The Shot Clock Pod - NBA Week 13

[00:00:00] Alright, it's time to talk basketball. I was a Solviati editor at ThePeachBasket.net. He's Steve Percello, large-time 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. If this is your first time listening, welcome. We're glad you found us. The podcast was born out of the content of Steve's 13 Rules Random NBA Thoughts articles, which he publishes weekly.

[00:00:28] 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, where he shares his thoughts on select teams and select situations after week 13. Alright, Steve, are you ready? Ready. Let's do this. I'll start the clock now. Alright, we start in Cleveland.

[00:00:53] A few weeks ago you crowned the Cavaliers as official title contenders when they beat the OKC Thunder. Well, in the rematch, the Thunder punched back and he punched back hard. And you called them, the OKC Thunder, mid-season title favorites. So I'm going to ask you, what do you like about the Thunder? They defend, they can shoot the three.

[00:01:17] They're, it's just everything about their game and they just continue to put pressure on the other team. When I say they defend, and I mentioned it yesterday, but Luke Doerr held Donovan Mitchell to three for 15 for the fourth. Think about that. Think about that. Donovan Mitchell is a dark horse MVP candidate. And he just, you know, he just ate him up.

[00:01:40] And don't forget Oklahoma City played this game without Hortenstein and Holmgren who's been out for a long time. So they really had no big while Cleveland had two bigs, Allen and Mobley. And they really couldn't take advantage of it. This team is, is deep. They play well together. They like each other. They're dangerous. And right now I would say they're the favorite.

[00:02:06] I would, I would list a couple other teams with a shot, but I definitely think, you know, they're the favorite and what they, what they've shown. And don't forget in the last couple of weeks, they've beaten the Knicks twice, Holmen away. They've beaten the Celtics at home and now they've beaten Cleveland. They split with Cleveland, but they've beaten Cleveland at home. So that record against those teams. And those are three of the contenders.

[00:02:33] Although there's some other teams, you know, against them is, is pretty convincing in its own right. I mean, the Knicks didn't have a chance in either, in both games. So it tells you something Boston, they blew away in the fourth quarter and their defense. What do they give up 25 points or 27 points in the second half? So what I'm saying is Oklahoma City is a good defensive team can score and it can shoot the three.

[00:02:58] They're the modern prototypical great team playing in modern basketball. Yeah. What strikes me when I, when I watch them play is there no nonsense, right? I just get the sense that they're always kind of even keel team. They don't panic if they're behind, they don't get too high. If they're up big, they just do the same thing all the time, which is to me, reminiscent of Coach Pop's Spurs championship teams.

[00:03:25] I mean, I don't know if that just me, but that's what I see when I see them. And I'm really, really impressed. It's a great point. And just to add to that, who was the leader on Pat's team and who's the leader today and what kind of mannerisms or demeanor these people have? You know, you have Tim Duncan. Right. Just, you know, very laid back and Alexander Gilgis Alexander. He's just, you know, he just plays.

[00:03:54] Right. And what's interesting and not to come in, I think I mentioned this, how well they get along, how well that team likes each other and, and, and plays together. And that, that goes a long way in, it comes down to, you know, all the chips getting cashed in. The biggest question for Oklahoma city moving forward, what happens in the heat of a tough playoff game? And they haven't really gone through that yet.

[00:04:25] And that would be the one thing that you might say, well, a Boston might have a slight advantage. Although that might be one of the few things they would have that advantage. Yeah. It's going to be real interesting. We'll see if they paid their dues. Cause there is a process you go through in the NBA, but yeah. Yeah. Call the end of the mid season favorites. So I will totally, totally double down.

[00:04:48] And second, moving on, you posed to state in the East, you pays, you pose an interesting question about the struggling New York Knicks and, and them trading away R.D. Barrett and Emmanuel quickly for OG and an OB. And trades are usually evaluated over time, right? A year or two later, we take a look and we kind of see, do you think that was a good trade? Or is it just a bit little blip in the radar for, for the Knicks right now?

[00:05:14] Knowing where the Knicks went by getting Carl Anthony Towns and giving up two players. If I, if you knew that was going to happen, there wasn't a good trade. Yeah. If, because, and the Knicks are struggling right now cause Towns is out. There's no depth. There's absolutely no depth on the Knicks. Having two players. And, and believe it. Personally, I'll, I mean, you know how I feel about Ananobi, but. I'll take Barrett before him.

[00:05:44] Okay. Then you give me quickly too, although quickly has been hurt all year. A lot. Hmm. And then it's giving you depth. You now have, and if you look at the Knicks and I mentioned Cade Cunningham eating them up. The Knicks don't have a defensive guard. So what they're forced to do is put an Ananobi or McHale Bridges on an offensive guard on the other team. Ananobi got eaten a lot by Cade Cunningham the other night. Just, it was, it was ugly.

