Eastern Conference Shakeup Part 1: Sixers, Pistons, Knicks, Celtics & Heat Break Down Their Offseasons

Shotclock Pod June 21 2026 === Jose: ​[00:00:00] All right, it's time to talk basketball. 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. 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'll discuss his latest 13 Rules random NBA thoughts article, where he shares his random thoughts as the NBA, a real wild NBA, off-season continues. Now before we get into it if you're listening to us, thank you. We wanna let you know that you are listening to one of many independent fan-driven shows on the Peach Basket Podcast Network. We're not owned by a big media company, which means what you hear comes straight from real fans like Steve and I. If you believe, and if you're here, you've got to believe that voices like us should be heard. We appreciate it, and the best way to support us is simple. Keep listening, tell a friend comment, all that stuff means the world to us. And of course, when this [00:01:00] 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 like you at a time. All right. Thanks again for listening or watching. Steve, this week you did a deep dive into nine teams in the Eastern Conference and the changes they made this off-season. Then you threw in a special bonus 10th point. So we're gonna talk about that. Are you ready to talk about the changing landscape of the East Coast? Steve: Let's go Jose: Let's go. All right, I'm gonna start the timer, and we're off. All right. We're gonna go top to bottom with the, in the way you presented this, get through as many of these as we can. We start with the Philadelphia 76ers. This team on paper looks stacked. They look really good. You wrote that kinda there's two concerns, right? Health and figuring out that there's only one ball, right? Figuring out that problem is gonna be key, [00:02:00] but I wanna just call out the players here. 76ers added Jaylen Brown, Dean Wade, and Freddie Simons. That's an under the radar pick that's really pretty good for them, by the way. Th- that really at least here in the west, flew under the radar. That's a great pickup. Hook Porty and lost Paul George. H- what do you see? It's a weird team to figure out, right? Steve: If you do it on paper, they're as good as anybody. But my question becomes, and and it's not a knock on anybody or anything along that line, would a Maxi or a Jaylen Brown or an Embiid sacrifice being all NBA because they're not scoring what they should? Will Jaylen Brown be happy at the end of a game which with the Celtics he always had the ball? And again, Jaylen Brown likes to win, so that's not a knock in any way. The questions are they going to be able to adjust to having other guys, a group of other guys, VJ Edgecomb's only gonna get [00:03:00] better. they going to be happy when there's four guys that need the ball? And if they do and they can adjust to that, they're going to be pretty good. Defensively, they're not great at the guard spot Maxi and Edgecomb, and that means that have young legs to be able to be the rim protector. And he doesn't-- you know, he's not rebounding like he did or do any of that. So there's a lot of little questions, but talent-wise, if you put that team down anywhere, you'll find that they're, they're loaded Jose: Yeah. Yeah and I also wanna call out that anytime you have a team that's loaded like this, that on paper looks great you need a really good head coach, right? And I think they have that personally in Nick Nurse. I think that this is a guy if anybody can put this together, it's gonna be him. Steve: I'm gonna argue about that. Jose: let's go. Go ahead. What do you think? 'Cause he, he-- Steve: he Jose: this is Steve: he Jose: title winner. Exactly Steve: deserves all the credit in the world. [00:04:00] watched him in the playoffs and so on and I'm gonna cite one thing that stuck out in my mind when you said this. A couple years ago against the Knicks the playoffs, the Knicks scored, and I guess it was a one-point game with a few seconds left. Philadelphia took the ball out under the basket and threw it away, and the Knicks ended up winning the game. Now, in my mind, there's 10 seconds left and a team scores, you're still leading, call timeout and put the ball down the other end. So the, they, if there is a steal, you can defend and react. when he did that, and I just sat there and said, "This is an NBA coach." Now, there was other little things in a couple series I've watched where it hasn't not... His, I don't