The Shot Clock Pod - NBA 2024-25 Playoffs Conference Finals

  It's time to talk basketball. I'm Jose s editor, the peach basket.net. He's Steve Perello, longtime educator, vice principal, high school basketball coach and athletic director. And this is the shot clock pod, the best 15 minutes of NBA random thoughts online anywhere. This is your first time listening. Welcome. We're glad you found us. This podcast was born out of the content in Steve's 13 Rules Random NBA Thoughts articles, which he publishes 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 B, a thoughts article where he shares his thoughts as the NBA playoffs continue in the 20 24 25 NBA season. But before we get started. That one of our very own creators, John Camacho, has written a book along with Zach Hamilton called Sports Chaos. The book explores the reasons behind expert business, legal, and moral decisions. It'll be available on Amazon now starting May 21st, so it got pushed back a little bit. It was gonna drop the 15th, but now it'll be available the 21st, and it is available for pre-order. You can just go to peach basket net. To get the link and the site, or pardon me, the book does include a discussion on the chaos that ensued this year with the Luca Donit trade. So it's a really relevant and a good read. With that being said, Steve, are you ready? Ready. All right. Let me start the timer now and let's talk basketball. We start with sad news outta the east if you a Boston self defending champion. So I. You. Does that make them? The New York Knicks the favorite in the East? I guess it's my favorite. That's Indiana gets everybody. Very unselfish. They, bad I guess if One other thing to look at is, and this could be over long term, over seven games, but Indiana pressure, they pressure more and they try to wind it down. The Knicks aren't a real team. If that's successful. Indiana will have and I think I wrote it yesterday, I think. Need to have a good game for the win. And one of the negatives, if you see, and he made some of them, but if you see Josh Bart starting to shoot threes, that tells you that the offense worth moving and they're struggling. And that's not a good thing for to go through. You don't want, if you're the other team. I'm curious if they do, if India is able to wear the nick down if they're not. Look at the Nixon team. Yeah, it's interesting you called out the the the two sides of Tyrese, Halliburton in the four Cleveland wins. He scored 31, 11, 19, and 22. In the one Cleveland loss he scored four no rebounds, five assists. He played the same number of minutes. Just was non-existent in that game. There was one game where, he didn't play much better but they were able to win. So yeah. Tyrese is the key to that team. That's pretty clear, right? How do you lock this guy down? I, what I think is interesting and everybody's got a definition of what a star is, right? The. You sit why can't you do it every day? That's just it. He's not a right. A brings it every day and I think close, I would not gets on a throws. They're killers. Defensive all and Le is a nice player too, and he's got a lot of the basket. He's not afraid. So they're getting those two and then of course, Turner play. They're getting more than Halliburton night every night. Yeah. You knows McBride comes, he's nights. Oh my goodness. And then Mitchell Robinson, we gonna redo hacker okay. Alright. Let's hope that the New York is left standing. See if the Knicks get past the pacers after what they did to get into the Eastern Conference finals mayhem on Madison Square Garden. But let's talk about the West Now. You called it a tale as old as time. Yeah. At least that's how I refer to it. And the older champ you did this too, right? Versus the talented upstart. That's how you describe the nuggets versus the thunder. Then you picked the thunder at home, you picked talent over experience. Why do you think the the nuggets are gonna win? Pardon me, the thunder. Everything's running. I. Denver and Right. And they bench. I probably get let's is the best guy. So really goes off. Somebody else finds it. I. Just, he's just great. So I just, like I said, Oklahoma comes out here, but Oklahoma comes out with nine guys with 10 guys and they're not afraid use and there's so much there. Would be very surprised. I would be very surprised if Denver. Okay. Yeah. And making it tougher for Denver. Aaron Gordon confirms, right? Yeah. Long odds to play with a grade two hamstring strain. I'm looking for updates now. I don't see anything, so it's still, iffy. It just makes things tougher for for the older. And you, if you remember, you knows a shame. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm seeing a report from Yahoo Sports. He will be out for game seven. That being Aaron Gordon, which seems very likely. Yeah. And then the thunder at home, they've been they've been good. The knock with the thunder, and you've made this this assertion multiple times throughout the season. They gotta prove it under the lights and it doesn't get, the lights don't get any brighter and game seven against, a world champion. So it's not gonna be easy. I expect a really good game, but I'd be really surprised along with you if if the thunder don't pull it out I'm gonna go out on a ledge. Okay. Okay. I'm okay. I'm not gonna push back. I think it'd be a close game, but yeah. Okay. Let's see how that plays out. Tip is in about, two hours. So from the time we're recording this. Let's jump back to the east and talk about the 64 win Cleveland Cavaliers. This was a team that liked the thunder, right? Had just dominated