Westbrook Snubbed From the Top 10, Ballmer's Nuclear Option, and the Real Mount Rushmore of NBA Coaches

Shot Clock Pod 9-13-2026 === Jose: ​[00:00:00] All right, it's time to talk basketball, off-season basketball with the NBA season inching closer. But I'm Jose Salviati, editor at thePeachBasket.net. He is Steve Purciello, host of Celtic Chalk Talk, a longtime educator, vice principal, high school basketball coach, and athletic director. And this is the Shot Clock Pod. The Shot Clock Pod was born out of content in Steve's 13 Rules random NBA thoughts articles, which he publishes weekly. Steve and I have exactly 24 minutes to discuss what's on his mind or on the NBA. Today, we're discussing his latest 13 Rules random NBA thoughts article. Now, before we get into it, we wanna let you know that you are listening to one of several independent fan-driven shows on the Peach Basket Podcast Network of shows. We're not owned by a big media company, which means what you hear comes straight from real fans, unfiltered, who love and live the game every day. If you believe voices like this should be heard, the best way to support us is simple: listen, tell a friend, like, comment, subscribe. All that means the world, and we appreciate all of it. As soon as [00:01:00] this episode ends, head over to the Peach Basket Podcast Network. Head over to thePeachBasket.net. Check out more fan-run podcasts, and help this independent network grow the way it started, organically, one hoops fan at a time. We're glad you're here. Steve, are you ready? Steve: Ready Jose: Let's do it. I'm starting the timer. Boom. Is it going? It's going. All right. So like we said, it's been an interesting off-season. Lots going on. A lot more than normal. NBA regular season is inching closer, but there's still a lot to talk about. Now, you wrote about a couple of different topics. We're gonna take them a little out of order. I wanna start by shining the spotlight on one of the greatest guards in NBA history, and we'll talk about that, too. Russell Westbrook, he retired. We hinted about this last week. I wanna start with... 'Cause you said two interesting things about him. First off you shouted him out. You called out what made him different. I wanna talk about that. What was unique about Russell Westbrook? And then we [00:02:00] gotta talk about his standing as an NBA all-time great. All right? So let's start with the first. What made him unique? Steve: He was just played hard. He just played hard whoever he was with, no matter. Even at the end when he had a minimum contract, y- when he was out there, he just gave everything he had every night. and then you can't forget the MVP. He took a team that was... Durant was gone and Harden and just, put him on his back and had one of the greatest seasons you can, think of. So he was he was a great player. Real- really a great player. And then the thing you can't just forget is the how hard he played every game. You... If you were a fan, you got your money's worth every night Jose: Yeah. And first question comes to mind is, I played a little you played, you coached. Why is playing the game at, at, at 10 out of 10 like Russ did every single game, why is that rare? It seems like it should be something everybody does but it [00:03:00] isn't. Is it too many games? Is it he was just built different? What is it? Steve: First of all, I tried to play, so let's get that straight. I think if you play 82 games, Jose: Sure Steve: the novelty of playing when you go out on the floor... If you and I went out on the floor and we're playing a game, the excitement and all that would be so great. if you're playing 82 games in a season and doing that year after year, playing on Tuesday night in Minnesota, I don't know if that'll Jose: Yeah. Steve: up too well. Jose: Yeah Steve: that would be hard 'cause you see... That's why you see teams that are not very good beat good teams, because they're just not ready to play. It's just not a good night for them. And these guys are NBA players. Even if they're on weaker teams, they're go- they're going to pull it off on a given night. So that, that's part of it. The hardest thing if you're a coach in the NBA, and what Westbrook helps you a ton, the hardest thing is when you're on the road against a [00:04:00] weak team, maybe in a back-to-back, because your players don't wanna play. They're Jose: Yeah. Steve: They're j- and a guy like Westbrook just get everybody, juiced up a little b- enough maybe to get through the night. And so there's so much value in playing hard. And the saddest part