know, his brain, I don't know, didn't look as good. And now I'll give him credit, this year against Boston in game five, down by double digits in the second half, he decided, and Embiid hadn't played in the post the whole series, he [00:05:00] put him in the post. Boston had no answer for it. All they did was kept throwing the ball down to him. So I'll give him credit, but then when I saw that other thing that he wasn't good with, and I've seen a few other little things over the years that weren't great I'm mixed on it. And I don't know if he's a coach that's a relation builder. And that, that's another piece. I don't know. Because I do know at the end of Toronto, they tuned him out, and it was time for him to go. and that's my, my negatives and positives with Nick Nurse Jose: Yeah, that's fair. And I think, I'll call out y- what I think you need when you have a team like this is a coach who they're going to listen to. And you're gonna, by default, I think, listen to a coach who's won it all. At least, y- you're gonna tune him in initially. Now he starts doing too much wrong, to your point, like in Toronto, you're gonna stop listening to him. But you've got a coach in Nick Nurse who demands a little respect, at least initially. [00:06:00] We'll see now, Steve: so, but those Jose: right? Steve: been with him for a couple years, so who knows where they-- Outside of Jaylen Brown, they've been with him. So w-we'll see. Jose: We'll see Steve: if you talk about coaching, and just a brief thing, and I was, like, blown away. Mazzulla has spent this summer, he's gone out to Nebraska where Baylor Scheierman lives, and worked out with him and just spent a couple days with him. He's Jose: Wow Steve: where Hugo Sanchéz was playing playing for Madrid in this, whatever it is in the summer. He's gone to Portugal where Neemias Queta is, and spent time. Each of them, he spent a couple days with him. the other place he's gone is Jordan Walsh in Texas, in Dallas. Now, what does that do? Builds a trust between two Jose: Yeah, no doubt Steve: Mazzulla's purpose is to learn about their upbringing, and he needs to-- he wants to know all that when he's dealing with these people, and he wants them to know he's caring. Now, that's going to the nth degree. [00:07:00] I don't... great, but it's going to the nth degree. don't-- But I just think that when he gets on Neemias Queta next year, Queta's gonna look at that and he's gonna accept it. Jose: Yeah, of course. Steve: to get to know me. This Jose: Yeah Steve: cared about where I spent my time as a kid." So those kind of things build buyback from these players, and they will listen. I don't know what Nurse's relationships are, Being, again, that's the nth degree. Jose: Yeah. Now great call out. That's a great call out. And I think that goes to show that the job of a NBA coach is so much more than X's and O's. You gotta be good at that. But it's a mental thing. You've gotta connect with these guys. You've gotta, you've gotta, y- you gotta have them feel like y- you're with them, you're for them. And the whole mental thing, which Phil Jackson talked a lot about when he coached both Michael Jordan and the Bulls and the Lakers Steve: Don't forget, when Larry Bird coached Indiana for three [00:08:00] years, Rick Carlisle was his offensive coach And the defensive coach was Dick Harter. That means Bird was really more about relationships and getting people to play hard. So you can get X's and O's from anybody, Jose: Yeah Steve: people have to believe when you tell them something and execute it Jose: Boom. Boom. That's a big year for Nick Nurse, and obviously there's a lot riding on the Sixers. Let's see how things play out. It'll be interesting, for sure. Let's move to Detroit. The Detroit Pistons, listen, from, again, I, I'm the West Coast guy, Steve's an East Coast guy, so when I think of the Pistons, I think of a real feel-good story. This was a team that was really bad, and they got really good. No stars, they're just grinders. They're it's a fun team to watch play. I, for me I know some people don't like that style. I like it, I enjoy it, I and it's a feel-good story. But did they take a step back? You wrote the [00:09:00] Pistons added John Collins, great player. Taurean Prince, Gary Harris, strong vet. They lost Isaiah Stewart, Tobias Harris, a strong vet L- LeVert, and Sasser. And then Duren, we don't know what's gonna happen with Duren. So did they take a step back in Detroit? Steve: I, I think, yeah, they did. Even if, and Doran's probably