NBA Injury Crisis, Jokic vs. Nuggets Fans & Jaylen Brown’s Tatum Feud | The Shot Clock Pod

The Shot Clock Pod 11/1/2026 === Jose: ​[00:00:00] All right, it's time to talk basketball. I'm Jose Salviati, editor at thePeachBasket.net. He is Steve Purciello, host of Celtic Chalk Talk, a longtime educator, vice principal, high school basketball coach, and athletic director. And this is the Shot Clock Pod. The Shot Clock Pod was born out of content in Steve's 13 Rules random NBA thoughts articles, which he publishes weekly. Steve and I have exactly 24 minutes to discuss what's on his mind or on the NBA. Today, we're discussing his latest 13 Rules random NBA thoughts article. Now, if you've gotten this far, thank you. Want you to know that you're listening to one of many independent fan-driven shows on the Peach Basket podcast network of shows. We're not owned by a big media company, which means what you hear comes straight from real fans who live the game every day, just like Steve and I. If you believe voices like this should be heard, you enjoy the show, please, the best way to support us is simple. Keep listening, keep watching, tell a friend, like, [00:01:00] comment, subscribe. It means everything, and we're grateful for all of it. And as soon as this episode ends, head over to thePeachBasket.net, check out more fan-run podcasts, videos, articles, and help this independent network grow the way it started, organically, one hoops fan at a time. We are glad you're here. Steve, are you ready? Steve: Ready Jose: Let's do this. Clock is on. All right. You wrote about a lot of interesting things as the season is r- it has ramped up. A lot of interesting news, a lot of good news, and unfortunately, some bad news. Now, before we get to the bad news, I think this is something y- you started with, something that I think Commissioner Silver wanted, and that is you called out there's no clear favorites final team. You said it's impossible to pick one right now. Now, I got a call out a- and I'll stand a- as proxy for San Antonio Spurs fans, who right now are really angry. But why do you [00:02:00] think there's no favorite? Steve: It, it just who's Every night somebody gets hurt, so y- it's gonna come down to m- you get to mid-April and who's the healthiest team that's a good team? Who's got the most healthy talent? That's the team that I would call. If I were to sit here and tell you, I thought Oklahoma City would win this year. It doesn't look good, it's changing every day. And that, that's a problem. Even Houston was 5 and 0. Last night they lost to Dallas, but Sengun was out. It's only a game or two he'll be out but the point being, you don't know who's playing and who's not. And it's just it's crazy. To try to predict something is crazy, and the NBA's gotta do some serious thinking about how they're going to keep these guys playing. Jose: Yeah Steve: Because, if you think about it, I get a, a schedule and I live in Flo- where I am in Florida, and I wanna go to Orlando and see the Magic play, and [00:03:00] my kid wants to see LeBron play when Philly comes in, if Philly's on a back-to-back, he might not see LeBron. And there it goes. So the Jose: Yeah. Steve: gotta think really hard about what they wanna do about this. Jose: Yeah Steve: don't do something, you're cheating people spending ... and let's face it, I was looking at tickets for the Orlando Magic. To sit in the lower bowl, well over 100 bucks. Jose: Sure Steve: you're gonna, for your kid, you and your kid, you're gonna spend 3, $400 for tickets so the kid is close enough, then he doesn't play? You can't do that. So the NBA's gotta do some thinking about how they're gonna get away from these back-to-backs Jose: Yeah Steve: try to keep players more healthy Jose: All right. I don't do this often. I'm gonna put on my devil's advocate hat here, 'cause I'm gonna tell you a story. This is what I don't normally do here on this show. But I have a, a, a family member who is out, lives out of state. They spent money to come over here, and they spent more money to go to D- [00:04:00] Disneyland. On the day they went to Disneyland with their kid, guess who didn't show up? Mickey Mouse. Okay? And my family member was not happy about it, and understandably right? But, she made her complaint, and Disney's like, "Oh, he's not always out. We're very sorry," blah, blah, blah. So when you're, when you, as you're telling that story, I'm thinking of that story, and I'm thinking, has the NBA become Disneyland? Is it entertainment only? Is there a promise to always see LeBron? I don't think so. Doesn't NBA, doesn't Disneyland sell that magical moment, which she got without Mickey? Doesn't the NBA sell the experience without LeBron? Steve: In y- your son's ca- your, whatever, this kid Is... a bunch of rides and a lot of things he can do. LeBron doesn't play, the whole fun of the day is gone. Jose: Okay. Steve: Or Curry doesn't play. That's what the... and they're not coming back, or maybe they'll come back [00:05:00] sometimes in the same division, sometimes you'll play two, but usually it's one. So I just think I just think... I understand, and it's great that we have parity. However, It's