The Shot Clock Pod Week 5

[00:00:04] Alright, it's time to talk basketball. Week number five of the NBA season is over, so we're back to talk about it. 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, the best 15 minutes of NBA Random Thoughts online. 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.

[00:00:34] Articles, which he publishes weekly. Steve and I have exactly 15 minutes, give or take, 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 what he saw in week five of the NBA season. Steve, are you ready? Alright, I'm gonna start the timer now. In what was easily the most anticipated game of week five, the Cavaliers 15-0.

[00:01:04] Cavaliers traveled to Boston, where they lost to the Celtics to snap that 15-game winning streak. But you saw a silver lining for the Cavs. You wrote about it. What was that silver lining?

[00:01:14] A couple things. First of all, they only lost by three points or so. And that's good. But more importantly, they came back from 20 points down, 21 points down. And they could have thrown in the towel. By coming back like that and cutting the lead a couple times to two tells you that they're real. And they're legit. And that's a big thing for them.

[00:01:35] If you analyze the game, I know Boston will get Porzingis back. And Cleveland will get a few players. But in thinking about that, if they do meet up in the series and the playoffs, and right now it's heading that way.

[00:01:51] But if they do meet up in that, the home court is going to be very important. Because I think Boston won because they're home. Next week, I believe they'll go to Cleveland. That is going to be a good indicator on who's good. If Boston beats them there, then I would say Boston's in good shape.

[00:02:08] If Cleveland holds and wins, then it gets very interesting. It tells you that these two teams are pretty close together. That game is important. But more important, too, for the Cleveland players, yeah, they were 15-0. They did beat the Knicks. They haven't had a lot of signature wins.

[00:02:26] This game against Boston was going to say to the NBA world, they are real. If Boston would have continued beating them by 20, everybody would have said, ah, what the heck. They haven't played anybody. They're just a mediocre team.

[00:02:43] And there's one more piece to it that I keep thinking back to. I believe Evan Mobley's a stud. Last year when they played Boston in the playoffs, Mitchell, everybody was hurt, so they didn't have much.

[00:02:56] They didn't use Mobley exclusively. And he scored. And I think that opened up a world to him where he realizes he can play both ends. He is a great defensive player. But now, on offense, all of a sudden, he's good.

[00:03:12] And he can score. And he's moved himself out to shoot the three. He's shooting more at a slightly higher percent. He's shooting more threes.

[00:03:21] So, the other night, he stuck one against Boston. Tells you something else, because you've got two great guards. You've got Garland, who had a horrible night the other night, and Mitchell, who's great.

[00:03:34] When you can bring him outside, he can make that three. You're opening up lanes for those two. And that just makes the team better. And that's what he's been able to do, as well as always being a good rim protector.

[00:03:50] Yeah, it's been a breakout season for Mobley. And NBA fans, mark your calendar December 1st. The Celtics travel to Cleveland. We'll find out a little bit more about the Cavaliers in that game, no doubt.

[00:04:03] Let's move to the West now. You wrote some positive things about the Houston Rockets. They look great, but I've got to ask you flat out, do you think they're a real contender in the West?

[00:04:12] I think to ascend, to become a champion, you need to get beat once or twice in the playoffs. I think they could end up a top seed like, okay, she was last year. We saw what happened to them.

[00:04:24] But I think they are on the right track, and they're very close. And give them a year or two or three. Don't forget, their two best players are young, very young.

[00:04:33] So just like Tatum and Brown, Warren, they went through a lot of rough times before they won it. I think they will, but they've got so many good things. They got those two. They got Jabari Smith. They've got Van Vliet.

[00:04:47] Dylan Brooks. Yeah, Dylan Brooks. Tariq Eshin's another good player. So they've got a bunch of decent players around Shingun, Shingun, and Green. So they're legit. They're young. They're coming together. And M.A.'s a very good coach, as he proved with Boston. And they're pretty good defensives to him.

[00:05:08] So they've gotten all the ingredients that are there. And by the way, when I talk about Shingun, part of his progression to becoming as good a player as he is, an all-star, I would think, but is the fact that his rebounds have gone up into double figures, I believe.

[00:05:26] What they say, though, that tells me that I think Emei's getting to him to play the defensive end. If he's doing, that's a big thing.

