Kerr-Kuminga Drama, Jokic Injury, Knicks Defense & More Random NBA Thoughts

Jose: All right. 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 he's also the host of Celtic Chalk Talk. Celtic Chalk Talk is a pod dedicated to the latest news and opinions surrounding the not supposed to be good but good. This year. Boston Celtics from a lifelong fan, Steve the pod will drop new episodes every Monday. But this is the Shot Clock Pod, the best 24 minutes of random NBA thoughts online anywhere. This podcast was born out of the content of Steve's searching 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 searching rules, random NBA thoughts article where he shares his thoughts, his random thoughts after week 11 of the 20 25 26 NBA season. Steve, are you ready? All right, let's do it. This is the dog days. I haven't started the clock yet, but this is dog days of the NBA. We're not [00:01:00] we're not at the All Star game. The NBA cup is over, which I know you're a big fan of. Steve: Yeah. Good Jose: there's not, there's no, the trade rumors are bubbling, but, there's no trades yet, so it's did you fight? I'm gonna ask you this again. Clock's not ticking. Did you find it hard to find stuff to talk about this time? Steve: No. A lot of interesting things going on. I Jose: that. Steve: get into, I wanted to, but I didn't. What Andy Anthony Edwards walking off the bench during a game. I wanted to get into that, but I didn't. And if we have time at the end, throw it out there, because I have a thought on that. So there, there were different things I saw that I my interest. Jose: Okay. Outstanding. And that's how you know you got a real fan on your hands. Let's start the clock now, and we always have time at the end, so I'm sure we'll be able to get to an, that's a joke. Let's start the clock. Boom. All right. We start with the first round pick. This is a player who's now a five-year veteran. Just signed a $48 million contract. [00:02:00] This is by all indications, this is a guy who should be getting 20, 30 minutes, but he can't find his place in San Francisco. What is wrong with Minga and Kerr in San Francisco? Steve: I I get a feel and this is crazy, but I get a feel that Carr almost feels that he didn't get the credit for all the great things the Warriors did. This is a Will be a hall of. Famer, this is a guy who was a great clutch player. Not a great player, but a great clutch player in his Jose: Yeah, Steve: remember Jordan kicking him the ball and him hitting the three Jose: sure. Steve: so on. So he's really good and he's coached, he's a hall of famer. He's gonna be a hall of fame coach. Not many guys win a bunch of ti titles. He's, you're putting them up there with Jackson and Pat Riley and these people. Jose: Yeah. Steve: Not quite up there with red Rback, he's getting there. But the point being, he, this is the guy who benches Jason Tatum in the Olympics. Jose: Yeah. Steve: You can have your reason, okay, he didn't do this or that, and you can, [00:03:00] but you know what, this is a was consistently a top five guy in the whole, in the MVP voting when he was healthy. My thought is, okay, if you don't feel he is helping you find him five, 10 minutes in a game. Don't let him sit there and embarrass him. He's done too much to do that. you get to today, and you're watching this with Minga, what's, what exactly is the reason that you would sit him DNP decision, 11 out of 12 games and then you get the other night, they're playing Oklahoma. Curry's out. Butler's out. Green is out. Car says today Minga Iss gonna play before a game. Minga says, my back is hurting. I don't know if I can go tonight. naturally he doesn't play. Now you can look at it in a lot of ways. Maybe his back really hurt. I wanna believe that. even if it didn't. It's [00:04:00] something that Kurt deserves what's the matter? Everybody's gone and now you run to this guy 'cause he can score and he can play no, you should have been finding him time throughout. You signed him for the money. 45 million for two. It just makes no sense. Are you trying to show everybody that like you did with Tatum, that you don't need these guys and you can still win? 