Giannis Antetokounmpo Trade Talk, Luka–Redick Drama, Rookie of the Year Race and more

Untitled project from SquadCast === ​[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, who just got Jayson Tatum back. We'll talk about that today from a lifelong fan, Steve, that pod will drop new episodes every Monday. This is the shot caught pod, the best 24 minutes of NBA thoughts online. Anywhere the podcast was born out of the content in Steve's 13 rules, random BA Thoughts articles which he publishes weekly. Steve and I have exactly 24 minutes to discuss what's on his mind. Or on the NBA today we'll discuss his latest 13 rules, random BA thoughts article where he shares his random thoughts after week 20, which includes a little S nugget on Jayson [00:01:00] Tatum. Let's see. Oh yeah, if you've gotten this far, please subscribe, comment, all that stuff means the world to us, and we're grateful for all of it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Steve. Are you ready? Let's go. Clock is ticking. All right. We'll start with the Charlotte Hornets. They the Clippers, right? Started off abysmally and then they had a resurgence and they've been looking really good. I know they're coming off a loss, but you did a little deeper dive into the hornets hot streak. Tell us a little bit about that. What's been the secret sauce there? Steve: First of all, it's a little bit different in the Clippers because they've got. Young talent. Brandon Miller is really a good ball player. When all ball is finally figuring out how to play as a with a team miles, bridges can play. They're getting something from Dia Center, who's playing can defend and do things, and most importantly is Con Kniple, who's really. everything together for them. So they've got talent and it's young talent, [00:02:00] which means they're gonna be a rising team in the Eastern Conference over the next couple years, which is odd to say because they usually stink, to be honest with you, Charlotte, Jose: Yeah. Steve: they've got a future. Unless something crazy happens and they can keep these guys signed and happy and they're willing to spend money, they're gonna be fine. They started out 16 and 28. Charles Lee, who was, a pretty considered a pretty good assistant coach. They hired him two years ago and they struggled last year. And this year they struggled to start supposedly. He and lamella Ball had a little, where he started benching him in tough games. And I think grew up a lot from that and handled it the right way. And improved his game. And since that 16 and 28, what is it? 16 and four. Jose: Yeah. Steve: and the interesting thing is they won six in a row until they lost to Miami the other night. every game, every one of those [00:03:00] games were blowout wins. Closest game in that stretch was a 16 point win over Portland. That means every, everybody else they beat was greater than 16 point wins. So it's really that's dominance if you think about it. They've got something going and it's gotta get better because of the youth. Jose: Yeah. And it can't get any worse, right? You nailed it, right? The hornets have been bad for a very long time and there's one thing to be stuck in the middle, right? Where you're, good enough to make the playoffs, you're not good enough to win it all, but not bad enough to get a, top draft pick. The Hornets have just been, a little lower than that. They, this has just been a not good franchise. They've been terrible. Apologies to Charlotte, but this is good to see. Steve: Nobody I'm gonna think right now, I think they're 10th, which means if they do make the playoffs, they have to make it the hard way and they'd only play the first seat. Jose: Yeah. Steve: I don't think any of the [00:04:00] teams wanna see them in a playoffs series. Because they're dangerous. They're really dangerous 'cause they can shoot and they play hard and they def defend, try to defend. They're not as great defensively, but they're good. And so you put it all together and you got a young team on the rise. Nobody wants to see that because it'll be work to put them away. Jose: Yeah. And you got it right. Yeah. They had 32. 32 currently intense. So they're in the play in, they're about three games out of moving up into the actual playoffs. Steve: If they get to eighth or seventh. Then they can play the second place team as well as the first place team. It, it makes it a little bit better for them. It, it don't forget, in, in the Eastern Conference, there's five teams that are already Milwaukee's not, but they're close to packing it in. Meaning they're all playing for the lottery. Jose: Yeah. Steve: They're just about in unless something crazy happens. Jose: Yep. Good for Charlotte. I think [00:05:00] it's good for basketball. I haven't watched a single Hornets game this season I'll be honest with you, but I'm excited to watch him play. Steve: They're fun to watch. They're a good Jose: Yep. Steve: I've Jose: You get that sense. Steve: in the. Jose: You get that sense? I'm excited to watch him. Alright. Interestingly, you mentioned, lamella Bowl, arguably the best player on that team. He and his coach had a little, dust up and it