still not fair with the prices they're getting to come to a game. Last year when the Clippers, before all the mess with the Clippers, you couldn't get near that place, or even for a Laker game. Y- to get in you sitting on the roof there, you're paying 200 bucks. Who could do that? Jose: Yeah Steve: that's my point. And, I guess the key word here is affordability. I've heard that a lot the last couple days. Jose: Yeah. Let's not go down that rabbit hole. Steve: So no, but it's a serious problem And the NBA's gotta look into it. It's great parity, but these guys are getting hurt. Jose: Yeah Steve: like Jay- Jaylen Williams is a great player and he's hurt. Chet Holmgren i- is now down for what? Eight weeks? Eight to 10 weeks. And who knows with a knee like that. Jose: Yeah. Steve: go on. There's... Every Jose: Yeah. Steve: something. Jose: Yeah[00:06:00] Steve: there's a problem. It's a real problem, is my point Jose: Let's pivot to that 'cause that's the bad news that you shared in your your article second, your second topic, and that is injuries are back. Now, you called out that they're preventable, right? And you floated ideas that you did before about eliminating back to back, cut regular season down to 76 games. There's lots of things you can do. And a lot of people have advocated for the same. I've heard it. But Steve: Yeah Jose: at the end of the day, listen it, it costs the owners money. They're not-- they're probably not-- It's not gonna happen. But I gotta ask you a question 'cause you've been following the game for a long time. How come we didn't see Larry Bird who had horrible back problems later in life, but he's, he averaged 40 game, 40 minutes a game. How come we didn't see Magic Johnson? Why didn't we see these players, Darryl Dawkins? I can't, I don't remember these players that I grew up watching kinda suffer from what we see with Joel Embiid and Anthony Davis. Nobody thought of them as [00:07:00] perpetually hurt, and they were putting in more minutes. What- Steve: go to an AAU tournament? Jose: No. Steve: In one day they're playing numerous games. Jose: Okay. Steve: at a young age, these kids are beating the heck out of their bodies. Jose: Okay Steve: and they do it continuously. kids are now high school, if they're exceptional, let's say in basketball, and they're still, they're good athletes, they'd probably be really good foot- they're playing one sport, and that's going year-round. The bo- and the game now is a lot more up and down, it's a lot more physical, and these guys are specimens now. In the old days, the NBA players got in shape in the preseason. No. Usually a guy, when the season's over, he sits out a couple weeks, does whatever, and then right away, two, three weeks later, he's on the court every day. How much could your body take is my point. It's a different world. And these guys, again, their strength and all the other things, it's a lot different. [00:08:00] And think about this. By the time the guy gets to the NBA now, they've played thousands of games. It wasn't like that back then. And tear is a lot different. Jose: Yeah Steve: obviously, how many guys, by the time they're 30, sitting out back to backs. I, so i-i... why the game is becoming a younger man's game Jose: Yeah That, th- that's-- Man you just presented a w- a, a problem that in my mind's eye I think is unsolvable because then w- what I hear you saying, it makes a ton of sense, is yeah, by the time you get to the NBA, y- your body is just a little worn out, right? Where in the '70s, '80s, '90s, maybe, you didn't have that as much. Y- that's not fixable. It's not, that's not changing. Y- you've got somebody with a little bit of talent, and he's eight, nine years old, he's gonna be playing every other, multiple games a day Steve: with the money involved, of course they're gonna play because Let's face it, [00:09:00] every parent lives vicariously through their kid, And the kid who can play a bit, they got him playing everywhere they can. Jose: Yeah Steve: so by the time he's 18, one of two things happens. Either he hates playing because he's done it so much, Jose: Right Steve: he's hooked, and it's, that's his Jose: Yeah. Yeah Steve: gonna give up the money these people make You know, y- you start thinking about it. I don't know, Luka, what's he make, about 70 million a year? A year, notice. Think about this. Think about the money we're talking about. Jose: Yeah. No, I get it. I get it. Yeah, it's it's discouraging because, you get, again, at the end of the day you made the point when we talked about the first, point, about who's the favorite. You said it's gonna be the healthiest team and it's been the healthiest team every year. And I made the point over the course of the time that we've been chatting, that if you had, a magic wand, you could wave a magic wand and say every team is gonna be healthy for the balance of the, over the last 10 years, every team is healthy. I guarantee you that the [00:10:00] champion wouldn't have been the champion. Do you follow what I'm saying? If every team was healthy the Lakers wouldn't have won in the bubble. Knicks probably wouldn't have b- w- wouldn't have won