'cause you're, the little genius. That's great. But it just doesn't, it doesn't add up. And then if your management, you gotta look at him and say, wait a minute, we're paying this guy a lot of money. You gotta use him. You can't do unless he's, bulletproof. And that, that's the sad part about it. So anyway, that, that's my ten second, 10 minute talk on the whole thing. Jose: And it's not just Minga, right? We would, we, would we leaving out a little bit of context, he's having some trouble with Draymond too, isn't he? Steve: Draymond and him have always gone at it, but I think he [00:05:00] walked off one night. It just it, first of all, and Draymond got thrown out the other night for two tees. Let's be honest Draymond's a good player. He's real good. He defends bigger people, smaller people, anybody, and he does a great job offensively. He's like the catalyst that makes everything go, can't score, but he can do everything else. It just, he's outta control. That's the only way to put it. He's got something to say every time a referee blows a whistle, and I think a lot of people have had enough of that act. I think Kerr might've had enough that night and he decided to go at it with him. And after Kerr made the statement that. It was my fault and yeah, okay, it was your fault, but you're not dealing with a guy as great a player as Draymond, and he'll be a hall of famer. As great as he is, I don't know how stable he is. And so you're dealing with somebody that's really all over the place. Jose: Yeah. We talk a lot about, how tough the GM job is in the NBA. But yeah, coaching. Coaching [00:06:00] in the NBA is has gotta be just. Just below that, you're dealing with egos, you're dealing with contracts, you're dealing with having to piece everything together. Sometimes a team that you didn't want to be together, but this is a team you've got. And yeah, when you start having, and we're not saying this is what's happening with Steve Kerr, but maybe a little ego starts to seep in. You got you, you make a hard job a little bit harder but let's see how things play out. Steve: one piece Eric Bolster is coached the longest of anybody in the NBA. You don't see any of the drama around what goes on in Miami. He just coaches, they play and everything Jose: Yeah. Yeah, Steve: never some people that are coaches. time is up, meaning Jose: sure. Steve: isn't working and Jose: yep. Steve: going. I think pollster's biggest asset is Pat Riley is behind him on anything. Jose: Yeah. Steve: I am starting to wonder about cur. I know his contract's up at the end of the year and [00:07:00] cur has said, I wanna play only for him and all that nice stuff. But I'm starting to wonder is his Jose: Yeah, it will be interesting to see how that plays out. We've already lost, the great pop in in in San Antonio would be weird to, for the NBA to be without him in curb does occur, end up somewhere else. Let's see again how things play out. Let's stay in the west. We'll talk about arguably maybe there's not a whole lot argument. The best player in the NBA and that's Nicole Yoic. Thankfully. His injury looks to be minor. He's walking around on his knee, so that's good news. But oddly enough, these few weeks off might cost him the MVP trophy. Is that fair? You wrote about it. What do you think? Steve: You tell me if you have a guy missing more than a 50 year games, 'cause it's 65 games and that means you miss 18 to get under it. That guy affect winning missing 22% of your games? So I think. You need to play every night, not every night, but [00:08:00] 75 games to really be a factor. You, you're missing a lot of games. And I'm not just talking about Yo Yoka job, I'm talking about anybody Jose: yeah. Steve: that. It's a shame. He's great to watch. He's fun. You sit there and say, if he can do that, I think I can go out and do that. Because it's slow motion and he just does things Jose: Yeah. Steve: sees people and just, he's just an incredible basketball player, one of the all time greats, but. The issue isn't him being hurt as much as the question like, now he can't win the MVP. If you miss that many games, the MVP's based on the regular season. So Jose: Yeah. Steve: that many games, how can you be considered an MVP candidate? Jose: Okay. So you're good with it? Steve: Yeah it's fine. It, and it Jose: Okay. Steve: rid of the guys who look at it and say if I take off I might have too many games. And, so it makes them play the guys that are healthy. Jose: Yeah. Yeah. I, I don't wanna go down the rabbit hole because there's a lot to talk about when it comes to this, and I've had a lot of thoughts over the [00:09:00] years, but I think one of the things to you as we go through this topic is, what does MVP actually mean? 