The Shot Clock Pod - 2025-26 Season Preview, Houston Rockets and Jonathan Kuminga

13 Rules - Sept 28_ 2025 === Jose: [00:00:00] All right. It is time to talk basketball. I'm Jose Salviati, Editor at thePeachBasket.net. He's Steve Purciello, a longtime educator, vice-principal, high school basketball coach and athletic director. And this is the shot clock pod, the best 24 minutes of NBA random thoughts online anywhere. This podcast ~Rather,~ was born outta the 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 around the NBA today. We'll discuss his latest 13 rules, random NBA Thoughts article where he shares his thoughts on two developments in the league. And then gives his thoughts on the remaining five Eastern conference teams, which you have yet to cover. If you haven't been following, Steve has been sharing his thoughts on all of the NBA teams as we lead up to the 20 25, 26 NBA season. That pre-season incidentally tips off four days from the time we're recording this show. So lots to talk about as the season is [00:01:00] super, super close. Steve, are you ready? Ready. Let's do it. Oh, I'm gonna start the timer. Boom. And we're off. All right. We start with sad news. I think rough news, I think is a better word. Out of Houston, they got the tough word that Fred Van Blet suffered an off-season ACL l tear likely out for the season. I don't see any other way around it. What does that mean and do to Houston and their chances this season? Steve: First of all, they went out and traded for a guy that's, I don't know, 37, 38 years old. Great player. Yeah. Doesn't have a lot of time left. So it means they were looking, this year was the year they just lost their point guard. They also lost a decent three point shooter who, for them, they're not a good three point shooting team. And they traded Jalen Green so they, without their point guard, they need a ball handler now. Early indications are they're gonna try to make amend Thompson their point guard. You gotta remember he's a [00:02:00] great defender. I've even heard he is gonna be on the Olympic team in a couple years. Tremendous defender. Can't shoot the ball at all. I believe he, he shot the 20, 27% I think from three last year. So he can't shoot. So that's gotta get better. Or who's gonna guard him? It'll be like Ben Simmons. That, that's one person. The other one they're looking at is Reed Shepherd. Reed Shepherd was the third pick in the draft last year. Not this year. He didn't play much. MEU Doka does not like to use young people. And I go back to when he was with Boston. He had a young player who had a ton of potential named Aaron Nesmith. He didn't use him much and they traded him after that for Brogden. But, so he likes older players. They're looking for a title. They've gotta, they're gonna go with those people. But my sense is by December. It's time. You gotta do something because I don't think the way they are, [00:03:00] they're good enough to win. Don't forget, they traded Jalen Green, but they also gave up another guy for Durant who was like a heart and soul for them. Dylan Brooks. You know when Pete's kind of a heart and small player too. So what are you going to do here? And maybe you gotta look around the league for a point guard. One other restriction. They don't have much money, so they don't have much money to throw around. Unless they try to trade Van Veit. I think he, I don't know if he's got a no trade or, and it's too late now, but you can do the other thing where they not buy him out, but yeah, like they did with Damien Willard. They can try, but I believe it's too late to do that. So they're really in a bad spot and any money they take in, they've gotta get rid of. Jose: You mentioned Ben Simmons. Is, why not? Why not? He's available? Makes sense to me. Point. I Steve: don't know if he wants to play. I think [00:04:00] the, yeah, I think one of the things in his mind is he's made a lot of money, 25, 30 million, whatever he was, and now teams wanna pay him the minimum, which is what, two, 3 million. I don't know if he might wanna play, but I don't know if he thinks it's worth it to play for 3 million or whatever. Whatever that price would be. Because there were rumors with the Knicks, the Celtics, in the off season. Yeah. What happened was. He didn't take any offers if there were and the only thing you can figure is A, he doesn't wanna play or b the money, and it's really a shame how far down he's gone. And then the other piece to that, he might help you for three quarters, but in the fourth quarter, I don't know if he's gonna help you because he doesn't wanna go to the Fallon and Right. So that restricts his game. And he still can defend, but it restrict his game. Yeah. Jose: Yeah. No, undeniable. I, somebody, I think somebody, if he wants to play, I [00:05:00] think somebody will certainly take a shot on him. You mentioned Iman Thompson. Yeah. He shot 28% from three last season. This was an improvement on his rookie