gonna be back. But even if they-- With Doran, think about this, lost a guy. Harris was the guy that had the courage to shoot the ball at the end of games. Harris was the guy when things broke down, was the guy that made things happen. John Collins is a nice player. I don't know if he can come in and do the things that Ha- that Tobias Harris did. Doran had a horrible playoffs, and that's why they're haggling over money right now. Jose: Yeah Steve: the biggest loss is to me, Isaiah Stewart. He's the whole... He was like the heart and soul. And it-- when things were going bad, he was out there. And if some- one of his players got picked on, everybody in the NBA is scared of Isaiah Stewart. Jose: Beef stew[00:10:00] Steve: off. Yeah, LeBron backed off from him a couple years Jose: Yeah Steve: Everybody knows this guy, he's a boxer. He, he just, he'll kick ass, let's put it that way. So when he gets involved, everybody backs away, and he's gone. So they've made some steps. I don't quite understand it because they were close, and they still are pretty good. And again, if a Sarah Thompson comes along as an offensive player if, they could be okay. They had something beautiful there, and they just let it go Jose: Yeah. Yeah. It's it, I don't know what to make of it. Es- especially losing, somebody who... Th- there's always one or two players on your team that kind of, n- not are the face, right? Cade Cunningham is a face. That's who you promote when you have a Pistons game. But Isaiah Stewart was the guy who epitomized what the Pistons basketball style was like. Would you f- That's fair, right? And yeah, to move on from him seemed a little surprising. Steve: A, a lot of it, before you do it, a lot of it goes back to money. And they, [00:11:00] again, Harris didn't get the money he wanted. Second apron, I, I guess they're close to the second apron. I'm not sure on that. But, and they don't wanna go there, and they Jose: Yeah. Steve: to pay Durrant Jose: Yeah. Yeah, and we've talked a lot about that Sacred Apron, what it's doing and it's just it's altering a lot. Yeah, th- there's some real problems and we're stuck with it for another two seasons as I understand, but Steve: till 29 Jose: Yeah. We'll see if something changes there, but all so a little change in Detroit. We'll see if they can bounce back. Let's talk about the defending champion, the feel-good story of last season for everybody in New York, the New York Knicks lifted the banner first time in, since '70, I think, or something like that, '71 or something. So w- I'm gonna ask the question, have the defending champs done enough to defend? Now, th- double-edged sword here, to defend their title and to defend on the court because they lost Mitchell Robinson, right? A phenomenal defender. Ariel Hukporti, [00:12:00] I'm not familiar, very familiar with his game, but they lost him. They picked up Andre Drummond, that to me is, a synonym for Mitchell Robinson. There's a lot of similarities in their games, I think. What do you think? Did they do enough to defend their championship and to defend on the court? Steve: The one thing or two things maybe, but Robinson has over Drummond was, and I think he demonstrated in the playoffs last year, he can guard anybody. He can move and guard people. I don't know if Drummond can go out and guard a two or, a two guard or whatever. That's the one area, and that's a big thing. So Drummond, in that way Drummond will give them... he's tough he's physical, does all those good things close to the basket. Good rebounder. Great rebounder, really. They're not losing as much. And Drummond usually plays where Mitchell Robinson has been in and out over the years and has had Jose: Good point Steve: 30 games. So those are factors. But Robinson he can't shoot a foul shot, but he can do so many interesting [00:13:00] things that can bring a team home that it... I don't know if it's a-- it's not a good deal. And I think the Knicks they were fortunate last year, not a lot of injuries. If you go look at Anunoby's history, he's always been hurt. Last year he really wasn't. Bridges hasn't missed a game in forever. Something's, brunson naturally, he just got his wrist operated on they were fortunate health-wise. They've had a lot of breaks. I'm not wishing any bad luck on any team. But what I'm saying is, to make the run, they had to get a lot of things working, and they had them. And that's not gonna be an easy thing. Even Robinson was healthy much of the year, and he's, he's 50/50 all the time. He