The Shot Clock Pod - Week 10

[00:00:00] Alright, it's time to talk basketball. I'm Jose Salviati, editor at thepeachbasket.net. He's Steve Perciello, a long-time educator, vice principal, high school basketball coach, and athletic director. And this is the Shot Clock Pod, best 15 minutes of random NBA thoughts online anywhere.

[00:00:17] If this is your first time listening, welcome. We're glad you found us. This podcast was born out of the content of Steve's 13 Rules Random NBA Thoughts articles, which he publishes weekly.

[00:00:27] 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 some people after Week 10, a busy and interesting week in the NBA.

[00:00:44] All right, Steve, are you ready?

[00:00:45] Steve, ready. Let's go.

[00:00:47] Steve, we'll start the timer now. All right, the Detroit Pistons. We start in the East. Now they're not contending for a title this season, but they are better than they were last season. In fact, they won, as you called out in your article, as many games as they won all last season. That's always a good place to be if you're a franchise. So what's going right in Detroit this season?

[00:02:09] They're not going to be a franchise.

[00:02:21] Mike Beasley. Mike Beasley is shooting 42% from three. He's a tremendous shooter. He's averaging over 16 a game. So they took those guys who've been experienced. They're not stars, but they're good players, good role players, and they mixed them. And what they're getting is a tremendous improvement.

[00:02:41] Kate Cunningham, who was the number one pick a couple years ago, he is close to being an all-star, if he's not an all-star. He's averaging 24 a game, nine, almost 10 assists a game.

[00:02:55] Think about it. You're getting a heck of a lot out of him, and he's displayed an ability to make a big shot down the stretch. So they're putting some ingredients together. Is it going to be a title in a year or two? No.

[00:03:11] But they will continue to improve. And more importantly, they're fun to watch because they play hard. They don't quit.

[00:03:18] The other thing that Bickerstaff has done, he's got guys like Marcus Sasser, Osana Thompson, and Ron Holland, and people like that. Blue, he'll use off the bench. And they're like dogs. They play hard. They really play hard. They defend and they work. And it makes another team work for whatever they're doing.

[00:03:40] Now, a week or two ago, they blew out the Knicks in the garden. So you can see there's something there. I think they've just beat the Lakers a couple days ago. And the other night, they beat Sacramento, which led to the firing of Mike Brown. There's a whole bunch of things going on, but it's all positive. And if you tune into it, it's fun. It's fun because they play hard.

[00:04:05] Yeah. And at the end of the day, that's what you want for your team. If you're a fan, you just want them to compete every night. If you're being honest, you don't want to win 82 in a row. You just want them to play hard.

[00:04:14] And we're seeing that on teams like Detroit, on teams like Orlando that you called out, and a handful of others. But Cade Cunningham, that big shout out, he is in that cool trajectory where every year he's gotten a little bit better points-wise.

[00:04:27] 17 to 19 to 22, this season to 24, assists 5 to 6 to 7 to 9.7. He's on that right trajectory every year. He's getting better. And that's what you want for players like that.

[00:04:41] Now, great segue. Usually I have to find a way to transition. You handed this one to me. You called out the Kings. You wrote about the Kings. And this is exactly what you wrote.

[00:04:52] There will be a shakeup before the trade deadline. Now, you had written this before what you just called out happened.

[00:04:59] The very next day, after your article, the Kings fired coach Mike Brown. A lot of people say the writing was on the wall.

[00:05:05] But I didn't see that kind of shakeup coming. But you called it. Now, I got to ask you straight up. Was he the problem in Sacramento?

[00:05:12] No. God, no. This was your typical, how can I say, management decision. And we're going to talk about Rob Polinka.

[00:05:22] We can almost relate the two of them. If the team's not winning and you're the general manager who hired the coach or was part of the hiring of the coach, you got two choices.

[00:05:34] Take the blame or point at somebody else. He pointed at somebody else. That's Monty McNair.

[00:05:42] But also Vivek Rendive, the owner, has been known to fire coaches. He's gone through a bunch of coaches over the last.

[00:05:49] And Sacramento is considered a dump, to be honest, as a franchise because of ownership.

[00:05:55] And when you study basketball, and if you really get into it, you realize that the ownership is the key to a team.

[00:06:03] They're a disaster. Taking Mike Brown out because Mike Brown had the nerve.

[00:06:07] And I think the fear is the Aaron Fox will not stay with them.

[00:06:10] And Mike Brown shingled him out for the foul on Javen Ivey at the end of the Pisting game.