[00:06:14] And if you don't have a stopper and I guess they're not using Josh Hart to do that. That might be the only thing they can do. They do need a defensive stopper at the guard or somebody that can do a better job than what they're getting right now. So that's another thing, but, but it's very difficult to say it was, I didn't think it was a good deal at the time.

[00:06:35] And I still don't, but it's hard because you know, with, with knowing Towns was coming, then I'd say it was a crazy. It was a dumb deal. And by the way, right now the money they're making quickly is making a lot of money. And then OJ Ananobi, I don't know, he hit the lottery because he's making over 40 million, which is incredible in my mind. But the point being, it's a little different than a year ago with the salaries these people are making.

[00:07:04] They have to, you know, have to renegotiate. I think RJ Barrett's the only good buy in there. I think he's only in the twenties, low twenties, low to mid twenties and salary. So it kind of says something and RJ Barrett is getting the chance to, to be the offensive force on this team as compared to with the Knicks. He was the third wheel and he's showing what he can do. There's always a question though.

[00:07:29] If a guy like that goes to a team like the Knicks, like he was, will he push them, you know, help them or not? You know, it's difficult to say. Yeah. And you and I have talked to, you know, in shows past about the right fit, right? You got a player who maybe has just been okay for team A gets traded to team B. And all of a sudden the culture's right. The coach is right. The situation is right. And that player flourishes.

[00:07:57] So yeah, that's why, you know, trades need to be evaluated over time and see, to see how they play out. You know, I like to think this is just a blip of the radar for the Knicks. I'm a big Josh Hart fan. So when you said defensive guard, that was my first thought. I like Josh Hart. I think he's a pest, a good defender. But if they're not using him right, they need to figure that out in New York. Very interesting. The Knicks have an important decision to make and I don't know if they can do this.

[00:08:26] They've got to sit and say, we are going to limit minutes on Brunson, Bridges and Towns and not go over 36. I don't know if Thibodeau could do that. Yeah. Because when the playoffs come, you don't have depth here. And you've got to figure something out and they're going to be counting on 40 minutes a night. And if they don't have a lot left, you got a problem.

[00:08:54] And that's beside the fact that playing a lot of minutes, they could get hurt. Yeah. Because they're overplaying. So they've got some decisions. And if they do that, the Knicks run the risk of maybe finishing fourth or fifth. And that would mean Cleveland in the second round, which gets very interesting. Right. Yeah. We talked about that as well. Can Thibbs change his M.O. now and chances are that he won't. But we got to move on. We got more to talk about.

[00:09:22] Well, let's talk about Sacramento. The Kings have turned things around. Everything points to positivity. Doug Christie has been a positive role model, a positive influence, and the team is responding. And that would generally be a feel good story in the NBA. You pulled something out of that that I thought was super, super interesting. Something that reflects negatively on today's modern NBA players. What was that? Well, first of all, I don't want to be a get off my lawn guy.

[00:09:51] But what I'm going to say is this. And we can get into why, which I'll try to do. But the modern player is not good at accepting any criticism. Mike Brown supposedly lost the team near the end and they were disgusted because he was negative and all, but they weren't playing well. So if you're disillusioned enough to think if your record is 15 and 20, that all's fine and I'm great. Well, then you've got the problem.

[00:10:21] But the young players today don't handle the negativity real well. And that's a problem. And if you start thinking about why, well, everything is set up in our system now. When they were in college, they were recruited. They were told how wonderful they were when they played a basketball. They were told they were wonderful throughout their high school career. Everything they've done, they've been told they're the best.

[00:10:49] And now with a little adversity, we find out who can handle it and who can't. And it's really interesting. Sacramento is playing good basketball. They actually defend. They do all the good things. But I have that other part too. If you can't handle criticism, I don't know. I don't know. When going gets tough, how are you going to do? What are you going to do? That's the negative piece I have about Sacramento. Yeah. Interesting. It used to be that teams would find players that could handle the toge.

[00:11:18] Now it looks like players are dictating what the coach can and can't do. Interesting conversation, but we got to leave a little bit of time for the boss. It means one more thing. It means one more thing. And they call a player empowerment. But what it really means is who now is calling shots. Sure. And it's become a situation where the player calls in. I'm sure out in LA there, LeBron, anything they do, the Lakers do, they run through LeBron.

[00:11:48] And they wait for his approval. And that is part of the empowerment. I can't picture Bill Russell telling Red Arbac, you know, I don't want this guy on the... I can't picture that. Right. You have officially moved into the get off my lawn territory with that. I just wanted to call it out. Well, that's something I'm proud of. Yes. Let's leave the last few minutes for the Boston Celtics. I was really surprised you called this out in your article.