worked. That relationship between the coach and the player, the best player on your team, super, super important. You've gotta have a mind Mels between 'em. You gotta have some synergy. It's important we say that because you wrote about a little dust up that. Luca Duch, the best player in the Lakers had with his coach. Now JJ Reddick has come out and said, ah, it was nothing. It's normal. It's no big deal. Which is what coaches always say when stuff like this happens. I imagine PJ Carimo said that about Latrell SPI whale, ah, it's no big deal. He just grabbed my neck. It's fine. Everything's okay. But if there's more here, that's a problem for the Lakers, right? Steve: What are they saying? Out in [00:06:00] la Jose: I. Steve: they make a big thing outta this? Jose: No it's honestly nothing. When it happened, certainly there was a lot of talk about it and people said, oh, it must be something. It's gotta be something. But then JJ Reddick came out and said, no, it's nothing. And you take JJ Reddick at his word. I Steve: he's gonna deny it, of course. Jose: sure. Steve: he's a player. He is a former player, so he gets the whole game. But. I guess the underlying piece to this is that the player, the star players got more say than the coach. And I'm not talking about during the game, I'm talking about in the, with the hierarchy. And you don't wanna cross them. The most important thing you can do as an NBA coach is develop a strong relationship with your best player or Jose: Yeah. Steve: Whatever the case may be. Reddick thing is interesting. I think I've talked a little bit about this because new ownership, you don't know what they wanna do. Are they going to, there was, they hired Bennett Dick [00:07:00] Bennett's son to, run this, not run, but be part of the draft team. He's a former coach though. He was a college coach. You don't know who knows who within the hierarchy and so on. You wonder about it. I, to me, I think JJ Reddick is a. Very innovative, bright coach. Jose: Yeah. Steve: the Lakers would make it a major mistake, but you don't know there, there's a lot more to it mean relationships and things like that different people that it could change it. So who knows on this? And Luca, they just got him for a couple more years. He's not an easy guy to coach. Let's let, that's the best way to put it. He's, what is it? He needs one more technical and he has to sit out a game. still barking at referees, he's still walking up the court, to defend. And he barks at him and it, nothing's Jose: Yeah. Steve: and nothing will change in his world. So that's a difficult person to coach. And now Jose: Yeah. Steve: that with LeBron, who's not an [00:08:00] easy guy to coach. it's not an easy situation. So we'll see what happens. Jose: So I'm gonna ask you something. You've watched the game for a long time. You just said that. The best player leads the team, right? And that's true, right? I think when it's a conversation between the best player and the coach, oftentimes the best player's gonna win. When did that change? Was Bill Russell the best player, arguably in those teams, did he stand up to to who's the dude who smoke the cigar? All of a sudden, the name, it didn't happen, right? Steve: Red aach. But no, you didn't. I, that's a good question. I think with the advent of more money and the ridiculous amount of money the players are making, and to put an exact year, pat Riley coached into the, into the two thousands, right? And was always the boss, and that's the way it is. Jose: Yeah. Steve: but I think it depends on the organization. I think even now Riley will back bolster for different things, but [00:09:00] depending on the organization. But I guess over the last 20 years or so, things began to change and if you have a big time player with free agency, you don't wanna lose him. Obviously talent wins and I think back in the day, in my young days. Coaches people thought the coaches had more in the game than the player. We've learned differently over those years, Jose: Now. Steve: that means you get the best players, not the best coach. Get the best players. Jose: Yeah. I'll tell you my, my, my first memory of it was the eighties Lakers. Paul Westhead Steve: Yeah. Jose: the Lakers, right? And he was very innovative and he started changing up things and the Lakers were winning at the time. Steve: Right. Jose: Paul Westhead said, nah, I'm gonna have, I'm gonna have, I'm gonna have my point guard. Norm Nixon, at the time, my favorite Los Angeles Laker, I'm gonna have him set some picks down low at the post. Guard didn't move down there. Norm Nixon was like, what is going on [00:10:00] here? He just changed everything. Magic Johnson wanted to just run. So Magic said, I, no, I'm not gonna do this. Next thing you know, Paul Westhead is out. And that, that was my first recollection of kind of a player standing up to a coach and the coach getting out of there. Steve: The modern coach and I'm gonna use Joe Missoula. He gets it and he gets it in the way that he takes part like when players have some. Family thing, whatever he's involved. He's there, he goes. He's, Jose: That's cool. Steve: what the modern