doesn't play back-to-backs and so on. So you're asking a lot. I think it's difficult. Plus, the East is better than it's ever been. They've picked up a lot of players coming in this year that are good players into the East, and that's gonna make it better also Jose: So I'm gonna ask you straight up, we haven't had a defending NBA champion in a while. Are we going to [00:14:00] next season or the next def- no? You didn't even let me get the words out. Steve: I, th- there's-- I, I don't see it. I... Jose: Okay Steve: Don't forget San Antonio will be a year older, and Tobias Harris will help them mature a little bit. Oklahoma City's not a happy team right now. Right away you got those two. If everything works right with Philadelphia, you got a third. I-i-i, so th- there's teams in the way. And I think in the next team we're gonna talk about we'll get into something on that too. But go ahead. I'm sorry Jose: No, it's a great segue. Let's let's go to it. A team you know a little bit about, the Boston Celtics. Last season, the Celtics' catalyst was Jaylen Brown. Undeniable, right? He put that team on his shoulders, and he led them to a really good season. 100% unexpected. Everybody saw it. Everybody knew it. It was undeniable. He's gone. What? He's gone. Boston Celtics lost Jaylen Brown. They picked up Mitchell Robinson, Mike Conley, and Paul George. What [00:15:00] do we make of the Boston Celtics? Steve: before we do, and as time goes on, you begin to think things-- try to think things more clearly. I wanna say something. The Boston trade of Brown, I understand Brown is much better, and I'm not a defender of Brad Stevens or not, although he's done a great job through the years. What Br- what Stevens seemed to be doing in my mind was, A, I know he's gotta pay Paul George for two more years. we'll get to. but he realizes to win in the NBA, if you're gonna put it together, you can't go with two guys making 35%. So he knows he's gotta make a move, and he had to do it now. People say why didn't you wait?" Would've been eligible, I don't know the exact date, I think somewhere in July, where he would've been eligible to get two more years tacked on. You're gonna do that for 70 mil? So he had to do that because Brown knows he's being traded and now he's not gonna pay [00:16:00] me. What is it? You got a problem. So he made that deal. I'm not gonna say Paul George is the answer 'cause he's not. However, two things. Paul George can shoot and Paul George is never available. But if he can shoot and he can defend, so you got something there. But more importantly, if he plays out the year There's going to be a bad team that'll take the salary for-- You have to throw a draft pick in, but now rid of 57 million. Think about what you can go out and sign. Jose: Yeah Steve: So what Brad Ste-- And he's re-restructuring his team is what I'm saying. Because now he can go out and get a free agent next year and maybe pay 30 million who can play and will complement Tatum and look at what you got. Now, Boston, what do I expect? They're gonna-- they're not gonna win as many as last year, but they will be a better team because the East is [00:17:00] better. Jose: Yeah Steve: will help when he's available, and you gotta realize what Missoula did, Queta, Shireman, Ugo, Gonzalez, Harper, all these guys, Jordan Walsh, they were fr- they were guys who'd never played, and they played key roles in a team doing well. Now they're a year older, so they're Jose: 嗯 Steve: So they're not that far off. And again, who knows during the year if you can deal, and I'll just throw it out. What if the Nets come along and say, "You know what? We'll take we'll take Paul George. You need to take Porter, and you gotta give us a draft pick, a number one pick." Now you put Porter with Boston and what happens? You got a pretty good team. Jose: Yeah. Steve: a lot of factors here that are involved. Boston right now is not championship material, but that can change because that, that Paul George thing is a wild card. I know Brad Stevens will restructure the team. [00:18:00] Queta just got 16 million. Pritchard will be getting paid too because he's the most underpaid guy in the NBA. So that's some of the cap money is gonna go to them when Paul George is gone. But th-th-there's a, an avenue where they can restructure it and become good again, real good again. Contenders is my point Jose: So ~i- am I fair,~ is it fair to say that your ~your I don't know your~ announcement to Boston fans is it's okay, be patient. Because your