about that is I have to go through my memory to think of guys who did this every night, and there's not a lot of them. And I understand it though, because of, the 82 games in a short period of time Jose: Yeah. I can't think of anybody else off the top of my head, but I do think of guys off the bench. A, a guy like Jose Alvarado, right? Who just comes in and he's a fire plug, right? And he just, he's everywhere. But, he plays 15, 20 minutes if, Steve: right Jose: a good night, right? Russ did it for 30-plus minutes every single night, just Steve: Yeah Jose: incredibly unique. That MVP season, and I remember it was special because he was chasing the, triple-double first person to do an a- to average a triple-double over the course of one NBA season [00:05:00] since Oscar. He had 31 points per game, 10.7 rebounds, 10.4 assists, broke the single-season record for 42 triple-doubles that season. Undeniably the Steve: I'm Jose: MVP Steve: shoot from three that year? That year? Jose: Oh, I doubt that it was good, but, Steve: it was higher than, I bet you it was higher than other years Jose: Oh, I see. So le- let me find that while I ask you this question. So incredible career, incredible season, but you said he's not a top 10 all-time NBA great guard, which I found shocking. Tell me the case for keeping him out of the top 10 Steve: I'm gonna give you a list of players and you tell me which ones you'd exclude to get him in. Jose: Okay Steve: is Cousy, Magic, and I don't wanna hear about Cousy 'cause he couldn't do, Jose: Yeah Steve: he against his peers, he was the best. Cousy, Magic, Oscar, Stockton, Curry, Isaiah, [00:06:00] Chris Paul, Steve Nash, Jason Kidd, Walt Frazier, Gary Payton, West, and this one, the last one was 50/50, Tiny Archibald, who led the league in scoring and assists. So you got a lot of guys there, and if you can exclude a couple then I'm in. But I didn't see anybody... and the interesting thing, Cousy, I know people say, "Oh, he played when there were firemen and plumbers." And they also say that for Walt Frazier. Unless you grew up and watched Walt Frazier play, I didn't see much of Cousy, but I saw Walt Frazier play, and Walt Frazier was the heart and soul of the Knicks, though Willis Reed is credited with being it. He was great, and if you don't believe me, go back and look at game seven in 19, what is it, '69 or '70 against the Lakers when he went off for 37 and I don't know, 17 maybe assists. Just a great player. the game Reed walked out there with the bad knee and played. So Jose: I'd [00:07:00] push back a little for sure on, on Tiny Nate, big fan, but I don't know that I'd put him above Russ- Russell Russ- Westbrook. And Gary Payton, The Glove, incredible basketball player. And you gotta, he's head and shoulders above i- in terms of defense above Westbrook. But I think Russ- Westbrook was a better, a better offensive player. I think it's undeniable than GP. I... You could make arguments there, but y- I get your point Steve: I named 13. You just took two off the list. So Jose: oh, I, oh, okay. Oh, Steve: math, that means he's 11th, so he's still not top 10. So you lost Jose: Oh, you threw me a curveball, man. I thought, okay, I didn't do the c- I didn't count, so that's on me. That's on me. One last thing before we move on from Russ. You, yeah, you nailed it. In the era where he played 81 games, that 2016-17 MVP season was his best three-point shooting year. 34% that season. He did shoot a little bit better for the Clippers when he was there but he d- he didn't have [00:08:00] as certainly as big a role Steve: What Jose: for the Clips. And Steve: What was his Jose: his career from three, Steve: Yes Jose: he ended at 31%. Yeah Steve: back in 2016, I don't know this for a fact, but I would think the percentages of top three-point shooters was a lot lower. As Jose: Yeah. Steve: has gone Jose: That makes sense. Sure. Nothing better. Yeah. Steve: 34 is not good, Jose: Yeah Steve: I remember watching him in games though, down the stretch, just hitting threes, unconscious shots and so that's why I thought he shot a little bit better than that Jose: Yeah. Yeah, no, he was amazing. He was special, he was different, and the NBA is gonna miss him. I was surprised that he didn't take, another, deal. I'm sure he could have, but he's got... he, I think he's on, he's doing fashion now and Steve: Yeah Jose: things, so good on Russell Westbrook. We talked about his time with the Clippers. Unfortunately, we have them on our have to talk about [00:09:00] list and I hate doing it. But this, this saga