year when he shot 14%. Yeah. So definitely not a shooter, but again, we're talking about, we were talking about Ben Simmons, who obviously is not even in that category, Steve: no. And they've always, sometimes in Houston they lost Jalen Green. And Dylan the villain, and those guys can make the three a little bit. They don't have much for sure. That can shoot the ball from three. So that kind of restricts him, I guess the rant can still do that, but, Shang Goon is where they usually go and, he's an inside, inside player, so I they're in a bad spot where they expect it to win. Yeah. And now they're, they've got some problems and they have to do it now with the ramp. Jose: Yeah. Tough spot for Houston. Always difficult when injuries get in the way. But here we go again. It's every season we have to talk about injuries. Let's talk about not injuries, but maybe an odd fit in San Francisco. So gotta [00:06:00] ask you this, right? Do Steve Kerr and the Warriors know something about Jonathan Minga that we don't, he's a proven scorer who would help them? What's going on in San Francisco? You wrote about it. What's going on? It's either Steve: that, or I guess Steve Kerr pulls a Tatum on him, and by that doesn't use him. And Kerr's been successful, consider the great coach. I don't know. I just don't understand. It's hard to take a piece of occur on this, but. I don't quite understand it. And he must know something or something he doesn't like. Don't forget, the owner of the warrior is, Joe Wakeham loves him, loves minga. So why are you doing it? And then the thing I pointed out was in the NBA, you need four guys that can defend, not three, four on the court. And you need, if you have three guys that can put the ball in the basket, you're in business. [00:07:00] Minga is a perfect third man behind Butler and Curry. He could score and then you work around that Baske can play. They got some other guys that can play a bit, and if they get Al Horford, he could help them. So it really it, I don't quite understand it unless Minga, like I said, has turn people off. But what are we doing here? Again, three scores and you have a chance. And by the way, in the modern NBA. Being able to pay three scores is just about impossible because you're gonna go into the. Jose: Yeah. Yeah. And we have a whole other show about that. We'll see if we can link that below that. That's complicated everything. But another interesting piece about Minga, right? 'cause we talked about this before, we hit record, he's keeping other dominoes from falling, right? In terms of free agency with the warriors. So it just, it's baffling that the preseason about to start in four days and this is still open. It's just beyond baffling super. I dunno how else to word it. Steve: I believe he's [00:08:00] got until October 1st. To take. Okay. The I guess the option of the minimum, I think it's about 8 million. And he would play with the Warriors for this year. They can't trade him and next year he'd become a free agent. But he's gotta do that and within two or three days from today. Okay. So it should come to a head. But the other thing with training camp opening, you have. Horford and De Anthony Melton, who's a good player and he's healthy. He's not been healthy, they're pretty good players and they're gonna miss, possibly miss a few days of practices. I, I don't know what the status is with Horford or Melton, but I know the rumor was they were just about, they agreed on something. Jose: Okay. Yeah. But nothing's official until this first big minga domino drops. So weird situation in San Francisco. But that's it. We covered all 30 teams. If you missed your team just look at our other shows that you, we definitely talked about them now. Oh. [00:09:00] Actually, those were the. The bits of news going on. Now we're gonna talk about the last five teams. So I gotta I got ahead of myself. We talked about all but five. We're gonna start with the Indiana Pacers. This is a team that was in the finals, played phenomenal basketballs, looked great doing it, were fun to watch. But you said they might be headed towards a tough season. Why? Steve: First of all, it's 10, and I'll do the other five next week, but oh, beside that, oh, for two. You are off your game this week. Jose: I'm off my game. I'm off my game. Steve: You know what I attributed it to is we're not talking about the Lakers. So you're not, as sharp as usual. But the Indiana Pacers, first of all, you lost Halliburton. He's not playing this year. They've made it clear and then they free agent, they lost miles Turner. That's two fifths of their starting team and two of the more important players they had. So you got a problem. They have some depth. They have Ben Mathre, N Hart, ne Smith and Pascal aka. So they're still decent, and Obie, Toppin, they're still [00:10:00] decent, but. They're not, again, playing team. They're not, they're just not as good. Halliburton was the heart and soul of them and he's