The Shot Clock Pod - Week #16

[00:00:00] Alright, it's time to talk basketball. I'm Jose Solviati, editor at ThePeachBasket.net. He's Steve Priscilla, a long-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, bar none. 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 the flurry of trades this year, specifically on how select teams did. This was probably, without argument, the wildest NBA trade deadline ever. So there's a lot to talk about. And we're going to do something a little different this time. Instead of taking select quotes or random thoughts,

[00:00:57] and discuss them, we're going to share everything that Steve shared in his article and talk it through. There's probably about eight teams or so. We're going to talk about each one. So this will be interesting. Steve, are you ready? Ready. Let's do it. We'll start the clock. And we're off. All right. We're going to start with the Los Angeles Lakers. Steve has a soft spot in his heart for the LA Purple and Gold.

[00:01:25] The Lakers were handed Luka. There's a lot of controversy about how that came to be. The Mavericks wanted AD, so they went to the Lakers directly, didn't give anybody else a shot at it. And the Lakers did what anybody would do. They pulled the trigger. But this is what we're going to lean in on. You said the Luka trade was a no-brainer, but the sleeper was Mark Williams. Now, this is before recent news, right?

[00:01:50] You said this. If he stays healthy, the Lakers have a rim protector, which they need because they have weak defenders. We know now that the Mark Williams trade was rescinded. What does that do? If the Lakers were getting an A, I assume based on what you wrote, you were high on these trades. They got an A. What's this look like now once the dust has settled? They're going to go out in the first or second round of the playoffs. They just don't have any size.

[00:02:15] Jackson Hayes is the only big man they really have. Maybe they'll be asking LeBron to handle that. I don't quite know. And with Luka, you've got many years of being good. So I guess you're going to try to go as far as you can, enjoy the year, and go out. The shame of it is LeBron will be a year older next year. But that would be the problem.

[00:02:36] And I think what I'm surprised about, and Palenka went from being a genius getting Luka to now being a Paluka because he got this guy that can't play. Williams is a good player if he's healthy. If you look, his numbers are like nice. You know, double figures and points and usually eight to ten rebounds. Those are great numbers. And also he takes up the middle as a rim protector, which every team needs.

[00:03:04] The Lakers don't have that. So you can't go far against a bigger, you know, and I'm going to use Dallas. Dallas is going to have Davis and Wively or Gafford. Yeah. So with those guys, how the heck would the Lakers match up with them? And LeBron, we're trying to put LeBron guarding them. He's going to get beat up. He ain't going to be able to handle a long season. It's just, it killed them. It killed them losing Mark Williams for now, but they'll be back.

[00:03:34] Agreed. I think this is devastating for this season. We've got to move on. We've got lots more to talk about, but I'm enjoying Palenka to Paluka. I think that's got legs. That's a hashtag waiting to be utilized. I like it. You brought up the Dallas Mavericks. That's one of several teams in the West that have got great centers. Now, great centers. They've got good centers. They're big where the Lakers are not.

[00:03:56] Now, when you heard about the Mavericks trading Luka, you hearkened back to Peggy Lee, a song that we linked in his article. Make sure to listen to it. Is that all there is? So let's talk about it. You talked about the makeup of the Mavericks and I agree. I think this season they're good. You called out in your article, it's got to happen soon because AD and Kyrie are old, but they look good. I think they've got a good team this season, but let's go back to the trade.

[00:04:26] What was your thought? Obviously you were like, is that all there is? Is collusion in play here? Do you think the NBA is rigged? What do you think happened? I'm not a big conspiracy theorist, so let's put that aside. I think what happened is Dallas got tired of Luka. I don't know what he's like as a person, but I think they got tired of his conditioning and all those things. And I think they also saw something in the playoffs last year.

[00:04:53] Boston went at him every game and they warmed down to the point where in game five, he didn't really, by the second half, he wasn't interested anymore. And they saw that. And I think the thought being that you can't win the whole thing with a guy like that with defensively and all the other things that go with it. And Boston just went at him and Kyrie continuously.

[00:05:17] So they realized something had to happen and they didn't want to pay him all that money that he would have gotten if they kept him. Now, he upset the whole, because he's one of the most entertaining players in the game. So he kept the market. But I think all those factors and nobody wanted to pay that money linked into a problem. And that's why they dumped him. That's the only thing I can think of.

[00:05:45] Now, when you take Anthony Davis and put him on Dallas, I believe they're the second best team in the West now. And they will do okay. Because they've got a lot of good defenders. Kyrie's not. But the rest of that, and he, you know what? And I watched a couple yesterday and so on. He's trying defensively. He's not like he used to be with just letting people go. They've got some, they're huge. They're physical. They're going to be a problem. They finally put, and one last thing the Lakers messed up on.

