24 Minutes, 7 Superstars, One Big Question: Who's Actually Gonna Show Up This Season?

The Shot Clock Pod 24 Minutes, 7 Superstars, One Big Question: Who's Actually Gonna Show Up This Season? === Jose: ​[00:00:00] All right. After a two-week hiatus, it's time to talk basketball. I'm Jose Salviati, editor of 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 around the NBA. Today, we're discussing his latest 13 Rules: Random NBA Thoughts article, where he shares his thoughts on NBA stars that have to deliver in the upcoming season, which is not too far away. Now, before we get into that, we wanna let you know that if you are listening to us, thank you. We're grateful. We are one of many 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 who love the game and live it every day, just like Steve and I. If you [00:01:00] believe voices like this should be heard, best way to support us is simple. Keep listening, tell a friend subscribe, comment, all that stuff means the world. And when this episode ends, head to the Peach Basket Podcast Network. Head to thePeachBasket.net, check out more fan-run podcasts, and help this independent network grow the way it started, organically, one hoops fan just like you, just like us, at a time. All right. This week, Steve takes a look at seven NBA players that have to deliver in the 2026-27 NBA season. Let's talk about it. Steve, are you ready? Let's go. I'm gonna start the timer, and we're off. All right. The off-season was wild. Lots of movement, lots of changing landscape, and there's a lot of teams, like there are every season, with big expectation, expectations. None, in my opinion, more so than the Philadelphia 76ers. Now, you called out Joel Embiid. Now, this is a, a, a team that's [00:02:00] stacked, so I gotta ask you two questions. Number one, why Joel and not, you know, Jaylen Brown, Tyrese Maxey or any of the other m- great players, VJ Edgecombe, on that team? And number two, don't you think that because the Sixers are stacked now that the Sixers won't be relying on Joel Embiid as much as they have? In years past, they needed him to be healthy and play 70 games, which he never really did. They don't need that from him anymore, or do they? What do you think? Steve: I'm not Nick Nurse, but what I'll say is this, he's got a lot of offensive firepower outside of Embiid. What Embiid is needed to do is to protect the rim and to rebound. Now, he had trouble if you-- the last couple years rebounding 'cause he doesn't jump real well and so on. You have to hope he's healthy with his legs, and he can do that. The other piece to that is he can score. And [00:03:00] what happened if you watch the Celtic series against him in the playoffs, the whole thing turned around when Nick Nurse at halftime of game, what would that be? Game five in Boston. They were down, Philly was down 10 or 11. He took Embiid, took him off the high post and put him down on the block, and they just threw the ball down to him, and Boston didn't have an answer. So he becomes a guy, if nothing's going right, he can score. But you've got so much firepower, if he doesn't go crazy offensively, they'll be fine 'cause you're gonna get 25 out of Brown, Maxie, or LeBron will get-- probably won't get that, but you're gonna get... And Edgecombe's gonna get his. So it- there's a couple things going on. Embiid's gotta get himself in shape, and his mind has to-- he has to understand what he has to do to win. He doesn't need the ball for that team to win. Can he handle that, and can he play accordingly? That's gonna be interesting because he's [00:04:00] always been worried about his stats. He's complained about not being the MVP and so on. So there's a lot of interesting things. And the other piece to it too, the injuries, I know his knees are bad, but if he took off about 20 pounds, it might make it a little easier for him. And the claim about him has always been he's not in shape. So if you put all that together he's in a nice position. But he does have to protect the rim because LeBron's defense isn't what it used to be. And he's the only-- LeBron's big, and Jaylen Brown's only 6'7". So it really comes down to Embiid to, to rebound and defend and protect. So that's something that's gonna be difficult. And if he accepts it, they're on their way. But it's gonna be an interesting thing. A lot of guys here have to swallow some, some pride and be willing to score six on a given night, or two or whatever it is, and Embiid might be the top one at that Jose: Got it. [00:05:00] So i- and so that answers the question, right? You s- you're calling him out because you think he's the most likely to have to take the short end of the stick at least a couple of times Steve: him out, I'm calling him out because