gone. He's out. Matt, I think Emhart is a good player. He's not Halliburton and size-wise miles Turner. He takes a lot of people questioning him. He did everything they needed. He could hit a three, he could step out and hit a three, and he blocked shots and was a, a. Good presence around the rim. So he did the things they needed. And I don't know if he's worth the money that Milwaukee paid, but he's a good player and those two things hurt him. And in the NBA, you do need size and, Indiana, it seems to be short on that. Jose: Yeah, it's always tough for a team when they reach the apex, right? And then things just fall apart. And again, here we are talking about [00:11:00] injuries, dismantling a team. It's it's unfortunate. And I remember talking about the patients when we talked about the apron two. Didn't you say, and I'm going off memory here, but didn't you say that the patient was one of the few teams that just never got there because they seemed to be more interested in, the ownership in making money. Then getting to that level and and paying the extra funds. Am I remembering right? Steve: Yes. And unfortunately they're play in Indiana, so they have the great fan base because that's a basketball. Yeah. So yeah it, that helps them. But yeah, the owners don't go into the, in fact, it would've been interesting if Halliburton didn't get hurt, would they have signed Turner and gone into the tax. For the money he got from the buck. And if that would've been a, first the word was they were going to do it, but I, I, I don't know. I don't know about that. And if you look at it, as I said, they've got a bunch of decent players. Some of them, their contracts are gonna be up and they're gonna want more money. So they're gonna have some decisions over the next couple of years on what they're [00:12:00] going to do. Jose: Yeah. Interesting. Alright, let's move from Indiana. Obviously we're staying in the east to Chicago, and I'm just gonna ask you a very pointed, very straightforward question. What are they doing in Chicago? Steve: If I, if you could figure it out or I could figure it out. We genius. Jerry Reinsdorf is the owner. He also owns the white Sox. I don't and he's considered way be, and he's near 90, he's considered way behind time the times with scouting, with everything that goes on, the new analytics and so on. So that's first. The other thing is he's reluctant to fire people. Now you have Carus who's the GM or the president of the organization. He hasn't done a great job. They are and I think they're a little bit lower now, but they're, they've just been a playin team for the last couple years. It's not fair to Billy Donovan, who's a good coach, but it's also what the heck are they doing? This year they, and they've got some decent [00:13:00] talent, not enough to do real well, but they're expecting a lot from Zeus, Mattos b Zeus, who's, a foreign player, but he looked good and at times last year and they think he could be a star. That's what they're hoping. And they've got some other guys coming back, and I would assume Kobe White, who's a good player. Good offensive player Vukovich, who's good, and Patrick Williams, they gave $90 million to when he he's not that good. And then the other thing, they went out and signed Josh Giddy after a prolonged stalemate, I guess between the two. I think they gave him 90 for four or something, somewhere around there. Now think about this. They traded Alex Caruso for him. All they got was giddy. When you heard that deal, the first thing you said, I hope they got a draft picker too, with Giddy for Caruso. They didn't. Jose: Yeah. Steve: And then they're trying to nickel and dime him outta money. It makes absolutely no sense. If you made that [00:14:00] trade as a gm, you wanna make sure he stays with the team. I can think of, for an example, is the Knicks, when they got outta Nobi. They gave 'em a lot of money, but they had to because if not they gave two players for really half a year. So it just it makes no mistake and one other Interesting. It makes no sense, rather. One other interesting piece that I'm just gonna add, they traded Lonzo Ball who, and they resigned them for 10 million for the next two or three years for Isaac Coral. Isaac Aqua played himself out of a starting and coming. He come off the bench a little bit for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Lonzo Ball, who's a good team man, has stayed with you. It, I don't understand, unless Ball wanted to be traded, I don't quite understand that. So trying to understand what they do is next to, IM. Jose: Okay. So if anybody has thoughts, leave 'em in the comments. We'd love to hear your thoughts [00:15:00] 'cause we're baffled. Worst thing in the NBA is to be stuck in that middle tier, which, like you mentioned, the bulls are, they're a playoff team, but they've got no chance beyond that. Almost worse though, is to be stuck where you're not even making a playoffs for a consistent