coach needs to do to build some sort of rapport with these people. Jose: Yeah. Steve: it's not like it used to be where the coach says jump and players jump. And the co and by the way, and think about it, how many times do you think LeBron in a huddle was told, they're gonna run this play, and LeBron no, we're not. We're gonna do this. And who do Win? Yeah. So that's where the change is. And everybody wants LeBron, so they're gonna do what he says. Jose: Yep. Yep. [00:11:00] That is the kind of the evolution OO of the game. Let's talk about Missoula's team. They got, and we've been talking about this on this show all along, if the Celtics can, hold their head above water at the start of the season, they get Jayson Tatu back, it could be great. Not only did they hold their head above water. They're great. They'res a very good basketball team, and now they've got a very good basketball player not coming off the bench. He started in his first game back, so I still haven't seen any highlights of it. Tell us a little bit about what Chase and Tatum back means for the Celtics and how he looked in his first game. Steve: He started the first quarter, terrible. I think he was over for six. And he was nervous. And I think there just, everything was not good. in the, he got a couple of cysts early, but in the second quarter there was a missed shot and he came from the weak side and just grabbed it and put it back in, dunked it back then, earlier in the game, he missed a dunk. He didn't get up high enough and you start wondering, does his feet, does he still have trouble? that was something that you saw early, but then [00:12:00] by the time in the second half he hit a three from the corner, deep in the corner. It was really big time. So then you started saying, Hey, this guy can play if still can play and he still got something and he almost had a triple double 15, 12, 7. Jose: Right. Steve: That pretty good. And he only played, what, 30 minutes? I don't even know the minutes. But he didn't play like Jayson Tatum did. as for the Celtics. You have to understand they lost Drew Holiday. They lost pingus, although he never, he was always hurt. They lost Horford, who was a big factor in that team. And Luke Cornett, who was another factor in that team. They've replaced them with Kada, who's become a legit center. Jose: Yeah. Steve: They've replaced him with a bunch of guys like Shiman and Hugo Gonzalez have replaced holiday, not as good. but they're adequate and they can defend and you've got enough points coming, so you are okay with that. [00:13:00] so they're pretty good now, if I would, I'd say they're dangerous. And to win, to get to the finals, they have to go through the Knicks. That isn't easy. Jose: Yeah. Steve: what I'm trying to say on that is with the Knicks the Knicks have more talent right now. It would be a tough season and it's very important that Boston can hold on to second place 'cause they'd have the home court and that might be a factor, but it would be a difficult uphill climb to beat them. I really think, and Detroit's struggling right now, but I really think if Detroit finishes first. It's opportune for everybody. For Boston Cleveland, not the Knicks. 'cause the Knicks struggle with Detroit. But for Jose: Yeah. Steve: to finish fourth. Because if you finish fourth, the Knicks are on the side and they're, you can worry about them in the next round. Because I think Detroit is not really as good as what, as what people think. Struggling. Like I said last night, [00:14:00] they blew a game to the Nets, They're struggling and that, that's my take. But I just think that Nicks have more talent and they're starting to figure it out, and that's dangerous. Jose: Yeah. Yeah. The east has always been a little bit of a wild west, right? Coincidentally. And now with the, with this, the Celtics at number two, currently at number two, getting Jayson Tana back it just makes it wilder. It's gonna be, it's gonna be a lot of fun. The calves right now are in that number four spot. Do you see him holding onto it? Steve: I think they can, you know what, I think there's a lot of questions here. I think they need to figure out the Knicks have always owned them. And they need to figure that one out. Jose: Yeah, Steve: James Harden doesn't play well in the playoffs those are factors. Mitchell's great and Jose: Yeah. Steve: I think they're good. They're flat out good because they're getting harden on the court. Garland wasn't on the court, Jose: Yeah. Steve: it's a major. Difference. Yeah. They're dangerous. They're a dangerous [00:15:00] team. I would rank them, if I were to rate the teams, I would say to the third best team in the East, Jose: Behind. Steve: the Nicks in Boston. Jose: So the number one team in the east is your fourth best team. Steve: I don't, and Detroit's now coming down a little bit. I just don't think they're well-rounded. How's that? The best way to put it. They Jose: Okay. Steve: offensive firepower besides k, K didn't play last night. They're in trouble when he doesn't play. Thompson's been hurt, don't forget they lost two shooters in Hardaway and Baisley and Baisley, and Jose: Yeah. Steve: up one shooter, Duncan Robinson. If you ask me, take both the guys they lost before. I'll take Duncan Robinson. So With the three. You watch them play and teams don't even guard Ron Holland they guard him when he gets in the paint. But in other words, when he hits, gets the ball up top, they don't go near him.