he's gotta do certain things that I don't know if he's ever had to do. He... And he's such a great player, he could do anything. But my point being, what I'm calling him out for is who else is gonna rebound? Who else is going to b- protect the rim? And let's be honest here, Edgecombe's not bad. Maxey's not a great defender. Brown's a pretty good defender. So you need somebody that's gonna protect, and LeBron's defense isn't what it used to be. So you do need a p- rim prote- every team needs a rim protector, and I don't know anybody else on the team that can be the rim protector, and that's probably a very important piece Jose: Yeah. Yeah, they've built a great team, but when you look at, their backup centers I've just pulled up the list. It's underwhelming To say the least. So they Steve: the, Jose: do have a big reliance on that guy Steve: Adem Bona can He's [00:06:00] a, he can block shots and he can he's he's adept. He's not a scorer in any way, but he can block shots and rebound and he can give them something there. He's the third center though, but he, he's one of he, he can help. He's got young legs and he can jump and he can play a little bit. I believe he came from UCLA, if I'm not mistaken Jose: They don't have that listed. Oh yep, he played college basketball at UCLA. He's Nigerian Turkish, Adem Bona. So the game is so international now, it's wild Steve: Yeah Jose: All right. Very good. So Joel Embiid, absolutely. 76ers, absolutely. I can't tell you the last time I was excited to see a, a team come together. I'm excited. curious/excited to see what happens with Philadelphia. It's gonna be very interesting. I rattled off all the great players. I forgot LeBron. still... My mind has not made that connection yet to LeBron as a Sixer very int- [00:07:00] interested to see how that plays out. Let's keep going, though. This is a younger guy. We're gonna stay in the East. This is interesting to me. First let's start with a player. You called out Paolo Banchero. A lot riding on him. The Magic, it seemed like they were, going in the right direction, and then there was a bit of a setback. Now I looked at his numbers, and this is kinda telling. He regressed a bit, no doubt. He scored four points less. He's 23 years old, so it's odd, his three-point shooting was a little bit less. Negligible, but less, right? But what's odd about Banchero is he increased everything else. Rebounds are up, assists were up, free throw percentage was up. So because he's so young I'm gonna ask the question here is he just trying to figure out what his game is? this season I'm gonna focus on rebounding and assists, and now in the new season, '26-'27, I'm gonna put it all together. Is that a possibility? 'Cause he is so young Steve: I think you, for me with him, it's the eye test. [00:08:00] When he came into the league I watched him play and I said, "How the hell do you stop this guy? He can score, he can do so many things." Now I watch him, oh, you can stop the guy. So that's part of the problem here. The other pro- part of it is he's expected to lead a team to the promise, what- whatever it is, to the conference finals, whatever. But he didn't, and he's not, and he's regressing. He's not that unstoppable force he once was. To me, for Orlando, because they have a big window here to, to be good. They got players that, they can play and talented and they're young. So the window's wide open. However, besides Franz Wagner having to stay, healthy, he needs to become that unstoppable force. The other thing, and if you watch the games, he loves to take 15, 17-footers. The NBA, that's out. It's layups or threes. [00:09:00] And doing that has got to be exasperating for the team and for the owners and, general manager and all. So he's gotta... and he doesn't, has never shot well from three. He's got to pick that up to, to get a better inside game. I think he's a talented player. I will say this, if he doesn't do well this year, or if he doesn't play well, Orlando's gonna shake it up. They're just not gonna ride with this forever. They're paying him money, and they expect more than what he gave them last year Jose: Yeah, like it or not, there's expectations when you're picked number one. And so you've gotta, y- you've gotta meet those expectations o- or on you go. My hope for Orlando and for Banchero is that, yeah, he was figuring things out a little last year and that he, he has a little bit of a breakout. Now I'm gonna push back a little as a, as, as, I don't know, I'm gonna say NBA purist. I don't know if that's the right term or not, but you said the 15-footer is not the way. And I get it, I understand it, right? We're shooting more three-pointers than we've ever shot. [00:10:00] But there's a place for the 15-foot shot, man, isn't