[00:06:17] He gave up a three plus the foul, and they lost by a point on that play where Brown was telling his team just to foul and give up the two shots as opposed to that.

[00:06:27] And obviously, the Aaron Fox didn't listen.

[00:06:30] But the Aaron Fox is talking about moving on because he doesn't feel they're winning enough for him.

[00:06:38] Brown called him out in the press conference.

[00:06:41] And then also, I think they had a conversation there in practice that wasn't great.

[00:06:46] They want to keep Aaron, the Aaron Fox, because players win and he's a good player.

[00:06:51] So, what do you do?

[00:06:54] You get rid of the coach.

[00:06:55] That's the obvious thing.

[00:06:57] It helps Monty McNair because he buys another year or two or three or whatever.

[00:07:01] It helps the Aaron Fox.

[00:07:03] Maybe he'll resign.

[00:07:04] So, everything works out in that way.

[00:07:07] But what it does and what these people don't understand because you're so worried about their own survival,

[00:07:12] what it does is who the hell wants to go there?

[00:07:15] Who wants to work in a situation like that as a coach?

[00:07:19] Yeah.

[00:07:19] Now, they made Doug Christie the coach.

[00:07:22] And I think there's a lot of support for him within the team that they'll keep him.

[00:07:26] However, if they want to go out and get a coach, are they going to get one of the better names?

[00:07:33] No, they're not.

[00:07:34] And this is what I don't think Sacramento understands.

[00:07:38] And the last thing on that, in a lot of sports, ownership, they put a lot of money up.

[00:07:45] They have a right, but they want to run the team.

[00:07:48] And sometimes, you know what?

[00:07:50] If you spend your life making money on one thing, maybe you've got to keep quiet and let the people that know a little bit about it make the decisions.

[00:07:57] If they do a poor job, you get rid of them.

[00:08:00] But you don't try to make the decisions.

[00:08:04] And let me just go back to something.

[00:08:06] They brought in this year, they brought in another player from the Bulls.

[00:08:10] And what happened there?

[00:08:12] What happened?

[00:08:13] He's a scorer.

[00:08:14] But he wasn't.

[00:08:16] DeRozan was not the right answer.

[00:08:18] They need defense.

[00:08:20] Mike Brown is a defensive coach.

[00:08:22] Did they give him defensive players?

[00:08:25] No, they did not.

[00:08:27] De'Aaron Fox is not a good defender.

[00:08:29] Sabonis is a four playing the five.

[00:08:32] So what are they doing here in the hour?

[00:08:36] DeRozan hasn't guarded anybody in a couple of years.

[00:08:38] So what are you doing?

[00:08:40] And then the rest of the guys, Kevin Hurdham, they're not known for the defense.

[00:08:44] So what are you doing?

[00:08:45] And what are you trying to do?

[00:08:47] You've got a coach who believes in this and you're not doing it.

[00:08:50] So it's a disjointed, dysfunctional organization.

[00:08:54] And this is what ends up happening.

[00:08:57] Sad.

[00:08:58] We went from talking about a GM that's having some success in Detroit to this dysfunctional issue happening in Sacramento.

[00:09:06] Mike Brown led a team that was floundering.

[00:09:10] Hadn't had a winning season since 2005.

[00:09:13] Led them to the playoffs.

[00:09:14] And was winning, right?

[00:09:16] But a rough start out the gate and it cost him.

[00:09:20] And some NBA coaches have come to his defense, most notably Michael Malone, and called him out.

[00:09:26] No class, no balls.

[00:09:27] It is what he said.

[00:09:29] For Mike Brown, though, the positive, they owe him $30 million.

[00:09:34] He and his family will have a nice life.

[00:09:36] And I think he'll be back coaching with Golden State soon.

[00:09:40] Harrell will bring him back in a minute.

[00:09:42] No doubt.

[00:09:43] No doubt.

[00:09:43] I think these will be fine.

[00:09:44] Yeah.

[00:09:45] And he might get hired again because he did a great job in the first year or two with that team.

[00:09:49] I don't doubt it.

[00:09:50] But you never know.

[00:09:52] There's always a new flavor.

[00:09:53] And Brown's getting a little older.

[00:09:55] And the NBA likes to hire young coaches now.

[00:09:58] So you hope so, but you never know.

[00:10:02] Talking about young team, let's talk about a team that surprisingly is playing really good basketball despite losing their two best scores.

[00:10:11] Again, you call this out in your article.