[00:05:35] And by the way, Jalen Green, offensively, is some kind of player. And he scores in bunches. Fun to watch. He makes some tough shots. And he's got courage where he doesn't care. He'll take a shot from anywhere. All these ingredients, when you put them all together, this is a team that's coming on. Who knows? But I think they're on their way.

[00:05:58] Yeah. Shingun, every year, has improved his total rebounds. 5.5. Rookie, 9.0, 9.3, 10.9 now. So to me, yeah, they give off Oklahoma City Thunder vibes, right? That's the trajectory I see for them, which I guess it's exciting to see. We need a good team in Houston, and I think we have one now.

[00:06:21] Let's shift to the East. Same question, right? The Orlando Magic, a very good team. They lost their best player, but they're still playing phenomenal basketball, powered by Franz Wagner. Wagner, rather. Are the Orlando Magic a real contender in the East?

[00:06:38] The question will be answered when Ben Carroll comes back and how Wagner and Ben Carroll work together. Wagner had it come up big without Ben Carroll, and he did. The other night, that three against the Lakers was really courage to take it.

[00:07:00] That was deep. That was deep.

[00:07:01] Yeah. And just when that's like a number one player on a team has that. I don't care. Let's do it. And he did that.

[00:07:08] Now, how does he and Ben Carroll meld and come together? But they've got some real nice players. I think Suggs is one of the better defensive players in the league, and he's just, he does all the little things that a team needs, like a young Marcus Smart when he was with Boston, but just does so many different things that bring you home and helps.

[00:07:31] Because Wagner's brother, Wagner's brother, Mo is a great role player. Wendell Carter is a nice player. They picked up probably one of the best role players in the NBA, Caldwell Pope, who defends, hits the open three, does all the things you want on a team.

[00:07:48] So they're dangerous. I don't know if I put them with Cleveland and Boston, but they're close. And what's interesting is they have a big game for the cup in the next, I think Tuesday, against the Knicks.

[00:08:01] Both teams are undefeated in their division or whatever it's called. So that game will be interesting and it'll tell you a lot about who's ascending more than the Knicks.

[00:08:16] And by the way, I look at the Knicks, dangerous, probably it might take a year to meld it together, but they're really dangerous and they might need another bench player or two, but they're dangerous and they could easily break up the Boston-Cleveland finals match.

[00:08:37] Wow. Now it's going to encapsulate it, but I think you answered the question. I thought you were leaning on Cavs and the Celtics as the cream of the Eastern crop and then the Knicks and the Magic just a tier below.

[00:08:48] But the Knicks have got a foot in each pond, it sounds like. Could be as good as those top two.

[00:08:54] I'll just say this, and it's going to take time for them to meld.

[00:08:59] If Mitchell Robinson comes back, it gets very interesting because now you've got some protection at the rim.

[00:09:07] And I think Minnesota figured it out when they moved Towns to the floor and got Gobert because he's not a defender.

[00:09:16] And so you put him in a position where he's not protecting the rim and Mitchell Robinson does that.

[00:09:21] And they have plenty of offense, so Mitchell Robinson, though he's challenged offensively, it's not going to make a difference.

[00:09:28] Brunson and Texans are a great one-two combination offensively.

[00:09:33] The only negative that you see with that, it's never great to have two average defenders on the court at the same time.

[00:09:42] And that's why if you look at the Knicks giving up points, I think I made the point a week ago, four out of their five wins were holding a team under 100.

[00:09:54] But in their losses, teams were scoring over 120.

[00:09:57] So you can see the relationship, I guess is the best way to put it, between defense and winning and do they have that and so on.

[00:10:06] Yep.

[00:10:07] December is going to be a great month for basketball fans.

[00:10:09] As we already said, December 1st, we got Boston-Cleveland 2.0.

[00:10:13] December 3rd is when the Magic go to New York to see how legitimate a contender they are in the East.

[00:10:21] That's going to be a great start to the month.

[00:10:22] We'll finish up back in the West with the Los Angeles Clippers.

[00:10:27] You wrote some positive things about the Clippers.

[00:10:30] They gained a new arena this season in the Intuit Dome, but plus the superstar so far, no Kawhi Leonard.

[00:10:36] But some things have gone right.

[00:10:37] The Clippers are looking okay.

[00:10:39] What's your evaluation of the LA Clippers so far?

[00:10:42] I think no one expected them to be either 500.

[00:10:49] So the fact is they've gotten some good play out of Norman Powell.

[00:10:55] He's scoring to 10 points more than he did last year.