there? I want a player to shoot that shot Steve: I'm not disagreeing with you. I'm telling you what the NBA thinks, not me. Jose: Yeah. Steve: And Jose: got you Steve: the NBA thoughts are three or layup. Mike D'Antoni, three or layup, and how many games you watch, guy goes to the basket, he's got a chance to get a layup, could get it blocked, but he's got a good shot at, scoring or getting fouled, he kicks it out to the corner, the opposite corner, and they're looking for the three. So that kinda tells you exactly. Players wouldn't do that unless they were coached to do that Jose: Yeah. No, fair enough. Fair enough. I, yeah, it's it is most evident when you watch highlights of the 1980s, a 1980s basketball game when they had the three-point line, but the game kind of ignored it. really ignored it back then. Everything was about getting that 15-foot shot or a layup. and you watch the game now, everybody's just so spread out. Steve: That's where Steph Curry comes in, and he's changed a lot of the [00:11:00] thinking. Reggie Miller did it before him. They changed the thinking of the game and, and now you realize, again, if you shoot 33% from three and you shoot 45% from two, I'll take the 33%. So because you're getting more, that's shooting 50% from two. That's just the way the game has changed. I, again, I don't know if I agree with it, but that's the way the game has changed Jose: Got it. Fair enough. Here's another guy who belongs in that conversation in a sense, 'cause he can shoot it from anywhere. That's James Harden. You called him out as a guy who's gotta have a big year. Age starts to get everybody at some point. He-- this'll be year 37 for him. Why James Harden, though? I think that there's other players on the Cavs that have gotta... And you called out another one. We'll get to him, Evan Mobley, in a minute. But why Harden? Steve: If he regresses, they're not good enough to do anything. Jose: Okay. Steve: they won't go far. Mitchell's great scorer, but [00:12:00] they need something else. And when they traded Darius Garland, I understood they didn't think they were good enough to be, a, a champion and they took a shot with Harden. But that's a window that's closing, where Garland's still young, unless they feel he was so banged up he couldn't play. But that's a big thing. And Harden, when you play with a guy like Donovan Mitchell, you gotta figure out and you have to understand that Mitchell's a better scorer. So you have to figure out how you can play within that. Now, if you watched the playoffs last year, and I'm trying to think of the game, but there was a couple close games at the end and Harden just ball dominant and Mitchell didn't touch the ball. There's a problem there. There's a problem because if you're going down, you're going down with your best player and Mitchell can play. So i- it... that didn't kinda e- and again, we talked about Embiid, it's another person who's gotta swallow a little bit of pride and be willing to become the distributor as well as a scorer. That's not an [00:13:00] easy thing to accept even though he is 37 and he's still putting up good numbers. But that's not an easy thing to accept. So there's a lot of things there. And think about this, Cleveland with Garland could be good for another... Mitchell just resigned, so they could be good for another three, four years. Mobley's young. They trade Garland. If Harden regresses, unless he's like old LeBron, he can play till he's 90 if Harden regresses, what do you got? Then you gotta break up a team and that's not a good thing. And, and at some point, by the way, Mitchell, if he sees the team be, not winning, he's gonna want out too. So y- you close the window a little bit. Th- that's not a good thing Jose: Yeah, fair enough. That, that explains the Harden situation. Guards are interesting. If we take LeBron as a one-off, there's not very many LeBron James, there never have been, and maybe never will be. But guards tend to fall off a cliff pretty quickly. Think of Chris [00:14:00] Paul. That happens for L- for, for James Harden, yeah I get your point. Let, let's stay in Cleveland. This guy is not old, this guy's not in danger of falling off a cliff, but you called him out, Evan Mobley. Now, this guy is interesting, and I'll tell you why. Again, I looked at the stats and I hate to go who's the coach who, who said statistically we were better, analytically we're better? Now it's escaping Steve: Kenny Atkinson. Kenny Atkinson Jose: go Kenny and sit on you, but look at Evan Mobley's statistic last season and the year before he was Defensive Player of the Year, he was number 10 MVP voting. Everybody said this, this g- he's arrived. Evan Mobley has arrived. Next season, his stats were the same. Same