13 Rules: Bulls Front Office Issues, Embiid Injury, and Spurs Playoff Decisions

​[00:00:00] Jose: Alright, it's time to talk basketball. I'm Jose Salviati, Editor at thePeachBasket.net. He is Steve Purciello, a longtime educator, vice principal, high school basketball coach, athletic director, and also the host of Celtic Chalk Talk. Celtic Chalk Talk is a pod dedicated to the latest news and opinions surrounding the Boston Celtics from a lifelong fan. Steve, that pod will drop new episodes every Monday, but this is the Shot clock Pod, the best 24 minutes of random NBA thoughts online anywhere. This podcast was born outta the content of Steve's searching rules, random NBA thoughts articles, which he publishes weekly. Steve and I have exactly. EH, 24 minutes to discuss what's on his mind around the NBA today. We'll discuss his latest 13 rule trend, NBA thoughts article where he shares his random thoughts after the final full week of the 20 25, 26 NBA season. Now, if you've gotten this far, we're grateful and thank you. You're listening to one of the independent fan driven shows on the Peach Basket Podcast Network. We're not owned by a big [00:01:00] media company. It's just us doing what we love. That means that what you hear comes straight from real fans. Who live this game every day. If you believe voices like this should be heard, the best way to support us is simple. Keep listening. Tell a friend when this episode ends. Head to the Peach basket podcast network.com. Head to the peach basket.net. Check out more fan run podcasts and help this independent network grow the way it started organically along right about the time of the pandemic. One who's fan at a time. We're glad you're here. Thank you. Sit down, enjoy yourself, and let's talk basketball. Steve, are you ready? Let's go. Clock is going now, we're gonna do things a little different today. We teased this last week. We're gonna get to your article 'cause again, you've got great comments on there and great great thought provoking topics of conversation. And I wanna key in on one specifically, but we'll talk about that in a minute. But last week we talked about a very interesting TikTok video. [00:02:00] At Step Up sports Step underscore up underscore sports on TikTok. And this, thi this, I don't know who this person is. I should have actually pinged him. I might do it after. But this person is saying over the last four years, three or four years, that he has picked the NBA winner correctly, just by identifying. Five analytical calculations. I don't know how else to word it that every NBA champion has met over the last five years. Crazy. So this year he's doing it again and all of everything we're gonna share now is good. As of last week, I haven't checked this week admittedly, but. Listen, who are the teams that we talk about that are potential NBA champions? We talk about the thunder, we talk about the nuggets, the Celtics, right? Who else? Maybe and maybe the Pistons, the Knicks or the Knicks have been really good. These are the names that come up, right? That's not who his, who what the analytics show. And it's [00:03:00] wild. Now let's go over it very quickly and I just wanna key in on one thing, Steven. I want your thoughts. Here are the five statistics. Every NBA, not every but 95% of the last four or five, no, four or five, is how many times he's got in this row. In the history of the NBA, about 95% of the NBA champions matched these five statistics. Number one, they had a top 10 points per game or rebound per game leader, so you had to have one of the best players at either at scoring or rebounding. Okay. Number two, and this is the only subjective one, you had to have a debatable top 10 player. Okay. 29 of the 30 NBA champions have had a debatable top 10 player. The only outlier was the Detroit Pistons, right? Chauncey Billups is a great team. Didn't have a debatable top 10 player. Number three, top 10 and three point percentage. That makes so much sense. 11 of the last 12 champs have had that. Gotta be able to shoot threes, and that eliminates a lot of teams that we just rattled off. [00:04:00] Number four, top 12 in defensive rating. 38 or 40 champions. Have been top 12 defense wins championships. And then number five, top 10 in field goal percentage, 23 of 25 NBA champions have been in the top 10. That's a solid list. Now this is what throws me what I know confused you, but there's only one team that checks all five boxes. It's not the boss's Celtics. It's not the Oklahoma City Thunder. It's not the Los Angeles Lakers. It's not the Denver Nuggets, it's not the Houston Rockets, it's not the San Antonio Spurs. It's not the Detroit Pistons, it's the Minnesota Timberwolves. Statistically, based on these five analytics, they're gonna be the 20 25, 26 NBA champion. Now, what do you think about that, Steve? Steve: It's crazy. When, when you watch, if you follow basketball and watch it, [00:05:00] you see a team sometime every year just about that. Figures out how to win these close games at the end Jose: Sure. Steve: And really has, they might have a bad stretch or two, but not a horrible stretch they play pretty consistent basketball throughout the year. Minnesota's the farthest thing from that. So to me, I understand the statistics and I understand the idea, but it just doesn't make deal of