[00:10:13] You take two best scores away from any team and that team's going to flounder.

[00:10:16] They're just going to tank.

[00:10:17] But the Magic decided to focus on defense in their absence.

[00:10:21] And you called them a fun team to watch.

[00:10:23] What is the ceiling for the Magic this season?

[00:10:26] What do you think?

[00:10:27] If they get the two back, which they should, and they play and do what they do, I think getting to the second round will be good.

[00:10:36] But it won't be easy because you've got a bunch of good teams in the East.

[00:10:41] Yeah.

[00:10:41] Upper level, not in depth.

[00:10:43] But I think in a year, they're going to do a lot better.

[00:10:47] In other words, they're on the rise.

[00:10:49] And they will do better.

[00:10:50] This year, getting to the second round will be good.

[00:10:53] Let me just say something.

[00:10:54] When you watch them play, what they do real well is they turn the game to mud, meaning it's a slog for the other team.

[00:11:02] And it makes it very difficult.

[00:11:04] Jalen Suggs is one of the best defenders in the game.

[00:11:07] Great on-the-ball defender.

[00:11:09] So these people, led by him, they've got a bunch of guys.

[00:11:13] Rookie DeSilva can play a little bit.

[00:11:16] He's not great, but he can play.

[00:11:17] And the big thing is they've got Patase, who's their center.

[00:11:23] He's a rim protector.

[00:11:24] He's big, sets great screens, and he does all the little things on the court.

[00:11:29] So they've got enough little pieces to be okay.

[00:11:32] Now, Cole Anthony has been their offense with the other two guys out.

[00:11:37] And when he gets rolling, he can play, but he can't defend.

[00:11:42] So that's the other piece to it.

[00:11:45] One more thing.

[00:11:46] Mo Wagner.

[00:11:47] Franz Wagner's brother.

[00:11:49] He's been out.

[00:11:50] He tore his knee.

[00:11:51] So he was a pretty good bench player.

[00:11:54] So they've really been beat up, but they've been hurt in a lot of ways.

[00:11:58] But if they play that defense the way they play, and Jamal Mosley's doing a tremendous job with that team.

[00:12:03] If they play that and they're all in, they all play together, unlike Sacramento or other teams, they're in it.

[00:12:09] And they play together well.

[00:12:11] Yeah, there's a future here.

[00:12:14] And don't forget, Ben Carroll's in what?

[00:12:17] His second or third.

[00:12:17] What is his second or third?

[00:12:18] And Wagner's only one more year.

[00:12:21] They're not even close to their peak.

[00:12:23] Remember how long it took Tatum and Brown to get where they are.

[00:12:25] Yeah, but just remember how long it took.

[00:12:28] I get it.

[00:12:29] Embiid was right.

[00:12:30] It's a process.

[00:12:31] You got to let it play out.

[00:12:33] This time again, you made my transition really easy.

[00:12:35] Mo Wagner drafted by the Lakers.

[00:12:39] We're going to end with the Los Angeles Lakers.

[00:12:41] Now, in the LeBron James era, the Lakers have been a 500 team.

[00:12:45] You need to look it up.

[00:12:46] The only exception has been that 2019-2020 season where they had a great run in the bubble and won it all.

[00:12:53] Despite that, 500.

[00:12:55] Now, they've had AD in his prime, arguably the best player to play the game of LeBron James alongside with them.

[00:13:02] But they've underwhelmed.

[00:13:03] You can't look at it objectively and deny that.

[00:13:06] They have underwhelmed.

[00:13:07] You place the blame squarely on one person.

[00:13:11] Who and why?

[00:13:13] Rob Polinker.

[00:13:14] Again, let's go back to Sacramento.

[00:13:17] What does a GM do to survive?

[00:13:19] Fire the coach.

[00:13:20] He's fired too.

[00:13:23] At what point is somebody going to sit there, and it doesn't take a genius, but is somebody going to sit there and say,

[00:13:31] I don't know if it's the coach here.

[00:13:33] It's the guy who gets the players.

[00:13:35] Yeah.

[00:13:36] To me, it doesn't seem that difficult to figure out.

[00:13:39] I don't know what maybe Kurt Rambis' wife isn't making the right decisions lately.

[00:13:43] I don't know.

[00:13:44] But I know she's involved in it.

[00:13:46] Maybe they've got the wrong people making these decisions.

[00:13:49] But the Lakers are missing something.

[00:13:50] And the interesting thing is, the Lakers are talking about trading.

[00:13:54] There are three.