[00:06:16] Anthony Davis is playing at the right position now. He's a four. Right. Yeah. And that changes everything because now you've got a five that's huge also. I would have changed the whole thing. And the NBA trend is now becoming playing two bigs at the same time. Because they're so big and physical that they're just taking teams out of it. So I think Dallas has made themselves better for the short term. But in the long term, no. Obviously.

[00:06:44] Because Luka will be scoring in five years. And Anthony Davis will be home. Right. Let's see. You're on a roll. Palooka. The Mavs is the second best team in the West. That's a high ceiling. But we'll leave it. We'll leave it. We've got no time to dive into it. But I appreciate that. And I think all of Dallas appreciates it. And it'll be good for Dallas. Let's see how things play out. Let's move to Golden State. Another one of the big trades. All right. They got Jimmy Butler. Jimmy's excited.

[00:07:12] You call that some interesting things. Number one, they're super old. Right. Steph is soon to be 37. Jimmy Butler is 35. Outside of LeBron James, not many players get better at state age. What do you think the Warriors ceiling is realistically? I think they're going to be a play-in team. That's me setting 7 to 10. I think, you know, if you look at Curry's numbers this year, they're down in minutes, down in points. And that's natural. He's 37 years old. Great shape, but 37 years old.

[00:07:41] Only LeBron does his stays and keeps playing. And even LeBron's got some warts right now in his game. Jimmy Butler's going to be, what, 34, 30, whatever. He's no kid. Just don't. I think they're going to be okay. But I don't see them being real good. And when I think about that, I think about Boston in 2008. 2008, they won the championship. 2009, Garnett got hurt. 2010, they went back and lost a tough final, game seven.

[00:08:12] 2011, they took Miami to a game seven and they lost. And then it went down. 2012, they got beat by the Knicks in the first round. As those Pierce and Garnett aged, they lost there. And you just can't. Father time always wins, except for LeBron. But he's almost undefeated. So I just don't see that. And we're not even talking about Jimmy Butler. He uses more vacation days than anybody. So he's always out.

[00:08:42] So you got a problem there. And then Steph Curry, he gets hurt a lot more now than he used to. So if that happens, that'll just triple the whole thing. Yeah, it's a house of cards in Golden State. But at least there's excitement back in the Bay. So we'll see how long it lasts. Phoenix Suns, this is what you said. And it encapsulates it perfectly. What a mess. Yeah. And there's no other way to say it. There's words. There's reports coming out now that the locker room is toxic. They did not get rid of Kevin Durant.

[00:09:12] But they were wanting to. They were pushing Bradley Beal to waive his no trade clause. It's a mess. And you said, and you've said it on the show before, it's time for their ispia to let his basketball team, basketball people run the team. You think there's a way out for Phoenix? First of all, what do you think Frank Vogel's thinking right now? He's probably the happiest guy in the world. He's laying on somewhere and on an island somewhere just laughing while his check comes in every couple of weeks.

[00:09:39] The only way out right now, they're not good enough and they're only going to get worse. Booker's a keeper. But you've got to think about getting rid of Durant and trying to, they've traded draft picks. They've traded everything. The only way you can get it moving in a better direction is get some draft picks for Durant and maybe a player or two. And then try to push it forward and find out where Brad Beal wants to go and trade him there.

[00:10:05] You know, but I don't think many teams want Beal. That's the worst contract in the game. Yeah. So I think that's it. And you said about ispia. It's funny. These people made a lot of money, these owners. So I guess that makes them think that they can't, they know more than everybody else, which is fine. They probably do. But he came into the NBA. He had basketball people, but he wanted Durant and he wanted, the first thing he did was get

[00:10:34] Durant and then he got Beal. You know, I'm sitting on my couch and I could tell you that Beal, you know, he's not what he was. And like, what do you do? And then you've got a no train on his contract and you got years to pay him. What are we doing here? And what he's got to sit and realize is, okay, I made money in mortgages. However, I'm hiring people. They make these decisions. They're probably smarter than me when it comes to basketball.

[00:11:03] And if those aren't the right people, go get another guy to run the show. But I think it's June Jones is the president of the team. But you've got to figure that out and you got to back off. You know, and then, you know, ownership should be, again, like Boston's ownership. They're good at accepting the trophy when they win, but they don't really get involved too much. And that's, that's good ownership. Yeah. Yeah. Unfortunate how things are playing out in Phoenix.

[00:11:32] Let's hope for a turnaround. Let's talk about a team that seems to be doing things right. And that's the San Antonio Spurs. They, uh, they won the lottery. They got Victor and now they're building around them. Uh, first piece of that is De'Aaron Fox. You called him out, certainly in Stefan Castle. This team's looking good. They have a bunch of draft picks still.