sense Jose: Yeah. Steve: because like I said, usually a team has played good basketball throughout the year. In very consistent basketball. Minnesota is the farthest thing from that. Jose: Yeah. Steve: to me, I have trouble with it. I understand the statistics again, but I Jose: Yeah. I, listen, I can't disagree with you. The Minnesota Timbers, as we record this, are 48 and 33. Solidly in the sixth spot will likely play the Los Angeles Lakers or the Denver Nuggets. You wrote about that [00:06:00] actually, that seeding, I wouldn't be surprised to see them out now if they play the Lakers, that's a little different 'cause the Lakers are pretty beat up. But, going up against the different nuggets. But again, I think that the real telling thing here, for lack of a better way of putting it, is, statistics are great. I analytics are great and they're gonna be right. I think probably 90, maybe 70, 75% of the time or greater for sure. But it's not a rock solid thing. And this is one of those outliers, one of those weird quirks, right? Because again, the Timberwolves check every box, but when you watch 'em on the court, they could be great. One game and really horrible. The next and over the course of a seven game series, you gotta be great. You gotta be great, at least the majority of the time. So big shout out to Step Up sports on TikTok. Though very cool statistic. Steve: the thing I wanted to add, and I'm trying to think about it right now. How many teams have won an NBA title? Winning. I know one team off the top of my head. less than 50 [00:07:00] games in the season. Jose: Yeah and not counting the shortened seasons, I'm sure. Steve: No, of course Jose: Yeah. Steve: the rate. Yours. I know Boston in 69 was 48 and 34. That's the one. Oh, okay. Maybe the rockets in 95. But and there might be a few other ones. Jose: Yeah. Steve: I'm guessing the warriors, I'm guessing. Jose: Yeah. Steve: point being, if you are under 50 wins, that's not, that's usually the determining point of a good season or a bad season. It might have happened way back in the seventies or eighties. It happened with Boston in 69. But again, it's just not a, great thing to see. But go ahead. Jose: Yeah. Boston in 1969 wa was an outlier. That was a miracle. I think I wasn't around, but I think that was a miracle. Steve: It was just the way it worked out in 90, I guess the year the Rockets came in sixth place, they might've been under 50 games I'm guessing, Jose: Yeah. But they had [00:08:00] haja on right. They had peak dream. Steve: Yeah. But I, I don't, and maybe in the seventies, 'cause the seventies were like the dark ages of the NBA, Jose: Yeah. Yeah. Steve: not much. Jose: Here let's put a period to this, into this one and we'll start talking about what you wrote if the Minnesota Timber wolves win. Step up sports is gonna be the hottest account on all of TikTok Steve: Yeah. Jose: and major kudos to you, should that happen. Hoping it does. I think it'd be cool. Alright let's take a look at this. Now, this week in your article you wrote about the key to having a successful NBA franchise, which, it's an interesting topic. We talked a little bit about that. More along the lines of how difficult it is, to be a gm, to build a team, but you're talking about top to bottom successful NBA franchises, you called out the thunder, the Spurs, the Celtics, undeniably great franchises and how they have all how all three have one thing in common now. I wanna talk about what that is, but then I also wanna pivot 'cause then you also wrote about the worst NBA [00:09:00] franchises and I wanna see if there's any way out for those teams. You mentioned the kings and a few others, the pelicans and I wanna call out the Los Angeles Clippers as the template, right? If you are stuck in that muck as one of the worst teams. But let's start first with the successful franchises. What do all of those three teams that you called out have in common? Steve: You can't have a metal swim owner. have to have an owner who enjoys the game and hires people and lets them do their thing without. Jose: Yeah. Steve: interrupting Jose: that so hard? Why is that so hard for a donor, Steve: because I Jose: do you think? Steve: have so much money and you wanna have a toy and that's your toy and you're Jose: Wow. Steve: Fantasy basketball. Jose: Yeah. Steve: need the owner, you gotta hire the right people. That owner's gotta hire the right people in charge and they've gotta be highly competent. and by in charge, not the players and the coach, the people who run it, the president of operations or whatever, general man, whatever you wanna call 'em, those are the keys. [00:10:00] And if you look at the three teams I mentioned, they all have pretty good lead people who are considered the best in the game. That's the things that you need. We, as fans think about the coach and the players. Coach can only do so much with his players. If he's got a bad team, he ain't winning. Jose: Yeah. Steve: the player and you know the coach, again, you need a good coach to bring it home. Sometimes not a great coach can win the players naturally, but they're brought in by the general manager or the president of the operation whatever terminology. Jose: Yeah. Steve: You need to look at that when you look in the teams and those factors go into if a team is or seeing if