[00:13:55] Those are future.

[00:13:57] If I ask you, you're out there.

[00:13:59] How many years do you think LeBron could play, even at this level, more?

[00:14:06] Maybe one on a stretch.

[00:14:08] How many years could Anthony Davis play at this level and not get hurt?

[00:14:13] Zero.

[00:14:14] He'll always get hurt.

[00:14:15] Okay.

[00:14:16] So you're going to trade those draft picks.

[00:14:19] Let's just picture now.

[00:14:20] You have no real draft pick swamps you might have.

[00:14:24] A ton of those.

[00:14:25] Let's picture three years from now.

[00:14:27] Those two are gone.

[00:14:29] Yeah.

[00:14:31] What are the Lakers going to be like last year's Detroit Pistons?

[00:14:37] You're going to sell your soul thinking if you get that one guy this year that all of a sudden you win the championship.

[00:14:46] You're going to do that.

[00:14:50] The rest, the next three, four, five, whatever years, you're going to be a nightmare.

[00:14:56] Is that what you want to do?

[00:14:58] I think Polinka is going to try to save his job.

[00:15:01] He's not worried about five years from now.

[00:15:03] So he'll trade anybody.

[00:15:06] But I think at some point, ownership's got to step in and say, we can't do that.

[00:15:11] We just can't.

[00:15:12] When we brought LeBron in, we traded a bunch of good players like Brandon Ingram.

[00:15:17] What are we doing?

[00:15:18] What are we doing?

[00:15:20] It's funny because right now one of those players who you're talking about is the missing piece, right,

[00:15:24] that they're thinking about bringing in are some of the players that they jettisoned to bring in LeBron.

[00:15:30] B.I., Brandon's going to save everything.

[00:15:32] Jordan Clarkson.

[00:15:33] We're bringing him back.

[00:15:35] Wiles O'Ball.

[00:15:36] Julius Randle.

[00:15:37] They've been talking about bringing all of those guys back at some point or another, which is funny to me.

[00:15:43] Yeah.

[00:15:44] Times are tough.

[00:15:45] And I think being the Los Angeles Lakers, they have always been win now.

[00:15:50] They do not.

[00:15:51] They don't rebuild.

[00:15:53] They reboot.

[00:15:53] That's the way things go here.

[00:15:55] And the tough part about having a GM, that is the problem.

[00:16:00] If Rob Palink is the problem, you need strong leadership at the next level to make that decision and say you're out.

[00:16:07] And I'm not sure the Lakers have that.

[00:16:09] When you think about this, and we can use Miami as a perfect example, Spolster will be there until he quits.

[00:16:16] Right.

[00:16:18] Right.

[00:16:18] Him and Riley are in the same.

[00:16:19] And Andy Ellensberg, who's the GM, they're all in this place.

[00:16:24] They know what kind of players Spolster needs, and they try to get him those players.

[00:16:30] Boston.

[00:16:33] Brad Stevens knows what Missoula likes, three-point shooting and defense.

[00:16:38] He's trying to get those players.

[00:16:40] Yeah.

[00:16:41] When you have a situation, Sacramento, the Lakers, where you don't have get the players that the coach wants best, you get dysfunction and you get a mess.

[00:16:54] And what ultimately happens, like with the Lakers or Sacramento or any of these teams, they will go out, not get the player that fits.

[00:17:04] They'll get the biggest name they can get.

[00:17:06] Sure.

[00:17:06] And sometimes that big name doesn't fit with the philosophy of the coach.

[00:17:11] And that's something that people need to understand.

[00:17:15] And also they need ownership that gives people a decent amount of time to figure it all out.

[00:17:23] Right.

[00:17:23] And make sure they're all working in the same place.

[00:17:27] And time will tell if that kind of ownership exists in Los Angeles because it's time to make a decision.

[00:17:35] But that's it.

[00:17:36] You heard our buzzer go off.

[00:17:37] Time is up.

[00:17:38] We talked over it like we do from time to time.

[00:17:40] But thanks, as always, for listening.

[00:17:42] Make sure to read Steve's entire 13 Rules Random NBA Thoughts article.

[00:17:45] We'll link that below to get more random thoughts after week 10 of the 2024-25 NBA season.

[00:17:52] And please consider subscribing, liking, commenting, sharing.

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[00:17:57] And we appreciate every one of them.

[00:18:00] Join us next week on the Shot Clock Pod, the best 15 minutes of NBA Random Thoughts online anywhere.

[00:18:05] Steve will talk then.

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