amount of time. How's that for a segue? Let's talk about the Washington Wizards right now. You said some good things about the Wizards, though. Does the future look bright in Washington? Steve: I don't know if it's bright. They, they've revamped and started over and they have three decent young players. Bob Carrington is a nice guard. Al Kby. Albe is a pretty good defender and he's not a bad offensive player. He is gonna get better. And Alex, who was a, top draft pick last year. Yeah. So they have a nucleus. What I'm gonna say to you is, though, even if these guys get better and better. They're not enough to win with as your best players, right? But they'll become a decent team, a playoff [00:16:00] team in a couple years. Not a good team for now. For now. What they're trying to do, they have still have Corey Kiper and they took a shot on Cam Whitmore who can score. They got 'em from Houston. He was the guy who went late in the first round and should have gone earlier a couple years ago. And he didn't get much time with Houston. They're taking a shot with him. They're trying to hope that maybe they found something. And they do have the old vets, Chris Middleton, who's got one more year at his contract and he's there and they just traded pool for CJ McCollum. So they've got two old vets who probably will mentor these players and hopefully, help them improve and so on. But I don't see it as enough and I don't see the wizards, breaking 30 wins. I don't see it as any way. So I just, I understand what they're trying to do. They haven't gotten the lottery picks. Lower level lottery picks that would help them, and they need like a [00:17:00] top three pick at least one more to, to get there maybe next year in the lottery. But they're just, they're gonna be near the bottom of the Eastern conference. Jose: Speaking of, and in this one you just line up for me, speaking of bottom of the Eastern Conference is a team that's lived there for a while, but again, you've been you're saying some positive things about this team. That's the Charlotte Hornets. Are you high on the hornets? Do they have the talent to actually make a dent or at least take a step forward this season? Let's say that. Steve: I think they have some real talent. I think they got Ella Ball miles. Bridges and Brenda Miller. Who, Brenda Miller, who is not a, that's not a bad big three. Miller's only in his third year, he is been injured a little bit. Mellow ball. If this was real work, he'd be outta sick days because he has missed so much time in, over the last three years. And he plays an interesting game. If you watch him, he could score however. Watch him when he gets screened. There's no hustle to [00:18:00] pick up that the other, the swan switch or whatever they're doing. There's no, it's almost like he's indifferent about it and hopefully that comes around to a better place because he's hurting them defensively. Now. They picked up con can I pull? Can pull. But anyway, from Duke who can play, in fact, I was reading something. They were talking about who would be the rookie of the year and naturally. Everybody talks about his teammate from Duke, but I. He got a vote and it says something. 'cause he was picked, I don't remember exactly where. So it, it says something. Now they also have a couple veterans, Trey Mann, who's not a bad player. Spencer Denwitty, who's I think near the end Mason Plumley is their big man. He came back. And who knows, but they also got this guard who can play Colin Sexton. So now you, Colin Sexton with them and if they get anything out of palm. [00:19:00] They're, they're hoovering around what the eighth, ninth, 10th, 11th type team place team they're not naturally, not with Brooklyn and Washington. So they're gonna be above that. They could be, they won't be an easy game like they have been, let's put it that way. Charles Lee as their coach, there's all positive things coming about him with the organization, they're on a good track. It's hard to say when Charlotte is ever on the right track, but that's what they, that's where they are. Jose: It's interesting, you called out the Duke and now again, I'm butcher his name as well. I think it's Keppel, but I don't know for sure. Some players, right? They, their game is stifled in the college game and they do blossom in the pros. It doesn't happen as often, right? Usually you have really good players in college. Who can't make the jump to the pros, but sometimes you see a player who's, okay, in college, but blossoms in the pros and, I just Googled [00:20:00] him and, yeah, there's a lot of real positive articles about this guy. There's some promise there. What do you think it is about his game? Steve: He didn't play at Duke and it was interesting. He was playing with Cooper Flag, who's considered, the next superstar in the NBA. Which is fine, but if you watch Duke play, there were situations down the stretch of games he took the ball and just looked to score. Not that