last year. So health matters, and it changes the outcome. And so why the NBA isn't taking these injuries seriously, what we saw J... I didn't watch it 'cause I can't, but what I heard happened to Jalen Williams, it's just it's just, it's horrible. Why is the NBA not seemingly taking this seriously? Steve: The I guess the parity works nice. Jose: Yeah. Steve: that's a good thing. Jose: Yeah Steve: I guess the guys are getting paid, so everybody's happy. Jose: Yeah. Steve: the Jose: Yeah, Steve: are happy, but everybody's making money here. There's no... the... Let let's be honest. Money runs the game. We like watching basketball players play, Money runs the game. People are still showing up, people are still paying a lot of money, Jose: Yeah Steve: are making money. TV's paying a lot of money for the games. They're all making [00:11:00] money. If the money stopped coming in, then it would, Jose: yeah. Steve: made. Jose: Yeah Steve: It's like in any sport, like whenever a team, people get tired of management, they say, "Don't go to the games." That's the only way the owner will make changes. Jose: Sure. Steve: thing. Same Jose: Yeah. Steve: It's all money Jose: Yep. Yep. All right. Let's there's no smooth pivot from this story to that, to this one, but this, this next one is interesting and I know if you're in the East and fans of the Sixers or the Celtics you are aware of this one. I am neither of those things, but I'm aware of this one, and that is the Brown versus Tatum saga, which you said has reached soap opera levels of silliness. Update us on what's going on there Steve: I'll be the first to say I'm a Celtic fan. I like Jaylen Brown. I think he was great for the community. He did great things in the community. He showed up in schools. He just was great. But he's also got a streak [00:12:00] in him that's not always logical. And now he's discovered that he's somewhat of a celebrity, so he uses Twitch or whatever these things are, and he's on it all the time. Okay, he got traded. He's not happy about it. They chose Tatum over him for a lot of reasons. blaming Tatum, that Tatum knew. He did... Whatever, whatever the case. Sometimes I understand it. I understand the whole thing, but sometimes it's best to just keep quiet and just play. it's best not to get the soap opera into it. In a couple weeks, in November 10th, the Celtics will play Philly in Philly. The media will be all over it. Not about basketball. This is about this supposed friction between the two guys. There's friction. Not every team, like with Kobe and Sha- Kobe and Shaq Jose: Sure Steve: each other, but they won. So just ease up. Ease up. Play the game. No, I don't care. Nobody cares, unless you like gossip[00:13:00] Jose: Yeah. And gossip does sell, it does make people money, it does get clicks, right? Steve: The worst thing though, the worst thing is for Bostonians, they've moved on. love Jaylen Brown 'cause he got them a title. But they've moved on, and now he's on the other team and he's complaining about one of theirs. That doesn't... Jaylen Brown should be looked upon and complimented about the good things he did in Boston. Jose: Yeah. Yeah Steve: the la- people always remember the last thing you do, and what's the last thing Jaylen Brown's doing? Jose: Yeah. Steve: so that's my Jose: Yeah Steve: and I'm upset because Brown's number's gonna go up in the rafters w- in 10 years or whatever when he's done. He won a title. Come on, Jose: Yeah. Steve: great. So that's what you wanna remember not the the garbage Jose: Yeah. Yep, yep. And yeah, hopefully after, a- after the visit, certainly i- in Philly and visit in, Is it still called the Garden? Do we [00:14:00] still call it the Garden Or no? The FleetCenter? Steve: Bank or Jose: TD Bank? All right Steve: yeah Jose: whenever that's over, then maybe we can stop talking about this. All right, let's go to the West now. I'm h- hopeful to, honestly. Now, this is a team I owe an apology to at the start of the season, 'cause I did not think that the Trail Blazers were going to be good. It didn't make sense to me that they were so guard heavy and it just looked like a mishmash. But they're good. So y- I think you've seen them play. You've watched some games I know. Why are they so good, and does this team have staying power, or is it just the start-of-the-season w- win streak? Steve: The guard thing through injuries has thinned itself out. Ja Morant's out for a month. And Shaedon Sharpe has been out since before the season. So now they're down to three guards, which is a good number, and they're able to... and Jrue Holiday and Lillard they're good players. They still are good. Scoot is getting better, so they've got that. [00:15:00] And Deni Avdija is probably one of the least or most underrated players in the NBA. So they've got some talent and they're just, they're playing well. They just play well together. Donovan Clingan is one of the better prototypical centers of this, this era. He can rebound, he can shoot a three, he can do a lot of things, sets great screens, does all the good things that you need to do i- in today's game. So they've got a nice... And then Camara is a good defender. Robert