13 Rules: NBA Random Thoughts - May 25, 2024

bafc1ec4-19c3-49c8-88e4-06f13ac00c93 === Speaker 3: [00:00:00] All right. It's time to talk basketball. I'm Jose Salviati, editor at thePeachBasket. net. He's Steve Purciello, a longtime high school basketball coach, educator, vice principal, and athletic director. And this is the 13 Rules Random NBA Thoughts podcast, the best 15 minutes of random NBA thoughts online. If this is your first time listening, thank you. We're glad you found us. Welcome to the show. This podcast was born out of the content in Steve's Random NBA Thoughts articles, which he publishes weekly. 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 with a focus, of course, on the NBA Conference Finals with a little bit of non Final Four teams in, in, in his article and in our conversation today. Steve, you ready? Let's start the timer. 15 minutes starts now. All right. We're going to start in the West. Everyone seemed to Chris and the Timberwolves as the team to beat in the West. You included [00:01:00] me included, but then the Mavericks went and beat them twice in Minnesota, which was pretty shocking. Although there were some questionable calls in both games, but how did Dallas do it and do the Wolves, in your opinion, still have a chance? Speaker 2: You always have a chance until, you know, so I wouldn't give up on it. Don't forget, as I pointed out, Denver was, lost their first two games at home, and they came back and made it a series. What I will say, though, about this, you win with your stars. Just doing some numbers. In the two games, Towns is shooting 28%. Edwards is shooting 33%. Edwards has 40 points, Towns has 31. Towns is the, I guess last year's three point shooting contest champ or whatever, he's only shooting 35 percent from three. That's not really a champion. And then you've got Edwards who's even worse. He's four for 16. That's 25%. [00:02:00] Speaker: Now Speaker 2: you win with your stars. First game of the series, it looked like they were really tired and they really didn't have much energy. Last night they played, they were winning by 20. These guys aren't, the two of them are not in any way carrying them. The last thing I'll say about that, what surprised me was, why wouldn't you take Towns and put them down on the block? Why? Because it's a mismatch, and that's a way to get a shooter off. If you watch the Boston game the other night, Tatum was terrible the first half, He went to the foul line, made a foul shot, and that's just in the second half, and it just opened up his game. So you need to get him an easy basket to get them, get them playing. Edwards, I think we ordained him as the face of the league. It's another subjective thing we do. But, but, let's hold the horses here. He's gotta, he's gotta do a little bit better [00:03:00] than four for 16 from three. And he's got to carry a team to be the face of the league. He hasn't done it so far. Speaker: Yeah, Speaker 2: that's my take. And if the stars start playing, they have a chance. Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, no, no doubt. But you know, credit to the Mavericks, right? I mean, we gotta give credit where it's due because they're, they're winning the games and nobody's handing this to them. But yeah, I think you're right. I wonder if it's a little bit of the, the lights are too bright. You know, as you move up in the playoffs, right? And you're the only game in town. The media's increased, the pressure's there, the stands are fuller than they are normally, although in Minnesota they have really great turnout generally. Yeah, I wonder what it is. I mean, when I look at it, I don't see, the Mavericks are a good defensive team and they've got better this year, but I don't see them clamping down necessarily. It just seems to me like the Wolves are missing shots that they were making against the Nuggets. Do you see it that way or do you see it [00:04:00] differently? Speaker 2: Yeah, I, I, I, I, you know, you almost wonder where they peaked and now they're, you know, back again from where they were. That's the one thing I, I, I thought about I, I just, you know, I think Edwards is a good player, you know, no doubt. However, I think we're, we're putting him on a pedestal. He's got to do something here. And when he does, we can put him on the, he's talented, But he's got to do something to get on that pedestal and by that I get the team into the finals at least Speaker 3: Yeah, a lot of people are calling him out right now, right? Well, this is the next MJ. This is next MJ. And then people are countering with, listen, you know, Michael Jordan, you know, lost in the first round to the Boston Celtics, right? And then people are countering that counter by saying, yeah, but MJ had 61 points in one of those games and Larry Bird called him God. So we're not seeing, you know, the winning is one thing, but we're just not seeing the dominance, right? From, from Anthony Edwards. And what was odd [00:05:00] to me. Is when you needed him to dominate you, he kept passing the ball and maybe it was the right pit play to make, but you expected him to take charge. And he really, he really didn't. Speaker 2: I think with LeBron aging, the league is looking for somebody to be the person. And what they should be doing is wait a year or two, and then we'll talk about this guy from San Antonio and he will become the face of the league. Okay. Give it a couple of years. You know, we'll be talking about him and I don't think there's