[00:12:16] They were 7-7 over the last 14 games, not counting a win last night. And it's interesting. Here's a very, very good team, the defending champions. You pointed out something that I thought was pretty interesting about their fourth quarter statistic over those 14 games. What did you see that they're not doing well in the fourth? They're getting dusted in the fourth quarter. They're just getting beat up. You know, they had three blowouts.

[00:12:43] One was 40 points and that they won. And those games they outscored the opponent big in the fourth quarter. But when you look at the 14 games, they're minus. Only minus .7 points. But they're minus in the fourth quarter. And that tells you something. Because usually good teams, even if they're playing poorly, they'll hang around and then figure it out. And they're not doing it. In fact, it gets worse.

[00:13:13] The Sacramento game, they beat by about 15 points in the fourth quarter. And Sacramento beat them. So something's not right. The other thing I'll say to you though, on Boston's behalf, I think their defense is broken down. They're not playing hard defensively. There's no ball pressure. They don't guard the screen and roll real well. And there's just a whole mess of things. They're leaving a lot of open threes, which then comes down to if the other team's shooting well. So there's a whole bunch of things. But something I'll point out that's really interesting.

[00:13:43] There's only one guy of the eight guys they use the most. Only one guy. And I'm going to ask you if you can guess who it is. Who's shooting a higher percentage from three this year compared to last year. Pete and Pritchard. Yeah, that's it. Every other guy is under what they did last year. Now, you can look at it two ways. Hey, they're going to start shooting better and they'll start winning.

[00:14:09] They did that last or B they had peak years and now it's, it's going the other way. Wow. And you, that's something will determine the rest of the year. You got drew holiday was over 40% last year. He's down. Horford was, I believe over 40. He's down. Jalen Brown. I think he was one for one last night, but he's under 33%. Wow.

[00:14:37] So, you know, this is a team that prides themselves on threes. And I think they are something like 15th or a little higher in three point percentage. Last year, I think they were second. Yeah. So, so those kinds of things give you a warning sign. Hey, is it age or are they just all collectively having bad years? The last piece that goes with that. Okay. Threes are interesting. You shoot them when you're open. Are they taking bad threes?

[00:15:05] So there's a lot of factors you have to figure out within that. Yeah. There's so much to dissect there. This goes back to, you know, one of the early games that were Boston think was toying with the main three point shot record. I think they had 29 and they couldn't get that 30. It's mixed. First game of the year. First game of the year. Right. And it's just kind of been downhill from there, hasn't it? Yes. Well, at least from a three point perspective. Okay.

[00:15:34] Well, it's very hard. It's very hard to, to qualify or quantify whatever this stuff, because if you're the champion, you've done it. So naturally there's a little, little let down and that's what they're doing. But it's also, you see how they letting down. Well, the defensive pressures, like I said, and the ability to shoot is not good.

[00:16:01] The other thing when Boston played the Knicks early in the year, it was pretty obvious. The ball was moving around the court. I kind of stopped over the last couple of weeks. And, and you know, you almost went first pass and, and, and a good three point offenses broke. It works best when you have dribble penetration and kick out. They weren't doing it as often. And that's one of the reasons why they do it.

[00:16:27] But if the other thing that I looked at with that was the minutes, in other words, are they playing guys too long? And the minutes are comparable. Maybe Tatum and Brown are playing a little bit more than they did last year, but not, not a big, you know, a big difference. And even drew holiday is getting older. It's less. He's playing less this year.

[00:16:47] So that wasn't a, a, a reason or something to think about, about tiredness or, so again, I give you the reasons and what I saw and we'll see. Yeah. And that's the moral of the story. And we'll see, we'll see how this plays out. Is this a blip in the radar? Are the Celtics going to write the ship or was last season their peak shooting season? And we're seeing that the real Boston Celtics now, that would be an interesting storyline. But that's it. You heard the buzzer go off.

[00:17:17] Thanks for listening. We appreciate it. Our time is up. Please make sure to read Steve's entire 13 rules, random NBA thoughts article. We'll link that somewhere, wherever you're hearing or watching this to get more NBA random thoughts after week 13 of the 2020, 425 NBA season. And please, as always consider subscribing, liking, commenting, all that stuff matters. And we appreciate all of it. Join us next week on the shot clock pod, the best 15 minutes of the random NBA thoughts online.

[00:17:46] Anyway, thanks again, Steve. We'll talk next week. Thanks. I'll see you next week. I'll stop the 금is, off, and look at the new flat side of the road. Go to the edge of the edge of the open. I'll talk to you soon. I'm curious about it.