Williams off the bench. There, there's some players here and obviously they're fitting together. Don't forget, they made the playoffs last year. People think, "Oh, so what? They got swept." Yeah, but they got in. Jose: Yeah. Steve: better from that. You got a taste of it, you will get better, and that's what's happening. They're pretty good Jose: Yeah. Yeah again, I owe them an apology. I saw the makeup of the team and it was a head-scratcher to me. And then, I think, and I think what maybe clouded my opinion [00:16:00] was all of the nonsense, that the new ownership, was going through whi- which kind of maybe diverted my attention a little bit too. But that seems to have been nothing and the team is doing well, so good for them. Steve: do I know? I thought with Ja Morant and Lillard together, that's crazy. And Ja's been hurt- now hurt, so maybe that, that's a blessing for them because I think, Jrue Holiday still can play and Scoot is playing with one of them Jose: Yeah Steve: the court. That can't hurt him. So I think things are working in a way, that's been beneficial for them Jose: Yep. Yep. Undeniable. Let's stay in the West and talk about the Denver Nuggets. This is a team that, has arguably the best player in the NBA currently, but, maybe just not all the right pieces around him. But he said something recently that took me back, and you wrote about it. And for those that don't know and I'll just read what you wrote, "Nikola Jokic complaining about the fans booing is quite interesting." They were down, they ended up winning that game, but fans booed. And Nikola Jokic said they're not welcome [00:17:00] back. Now, my first thought was in, when Magic Johnson first came to LA it had to have been '79, '80, right? It's craziness. And, he b- he was just us- y- we all remember Magic Johnson. And he said of Laker fans, "Y'all gotta stop leaving in the fourth quarter, man." Because literally it, five, 10 minutes, it didn't matter what the score was, people would leave to beat traffic. And that, that's just an LA thing, y'all. That's what we did. That's what we do and we still do. But Magic got mad. He said, "You guys gotta stay." And he called out fans, and this is a rookie. And it was very impactful, and it really changed the way fans, embraced Magic because of it and fans started to stick around. So hearing Nikola Jokic say this kind of, not the same thing, but to call out fans to me was very interesting. This isn't a rookie, right? This is a, an MVP. This is a guy who led your team to the championship. If I'm a Nuggets fan I don't know. I don't know how to take it. I, y- and I know you called out, listen, this is a guy who you gotta re-sign. You gotta keep [00:18:00] this guy happy. But from a fan's perspective, w- I don't know, man, is this a good thing, a bad thing, or a nothing thing? Steve: I the whole thing is really about the contract. Because if he leaves, that, Denver they're starting out with nothing. That's the biggest issue in this. And you almost wonder, he's complaining about that. Don't forget, he said he was gonna re-sign. He's complaining about that. Is he trying to open up where the fans haven't treated me right," or some other like that? So you start to wonder. Until they get him signed, I'm sure Denver's gonna be worried about that. I Jose: Yeah. Steve: he's a loyal guy, and I don't think it'll be a problem but you never know. He might wanna compete for titles, and if that's the case, there's probably about 29 other teams that would take him or figure out how to get him Jose: Yeah. No, I it was very interesting. I do think it'll end up being a big nothing, but... 'Cause yeah I agree with you. I think Nikola Jokic is one of those guys, and we talked about it last week, I [00:19:00] think, how NBA players p- place a lot of value on, on being with the same team for the duration of their career. Not sure why really, honestly, but they do put a lot of value on that, and I think Nikola Jokic wants to retire a Nugget Steve: The problem with that is and Golden State's keeping Curry. He's making ridiculous money. The problem with that is he's not-- his return equal the money they're paying him. And you almost have to, when a guy's late in his career, trade him, Something for him, because that's dead money You're not gonna win. A- and I'm just gonna use the Celtics again with Jaylen Brown. The Celtics had a choice there, but he wanted 70 million next year or two years. Him and Tatum, that's a lot of money. A team around that. You-- the, the way the, the game is constructed, the teams are constructed, you can only have one big money player, [00:20:00] you can't do it with two big, and have five or six other guys that, that Jose: Yeah. Steve: competitive. Jose: Yeah Steve: So that's the changes of the league with the the salary caps Jose: Yeah. Yeah. Let's, yeah, interesting to see what happens with certainly keep an eye on Nikola Jokic and Denver fans, see if they boo anymore. I think that'll be interesting. But let's we'll start, we'll keep talking. We'll stay in the West and we'll continue talking about centers. You mentioned the Warriors and Curry. They've been playing o- okay basketball. Just