the film

[00:10:02] And they've showed it to him. He's got to see the people that are wide open Or when he gets the ball in those situations and look to kick the only guy i've ever seen in isolation That will kick it Is a laker by the way LeBron

[00:10:17] He doesn't mind not taking the last shot if somebody's wide open I've seen him do that numerous times not many other guys in the mba Will throw the pass the ball if somebody's open with the last shot Boston needs to come up with a better plan

[00:10:33] At the down the stretch interesting You know, we're really getting into the weeds which is which is nice. I mean and I think if you're a boston southdicks fan Nobody goes into it 100 ready There's always be some weaknesses and some tweaks, but it sounds like we're just

[00:10:48] We're nitpicking man. We're finding some little things that they have to do so I mean listen, this is the boston's This is boston's best chance To win it all That i've seen in the last four or five years. Would you agree? Yeah?

[00:11:02] Yeah, what you see and again and part of experience and it's starting to grow up a lot But part of the experience is You again, you're the better team play your game, right? Don't yeah Don't when they muck it up

[00:11:17] Don't go there with them and make it a just a mess. That's what boston needs to work on. Yeah Awesome. All right, we're gonna finish this and we've only got a few minutes left to talk about it

[00:11:29] But we'll probably go beyond the shot clock timer because that's just kind of what we do But I think this is interesting you called out rudy go bear He recently made A

[00:11:43] Signal honor which call it he did something to to upset the mba to upset the refs and he implied That mba refs are Corrupt really. I mean is what he said that you know the gambling is kind of infiltrated the mba ref ranks

[00:12:00] He was fined a hundred thousand dollars, which is a significant fine um, and I mean it to me it first first off it's obviously not a good look for the mba undeniably

[00:12:12] But is rudy onto something man. I mean generally when there's smoke, there's fire. Is there any fire here? What do you think? What it does is every time there's a tough call being made at the end of a game and a call being missed

[00:12:25] Right all you know just wrong It's open the league up if you watch a game Somewhere during the game if you're watching tnt Charles Barkley in the first quarter will say what he bet what he likes the bets if you watch if you watch a lot of games

[00:12:41] The sports like fan duel or something will show the the line as the game Let's say in the second quarter They'll show well now this team's a seven point favorite and and betting is everywhere in the game and of course

[00:12:54] There's money streams. I think the bigger issue would be the mba Should be talking to these players and telling them to shut their mouth Because rudy got hit for a hundred thousand, which is a lot of money Right

[00:13:07] That might be the message that that might be the message they get that will tell them they better shut up Or they're gonna lose a lot of money because the mba's got to keep their image clean And and that doesn't help and one other thing

[00:13:21] The referee he was doing that too with scott foster scott foster If you go back to when tim donahy got caught I believe there was many phone calls back or texts back and forth between he and donahy Yeah, foster's reputation

[00:13:39] You know and players know that so his reputation doesn't hurt and I think he's the best official in the game However, you know that didn't help The game when people investigate that about what happened there with foster and and donahy

[00:13:53] So there's a lot to look at I want to believe because i'm naive that it's clean. Everything's clean But there's a lot to look at and think about Yeah Having ref I know you've ref and I know you've coached a lot of games. I tried to

[00:14:10] Well, I never have got coached, but you know I played but I never ref You know aside from practice and stuff And I try to think If I had money on this game and i'm a ref right

[00:14:22] It just seems to me that number one it'd be really difficult Right Unless it's a closed game, right? It comes down to my call Sure, but if I wanted to beginning to end if I had to ensure team a1

[00:14:35] Or if I had to ensure team b lost by lesson three or something I don't know how you do that. I mean do you really think that mba refs have that much control over the outcome of a game?

[00:14:46] I think when when when I I ref high school basketball and the hardest thing in the world To fix or not make a call It's almost an automatic instinct that you blow the whistle when you say right. Yeah very difficult

[00:15:03] Not to make that call and and I've always thought about that In basketball such a quick game It's not other sports where you can think about it, you know before you do it this you've got to make the call

[00:15:16] And and so I just don't see I don't see How it happens? Yet i'll be the first one to complain when my team doesn't get a call but I just I don't see how you know how

[00:15:30] You can do it right and again i'm going to go back to the foster thing. He's the best referee in the league so you know I I can't picture

[00:15:40] You know him doing that. I just can't even think about it. So when when gobert did it I was watching When gobert did it when I was watching the game

[00:15:53] I was like I had a look twice and foster to look the way to go to the table and make the call Natalie say go who's the other one of the other refs? She's the one who was looking right at him making the sign

[00:16:05] She tagged him right away because she saw what was going on. I'm sure you know and foster wouldn't have been happy with it either You know work you can't wait and by the way if you watch the call did you watch the play?

[00:16:19] Go there knock two people down. I mean he all right Yeah, it was a foul. It was a boy when I was watching and I saw it They said they got a call us and foster and foster took made the call from half court

[00:16:30] He was the trail right but but he had it all the way and he was right Okay Well, maybe we're both naive, but yeah, I like to think that the game is clean Um, but uh, I do have to say you heard the buzzer go off

[00:16:43] So our time is off But uh chris paul has a few words of disagreement with you. So I'll let you guys work that out He's uh, yeah, he he he called me I don't I don't want him to work it out with me. He can hurt me

[00:16:58] All I will say is though Who's the head referee in the finals the seventh game if there is a seventh game? It's usually foster That's usually the best guy in the league. Yeah, no undeniable. Listen. I guys like him even you know, they could

[00:17:13] Shoot tony farmer, right? Well, no tony brothers tony brothers. What in the world? He's good. Zach Zarbara is one of the best. Zach Zarbara. Yeah, I mean he's good Yeah, generally Those guys right now. I mean those guys whose names we know

[00:17:30] We know them because I think they're good. Um, you know, they're gonna flub up some calls Or they're gonna make the right call against your team at the wrong time And that's why they get a lot of hate but these are good refs

[00:17:42] Well to show you how I don't have a life. I can even name some of the bad ones But anyway, I'm watching too many games. But yeah same thing All right. Well, that's it. You heard the buzzer go off our time is up

[00:17:54] Please make sure to read Steve's entire article which will be linked below To get his thoughts on other subjects including the new york nicks and more but um, please Subscribe thank you for listening. Thanks as always for uh for watching if you happen to be watching

[00:18:12] And join us next week on the 13 rules nba random thoughts podcast the best 15 minutes of random thoughts online. We'll talk next week Steve. Thanks Thank you All right, man