he was, saying You're not good enough, Cooper or any of that. As much as he was confident enough that he could do that. Jose: And Steve: it's very interesting because again, you are with Duke, everybody watches Duke. And you've got a guy that's projected to be, just a great player coming into the, will come into the NBA and this guy had the, courage to go out and do these things, which was very impressive. And I guess that's what teams like, Jose: yeah. Yeah. And that explains maybe why his game was a little, not as good as it could have been. When you're playing against some or playing with somebody like Cooper Flag you gotta take a step [00:21:00] back. And he did that, but he still shined when he needed to. And yeah I'm looking forward and it's always, for me, one of the cool things about the start of an NBA season is getting to find a player, follow him along. And this might be my player this season. I'm excited to see him play. Let's end on a unfortunate down note. And that is talking about the team that you said possibly has the worst roster in the league. Oh, yeah. They play in Brooklyn. So what's going on in with the Brooklyn Nets? This is a prime location. It's a good team. It's a good it's good franchise, good history ish. First of all, why are they so bad in, Steve: in a previous life, I lived in the New York area and right. When you think about that. The Knicks are everything. Brooklyn, no matter what, if the Knicks were won 10 games a year for the next 20 years and Brooklyn won 50, it would still be a Nick town. You have to understand that first. When you [00:22:00] understand that, then you realize Brooklyn took a shot in various ways. Decent. They, years ago they traded for Garnet and Pierce to push them. They thought over the top. Yep. Then they went with Durant and Kyrie and Harden and that didn't work out. So now what they did is they got rid of people and started really at the bottom and that's where they are. They do have a couple veterans, Michael Porter, who. If he's healthy, he can help, he can play, but there's not a lot. Nick Claxton, who I thought two years ago, three years ago, was gonna be a real player. Yeah. He, you know what he plays the game. He takes some cheap shots during games and he gets drawn out and he just hasn't, matured to where he should be. They're paying him some decent money, but he hasn't matured. Haywood Highsmith, they just picked up, from, the heat and he's a nice player. He's a steady role player and then they've got Cam Thomas, which is fascinating 'cause Cam Thomas can score, [00:23:00] he can flat out score, but they don't have a lot of value in him 'cause they, he just signed for the min, not minimum, but like the 8 million where he can't be traded. And next year he's a free agent. And he should get more than 8 million out there. And they've got a couple other people say, hear Williams and Terrence Mill, decent role players. But what's interesting is they decided to trade and they had five first round picks this year. They figuring that one of them would be the lottery that would, in the top two or three, the first pick was the least pick. Igor Deman. And you know what? He didn't really knock you over from what I've, read and saw. So the five picks they might be a year or two away from really helping you. So where are you going with that? If Michael Porter's your best player and he, again, he's a nice player, but if he's your best player, this isn't gonna be a lot of fun. So that, that's why I believe, the nets are really in a bad [00:24:00] situation and I hate to say it, but they're 3, 4, 5 years away unless they Wow. What the thing is, they're under the only team in the NBA that's under the salary cap, so they could take money and get draft picks, but, or they might go out. Sign a bunch of guys veterans to try to, speed up the process that's, the best thing I can say about them. But they're really not good. And by the way, Sean Marks, who's their gm. He's been there a while and I don't know, I don't know, he's still working. I'm glad. I don't wanna see Jose: anybody lose their job. There you go. Tough times in Brooklyn. I, speaking as a fan I always enjoy when a team starts over, right? Because then you've got these young core of guys you can watch 'em grow. So I'm hoping for good things in Brooklyn four, four or five years away. Sounds super scary though. Steve: I'm gonna, I'm gonna add something though. Denman is, I believe, from Russia. What, [00:25:00] if you're going to start over, what you and I'd have to look at the draft list and who was drafted around it and all. But you, and I hate to say this. You need to bring in a guy who much of the American public knows. Because when he was picked at the draft oh my, like who, so the point and hopefully the nets are right, but the point being if you picked up con ple, whatever the hell his name is, if you picked him up. People have something they can, oh yeah, I saw him play for Duke. He