[00:16:00] They let him shoot 'cause he's a 27, 20 8% shooter. So you have to have Tatum and Brown to do well. And I'm using Boston because it's a good example. You need everybody able to shoot on the perimeter. If one guy can't, the defense can drop. And that changes the whole thing. Jose: Yeah. Steve: So that takes away Cade Cunningham's game when a Holland or someone like that is on the court. And that's, those are things that people don't see. And Cade Cunningham's really good. And if you get him what guy's space that can shoot, he becomes much better. I think Detroit's got a lot of flaws. Jose: Yeah. Steve: tough, they're physical, but. They're not, they're a good team, but I don't know if they in talent rank up Jose: Yeah. Steve: I just talked about. Jose: Interesting. And those little flaws are generally exposed in the playoffs, right? That's where the little flaws become big flaws. Yeah. Alright. Fair enough. Outstanding. Let's shift focus [00:17:00] here. You wrote about the NBA rookie race. It was a clear. It, it was not really a conversation. It was Cooper flag right from the start up until recently, and now Keppel is probably I don't know. I love the way you put it here, right? Because I think this encapsulates it really well, and I agree. If you're voting for who impacted their team and has been more effective, it's conal. If you're voting for who will be the better player in their career, it's flag. So it comes down to what do you want, which player? It's a toss up right now. What do you think? Steve: It is a toss up. I think that the has got unlimited potential. Jose: Yeah. Steve: with a team that's really just thrown in the towel. But what's really interesting, K Nipple is part of a group I flag is the group. If you Jose: Wow. Steve: If you watch Dallas play, it all goes around. it goes around Flag K, nipple's smart. He'll get himself into spots and get himself open and he can shoot. he's [00:18:00] not the cog like, like flag is flag. Just flag has got, and some people are comparing Kniple to Barry Bird. No. I believe Flag is got some birdlike quality. He doesn't shoot as well as Bird did. But he can do a lot of the things that Bird can do. He can rebound well, he's a better defender. Not as good a shooter as I said but he's got those all around qualities. And if I'm gonna pick somebody, I'm gonna, I'm, I know that he's played 12 less games than Ken Nipple. He's been hurt a Jose: Yeah. Steve: I got it. But I just I look at Flagg in, in five years, if he doesn't get it, people say, how the hell did he not get it? Because he should be, just a franchise player. Jose: When we talk about the MVP and I, I talked about this in, in, in Run It back another show we do last week about how the MVP is super subjective. Is it the best player on the best team? Best score? What is it? Silly? But we oftentimes do talk about the best player. The MVP [00:19:00] should be on a good. The best. The MVP is not gonna be, somebody who's on Sacramento Kings, apologies to the Kings, but we don't usually hear that argument with the rookie of the year. Now, if we do Continental, he is on the better team Steve: Yeah, Jose: Does that matter? It should, shouldn't it? Steve: I, no because let's compare what, what Dallas has and what and what. And what Charlotte has think about it now. You got Brandon Miller's a player. You got anybody outside of Flag who can match? Brandon Miller? you have anybody outside of Flag on Dallas that can match La Melo Ball? Do you have anybody on Dallas who can, do you see where I'm Miles, bridges? These are players, Jose: Yeah. Steve: you don't, if you were to pick teams, you might get flagged. Might go first, maybe, but then the next three or four picks are all Charlotte. So it's not comparable. The one thing that I will say, if he [00:20:00] goes under 65 games, he doesn't, and to me, I know they're making a big thing about the 65 games. What I'm gonna say to you is this, if you only played 60 games, you shouldn't be voted for, you missed 25% of your games. Jose: Yeah. Steve: If you miss that, how could you impact winning? If you've missed that many games. So if you're gonna look at that, I cannot understand if Knip, if Flagg gets under the 65, I can understand Knippel getting it. but otherwise I just I think Cooper Flagg is it's fun to watch and he's really a player. Kn nipple's gotta be set up by his teammates to do things. Flag can do it by himself. Jose: Okay. Interesting. I can't remember the last time we had a rookie of the year race like this, which is it? It is it, I don't know. It's exciting maybe. Yeah. Bird bird magic. Maybe going way, way back. Steve: Yeah. Jose: All right, let's finish with, we got a couple minutes. Clock is winding down, but I wanna talk about the [00:21:00] magic now. You when they made their trades, the off season, we were high on