r- your initial ~f- your, y- the initial ~reaction was shock and anger. I think a little bit of anger. But now that the dust has settled, you'll be like, "It's okay. We're gonna be all right." Steve: Stevens hasn't taken Boston down a bad road since. So you Jose: That's fair. Steve: him that. Jose: All right Steve: give him that. And when you really start looking at it again, and I don't wanna get into the weeds about that, that res- the CBA, con- you know, the ba- the bargaining agreement. I don't wanna get into the weeds about that, but you understand how it does. It's almost if you take a team, okay, you need a star, top 10 player. They [00:19:00] got him, Tatum. as long as he's healthy. Now, you've gotta structure a team where, and start thinking about this, let's use 200 million. Tatum's getting 70. You got 130 million to spread out among 14 guys. It's not a lot of money. Or 13 guys, whichever way you wanna do it. So now you've gotta structure, "Okay, am I gonna pay, I'll pay another guy 30, maybe two guys 30, we've gotta go from there." And it gets hard. So he's trying to restructure how they do business and put a team together Jose: Trust the process, trust the guy. I got it. Yeah. All right. Fair enough. Let's see how things play out. Might be a little bumpy for Boston next season, but the future looks bright. You heard it here first. Let's talk about... Steve: One Jose: Oh, go ahead. Steve: think NBA fans, everybody looks at the talent on the g- in, on the court and all that stuff, and that is most important obviously. But you do need to begin to understand a little bit about the car- the bargaining [00:20:00] agreement, because that's why teams are making these wacky trades Jose: Yeah, the business of basketball is front and center in the off-season as it always is, and it's a bummer, but it is what it is. Let's talk about the team that won the off-season, right? The biggest fish, if you will, was Giannis, and he landed in Miami. They won free agency. Yay. But do they have enough around Giannis? Let's read what you wrote here. Miami Heat made the big trade. They got Ata Manekemp and Bobby Portis. They gave up Tyler Herro, Claude Ware, Jaime Ja- Jaquez, who I like Kasparas Jagucionis, I am not familiar with his game and... and okay, and numerous draft picks. They also lost Norman Powell to free agency. So now that the dust has settled, let me ask it straight up. They got the big fish. Do they have enough? Steve: How many guys do you need to play a basketball game? Jose: At any point in time, d- five right on court? Steve: Okay. You got [00:21:00] Wiggins and you got those two, Adebayo and Giannis. What else you got? Davion Mitchell? Yeah. Okay. Jose: He's a good player Steve: More of a bench player, but yeah, on a good team. Jose: Yeah. Steve: Who else? Jose: I-- Steve: Nicole and Jose: got Pat Riley. Pat Riley, they got Pat Riley Steve: He hasn't played in about 50 years. Jose: Okay. Steve: I, like Giannis is great. Adebayo's a very good player. You need to build some shooters around him. They did sign Hardaway. You need to build some shooters, he can shoot. What you're finding in the NBA, the teams that win usually can now have eight players a coach can trust. And notice what I said, trust. A lot of teams you'll know right away if a coach trusts them in the playoffs because you'll see a guy go in and he'll make a mistake, and within a second, hi- the coach will pull him. Guy-- when a coach trusts him, he's leaving him out there [00:22:00] after the mistake. So a lot of teams might use eight players, but they really trust five or six. Heat players can you really trust? That's the question. And for Giannis to be good, Hardaway's a shooter. You better get a couple more because I know they got some old Fontecchio, and he can shoot, but, eh, he's limited. He's limited defensively and in every other way. That's why he's a minimum player, mi-minimum salary player. So y-you need more. I Jose: Yeah Steve: this team is gonna be... again, add up, how are they gonna score 100 points or 120 points on a night? Adebayo's not getting 83, so where are you getting them? Just, Jose: Bam will get the 83. That's easy. Steve: what I said. But yeah, but I don't think he's gonna do it every night. Giannis Jose: got it. Steve: 30. Bam is what? About a 17, 18-point lifetime Jose: Yeah. Steve: gives you 50 points. What are you gonna-- Where are you getting the other 50? Wiggins will get about 15. Jose: Yeah Steve: Hardaway will probably get 10 'cause he'll be coming o- should be