did? Jose: Yeah. Yeah. And, Steve: and I believe Deon played for BYU but the point being, there's not a great recollection of anything he did. So if you're gonna draft and naturally take the best talent you can get, but it doesn't help them that this guy, people even have any reference of. Jose: Yeah. What does help with courses if you got game, [00:26:00] and let's hope that one of these guys do and Brooklyn is a little bit further along in a couple years, but we'll see. I, we we know for sure is this season's gonna be a tough one for Brooklyn Steve: unless Jose: they, that's it. Steve: Unless they on or something. Jose: We'll see how that plays out and when, if that does happen, we'll be here to talk about it. But that's it. Our time is up. You might have heard, oh, go ahead, Steve. Steve: No, we had to get the obligatory Laker thing in. That's why Jose: I purposefully, I had thoughts. I kept them to myself. Did you wanna bring 'em up? Because it's not me. Steve: It's obligatory. I think you said you'd get rid of me if I don't bring up the Lakers every week. Oh, come on. Jose: I was gonna say, Steve: you were gonna say that. Jose: I was gonna say I didn't, and I wanted, for the record, I didn't, but I was gonna say the Lakers at a time had a really nice group of core young guys, Lonzo Ball, Josh Hart. Julius Randall, I would've loved to have seen the Lakers, and I think a lot of Laker fans would've loved to have seen that group stay together. And then they brought in LeBron, right? [00:27:00] That didn't work well, the mesh, there was no patience. And there really isn't, oftentimes in LA and New York and places that are used to winning or you could argue with New York, there's no patience. And they blew it up. But, so I'm hoping. That works out well in Brooklyn. That was my only, that was my only make a re, but I didn't say it. Steve: Going back on something, I was gonna say something. The Lakers and the Clippers and the relationship in LA for those people out west. Oh yeah. Very similar to the Knicks. A hundred percent nets because everybody, very few, a lot less people, I believe, are Clipper fans, where the Lakers are the team out there. Jose: A hundred percent. Steve: Yeah. So it really it's really interesting because in, in New York, New Jersey, where I lived in Jersey, it was the Knicks. It was really always, even when Durant was playing in his prime, it was still the Knicks. Jose: And you said isn, something interesting, and I admit, I was also gonna bring [00:28:00] up Lakers here, but you said if the, you said, if the Knicks were to be a 10 win season, or a 10 win season for the, for five seasons in a row, in the next one 50, it's still a Knicks town that happened, for 12 straight seasons. The Clippers were the better team. Undeniably and oftentimes and they won every series against the Lakers. They won more games than the Lakers. They went further in the playoffs. In the Lakers. They were the better team. Anybody who was, could look at it objectively would say, yes, the Clippers were better from about 2012 through about 2020 or so. They were the better team. And may maybe a little further back. A little up. I'm going off the top of my head here, but guess what? Still a Laker town. Still, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. The only way this will ever change is if the Clippers were to win, 18 titles, and then they've got a seat at the table. But that's just the way it is. Steve: No, I understand. Bo don't forget the Lakers were there before the Clippers. And the Knicks were there before the net. The Nets played in Jersey yeah, for a while. And [00:29:00] so you know, it didn't really have that New York thing and then they built in Brooklyn and it's worked out. If you've been there, it, but Brooklyn was a place going back 20 years ago, that people didn't wanna be around. But it's become more of a place now where young people are living and the restaurant scene and all the other bar scene has picked up. It, it was a good move and maybe, yeah, moving the nets there or the arena there. Made it a good move, but it was a good move. Jose: Nice. Alright, I think in, in, in the 100 episode history of this show, this is the longest one we've ever done. I think bar none, I'll have to check, but I'm pretty sure. But. Listen, you can't stop. Good conversation and that, and we're not about to, and I'm not about to and that was good conversation. But that is it. Our time is up. You might've heard the buzzer go off I think about five, six minutes ago, but thanks for listening. Thanks for watching. Make sure to read Steve's entire 13 rules, random NBA Thoughts article, the link at wherever you are watching or [00:30:00] listening to the show today. Join us next week for more random NBA thoughts after the NBA preseason tips off. And of course, please subscribe, comment, all that stuff means the world to us. We are grateful for all of it. Thank you, Steve. We'll talk next week. Talk to you.