'cause it means different things to different people. You said, impacting winning. Is that the MVP, the guy who's going to, IM impact winning? Is it the guy who makes your teammates better? Is it the guy that you wanna take the last shot, right? What is it Exactly? And it's so subjective. 'cause it's different things to different people that it, it's hard to pinpoint, probably impossible to pinpoint. Yeah. I guess I, I agree with you. I just have a little bit of hesitation because. When you start drawing the line in the sand and say it's this, that's good because the MVP award needs that we need a line in the sand, but it, the best player in the NBA is Nikola Yoki. I just, maybe SGA, you knows in the conversation, but, for him not to win it because he got hurt it, it has a hint of unfairness to it to me. Steve: It is unfair but you know what? You gotta be on the court to win an award. Jose: Yeah. Yeah. Fair enough. Fair enough. I do think that this is a good conversation, maybe to have a [00:10:00] point counterpoint at some point. Yeah. Maybe we can see that for the off season. Let's move on. We'll talk about, oh, now we go to the west. Pardon me. Go to the east now. Fourth season player. Has taken a pretty significant dip in scoring, and this isn't a time when you expect to see, a continued rise. He got better, his second season got better, his third season, now his fourth kind of falling off the cliff, both in scoring and three point shooting. What's wrong? This is a good Orlando team. What's going on? Steve: Before the season I thought they would be the sleeper in the conference. Jose: Yeah. Steve: And naturally the first thing you do is look at the team and say okay, Wagner's been out for a while now and Van Carroll's been out and of course their cattle, their best guy is Jalen Suggs. Not best guy, but they're, impacts winning he's gonna be chronically injured for the rest of his career. So now you start wondering, do you rely on a guy like that as good as he is? So you think about that, but then I just started looking at it and you look at Ben Carroll's [00:11:00] numbers, he's averaging over 20 points a game. I believe his best year was over 25. And everybody thought this guy was going to skyrocket, just gonna become an MVP type player Jose: Yeah. Steve: he's gone back. And what really knocked me over was when I looked at it, and he was never a great three point shooter, Jose: Right. Steve: he's shooting 24.4% from three. Now, generally in the NBA, if you're under 33%, you're told not, basically you shouldn't be shooting You're hurting your team. This is 24%. That to me illustrates as bad as. Much as, Orlando's been hurt, Ben Carro is a reason why they aren't having a lot of success. And I hate to point to 'em, but you know what? You make the big money, you got big responsibility. And that's his case. His Jose: Yeah. Steve: So that to me was another problem for Orlando. Jose: Yeah. [00:12:00] Yeah. And it's weird because they went all in this year and we thought they would be really good. And you start to wonder maybe the pressure of being on a really good team, it's easier to play basketball maybe when there's no expectations on you and the team. Maybe that's a part of it. 25.9 last season, 20.7 this season. Steve, you called it out. 24.4 from three this season. I just lost my screen, but it was something like 30, 32% last season. So again, just a dip. I. Steve: Yeah. And Orlando's never been a good shooting team from three in the last couple years. They had Caldwell Pope last year. They thought he would cure it and he was terrible. And this year they got Bain who's pretty good shooter and a good player. A good player, real good player but not enough. Jose: Not enough. Let's let's see if things get right in Orlando, let's stay in the East. Talk about the Knicks. The Knicks are a good team, one of the best in the East, [00:13:00] undeniable, but they've got some defensive problems that you've noticed. Can adding pieces address those defensive problems or getting Josh Hart back and Mitchell Robinson integrated, be enough for them? Steve: I think Josh Hart is such a key to that team. Like Jalen Suggs is Jalen Suggs a better shooter and a better player than Josh Hart, but they both have the same impact on their teams. Josh Hart makes things go Jose: Yeah. Steve: defensively. He just does things. He goes he can go to the length of the floor and shoe layups and off his own rebound. He's six four, he gets a bunch of rebounds. He's near a triple double. If he gets the minutes every night, he such a good player and that's hurt them. And I think his. Pushing his leadership. I'll say, although