continues. We know about the Clippers. We know about what they have been, accused of doing and it certainly looks they did what they're being accused of, but it looks like there's more coming. And you talked about it. You wrote about it. I'll have people, read the article for more details, but effectively it comes down to this, all right? What's Steve Ballmer gonna do? He has two choices. He can take the L and just go away for a year. But nothing about this guy's personality tells me that's what he's gonna do, and he's certainly got the resources to do more. So the other thing is he could fight the NBA. He could sue the NBA. What... I don't know, man. What do you think's happening? What do you think is gonna come of all of this? Steve: y- first of all, I think Silver, the, the commissioner wants this kind of to just quiet down and move on. Jose: Yeah Steve: if you look at past precedent in, what is it, '99, I guess it was, and 2000, Joe Smith, they signed, Minnesota signed him. They signed him [00:10:00] with a low-level, it might have been minimal contract, minimum contract. And he took it with the promise that they'll negotiate and 'cause they'll have the bird rights, which means you can expand it any way you want, and he'll make more money next year when they do it again, which is illegal. The NBA caught him and hit him with a lot of fines, but also they lost five draft picks. Glen Taylor and Kevin McHale, who was the GM at the time and the president of the operation, they both were suspended. Taylor took his li- lumps, sat out a year, and the team was, and they were on probation, I guess you would say. And after another year or two or three, whatever, got those two draft picks back. Jose: Right Steve: if you're Steve Ballmer, and he's a rich owner, they see the world in a different way. They think they can do anything they want, most people like that. If you're Steve Ballmer, you have to sit there and say, "What benefits my team more? Do I fight this? If I [00:11:00] fight it, the other owners are not gonna be happy because they're gonna be going through a whole lawsuit, a lot of money, and all the garbage that goes with it," and what, some of the things he might have done or said, behind the scenes. So th- he could fight it, but if he fights it he's gon- and he loses, which he probably will, it's the same verdict. If he shuts up, takes his medicine, does good, does all the right things, they might get two of those draft picks back I would think Silver wants it to go away and wants everybody to be happy, and that would be past precedent, give him the picks back. So his choices are simple, but it comes down to this: Is he concerned about himself does he want the Clippers to succeed? To me, and maybe 'cause I'm poor, but to me, there's no choice. You own the team. You just built a beautiful arena. You want people to be in there. Y- you don't want to be a bad guy. [00:12:00] So just take your medicine, go away. You can make your proclamation before you go away, "Look, I was innocent. I, play, play like Jimmy Cagney, "I was framed." But the point being, just move on. Move on and let it settle in a year. People start forgetting it. The Clippers might not be good for a while, but they might get those picks back. And if they're not good, they need those picks Jose: Yeah. All right. So let me, for those that don't know I feel like I've said this enough, but just everybody knows I'm based out of LA, Steve's out of the East Coast. And so th- this hits a little different with me o- only because I'm here and because I covered the Clippers years ago. And I got a soft spot in my heart for this franchise 'cause this is just a woebegone franchise who's just made a ton of mistakes and had a bunch of bad luck. And this is just the latest, big mistake. Couple thoughts. Number one, I don't think the first round draft picks matter to the Clippers that much. I'll tell you why. Number one, [00:13:00] they are a destination. LA is a destination. They can attract free agents, and we've seen that. They have not really emphasized first round draft picks. You can see b- how many they gave away to get Paul George, which is a part of this issue to begin with. I don't think that matters to them. What matters to them and what matters to Steve Ballmer, I think, is the stink of this, that they did something wrong. Ballmer denies doing anything wrong, right? So I think that's what he's going to... If he's gonna sue, he's gonna sue because he's innocent, right? Which is why everybody sues, right? But he's gotta be able to tell that story, and he's gotta be able to be convincing enough to win. Which, I don't know. But I think that's the bigger thing. The $30 million, and you called this out last week, pocket money. Which is shocking to admit, but it is. And I, again, first round the, the, the draft picks, I think pocket money. I don't think they really care 'cause they live in a destination. They can get people [00:14:00] here. So I Steve: could Jose: think more likely, Steve: could I reply to that? Jose: 100% Steve: First of all, draft picks, I understand some teams use draft picks to do things. If you don't have them, you can't trade. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, I Jose: Yeah, that's fair Steve: So no matter if you use them or trade them. Jose: You gotta have 'em. Steve: they're Look at their standing. Where will they be in two or three years? Probably near the bottom. Jose: Yeah Steve: you're gonna, what could be a top pick becomes negligent and that's crazy to me. That, that's crazy. The next thing, free agents. You talk about free agents. right, LA's a great destination. However, who the hell wants to play for a team that's losing? Only the guys, only the players that good or aren't getting big offers, they'll take that money. But if a big name player, if he can make more the same money in a different site that could [00:15:00] win, why would he go to the Clippers? So those things are great arguments, but I don't see them is my Jose: Yeah. No, a, a great counterargument. Yeah. I, what I'm trying to make the case that I think Ballmer suing is more likely than people think. But to your point, that is g- that's gonna ruin his, his relationship. It's already been ruined with the NBA and with the owners and everything. These owners stood up for him. And now they, come to find out that this looks likely, that's already ruined. So it's gonna make it worse. A- and listen, the, the unsung loser in all of this, for lack of a better way of putting it, are the fans. I've talked about them before. Clipper fans are amazing because this has not been a historically great franchise. And so to have fandom for a team that doesn't historically win tells you a lot about the people. These are people that are just, you know, ride or die. They love this team. And there, there are Clipper fans. There's a lot of hate, here in LA, that they don't exist. They [00:16:00] exist, and they're passionate, and they're hurting right now 'cause they haven't heard from the team. They don't know what's happening. And they were excited about this season. They got, high draft pick for the first time in a long time. But I don't know, man, and this all happens and it hurts me to talk about it. But let's keep going, man, 'cause we got more to talk about. What? Steve: talking about draft picks, huh? Jose: Yeah, after saying that they didn't care about draft picks. Steve: anything. Jose: Yeah. No, I caught that. I was hoping that you wouldn't bring it up, but, of course you did, which is fair game. All right. The couple things we got left to talk about and I'm gonna flip the order because you wrote about the Sixers and they're stacked, but they might need a little bit more in the supporting cast role just like Boston built around Tatum and Brown when when Jaylen Brown was there. But I wanna get back to that one because y- you talked about the NBA coaches. And the reason, the greatest NBA coaches of all time, the reason you did this is because, yeah, Phil Jackson's getting a statue in LA, which is [00:17:00] deserved. I think deserved. Does he have one in Chicago? I don't even know Steve: What's the difference? The, whoever wins, he'll go coach. What's the difference? Jose: All right. R- regardless of the, of that comment, you do have Phil Jackson on your greatest Mount Rushmore greatest coaches of all time. And let's talk about that list. So the four that you called out are undeniably phenomenal players, or f- rather coaches. And I don't think any of these guys were phenomenal players coincidentally. But Phil Jackson, Pat Riley, Gregg Popovich, and Red Auerbach. What's interesting to me and you called out each of their, you know, their, the reasons that they belong on Ro- Mount Rushmore, was the order. And this, I'm gonna read what you wrote. "If I were to rank them, I believe Riley is first because of changing his style to get the most out of his players. Then Auerbach for winning eight in a row, then Jackson and then Gregg Popovich." Lists like that are always subjective, but there's only four here, [00:18:00] so we gotta talk about each of these. Why is Riley number