a team is well run or not. Jose: Yeah. It always starts at the top and I think that's what you called out. And not only do you need to have, somebody at the top, but that's a fan that knows the game. But then somebody who knows enough not to meddle and to hire the right people and to let them do their job. Steve: one More [00:11:00] thing is being willing to put money in meaning. Like with Denver won a title a couple years ago, but the ownership who cronies, they own, I believe a football of soccer Jose: Yeah. Steve: but they didn't wanna go too high and go, and pay guys. Bruce Brown, they Jose: I, Steve: after that Player because they didn't wanna pay 'em. And you need an owner that's willing to take the risks, go into the second apron, and not worry about that wanting to win. And not a lot of them like to spend their money in that Jose: Yeah. Yeah. And that's what's tough for franchises. The Bulls, the Pelicans, the Kings. You're a fan of that team and you pour your heart into that team. And you really know that the only way to get good is for the team to be sold. And there's nothing you can do about that. That's tough. And that's where I wanna call out the Los Angeles Clippers. When you wrote about the worst run franchises you called out those three teams. It is undeniable that in the history of sport, [00:12:00] a matter of fact, I think Sports Illustrated maybe 10 years ago, had a list of the worst franchises, not in NNBA history at all time. The worst franchises in the Clippers came out, number one. This was obviously before a bomber, but you can see what it changed to that kind of ownership looks like. 'cause Steve Bomber is a huge fan. He's hands off. He absolutely doesn't mind spending the money and look at what he did for the Clippers. Is there any hope for the bulls, pelicans, and kings? Steve: I think for the Kings, they'd have to sell or the owner would have to take a vow to stay, to, get out for a while and not say a word. Jose: Yeah, Steve: for the Bulls, Jerry Reinsdorf is not known. He's gotta be Jose: I. Steve: so and his son, but he's not known to spend money. He also owns the White Sox. but he's not known to wanna spend money, and he's also not good at firing people. It took him six years to fire kva, who was their president, and just fired him in the last week or so. But it [00:13:00] took him six years when people saw he wasn't really competent two years ago. You know that's not a great situation. So these teams they need major changes in how the team is run before they can even think about trying to win. The ownership is like so important. And then the people, like I said, the people they hire Jose: yeah we've talked about this before. I have a soft spot in my heart for the Sacramento Kings Great fans great environment, but just a poorly run franchise, hoping for the best for the Kings, and also for the Bulls, and also for the pelicans. But my gosh they're stuck in the mud right now. Steve: the Pelicans are a story too. It's Benson owns the team. Her husband owned everything. He passed, she took it. They're playing right next to the Superdome, the arena's right next to it, and it's a foot. She owns the football team. It's a football town. She doesn't wanna spend a lot of money with them, so she's trying to do it on the cheap. And it reflects with the [00:14:00] pelicans. And if you look at the pelicans, they have some talent. They just hired Joe Jose: Oh sure. Steve: Who won a title when he was with Detroit, when he was working for Detroit, but Joe Dumars just traded a lottery pick for Derrick, queen. Derrick Queen's gonna be a good player, Jose: Yeah. Okay. Steve: they're gonna be picking probably in the top seven or eight, and you're giving away a good rookie because of that. So it just, management and what you hire is what it's all about. Jose: Yeah. Undeniable. Tough to be a fan of those teams. But much respect to the fans that are let's talk about a player who's had some bad luck of late and and a franchise that some people are saying now might be cursed. That's the Philadelphia 76 ERs. They were getting good, playing good basketball, had everybody healthy and looked good. And then Joel MB goes down with appendicitis. What? It's so weird. Kate Cunningham, a collapsed lung. Now, appendicitis, these are not normal basketball [00:15:00] injuries. He's out of surgery, but this changes everything for the Sixers, doesn't it? Steve: It, you know what, I don't know. If you're a player on that team you can't enjoy it because day there's something going on and the whole season is predicated around Joel l and b being healthy. Jose: Yeah. Steve: He doesn't play a lot of games. Now he's got appendicitis. Usually it's a knee problem, but now it's appendicitis. They're about to start to play him. they win, they go into the playoffs without him, Jose: Yeah. Steve: usual time of injuries. But 25 to 30 days when the appendicitis, so that would be through the first round. So now you are looking for this team who's going to play a higher seed to, to win. Without Joe mb, Joe mbi. That's crazy. And here's the kicker. I believe he signed through 28 29 with a player option. I think in that at the end. that [00:16:00] means if you're a player on a team, you're gonna have to go through this for the next three or four years because he is making a lot of money. And I don't know if any team, I don't think many teams are gonna wanna trade for him. Jose: Yeah. Steve: And Philadelphia's not gonna cut him. 