came back, I think down 25 or 29 against the Lakers and actually won that game. Really great comeback. But they do not have a true center. They don't have a center. Forget true. They, what they've got is a body to put there, but my gosh, you still need a five. You still need someone to play that position. The Warriors are without one Steve: I- it's really stunning. They signed Porziņģis to 20 million. Porziņģis hasn't played a lot of games in the last couple of years,[00:21:00] Jose: Right Steve: and it's something with the heart, with his, with whatever, his body, how it handles and he hasn't even shown up much to go to San Francisco. the point being, okay, you got Porziņģis. You know even if he's healthy he's only gonna play 50, 60 games. gotta have something behind him. And what they do is they have Ike and Charles Bassey. Ike's a two-way player. Charles Bassey has gone around the league. He's not a bad, good rebounder Jose: yeah Steve: Role player that sh- maybe get you 10, 15 minutes. Horford. Al Horford's 40. he's in his whatever year, still effective, but he doesn't play a lot of minutes anymore and he can't play back-to-backs. So you're gonna tell me you go into the season, "Oh, we got Porziņģis." Yeah, and what else? Jose: Right Steve: what else do you have? And there isn't. And Golden State has always been the team that's prepared and ready for [00:22:00] anything, Jose: Yeah. Yeah. Steve: this is one time where I don't quite understand what happened here. They slipped up. By the way, they did, 'cause Porziņģis's money could be dead money 'cause they're not gonna use it. They have offered... And this is interesting. They're trying to get Milwaukee to trade Miles Turner for him, Jose: Yeah, I heard that Steve: thing because Milwaukee's, they're not real good. If they're lucky they win 30. And maybe they can get a draft pick with Porziņģis So it's really interesting that they're trying to trade him. They're trying to do something to get something so they have a, a big, a legitimate big Jose: Yeah. If they can swing that that changes things for Golden State, doesn't it? 'Cause that not only do you now have a true center, you've got a really good center Steve: I don't know if he's good. He's pretty g- yeah, he's fair to middling. Jose: Okay. Steve: him I don't I... He's an up-and-down player and yeah, the two years ago he played well down the stretch for [00:23:00] Indiana. But he's a nice player, a definitely upgrade and it's better than having Porziņģis 'cause Porziņģis isn't playing. So yeah I get it, and yeah, they would be if they got Jimmy Butler back. But again, you're asking 35, to 40-year-old players To play every night. That ain't happening, Jose: Yeah. Steve: them a lot of money Jose: Yeah. Yeah, and I wonder too if that $62 million contract that that Curry is enjoying this year is the reason. "Hey, listen," 'cause this conversation had to have been in, on the whiteboard in Warriors executive offices, "We need a backup center." And they said, "Okay, let's go out and get one. How much money do we have?" Right? And we just we can't get one Steve: Like I said to you before when we were talking, Andre Drummond is Jose: point. Steve: the Jose: right. That's right Steve: For a guy of his experience. Jose: Yeah. Steve: The Knicks have him. You know what? That would be a perfect guy to bring in and he can play. He can plug him in and play a whole [00:24:00] ga- start or he can come off the bench and do things, and he's a great rebounder. To me I just am shocked that Golden Jose: Yeah Steve: thought, "Yeah, we got Porziņģis." Yeah, you do have Porziņģis, but Know where it's gonna bring you, Jose: Yeah. Steve: my point Jose: Great call out. That's a swing and a miss. Yeah, cash salary 3.8 million, salary cap hit 2.4. That's nothing for any NBA team. Steve: away like Jose: yeah Steve: like that's ashtray money for them. So Jose: That's crazy. People are googling ashtray. What's an ashtray? Steve: That's right. It Jose: all right that's it. You heard the buzzer go off. We do have two other topics. I encourage you to click the link, read Steve's entire article. He has thoughts on the Knicks going 0-2 against the Sixers, and he s- says maybe it's the Rockets' season. You can read more about it at his 13 Rules article, which again, we will link wherever you are reading or watching this today. All right, but that is it. Thank you again for listening. Thank you for watching. Make sure to read Steve's entire 13 Rules article. [00:25:00] Again, I'll say it, click wherever you are listening or watching. It will be there. And join us next week as we dive into more NBA random thoughts on the Shot Clock Pod. We'll talk next week. Thanks, Steve Steve: I didn't say it was a Rockets season. I said it could be, so let's slow down that one. Jose: Okay, fair enough Steve: but it could be. Could be. Jose: No Steve: don't think they're good enough, but that, leave it alone Jose: Okay. Read the article so I'm not putting any words in Steve's mouth. Fair enough. All right Steve: I know you wanna talk about the Lakers, so it could be their season Jose: And on that note, we'll talk next week Steve: Take care Jose: All right