Brunson is the leader, his leadership on the court is important. They don't have it. That's a big loss. But they've been given up over 120 points last night, 130 to Philly, they've lost three straight. So you start to wonder [00:14:00] about this and I think they're up to 12 losses already. So you begin to wonder about it. And then as I did, just common sense told me. I believe most. NBA champions defensive ratings usually in the top seven. And then I looked at the Knicks and they were 16th, and the thought to myself was, now wait a minute, let me think about this. wise, healthy, they have the most talent in the Eastern Conference, what. what is happening here? What is wrong? And then you start really digging deeper. You lost heart and you're using Ick and McBride. McBride's a real good shooter, but he's six two and teams are going at him Ick. He's ick. He's a nice player. He hustles, he, he's good. But that's your fifth guy. And that's not Josh Hart. And now don't forget, old, I've [00:15:00] said this a bunch of times, two bad defenders. You got a problem on defense, now Jose: Yeah. Steve: What are you gonna defend? Because teams can go at towns, Brunson, although Brunson works hard, he's not a good defender, but he works hard. He'll take a charge and he's got a lot of courage, but now and McBride or ick, not a good situation. Elli or whoever else your fifth guy is, that's not, and they've been using Mitchell Robinson as the fifth guy, which I guess might be the best of that mess defensively. But you're gonna give up points and now you're getting into Jose: Yeah. Steve: and you don't, it's just something you don't want to do. So the Knicks have to do something and I'm just gonna throw something out there that's crazy. They're in trouble. Right now they're Not doing what? They're not trouble. That's wrong, but they're not doing what they should because I think management thought they would just roll over. Everybody don't sell the thought that a Giannis or somebody [00:16:00] else might be in a deal before the deadline because the Knicks feel that they are not the number one team, although their talent indicates they are. Jose: Interesting. Yeah. This is the, that, that time of year when we start throwing out things like that, does Johannes in New York change things? Because you, the only way you flip 'em is for cat, right? That, that's the only way you do it. Does that make the Knicks better? Steve: does it make the Knicks better? I think it does on the defensive end, I think Giannis can do a lot of things, and I think he might even compliment Mitchell Robinson real well if they're together. So does it. I think, yeah I think it's mu it's a better situation. Jose: Okay. Steve: and he and Brunson in pick and roll would be just about Jose: Yeah, that, that would be fun to watch without. Steve: off the top that it would make them better. The key here is Giannis gonna stay healthy? Jose: Yep. Outstanding. Always a fun time of year to talk about these what ifs. Let's see how it [00:17:00] plays out. But the clock is ticking. We gotta keep going. Let's talk about Josh Giddy. You just mentioned. Josh Hart is a triple double when he plays Josh Giddy iss almost averaging a triple double, which is pretty amazing. Assists in rebounds at nine each. Does losing him cost the bulls their season, though he's only off for a couple weeks, but is he that good? Steve: I think they're gonna be right in the play and fight. But he's he's, he was mentioned as an all star. Jose: sure. Steve: get hurt, he would've been. That hurts them. And they've got, they're in a crossroads finally because they've stayed in this dreaded situation every year, ninth, 10th, and so on. But got a bunch of Jose: I. Steve: that their contracts are up, including Vukovich and Kobe White. And those are good players. So might see some deals before the deadline and the bulls decide just to take it and tank. Or stay with these guys till their contracts up and then move on. And a lot of teams would love to have Kobe [00:18:00] White and some teams would take Vukovich 'cause he can shoot he's more of a hybrid five where he can, more or less hurt you from the outside and shoot the ball. Defend. So there's a market for those IU Desumo who doesn't make a great deal of money, is a good player. He's another one that there might be a market and Zach Collins, who does make some decent money, who's not a bad player, he's also, these are all guys their contract's up. So now I think the idea for Chicago would be to build around giddy right now with him out, and they also are trying to build around Bois, but they need more, a heck of a Jose: Yeah. Steve: to, to Jose: But two good pieces, certainly to build around. Career high for Getty. 