points, same blocks, everything was the same, but everybody says he regressed. it because everybody was expecting him to take another step? He had the same season, he didn't get any of the accolades Steve: Y- you expect and I'll [00:15:00] compare him with the guy in Atlanta, Johnson, who in, in, is in a similar place. You expect those people to be able to take the ball in a close game and do something, make a play. Mobley's not there. And he, he's the third wheel with Harden and Mitchell, but when y- they... People expect a superstar, and he's averaging 18 points. A lot of guys in the NBA are averaging 18 points. They know he can defend, but they also expected the other end and he's just not been as good as they hoped. Now, if he has a breakout where he's getting 23, 24 next year as a defender and a rebounder, they're in business. And don't forget, he's not getting banged around 'cause he's not the five, he's the four. Allen is getting, the one who's getting, you know, has to deal with the big people every night. So you expect way more out of him. When he came [00:16:00] into the league, everybody said, "This guy's gonna be the, the best guy in the draft and the best player," and all that nice stuff. It's time, you know, produce, and he's getting paid max money. It's time Jose: Fair enough. Yeah, so that, that's the call out. They expected him to be better and it's always tough when you don't meet Steve: Yeah Jose: Listen, you called it out and I Googled it. I'm gonna ask you, how many NBA players last season do you think averaged 18 play- 18 points per game or more? What's the number? Steve: 40 Jose: Ooh, so that's close. That's close to nine. Then I would've gotten 35 players average 35, thir- 18 points per game or more Steve: Yeah. Yeah. Jose: You got Steve: I could see that. If a guy aver- that, that's not a big deal, it's just not. That's the point, Jose: Yeah. Steve: Sal Jose: Yeah. No, I get it. I get it. I get it. They need more from him, even though, from a M- Evan Mobley fan here standing up for him, he does more than just score. Steve: No, he's a great defender. Great defender. But [00:17:00] Cleveland if this doesn't pan out, Cleveland's gonna be shaking that thing up. Guys are gonna go. Guys are gonna go, and I don't see how... i, I kinda like in, in a backward way, and not because of what he said, the stupid quote he made, but Kenny Atkinson could get himself in trouble early in the year if they don't get off well. Because you do have some offensive talent and you just, it, they expect more. They expect to be a team that's one of the top two or three seeds in, in, in the East, and I don't see that, but they expect it Jose: Fair enough. And it's always those unmet expectations that end coaches that don't end well and end up well for coaches. Let's move to the West. We've been talking about the East so far. is a guy who in Chet Holmgren, was having a really good season coming off a championship year, and then all of a sudden inexplicably just disappeared in the playoffs. He was just bad and he [00:18:00] just was baffling. So you called him out. Chet Holmgren has to learn from his mistakes and be better. I think OKC Thunder got a little bit of a chip on their shoulder. I think they're gonna be fine. What do you see? Where does, what does Chet Holmgren have to do better next season? Steve: They had to trade a couple guys that helped them they're not... But they're good. But Chet Holmgren, you're paying him max money. You don't take one shot. A- and it seemed like Wembanyama got in his head Jose: yeah, Steve: couldn't, he couldn't deal with it. And if you're good, and you're making that money, you gotta do something. Now, if you think back to when the season ended, there was talk, is he gonna get traded? And are they, have they had enough with him? I have to think if there's a replay of this year, there's gonna be talk about getting, getting rid of him. But I don't think his value will obviously decrease if he does it twice. But I, it just it boggles my mind watching the game and sitting there when they were playing San Antonio [00:19:00] and saying, "Wait a minute. Whatever... What happened to Holmgren? Is he playing?" Because he was just invisible. And there's a lot of guys in the NBA can be invisible and make a lot less money. It's nice to do it on, on, on Tuesday night against Memphis, but When everybody's watching is when you gotta come through and you're making that money Jose: Yeah, and when the lights shone the brightest, it's when Chet just seemed to disappear, which is odd 'cause this is a guy coming off of, a championship season. So it's still baffling to me. yeah, agreed with that one for sure. Now in the time we have left, the clock is winding down, staying in the West, called