[00:11:54] They are set up that I can foresee in two, three years, them and Oklahoma City will be in some battles. Now that's saying with the money, everything, they keep people and they don't lose guys contract wise at all. So, but they are, Castle's just going to get better. In fact, the other night he had 35, which means he's starting to learn how to get better as a shooter, which I thought was negative in him.

[00:12:21] Wemby defensively covers up all the holes you got and he can play and they're going to slowly figure De'Aaron Fox is fast and he goes up and down. He can play a little bit, not a great defender, decent, but they're there and they've got some nice pieces around them. Those pieces are going to get better with the draft picks. So they're just their future. And Wemby, he's just scratching the surface. That's what's scary. He could be the greatest player to ever play the game on his own. That's wild.

[00:12:51] That's wild. Let's bookmark that, but I would have to agree. Quickly now, we're running out of time. We're going to encapsulate the next two into the same bucket because you've said the same thing. Sacramento Kings and Milwaukee Bucks. Kings lost Fox, got Levine. But you saw that as a... Wash. They probably lost. It's a wash. They probably lost a little. Their new coach, Christy, started off 8-2, but now they're back to normal. Back to who they are. They did get Jonas Valanciunas.

[00:13:22] That might help Sabonis. And that's interesting because Sabonis, I always thought, was more of a 4 than a 5. So... True. He's undersized 5. It helped him. And if the Lakers had Valanciunas, we'd be talking about them being the second best team. Yes, indeed. All right. That's how close they are. Milwaukee Bucks, same situation as the Kings, right? They got out from Chris Middleton, Kyle Kuzma, slight improvement. But again, you think it's a bit of a wash. Just not enough for them to move up.

[00:13:50] So let's spend some time talking about the team that moved Jimmy Butler, and that's the Miami Heat. They got Andrew Wiggins. Pretty nice pickup. This is better than you thought they were able to get. Why? And what do you think this does for the Heat? Wiggins is a good player. Don't forget, he was the first pick in the draft. He's a good player. He can do it all. He's supposed to be a great... For a coach, he's just a great person to coach. So he's got all the good characteristics.

[00:14:17] Now, the problem here, Tyler Hero's their alpha, their offensively. Tyler Hero can't bring it every night. Tyler Hero doesn't bring it every night. Maybe he will, okay? I should say instead of can't. But they have no true stars. The NBA is a league of stars. Teams with the stars win. And the Heat on any given night can beat anybody because they've got a bunch of decent to good players.

[00:14:48] But consistently, I don't see it. So I kind of see them as a fifth, fourth place team at best. Yeah. Yeah. But again, came out a lot better than you anticipated because they had literally... Their hands were tied. Everybody knew that we're going to trade the guy. So to get somebody this good is impressive. You might have heard the buzzer. I'm not sure if you did. But we're going to press forward. We got one more team to talk about. And that's the Cleveland Cavaliers.

[00:15:16] Number one in the East are just looking dominant week after week. They picked up a really good player in DeAndre Hunter. 19 points on average. And he's a good player. What does that do to the Cavaliers' chances? It improves him, obviously. Because again, when they lost to Boston the other night, they had trouble shooting. And he could shoot. Problem with him is he's hurt a lot. He's a good player. He's hurt a lot. And that doesn't help them. But it gives them another guy off their bench.

[00:15:45] Again, though, when the playoffs come, you can shorten your bench to seven or eight guys. Cleveland's a bunch of guys that they can utilize off the bench. He's one of many or one of a few. That's the biggest issue for Cleveland. What I see is they've got to convince themselves they can stand up, take a punch from Boston, and punch back. Don't forget, Boston went to Cleveland and beat them.

[00:16:12] In their heads, no matter who's got the home court, Cleveland knows that Boston can go out and beat them. And that's where it almost becomes psychological. But that's what needs to happen here. Yeah, no doubt. Every team goes through a process. Duellen Bede said it famously when he landed in Philadelphia. He's absolutely right. There are steps in this. They're still going through the process. Philadelphia is still in the process. I think they've gone through the process.

[00:16:41] They're on the other end of it, honestly. Well, but they're trying. They're still trying. They're trying, for sure. But the Cavs have got to go through a little bit more, for sure. But yeah, a great pickup for them. I think it's lining up to be a phenomenal layoff season. I'm excited to see it. But that's it. You heard the buzzer go off. Thank you for listening. Make sure to read Steve's entire 13 Rules Random NBA Thoughts article. We'll link it below wherever you are hearing or watching this to get more random thoughts. After week 16 of the 2024-25 NBA season.

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