19.2 points, career high, 9.9. Assists, no, pardon me, nine assists career high, 8.9 rebounds. And check this out. Career high, 38.6 from three. That's an all star undeniably. Steve: if you give him time in one of these years and he's healthy and all the good stuff, he can [00:19:00] average a triple double Jose: Yeah. Steve: for the Jose: And it's funny because for years that was the, the Mecca, right? That was Oscar's territory. Nobody else had done it. And now Russell Westbrook did it over, three years, one season. But you, he averaged that over the course of two and a half seasons or something. And now Josh Giddy is doing it and it's becoming more commonplace, which is crazy to see. Okay. Yeah. Very good. I listen, I hope good things for Chicago. They've been in that mid tier for long enough. It'd be nice to see them go up or down. We may, you don't wanna be in that middle tier for too long, and they've been there for a very long time. Let's talk about the Pistons. The pistons continue to impress. They're a great team, fun to watch. I know that they muddy up the game a little bit, but. I like watching them. I like watching the passion and the, when you're in a game with them you feel it. You played the Pistons, but they recently dropped two games. They hit a bit of a road bump on the road. They dropped two games to two of the lower standing Western conference teams in the Clippers, in the jazz. Is everything okay in Detroit, Steve: They also, they also got beat by a Miami in Detroit the other night.[00:20:00] Jose: right. Steve: first of all, Jalen Doran's out for a week and they play the Knicks, I think Monday night. So that gets interesting. Also, a second. He's the second gun second player. Really? And I think Harris is battling an injury too, and so is Harris Levert. So they're getting beat up. What I'm gonna ask you is I've seen it happen in my years of watching the NBA, I saw Larry Byrd come in with Boston. And Boston went from like a 20 win team to a 60 WIN team. And I can understand it 'cause Larry Bird's one of the greatest. The Pistons won 14 games two years ago. Are we like overplaying that they're that good? And are things gonna level off? That's my question to you. it gonna level off and then maybe now the Back to being, Jose: who they were. Steve: Yeah. Jose: Yeah. What's interesting is there, there's no Larry Bird, right? They didn't draft somebody, they didn't bring anybody in. This is just, so you give credit to the [00:21:00] coach. You give credit to just the evolution of a team, right? You keep a team together long enough, they're gonna peak. They may not, take that big jump, but they'll peak. Their peak Might be great. It might be mid-tier. A lot of teams, the Lakers, for example, are not big at keeping their team, they'll get these great young players, then they'll get rid of 'em for a bigger name. Yeah. The Pistons have stayed, they stayed the course, this is their team, and then they made a big jump. So you're asking, is this kind of an aberration? Is, are they gonna settle back to what they were in that 14 win season? I don't think so. I think this is a legitimately good team. I think they've got the right mix of, Tobias Harris, a veteran. With the, and even Kate Cunningham now who's not a rookie anymore, right? This is the good veteran team. They know what it's like to win. They haven't won anything together yet, which I think is the next step. No man, I think they're a good team. I think every 82 game season is gonna have a bump in the road. I think, even Michael Jordan missed a dunk once in his career. I saw it. He was [00:22:00] against the clippers years and years ago. It happens. So I just think this is a bump in a rub, not who they are. Steve: I'm not saying it's gonna fall apart. What I'm saying is let's the ascension of a team. Last year they got beat in the first round of the playoffs. Jose: Yeah. Steve: Is it crazy to expect this team to go to the finals and if they get to the conference finals, would that be a great step up? Jose: Yeah, Steve: That's my point. I'm trying to make, you are expecting a lot real quick. And Jose: sure. Steve: difficult. Look at teams who ascended to the, and I'm not talking about teams that like Larry Bird coming along, but teams who built it and continued to improve each year. Do