'cause when he does play, he's great. But. What a way to play. What a mess. Jose: Yeah. Steve: that's just, it's just hard. It's just very hard. Jose: Yeah, we, we talk about this, it seemingly every time, this time of year. How cool it would be for every team to go into the playoffs injury free. I think if we were to have that luxury over the course of the nba a NBA's history. The winning teams would be different, right? Because a lot of times teams win because other teams were injured. You take a look at what out to the Los Angeles Lakers, they're decimated. You take a look at the 76 ERs, it changes everything. And it's unfortunate. But that's just the way it is. Let's talk about the playoffs now, like we said, next week in the playoffs. So it's time to start dissecting those playoff [00:17:00] matches. And you wrote about how it's a big final week for the San Antonio Spurs. Do they need to avoid the nuggets? How do they match up there? Because you wrote about possibly avoiding them. Steve: It is really interesting. They play each other today. Now I'm reading that the nuggets are gonna sit out a bunch of guys. Yoki should play because he needs that for the to be an MVP and all that. But it's still he's questionable I guess today. But if you are San Antonio, if you go out and beat, you don't want anybody hurt. But if you go out and beat Denver, that puts the Lakers in third place. 'cause the Lakers have Utah And the Lakers should win even without, their two best guys. So if you're San Antonio, you don't wanna play Denver, just beat them up in Denver two weeks a week ago in a Jose: Great game. Yep. Steve: So [00:18:00] why, when you wanna do that? When you could maybe push Denver to fourth place? And have them play against let Them Fight with Oklahoma City while you are San Antonio. If you win your first round, which you should, of course you're gonna play the winner of a Laker Minnesota series. I'll take my chances there as opposed to playing Denver. 'cause you have Yoic. they're in an interesting spot and my sense would be they're gonna arrest people, but they're asking for trouble with the long haul. Jose: Yeah, the one of those weird matchups where you've got two playoff teams undeniably, two teams really with championship aspirations, but in this final game, they might both be playing to lose, kind. A weird situation. Steve: Why, again, why would you want to have to push yourself the, in the second round and then you're gonna play Oklahoma City? Woo. Jose: Yeah. Can you imagine. Steve: when you might Jose: That's tough. Steve: Yeah, a little [00:19:00] easier though. Minnesota's always played, has played well in the last few years in the playoffs, and Jose: Yeah. Steve: be dangerous. don't give the Lakers a great chance of advancing, Jose: No. Steve: A miracle happens and these two guys get healthy. Jose: Yeah. Steve: I just don't see that Jose: I. Steve: It's a nice story if they, if they win a few games and are competitive, but I, they just don't have enough talent at this Jose: Yeah, no, agreed. Alright, and speaking of not enough talent not the cleanest of segues, but it works. The NBA is having some real trouble. We've talked about it multiple times this year, this season and that's with tanking and it was really front and center this past week. You've got, over the last couple weeks, you have two distinct teams. You've got. Two playoff teams that play each other and it's a playoff atmosphere. You, you mentioned the Spurs and Thunder. Great game. The Celtics Knicks great game. These are two teams battling. It's fun to watch enjoyable. And then you watch Utah [00:20:00] versus anybody, the kings versus anybody. It's horrible basketball. You had the Sacramento Kings intentionally fouling the greatest free throw player of all time because they were ahead and they wanted to lose that game. Isn't it odd that you've got this clear distinction between playoff matchup basketball and tanking teams, and how do you fix it? Steve: I don't know if you'd fix it. The other night I put on the Celtics, we're playing New Orleans now. When you really analyze it. New Orleans got some talent. Jose: Yeah. Steve: However, when I start telling you who's didn't play Deonte Murray, right off the bat, two of your best guys, Trey Murphy, another real good player, Jose: Yeah. Steve: Eve Messey, miss missing also, he is not a bad big. So all of a sudden that's four guys who start playing. What are we doing? And Boston, [00:21:00] they won by 30. They could have won by whatever they wanted it to be. And it was just like a waste of time. It was a scrimmage, guys running up and down the floor shooting and having a Jose: Right. Steve: I. But it was just, it was terrible. And you watch enough of that in the last two weeks and you sit there it almost led me to watch baseball. Because it just so bad. Jose: Yeah. Steve: and that's what you see it anytime you put, so you're looking for games. Where two teams in the playoffs are playing against each other. And that's not often the last Jose: Yeah. True. Steve: I said Denver. The Denver San Antonio game was a classic for a regular season game. They just went at each other and they really right to