the regular season. They were the number one team in our power rankings for 90% of the season. But despite that, despite the 64 win season, despite the regular season dominance, you wrote that it might be time for them to make a change specifically with their guards. What do you see as their weakness there? When you look at the NBA things, you look for at least one guard. Six defensively against Boston. Boston. Guess Mitchell six, need six, five or bigger physical that can defend other teams' goals. You can't ask Mitchell to do that. Him to score and not a defender first place, but unless it's a dires a problem. So I have to think that garland would be guy go Garland. He was hurt. People don't realize he's a very talented, offensive player. He had nothing. He, but he didn't have much. But Garland a player for score, he play lot, so he's got some value out there. But what I would think. I think I wrote this they need a smart type player that can shoot better. Yeah. There's not a lot of them walking around. Right. I think past they, that's, that would make them a much better team. Don't forget they have the two and is a pretty good defensive player, although. I've thought player league. Right. But guard guards defensively, you gotta do something. You champ. And he. So you, you need That's that to win. You have to have one guard willing to, defend. And Cleveland just doesn't have that. That's the other thing is they need Yeah. Which everybody's looking for at this time of the year and very few teams have. But yeah, and it's always, you hate that it comes down to that. Up year. Yeah. But if you notice in the last game they lost to Indiana, he didn't much second half being he not good defender. So they were still, so what I'm saying is they were still looking for something that can defend to give them a better shot at it. That's something. And my whole thing is if you got two bad s you have a problem. Yeah. And the, they. Yeah, tough for Cleveland that they're thinking about it, but they are on vacation and it's time just to start thinking about that in Cleveland. Let's jump to the West and finish up with the Dallas Mavericks, the team that we're, that's not playing right now, but Dallas Mavericks famous famously, let Luka Dridge go because. Dms said Defense wins championships. You wrote about that, not about the Mavericks, but about defense and you took it a little deeper. Interestingly, I thought you didn't just say Defense wins championships, but a specific type of defense. What was that? I team defense. Roll everything. If you go cel, when the Celtics, they were successful in targeting Brunson and neither of fo. So what has happened in the BA is if you trade for a real good defender, you get one, you're still not gonna be able to get away with him only guarding that great offensive player because team, right? And so what you do need is a decent team that can rotate well and defend well. Now the. So clear, wide, get himself in rhythm, Mitchell Robinson flying out there and took it away and turned the ball. Think about the rotation and the ability to people. Team defense. And every team needs to be defend group. And if you think, and even when played he tough defender and that. Not favorable. What the has become is more of a team defensive thing. The thing I'll say, and I, a lot times teams will, target's say brus. After the pick and roll and Brunson goes down, brown goes down. What'll happen is if the big is near them or another person is near them, they'll throw Brunson and they'll put somebody on. Brunson will run, recover on someone else and try get match up. That's how you know how you have to do it. Because let's face it, once a tremendous offensive player defensively of taking a charge, he's not real good. Yeah. And he commits foul he when he's over. So the game has changed. As the term the BA is on, they need to on. Yeah, and it's it's interesting because I know I'm gonna take some heat here, but when the Lakers let go, I knew it was coming. But when they let go of the, their best defensive individual player, they got better defensively. It didn't make any sense. But what you saw is they played really good team defense. They, their angles were better. They, they got hands on balls. The 50 50 balls got better. I don't know why. But that happened and you saw it happen in real time. There's a great theory out Lakers, the theory is their best defending all. And So while they were defending, another team was, its 70th fine, so that, and they played. Yeah. And as a big, that's part of his learning curve, become a big better coach. Yeah. It's amazing how we go to the Lakers. Something that we don't even, this seasons been done for two weeks. They've been fishing for a while. Yeah. I and again, I hesitated. I did, but I, it was just the best example I. Right. And I appreciate I appreciate your passion for the the purple and gold. But that's it. You may not have heard the timer. It was a little muted or the buzzer, but it did go off. Our time is up. Thank you as always for listening. Thanks for watching. Make sure to read Steve's entire 13 rules. Randy, maybe a thoughts article. We'll link it wherever you are listening or watching to this today to get more NBA random thoughts as the 20 24 25 NBA season playoffs rally. Actually continue rather, and join us next week as Steve shares his thoughts after the conference finals, the NBA Final four are set. Excited to see how all of that plays out. And of course, please consider subscribing liking, commenting, all. On the pod, the best. 15 minutes of random. We'll, Steve, thanks.