[00:10:58] I won't doubt.

[00:10:59] And he's legit.

[00:11:00] He's an offensive player and a very good offensive player.

[00:11:03] But also, James Harden, he'll never be what he was five or six years ago with Houston.

[00:11:10] He's getting to that point where he can orchestrate.

[00:11:14] And now you have a nice one-two combination.

[00:11:17] Kawhi naturally hasn't played yet.

[00:11:18] So if you put them two together, I think they can hold to be 500.

[00:11:23] Plus, again, contributions from guys like Zubats, who's a good big play.

[00:11:28] So they could be above 500 and maybe like a seven or eight in the thing.

[00:11:35] And that's pretty good considering.

[00:11:36] What's interesting is with Steve Ballmer, the owner, there's no such thing as rebuilding.

[00:11:41] He's just, he's looking.

[00:11:43] So are they going to take some of their next, their future picks?

[00:11:48] They don't have a lot.

[00:11:49] But are they going to try to get the one player that can push them a little bit more?

[00:11:53] Now, the negative on that is, obviously, you might be giving a white top draft pick because

[00:11:59] the Clippers don't seem to have a great future.

[00:12:04] Yeah.

[00:12:05] The consensus here, for those that aren't aware, Steve's East Coast, I'm West Coast.

[00:12:10] The consensus here is that the Clippers need a reboot.

[00:12:14] And that's going to take, to your point, Ballmer realizing that and say, listen,

[00:12:19] I would rather suffer through a couple of down years like Oklahoma City did before they got to

[00:12:24] where they are, like Houston did before they got to where they are, and come back with a group of

[00:12:28] youngsters that can really ball.

[00:12:30] But yeah, it's going to, that's the consensus here.

[00:12:32] That's what we want.

[00:12:33] I think the negative is that he's got a new arena.

[00:12:37] Now, I know he, the money he paid for the arena, that's nothing.

[00:12:42] Yeah.

[00:12:43] But he's got a new arena.

[00:12:44] He wants people in there.

[00:12:46] Oklahoma City got a basketball franchise.

[00:12:50] And everybody was a lady because that's all they have there in the professional realm.

[00:12:54] So they went to games and they supported them.

[00:12:57] Right.

[00:12:58] That way he's got that other team.

[00:12:59] I can't remember the name, but they've got the other team.

[00:13:02] And so there's two teams.

[00:13:04] The other team's got all the tradition and all.

[00:13:06] Yeah.

[00:13:07] So if he were to step back and say, okay, we've got to rebuild it.

[00:13:11] You don't know how well that'll go.

[00:13:14] You see the Lakers who are an outside contender, very far outside, but an outside contender.

[00:13:22] They are not rebuilding.

[00:13:25] They are trying to win with whatever it is they have.

[00:13:29] Right.

[00:13:30] That's the way it is when you have two teams in the same town.

[00:13:34] Yeah.

[00:13:35] Yeah.

[00:13:36] No, it's a tough decision.

[00:13:38] And you and I have talked about it on this show in the past.

[00:13:41] The toughest thing for a general manager to do is to decide when to let go of a player.

[00:13:45] Right.

[00:13:45] You'd rather let go too early than too late.

[00:13:47] And I think the biggest decision for Bomber now is that, but at a bigger scale.

[00:13:53] Right.

[00:13:53] Do I run with this or do we push the reset button?

[00:13:57] Norman Powell, you called it out.

[00:13:58] 13.9 points last season.

[00:14:01] 23.3 this season.

[00:14:03] Monumental step forward for Norman Powell.

[00:14:06] Now, this has never, ever happened in the history of the Shot Clock Pod, 13 Rules NBA,

[00:14:11] Random Thoughts podcast.

[00:14:12] But we are done.

[00:14:14] We got 30 seconds to spare.

[00:14:15] So we're going to do some extra credit conversation here.

[00:14:20] Unscripted.

[00:14:21] Give me, if you can, in 20 seconds, which is unlikely, but give me in 20 seconds why Steve

[00:14:29] Kerr is the guy who revitalized the Golden State Warriors.

[00:14:34] What's he doing different?

[00:14:34] He hit on something interesting.

[00:14:36] He's using 12 guys every night.

[00:14:39] And what he's doing is they're going full throttle for a couple of minutes and then pulling

[00:14:43] him.

[00:14:43] And he's working out around Draymond and Curry, who are very good players.