one? Let's start there Steve: First of all I I coached basketball, as you said for a long time. and I know high school basketball is not anything like the NBA. I will tell you this: if you run an offense or a defense and you learn and you immerse yourself in it so you know way more than everybody else, you have to teach it you have to work it. Now, in the NBA, naturally you have assistants that can do some of the work. However, what Riley did, if you really think about it, he took the running Lakers let them go because he had a great point guard, and they played around him and they ran and they scored Now, he goes to the Knicks and what he did. all of a sudden realizes, "I don't have enough offense. I have Patrick Ewing, great. got nothing else." [00:19:00] Not nothing outstanding like he did with the Lakers with three stars. So what does he do? He mucks the game up, play great defense and, or when in doubt, throw the ball down and Patrick scores. They came a good John Starks game away from winning a title. That's the second. Then he goes to the... and he's with the Heat, he coaches that. What does he do? He's got Dwayne Wade and I believe Shaq but Shaq was starting to slow down. But what does he do? He figures that one out, comes up with a style that works. Now the ability to do that and continue to be good, to me, stands out. I know there's only five. He only won five. I know Jackson won a lot more, and I know Auerbach w- won a lot more. However, Jackson, let's look at it and I'm going ahead of the pace, but let's look at it. me, Phil Jackson looked around, had an [00:20:00] offer from a team that could win it. Let me go there. So he had The greatest player probably of all time playing for him, and then he probably had two of the top 15 all-time players playing for him in LA. I like my chances. So you got that. Now, let's talk about Red Auerbach. Auerbach and I'm gonna talk about GMs next week, but Red Auerbach pulled the trade off to get Bill Russell. If you have a chance, look it up. I'll talk about that later in next week. But Red Auerbach pulled that trade 'cause he knew he needed a center. Cousy was great, but he had nothing else he bought Bill Russell in. Pulling it off, he wasn't the first pick in the draft, but he bought Bill Russell in. All of a sudden they off. They won eight straight and, or seven straight, whatever. But he by bringing Russell in... and Russell, they would've won continuously except Russell turned his ankle his second season and they lost in the finals [00:21:00] to, to St. Louis. So look what he did, but he knew how to bring in players and he brought guys in like Willie Naulls, who's a, good scorer when he was younger but he brought him in as a seventh man type player and he always... Wayne Embry at the end of Russell's career, brought him in to back up Russell. So he always found these people and pieced them in and it worked. And by the way, this was a time when the coach was a dictator, and he was. But supposedly he was collaborative with his players and he heard what they told him. But anyway, he won. He continually won. I have to give respect. Now Popovich, different. Jose: Yeah Steve: He changed the culture. San Antonio was an ABA franchise. They were always, they were George Gervin and run and shoot and all that beautiful stuff. he just changed the whole thing. He got them to defend. He got his boys. Duncan is always with him when he won titles, and Tim Duncan's great. However, I don't quite put him in the top three with those [00:22:00] other three, and I also put him a tad ahead of Steve Kerr. And when Kerr gets out, you might wanna change that. But that, that's where I saw the whole thing. And that's a little bit about each one. But I just think it is so difficult to change your style and know h- and teach it and get those players to play that style, depending, taking your talent, not taking what you know. Jackson always triangle, always ran the triangle. This guy didn't. And I just think it, it's it's brilliant. And Jose: Yeah Steve: the way, his teams, we talked about Westbrook, his teams played hard every, every night, and they gave it everything. And that's going back to the Laker days to today. So I just have immense respect for the job Phil, Pat Riley did as a head Jose: Yeah. Yeah. Great call out. I think of coaches like Thibodeau today who's, has a style and whatever team he goes to, they're gonna adopt his style as opposed [00:23:00] to the coach adopting to the team that he's gotta coach. So let me ask you this in the few seconds we have left. You mentioned