you go from losing the first round of the playoffs to the finals? To the NBA finals. I don't know if I've seen many of that thing happen is my point Jose: I'm sure it's happened. I think of the Lakers losing to [00:23:00] Houston which I think was in the first round off Ralph s Samson's tip, and Michael Cooper drops to his knees next year. They won it all. But that was a different team. Steve: don't forget, I believe that team for Houston won 42 games. Jose: Yeah. They were not. That's true. And the lake. Steve: an aberration. That is Jose: A hundred percent a agreed. And I think that's what it is, that they're one-offs. And I think it's, if you're The pissed is, yeah. I, if I'm their coach I'm telling them this, listen, we can win it all. We can win it all because you wanna shoot for that, but you get to the Eastern Conference finals, that's a win. Steve: sometimes when you watch a game watch a team and they play and they lose or win, you don't believe it was that team that won. It was the other team that really lost the game. It doesn't always work one way. Jose: Yeah Steve: and a lot Jose: that's true. Steve: You see that and you begin to think about that and that's a piece to it that you are always wondering about, Jose: yeah. [00:24:00] Yeah. Let's see. I think the pistons are gonna be okay. I think they're gonna do some damage in the Eastern Conference and I, I wouldn't at all be surprised to, to see 'em in the Eastern Conference finals and, yeah, I think that's a successful season for them, even though it would be heartbreaking for them to get that close and not get it. You heard the shock clock buzzer. Go off. Another shock clock violation. But we got one more topic, so we're gonna rapid fire this one. 'cause. I think it's an interesting one. You called out that with or without Weby, the Spurs are solid, so they've got a really good supporting cast around, this unicorn, this absolute beast in Victor Wema are the Spurs. Now your number two in the West. Steve: Sure. Yeah, I would guess so. Houston, they really they don't shoot real well and their game is all Shang Goon going to the basket. They don't over utilize Durant. Maybe that's 'cause of age, but he Jose: Sure. Steve: gets the ball, but it's not like he's their primary guy. So there, there's a lot there. I don't think they're quite there. Who else is in the West that's [00:25:00] in that level? I don't know. I guess they would be the number two team and I'm sure Oklahoma. Wants no part of them if they meet them in the playoffs. Jose: That's for sure. Steve: that makes it very interesting, Jose: yeah, that's for sure. Steve: would be my ten second take. But what's fascinating as I wrote was that without him, they're 10 and four. Wow. It's Jose: Yeah. Steve: impressive. That's. Jose: No it's staggering how good they are. And this is another team, right? We could say, with the in line with what we just got done talking about with the Pistons. This is a team that, has not been good for a long time, but now they've got their Larry Bird and Victor Wema, and all of a sudden, they're ascending. Let's see. Let's see how far they go this season. Steve: other things too. They, last year they got Stephan Cap castle. Jose: Is a castle. Yeah. They got, Steve: Fox. They got last year. Now a Jose: Yeah. Steve: are interesting. For the first time they had Harper Fox and Castle on the court together. It's very interesting because they're all three of them Tough, good offensive players, Jose: Yep. Steve: so that's an [00:26:00] interesting, and castle's a really good defender, but so that, that makes it interesting. Jose: Yeah, no, it's it's fun to see them play, and I'm excited to see how far they're going to go this season. But that's it. Our shot clock went off. We have violated the shot clock again. I don't like the way I worded that. We have now done, I think 120 some odd shows, and I think we've only actually got the shot off before the clock once. So I think if we were a team, we would've been benched by now, but thankfully we're not. So on we go. But that is it. Our time is up. Thanks for listening. Thanks for watching. Make sure to read Steve's entire 13 rules. Write an NBA thoughts article. We'll link it wherever you are watching or listening to the show today. And of course, please subscribe, comment, follow, all that stuff means the world. And we're grateful for all of it. Join us again next week after week number 12 when we discuss more random thoughts. We'll talk then. Thanks Steve. Steve: Take Care