[00:14:49] Obviously, both are Hall of Famers, future Hall of Famers.

[00:14:52] But by doing that, they're giving everything they got.

[00:14:55] And then he's picked up guys like Buddy Heald, who really, last year, he was a bench player

[00:15:00] for Philly.

[00:15:01] Yeah.

[00:15:01] Well done.

[00:15:02] He's killing it.

[00:15:03] He is filled in for Klay Thompson and probably offensively playing better than Klay Thompson

[00:15:09] did last year.

[00:15:10] So they've put in the pieces and got guys going hard for a couple of minutes.

[00:15:15] What I found interesting on that was it's interesting how he was able to use, I understand Olympics

[00:15:21] were a little different than the 40 minutes compared to 48 in the NBA.

[00:15:25] But he found a way to get 12 guys in every game.

[00:15:28] But in the Olympics, he had a trouble.

[00:15:30] He couldn't go above 10.

[00:15:31] He said he couldn't find time for all those guys.

[00:15:34] So I struggle with that one.

[00:15:36] But I think he's done a great job.

[00:15:37] And they run an offense.

[00:15:39] And by the way, Cleveland runs a similar offense because Atkinson coached with Cubs.

[00:15:43] But there's a lot of movement.

[00:15:45] And Curry's ability to get himself open, because he's always moving, makes the offense so much

[00:15:50] better.

[00:15:51] And this team looks for Curry at all times.

[00:15:54] Right.

[00:15:55] As they should.

[00:15:56] Interesting comparison.

[00:15:57] Klay, 13.1 points.

[00:16:00] Buddy Heald, 16.2.

[00:16:02] Klay, 35.9 from deep.

[00:16:05] Buddy Heald, 44.2.

[00:16:09] So you're...

[00:16:09] Take a look.

[00:16:10] Buddy Heald is having a great season.

[00:16:11] Let me answer them.

[00:16:12] Take a look at last night and see what Klay shot from the floor when Dallas beat Denver.

[00:16:20] In Denver.

[00:16:22] Just take a look at that.

[00:16:23] That's going to astound you.

[00:16:28] This is where we need elevator music as I pull that up.

[00:16:31] I don't have a game.

[00:16:33] It's a very interesting start.

[00:16:35] And don't forget, I believe Luke is out too.

[00:16:39] But...

[00:16:40] All right.

[00:16:40] What am I looking...

[00:16:41] I got the game up.

[00:16:42] What am I looking for?

[00:16:42] Klay's threes.

[00:16:43] What do you shoot from threes?

[00:16:45] Klay overall shot...

[00:16:47] Oh, wow.

[00:16:48] 0 for 4.

[00:16:49] 0 for 8.

[00:16:50] Wow.

[00:16:50] He scored...

[00:16:51] He had no points.

[00:16:52] That's right.

[00:16:52] In 23 minutes.

[00:16:55] And he can't defend like he used to.

[00:16:58] So, my point being...

[00:17:00] For...

[00:17:01] The big thing with Dallas, by the way, is Kyrie Irving.

[00:17:04] And that's another topic for another day.

[00:17:06] But the big thing here is Klay...

[00:17:09] Golden State was onto something.

[00:17:11] They did offer him money more than what he got from Dallas, but they were onto something.

[00:17:15] And they moved along from him.

[00:17:18] Wow.

[00:17:19] Okay.

[00:17:20] I was shocked.

[00:17:21] I didn't know what I was going to see because I did not watch the game.

[00:17:23] I watched the highlights.

[00:17:24] And shocking to me that Dallas still won that game, which is unbelievable.

[00:17:28] But that's it.

[00:17:29] Time's up.

[00:17:29] You heard our buzzer.

[00:17:30] We gave you a little extra.

[00:17:32] So, I hope you stuck around and enjoyed that.

[00:17:35] Let's call it 13 rules overtime.

[00:17:37] Make sure to read Steve's entire 13 rules random NBA thoughts article.

[00:17:40] We'll make sure to link that below to get more random thoughts after week five of the 2024-25 NBA season.

[00:17:46] Please consider subscribing, liking, sharing.

[00:17:49] All that stuff matters to us.

[00:17:51] We appreciate it.

[00:17:52] And join us next week on the Shot Clock Pod.

[00:17:55] The best 15 minutes of random NBA thoughts online anywhere.

[00:17:59] Steve, thanks.

[00:18:00] We'll talk next week.

[00:18:01] See you.