coming off the bench. [00:23:00] And defensively, you're not, outside of Bam and Giannis, you don't have a great defense. Jose: Yeah Steve: but, there's a lot of issues here. So I don't see them having, they could end up a play-in team Jose: Wow. I'd be a mi- re- remiss, is that the right word? I think if I don't call out that you're putting a lot of credit or faith really in, in Brad Stevens understandably Steve: yeah Jose: If I'm a Miami guy I'm gonna push back and say, "Man, I got more faith in Pat Riley. He's been doing it since the '80s," right? So do we not have faith that Pat Riley can build a really good roster around Giannis? Steve: Of course we do, but it's the old thing, what have you done lately? Jose: Ooh. Yeah. Okay Steve: Brad's had a good couple years where Pat, he struggled for the last couple years. Riley is sp- believes in that star system. Get stars, you win. But the game is changing, and again, I'm going [00:24:00] back to the CBA, that's changing a lot of things. So I don't know if you need three stars or two stars. I don't know if you need that. So I, the game's changing. Riley could be right, but I put my money on more of what Stevens is trying to do. He didn't do it yet, but he's trying to do Jose: Got it. No good call out. You heard the buzzer go off. We got through five of the 10. I'm gonna make a suggestion here. We got five more to talk about in the East. Let's talk about them next week, just so that we-- 'cause normally what we would do is we'd just invite you to, read the articles, Steve's article, get the rest of the story. But you're okay, Steve. Can we talk about the other five next week? Steve: way you wanna go. Jose: I think that makes sense. But before we leave Miami, there was a, an interesting story. I found it interesting. You brought up Hardaway, good player, good shooter. He's worn number 11 in teams where he, 10 wasn't available. He gets to Miami, 10's not available. It's up in the rafters because his dad played there. [00:25:00] And he goes to dad and says, "I'd like to wear number 10." Pop says, "No." He's-- initially, right? He said, "No, that's staying up there. You build your own legacy." And I get that. I understand it. Then I think a day or two later did Mom get involved? What happened? 'Cause Tim Hardaway Jr. said, "Listen, I think that was my dad's knee-jerk, and then we connected as a family," and all of a sudden the jersey's coming down. What do you think happened there? I think it's interesting Steve: I it... Tim Hardaway over the last couple years, Senior, Tim Hardaway Senior, has said some things that are a little out there, and I think he misses being part of the game. And I think he initially said, "This is my connection to the game. I don't want people to forget that." But as time went on, if that were me, I'd be honored to see my son wear that, Jose: 100%. Steve: So I, Jose: Yeah. Steve: that got to him and he figured it out. Jose: Yeah. Steve: It's just a logical... I understand the first thought, but then the second thought, "My God, my son," how good is that? Jose: Yeah Steve: And Hardaway was a [00:26:00] great player in his day Jose: Oh, yeah. Oh yeah. The Golden State team that he was a part of. The... I don't think of him as a Miami Heat player, I'll be honest with you. Those Run DMC teams were phenomenally fun to watch. Steve: Run TMC Jose: th- I... yeah. Steve: That's right. Jose: about the rap group that they were named after, essentially. But yeah, no, it, it's fun to talk about the human side. We, we talk about the CBA, we talk about the business side. During the off-season, that's pr- or r- pr- relevant because that's all we have to talk about. So it's nice to talk about a little human story here, and this one really struck me, and I'm, I'm glad we got to, to kinda whittle, whittle that one in at the end here. But that's it. Our shot clock went off. We have another shot clock violation. We talked about five of the 10 NBA teams in the East that Steve called out in his article. We'll link that wherever you're watching or listening to this show. We're gonna talk about the other five next week. Make sure to join us then. But again, that's it. Our time is up. Thank you for listening. Thank you for watching. Make sure to read Steve's entire "13 Rules" article. Not just this one, read them all, and they're all available at thePeachBasket.net. Lots of good wisdom, lots [00:27:00] of good reads. And join us next week for more NBA Random Thoughts. We'll talk again then. Thanks, Steve Steve: Thanks