out Luka Dončić. Now the NBA we said the landscape has changed considerably. The Lakers have changed considerably. Luka Dončić is... has proven historically to be, the kind of guy who can lead your team, regardless of the team, to a 50-win season. you're calling him out [00:20:00] and ESPN called him out. They asked their writers which team is most likely to disappoint in the new season, and the Lakers got the most votes. what do you expect out of Luka this season? Steve: Well, first of all, he's gotta stay healthy. That means be in a better shape and, being able to go every night. Second thing I have a different take that I think I've mentioned it to you and maybe on the show, but I think the game is changing. And I don't know if Luka, his game is what the game is about nowadays. They want people who can run, shoot and, and defend. Luka can shoot as well as anybody, can't defend, and he can be a little bit of a head case at times. Now, he got everything he wanted. He's the number one guy. Everything's around him. But when you look at his team, you got him and Reeves. They're not good defenders. So [00:21:00] you got some problems right away. They can both score. They can both score a lot of points. And Luka's trying to be the leader. He flew everybody out to where he lives, Jose: Slovenia. Yeah Steve: yeah, Slovenia and brought 'em all out there and they're practic- whatever they, whatever these guys say they do in the winter, probably just playing games, scrimmaging, whatever. But they're trying to get it together and do all that, and that's all nice. And it... and Luka is perfect for LA because he's glitzy and, and he's great. But I don't know if his game is where the NBA's going. And that's an interesting thing, but the first thing he has to do is stay healthy before we even talk about his game and if it fits Jose: Yeah. Yeah, no doubt. I- I- it's gonna be very interesting season, very yeah, a very interesting season, Philly, 'cause I don't know how else to word it. Let's see if we can sneak in the final call-out. This is another guy who has to stay healthy and has had a real problem doing that since he's entered the NBA. That's Zion Williamson. I, I look at the Pelicans and I'm [00:22:00] just baffled. I don't see direction there. I don't know what that team is doing. So I'm confused by what's going on in New Orleans. But what do you see for Zion outside of, staying healthy? Let's say Steve: Obviously if he's healthy. Jose: water mark? Steve: th- that team there's talent. There's talent. I I don't know. They got the two young kids, Fears and Queen. They're nice players. They're gonna be okay. I don't know how good Queen, if he can defend. He didn't show much of that, but he can play, and Fears is a good point guard. He's gonna be a good point guard. And then you've got, Trey Murphy, who can play. You got some players here. And Jordan Poole who, he's got a good pedigree, although, I don't think he ever met a shot he didn't like. But he's a player. So you... And Yves Missi, the, the big man he's young and he's not a bad player. So you've got a good nucleus here. And if Zion is healthy, you got him and Murphy can score. Y- you're building something there that's pretty [00:23:00] good. But the question is, is Zion gonna be healthy? And you know what? Last year he lost a ton of weight, so I'm gonna give him credit, but I just don't know if his body is able to handle playing as much as he played. They kept him out of back-to-backs and so on. And once, once the player starts not playing back-to-backs, it's the beginning of a decline and Zion's done it at a young age. And I understand they don't want him to get hurt, but, y- you need your, you need all your troops when you go up against anybody. So it, it's a difficult thing. Like I said, he came in great shape last year, and he played a lot of games. But I just don't know if he can hold himself. And if he does, New Orleans, they could be an interesting team. They could fight for a play-in spot if everything falls right. Jose: Okay. Steve: talent Jose: Okay. Would love to see that for the fans in New Orleans and certainly for Zion. You didn't [00:24:00] hear it. We had, I think, technical issues on my part, but the, the buzzer did go off. Another shot clock violation in the books for us. But that is it. Our time is up. Thank you for listening. Thank you for watching. Make sure to read Steve's entire 13 Rules Random NBA Thoughts article. We'll link it wherever you're watching or listening to this show today to get all of Steve's thoughts on the seven players we discussed here today, and more. And make sure to join us next week we once again review his latest 13 Rules Random NBA Thoughts article. We'll talk then. Thanks, Steve Steve: Take care