Kerr, which let's leave Kerr out because I think he's obvious, but of the active NBA coaches going into the 26-27 NBA season, who do you think would one day be on that list? Steve: I have to think, obviously Erik Spoelstra. Jose: Was my first thought. Steve: He could use a ti- a couple titles. Because I think what's happening with Paul Spoelstra is was the nice thought for years that he's great and all this, and he's gonna be the Olympic coach. However, as the years go by and they don't win titles, that's gonna make him recede in people's memories, and he won't be as credited as he, might be today. But I... He's the first one that, that right away comes to mind. You, you have some pretty good young coaches, but again, you need to stack up some titles to get in this conversation, and that's difficult in today's NBA. [00:24:00] And I just to point out, when today's NBA with the second apron, and I've harped on that forever, but teams g- don't stay together. And so it's harder to stack up three or... That's what Kerr did was difficult, but this is before now the modern collective bargaining agreement, which has made it more difficult for somebody to win a couple titles in a row because your team's gonna break up. Oklahoma City won last year, but they're going to be, money-wise, they're just gonna have to start making moves and get rid of some of their players, and it's gonna make it harder to, to, to stack up four or five titles Jose: Yeah. Speaking of OKC, how many for their coach I always have a hard time with his last name, but I'll go, we'll go with Mark Daigneault. Daigneault. Apologies to Coach Daigneault. How many coach, how many titles rather does he have to win to get in the conversation? Does any NBA coach have to win? Steve: I think he needs to win four or five and to get into the co- Although I think maybe in, in years [00:25:00] from now, you're gonna look at it differently in the modern times because of what I just said about the CBA and how difficult it is to stack up a team and put it together and keep it together for a long time Jose: Yeah. Yeah, I'm looking at the list of of coaches going into the new season. I see a bunch of names that I think are really good coaches. Mike Brown just won it and he's had some success. JJ Redick, I think we both like as a coach. Chris Finch, I like. Nick Nurse is one-one Steve: How many titles did the other guys win? That you just Jose: I Steve: Before you named Jose: Before nurse? Steve: Yeah Jose: I think we're at zero. Yeah. Steve: Okay. I'm just curious Jose: And that's my point, right? Steve: I'll give you, Jose: there's a chasm between being a good coach and a great coach, Steve: I'll Jose: right? Yeah Steve: take a look at his record. He's only won one title, Joe Mazzulla. Jose: Yeah. A- and he was on my list. Yeah Steve: he coaches, he's getting over 50 wins every year. He's [00:26:00] got Jose: Yeah. Steve: but he's Jose: Yeah. Steve: every year, Jose: Yeah. Steve: ti- he won a title. Naturally they are talented, Boston but still he's... Last year he did a tremendous job with that group. Jose: Yeah Steve: so that's the one that kinda comes into my mind, but he's got a long way to go. And Jose: yeah Steve: as Tatum ages, they might not see many more titles Jose: Wow. Yeah, interesting conversation. Will Hardy, Mitch Johnson, the- these are guys with, some upside. But, again, you gotta win at least one to get the conversation rolling. Mitch might be close Steve: how did Mitch Johnson look in the finals? Jose: Yeah, not good. But that's the thing. The expectation and I'm high on the Spurs going into the new season, the expectation is that they learned and they're gonna be better in those moments. We're not yet ready for 2026-27 team preview, but we'll do it soon. And w- I think the, the Spurs got a little better, but not a lot, and then there's some concern there. But I like the Spurs. But anyway, [00:27:00] that's it. You heard the buzzer go off. We gotta stop because, we're the Shot Clock Pod, man, and the shot clock went off. But another shot clock violation for us. That's it. Our time is up. Thank you for listening. Thank you for watching. Make sure to read Steve's entire 13 Rules of Random NBA Thoughts article. We'll link it wherever you are listening or watching this show today to get his thoughts on the Sixers and what... they're stacked, but they got a little bit more work to do. Make sure to join us next week when we once again discuss his latest at that time, 13 Rules of Random NBA Thoughts article. We'll talk then. Thanks, Steve Steve: Take care