this team. You were. I was. But right now they're just in the middle. They're 34, 28 coming in six right now in the east. And they've really underperformed what went wrong in Orlando. Steve: There's a lot of issues. I think Jamal Mosley, who did a great job until this year and now he's coming under, under pressure and nobody wants to see him lose his job, however. When your best star says teams are adjusting at halftime, we don't really adjust to their adjustments. He's That's Paul Paolo, Ben Jose: A hundred percent. Steve: taking a shot at him. And here we go again with the star player and the whole thing now, and Jose: Yep. Steve: throw something off to the side, is Paul the star he's having not as good a year. And let me just throw this one out. What happens if he got traded for Giannis after the season? But let's leave that. Let's Jose: Okay. Steve: it's an interesting thought, but now what I'm going to say about [00:22:00] it is Mosley didn't take it and he came back at Paulo and said the one adjustment Detroit made is they play harder. About that. And that's a shot back. He isn't taking that crap from this kid. Jose: Yep. Steve: It's a real interesting question. Now, does Orlando wanna settle down and have bank Carroll for the next 10 years? Probably. And if they do, you gotta do something here and that's where it is. And a year or two ago, and Orlando was beginning their rise. Cole Anthony made a statement along the line. He's not there anymore, but he made a statement. All we all like each other. We like playing together. Jose: Yeah. Steve: That's not there anymore, obviously. Jose: Just in under the buzzer. That's why I was so quiet for those of that are listening and out watching. Outstanding. Well done. I've always, we're gonna go over anyway 'cause [00:23:00] I gotta talk about this. Liking the players you play with is great. It's nice, you wanna show up to work and enjoy the people you work with, but is it's overrated, man. If you, I don't have to like you to win, right? What's the, it's just a nice cherry on top, isn't it? If you like each other Steve: if you think about it, if you like playing with each other, you help each other. And I think you, you go back to something that's really important in, in any walk, character is very important. And in, in this case when a player, and I know he is frustrated, he's not playing real well, Ben Carroll but you shut your mouth. You don't take a piece of somebody else when you're not doing well. Jose: Yeah. Steve: I don't know what that quite says about him. He's still young. He's not mature enough yet, but it doesn't say good things. And like I said, character is always, the best thing you can have and Jose: Yeah. Steve: know I don't know if that's what's missing. Teams will [00:24:00] overachieve when they like each other and they like playing together and they're in sync with the coach. And teams will underachieve when they don't like each other and they don't like their coach. So that's my answer to that. And generally, you gotta understand, we all root for the laundry, meaning we root for the team name on the jersey. These guys are looking at their next contract, these If I can make X amount of money, I'll never have to work. Or I can play for the rest of my and do whatever I want. Jose: Yeah. Steve: there's a lot there in there. So naturally they do want their stats, but what I'll, again, I'll say back to you is take the case of a guy like Alex Cruzo, middling offensive player at best. But boy, he can defend and you know what? What has he made? 50, 60 million Jose: Yeah, Sure. Steve: enough to, that's enough to, you, your kids, to have good Jose: Yeah. Yeah. Steve: So if you have a role, play it well [00:25:00] and people will recognize it and you will make some money. Jose: Yep. Yep. Outstanding. Well done. Yeah, I think of the 1970s Oakland a's that won some world championships and absolutely seemed to hate each other, But Steve: a totally different game. Jose: different. Okay. Okay. Steve: Think Jose: All right. Steve: If I go over three, everybody sees it. In basketball it's what we did. We, Jose: yeah. Steve: How we played. 'cause it, they're intermeshed, the third hitter on a baseball team has nothing to do with the fifth hitter. Jose: Yeah. Steve: It's a whole different game in Jose: All. Steve: if you like somebody and he's open, you're gonna get him the ball, Jose: or you're not, if you don't, Steve: Yeah. Jose: I got it. All right. Well done. Outstanding. All right. We actually came in under the buzzer, but I, I kept talking so that, that violation is on me. I will take the L there, but our time is up. Thank you for listening. Thank you for watching. Make sure to read Steve's entire 13 rules. Ran NBA Thoughts article. He's got a couple of other comments on things. Now I don't have 'em up here. Here we go. Here we [00:26:00] go. Oh. Yeah some Giannis rumblings. The problem, the Bucks are in. The thunder's depth. Make sure to read Steve's entire article to get all of his thoughts after week number 20, and of course, join us next week for more NBA random thoughts as we recap week number 21. We'll talk then. Thanks Steve. I.