the end. They played and some great players in the game. The Boston, New York game. Now, Jalen Brown didn't play in the game. It was Jose: Yeah. Steve: pretty good, of course but still, it was a great game. And Josh Hart had to hit two big threes in the last minute or two to win the game. Great game to watch [00:22:00] too. It was intense and it was fun, fun to see. That's what you wanna see. Jose: Yeah. Steve: where teams were still unsettled, they're, they in the play, in they here and watch how many guys don't play. And it's just it's Jose: Yeah. Steve: and there's nothing. The tanking is one thing, but there's nothing you can do when a team like the Knicks sits out, Brunson and towns and each of these players, Jose: Yeah. Steve: In Charlotte, it's an important game for Charlotte of course, Jose: Yeah. Steve: who played the Knicks, but it's just not fun, to sit there. This should be a time, the NBA does it right. I believe the Eastern teams play six o'clock and then the Eastern time and eight 30 would be the Western teams. they're all playing the same time. So now as a fan, all these teams are playing hard, my God, you could have a great time like Jose: Yeah. Steve: San Antonio, Denver game, it could be a lot of fun. So that's a great idea. But then these guys not [00:23:00] playing ruins. It ruin the whole thing. is the point. Jose: it is the point now, and Adam Silver has said, listen, it's his priority to fix it. He hasn't said how he's gonna fix it, but he intends to fix it, which is great. And I don't, I know you've thrown out some ideas. I don't have any I at all. I admittedly, but I will say this, you mentioned baseball. One of the things that I really enjoy, when I was growing up is watching baseball was the September call up, right? This is near the end of the season, and it wasn't, the teams weren't trying anymore, but everything was sat, and so they would expand the rosters. It's 182 game season. So they'd expand the roster. And then you get to see some young guys come up, get their first hit, get their first home, run their first strikeout as a pitcher. And it was cool. I enjoyed watching that. And I'm just throwing things out here. I, because this is what the NBA kind of gets wrong, right? When players like Jalen Brunson sit you, let's see a young stud, a G League stud [00:24:00] come up and get a chance, as opposed to just pitching it as. They're trying to lose. This is an opportunity for us to see some of these great young players. I don't, it's a different sport so it's not gonna translate as well, but that's something I love about baseball. I'd love to maybe see translated into basketball. Is that a possibility? Steve: I don't think there's any way around it because if you're the Knicks today, why would you think about using those guys? If somebody gets hurt you, you're forever going to be second guessed and said, why did you think Jose: Yeah. Steve: them? So you can't you just can't. You can't do that. If you're San Antonio today what's better here? If you play women, lema has been hurt. If you play him and he gets hurt worse, and he misses next week. Jose: Yeah. Steve: You lost your season, so you're going to, not play everybody. 'cause the game means nothing. But by the same token, it ruins the fun that it [00:25:00] would be in a day like Jose: Yeah. Got it. Alright, let's let's do this. Clock shot went off. You heard it. But I just popped into my head and we're just gonna roll with it because, shot clock violation is the name of the game. We should go from shock clock, pod to shot, clock violation pod because it's what we do hand. Alright, hand on the Bible etched in stone right now. Who is your 2025? 26 NBA champion. Steve: Probably Oklahoma City. Jose: Okay, Steve: That's the Jose: I'm gonna go. Okay. Steve: it just I you know, right now I'd have to, I'd have to think it would be them, especially if they. In the second round, get the Laker Minnesota thing. That would make it easier. It to me. I don't see, them losing the East has got Boston, the Knicks, Detroit guess Cleveland, but, it's rough 'cause they're gonna have to play each other to get [00:26:00] there. And that's gonna be rough. And then they'd have to play Oklahoma. I just, I don't see it. How about you? Jose: All right. I'm glad you asked. All right. Last season it was a young team. We played great defense. Lot of energy run team. They are the defending champions at your pick this season, I'm saying this season. Same type of team, young team, great defense, run franchise. The 20 25 26 NBA Champions are gonna be the San Antonio Spurs and our fans at the Spurs Bros Pod are celebrating right now. That's what's gonna happen. You heard it here first. Alright, we'll see. Nice. All right, that's it. You heard the shot clock go off. Thanks for listening. Thanks for watching. Make sure to read Steve's entire 13 rules random NBA Thoughts article. We talked about everything, but he also mentioned some Billy Donovan news and Samantha Davis. News about, why NBA players get a bad rap. Make sure to read the article, get [00:27:00] all of that content. We'll link it wherever you're watching or listening to this show today. And join us next week for more random NBA thoughts as we recap the play in tournament the first week of as we prepare for the playoffs. We'll talk then Steve. Thanks.