any doubt of how good he is on every part in every part of the game. Speaker 3: I am so glad to hear someone actually call out the greatness of Devin Vassell. So thank you, Steve. Speaker 2: How'd you know? Him and Johnson. Speaker 3: Let's move on. Obviously Yama. We'll go to the East now. The Pacers look to be in trouble. I know we don't want to jinx it, [00:06:00] but they're down 0 2. Tyrese Halliburton now is out for game three. Is he out? Is it definite? Yeah, that's what I'm hearing right now. He is, I checked just before we hit record, he is out. Of course shoot. Drew Holliday is out for the Celtics too. No, that's not definitive yet, but he might be out, but let's talk instead. Cause we're going to, we're going to talk a little bit more about the Pacers in a bit, but you called out and we had a discussion before we hit record on this, you know, that Hilah Burton made the NBA, all team, all NBA team, third team, Jalen Brown didn't make the cut and. You called out the subjectiveness of something. We were talking about it before, again, before we hit record. Why, why do you think Jalen Brown didn't get the love that Halliburton got? Speaker 2: Halliburton started the year off, got his team into that, whatever, that tournament final game. And he, everybody was talking about him because at that point, that's early early [00:07:00] January, I guess, but to that point, he was, you know, It was a walking, at least double double every night. And he was getting ridiculous amounts of assists. He got hurt in January. I guess I think against Boston, I think it was January 8th, but anyway, from that point forward, he's been average at best, but everybody got the publicity. Everybody saw it. And, and they all, you know, naturally he was ordained as all league or all NBA without taking into account what happened after that game. Now, the other thing I'll say to you, even all things being equal, Jalen Brown is a complete player. He can defend. In fact, Boston oftentimes will put him on the better, the better, the best offensive player on another team. I wouldn't be surprised tonight for Boston to put him on Siakam. Wow. Because Seattle's hurting them. So, you know, saying that you don't see Halliburton guarding anybody like [00:08:00] that you don't, you don't see anything like it. Also, let's go back, and I know the playoffs aren't considered, you know, a criteria. They don't vote, they vote before the playoffs. But Halliburton in the series against the Knicks, he had some good games, but by the same token, he had a couple stinkers. The first game, he only took six shots, I believe. And really was, was non-existent. And, and Brown could do that as well, but you know what, Brown is consistently defending. You don't, again, I want to keep coming back to that. The other thing too is ironic. You got two guys, and that's Booker, Davis, Durant, or, or four guys actually, Durant or James. There's two guys from those two teams. Those two teams were barely playoff teams. How does that figure when Boston wins 64 games? It just doesn't it just doesn't add up to me that you know, what were they lucky or what exactly happened here? Speaker 3: Yeah Speaker 2: That's [00:09:00] my, my rationale. Speaker 3: Frustrating. It's, you know, and we talked about it before. Like I said, these subjective, you know you know, award shows are, are very, very frustrating. I do want to update two hours ago, Tyrese Halliburton out 30 minutes ago, though. Tyrese Halliburton likely out. So I think that you obviously, they want him to play. We'll see. But Drew Holliday is listed as questionable. Let's stay in the East. You called out the Pacers improved defense, right? Thanks to players like Nesmith, McConnell, Turner, Neb Hart. Defense matters at this point, obviously. The best teams are, are, are, are good defensive teams. Do the, that being said, do the Pacers still have a chance? Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess they would. I don't think it's a great chance, but I think they, they do have a chance. They're getting, if they don't have Halliburton, they've got big, you know, worse, a worse chance, but, but they're getting a lot of Siakam. He he's been the third quarter. He was unstoppable. [00:10:00] The only thing that stopped him is when Carlisle took him out. Because Boston had no answers, and he just continually, you know, just pummeled them and kept them in the game. When Siakam went out, that's when Boston began to, to pull away. They're getting, they're getting, and also, T. J. McConnell might be the biggest pest if he's on the opposition, but if he's on your team, he's one of your favorite players. He he just does little things. I don't know how he gets away with some of the shots he puts in meaning going to the basket against the big and somehow getting the ball. You know, without being blocked. I mean, he, he just does so many things. He's constant motion. And by the way, on on defense. He's a pest. He's a pest. Yeah. He bothered Brunson and he's bothered Boston. He, and, and then we talk about Aaron Ne Smith. Ne Smith is guarded the best guy on every team they play against in this playoffs. And, and he's held his own. And, and by that I [00:11:00] mean a Healthy Brunson. He did fairly well against, and he did well against Lowed. You know, you're getting a lot from those guys and by the way, Neesmith loves playing against Boston. He shoots better than he does. He always has good games against Boston. So you can't count Indiana out with all of those factors. Plus Miles Turner's got to play better. Another good defender. He's got to play better than the other night. He was non existent. Speaker 3: Am I wrong in remembering that Nismith started with the Celtics? Yes, he did. Alright. Was that a part of why he's Speaker 2: got a little extra motivation against the team? Yes. Yes. It seems like, because I'll tell you what, against the Knicks, he couldn't, he was shooting poorly all of a sudden now. You know, if you look at the numbers, the last game against the Knicks was his best game. He went seven for eight or something. But otherwise, he was terrible. And now with Boston, he's really, and he always plays well, always plays well so [00:12:00] far against Boston. Speaker 3: Yeah. I get why that would matter. Right. This is a team that kind of gave up on me or, you know, I Speaker 2: don't know if they gave up on him. Don't forget. That's how they got Brogdon. And Brogdon is drew holiday. So though me, Smith's a good player. I think I'll take drew holiday. I got you. Speaker 3: All right, let's finish up with the team that is outside of the Final Four, right, in the Conference Finals. The biggest shock of the playoffs, I think, so far, has been the Wolves beating the defending champs in Game 7, in Denver, after the Nuggets had a 20 point lead. That's a shocker. Now, you blamed minutes, right? The Nuggets ran out of gas, and I think that's a fair assessment. But you also said, I thought it was interesting, because this kind of gets to the root cause of why, right Coach Malone had to play these guys 40 plus minutes. It's because of free agency. What happened that led to the Nuggets running out of gas in game seven? Speaker 2: The two guys, they lost green and [00:13:00] brown. Both of them were, were Bruce Brown was great last year in the playoffs and green always picked them up and can always do so many different things on the court. They had him play some five. They had, they had him do so many things and he can shoot and he bailed them out this year. They want a little different. And they tried to get by with the brawn of brown and, and, and, and people like that. They weren't getting help when Jokic was out of the game and, and it just, they had to use these guys for those minutes. And in the second half, you saw what happened. They just, they collapsed. And it's understandable in a situation like that, because they got, they have no one else. Everybody's minutes. The minutes police, I know are all over the place, but everybody's minutes are looked at in the playoffs. But if you're a good player, you're getting about 40 minutes or so of time in the playoffs. During the season, 36 would be the cutoff. And so these guys are getting that. [00:14:00] But over a period of time, it does wear you down and and that's the the piece that I don't know if people realize it's not playing 40 minutes, but it's it's just the whole thing would pressure on you and all. It just wears you down. And I think Denver Malone had no place else to turn to get any relief for his guys. Yeah. And last thing on that. That is a result, a direct result of the new cap restrictions, salary cap restrictions. It is getting harder, unless you want to pay a ridiculous tax like Golden State did, Denver didn't. It is getting harder to pay your five starters and have a bench. Yeah. So that, that goes with it. Speaker 3: You've got a choice. You could go the Phoenix Suns route and pay three guys 80 percent of your, you know, your available funds, you know, give it, you know, it's not exact, but, and then you just have a really hard time [00:15:00] filling out a bench, like you said, or you're going to have to distribute the wealth somehow, or You're going to have to pay, you know, exorbitant taxes. That's, that's it. Those are your choices. Well, Speaker 2: Boston is headed for paying exorbitant amount of money in their, in, in their tax. And they're fortunate. Peyton Pritchard has got a four year contract coming up, so they'll keep him at a low price. So, you know, they'll be okay. But, and, and I think the ownership will pay. Denver Stan Kroenke, the owner, I don't know if he wants to go heavy into the cap and that's the turret that might have cost him this year. Yeah. Speaker 3: Yeah. It's tough that it comes down to that, but I love that, you know, you can, you can look at the game from one, one, you know, through one lens and say, yeah, Malone just, he overworked his players, right? But you went a level deeper, right? And you go, listen, [00:16:00] he worked as players because the executive team didn't do him any favors. And there's value there. And it just goes to show, right? It's beyond the box score, right? Sometimes the box score doesn't tell the whole story. So, I appreciated reading that. You heard the buzzer go off. That's it. Our time is up. Make sure to read Steve's entire article, which we will link below to get all his thoughts on the playoffs and a few other things. Few other teams that are outside of the playoffs. You mentioned the minutes police that's on there. Some conversations or some thoughts on the Cavs coach and whether they made the right choice letting that that coach go. But no more time today. Our time is up. Thank you as always for listening. We're grateful. Please consider subscribing and join us next week on the 13 rules. NBA Random Thoughts podcast. The best 15 minutes of random thoughts online anywhere. We'll talk next week. Thanks, Steve. Speaker 2: Take care.