NBA 2026 Trade Deadline: Injuries, Contenders, and the Rising Hornets’ Future

SCP-Jan25-2026 === Jose: [00:00:00] All right, it's time to talk basketball. I'm Jose Salviati, Editor at the PeachBasket.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 from a lifelong fan, Steve. That 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 contents of 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 thoughts article where he shares his random thoughts after week number 14. Officially the halfway mark of the 20 25 26 NBA season. Steve. Alright, you ready? Let's do it. I'll start the timer. And we're [00:01:00] off. Alright. We start with an old adage. If you've been a fan of the game, you've heard this. I've heard it as long as I've followed the game. Defense wins championships, not just in basketball really, but in every major sport. But what's interesting, and you call it out in your article, interesting to me for sure, is that there are numbers to back that up with only a few exceptions. Defense really does win. Champ does win championships. Tell us about that and the numbers that back it up. Steve: I just looked at the ratings or the rankings of defense and the NBA does a rating or a ranking, and it's not about points giving up because some teams might use 20 seconds in a possession, others might use 10, but they all look at it per 100 possessions. what I looked at was, I just thought about this for a while and over the last 40 years. Which would be the, pretty much almost to the beginning of the three point shot to now, how many teams won a title that defended, were rated greater than 11, I [00:02:00] believe it was. And I, what I come up with four or five and not many. Jose: Yeah. Steve: the thought becomes naturally is defense wins. So now my question to you is, then why do teams want Jean Morant? Trey Young, these are guys reputed to, they do play on that end of the court, but they're not really trying too hard. So ball. Why are teams, Jose: yeah. Steve: to give away everything when these guys might not lead you to a title? Jose: Yeah. I, if that's a legit question, I'm happy to answer it because it takes defense wins championships, but you gotta put the ball in the hoop, right? So you need that offensive guy. What I'm wanna do, if I'm an, if I'm a gm, I'll take Luca, I'll take Lalo I'll take Carmelo Anthony, I'll take those guys a hundred percent. But then I gotta be smart enough to build some bigs and some [00:03:00] defense, some three and d guys, people that can play to make up for that deficiency. That's why you bring folks like that in. Steve: Let me ask you a question. You named a couple guys here. Probably played about 25, 30 seasons together Altogether. How many titles those three win? Jose: Touche. Well done. No, it's. Steve: My, my point. My point is. Go back to the Celtic Mav series two years ago. What did Boston do? They pressured gluc at bringing the ball up, made it hard for 'em. In fact, they, the Mavs adjusted by having other people bring the ball up. But they also, they. Pretty much he guarded the ball every play because now people they hunt the weakest defender and make him guard the ball in little screening actions. So you are still, if you have a weak defender, you're gonna struggle to win. And I think. In my mind you're playing the game to win. You. You're not. Yeah, you wanna draw people. That's nice. But you know what, last I looked, most of the money these [00:04:00] teams are making is from the TV contract. So who cares? Who cares? Yeah. You wanna sell out the place, but the money's coming from something else. So to me, the game is changing, and I've said this so many times, but the game is changing. Young athletic players. There's one more thing on this, Jose: Yeah. Steve: I'll use Luca, and I think Luca's a great offensive talent. However, let me, and I'll ask you, you're out there and you see it more than I do. How many games does Luca miss this year? Jose: Oh, I'd have to look it up. Steve: No, but roughly. Roughly. Just quick. Jose: 20%. Steve: Okay. Do you think as he ages, that'll get better? Jose: Likely no. Steve: Okay. The point being, these teams are running and we're gonna talk about Giannis, but these teams are running to get these guys the best abilities, availability. So what are you doing? Get [00:05:00] young and talented that will defend and you can play with these teams. That's where the game is and that's what you need to figure out and take care of. And by young, I'm talking about young twenties or early twenties, and so on. And they will get better and fit, but they will defend and play hard. That's more important. And yesterday I watched the Philadelphia Nick game, Paul George is playing for Philadelphia. You wouldn't know it because if you watch the game, you don't see him get the ball or do much of anything. How much is he making? Something ridiculous. 40 million, maybe 30 million, 35. Something ridiculous. How often is he playing? Not often. Ca is he still the great player He once was? No. So what are you doing? You're gonna throw money away? I'll sign up. I'll take the money. Because that's what you're doing. The guy's sitting watching the game he's not helping your team. Jose: Yeah. Alright, let's move on. We got a lot to talk about, [00:06:00] but I'm gonna pat myself on the back. I said 20%, it's 18%. Lucas played in three six of 44. So pretty much right there. And I also wanna leave you with this and we can't go down this rabbit hole, but I think it's incredibly interesting. Just a quick search of the greatest scores to win an NBA championship. Listen to this list. They're all phenomenal scores, but they're also really good defenders. Michael Jordan. Shaquille O'Neal. Yeah. Okay. Defender, I think certainly in his prime. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jerry West Elgin, Baylor, and Shay Gilders Alexander. Those are the top scores. Steve: something funny here. They're all Lakers. Jose: Yeah. Steve: Bill Russell. I didn't hear Casey Jones. Jose: Russell was not a score. I searched for greatest scores. I searched. Steve: Havlicek. I just gave you one. I didn't hear his name. I. Jose: I just take it up with the internet, man. I'm not Steve: no, it's you waker champions, Jose: I'm just, Steve: but go Jose: I'm the messenger. I'm the messenger. Steve: Anyway, Jose: It [00:07:00] makes your point, right? All of these guys were two way players. Steve: Yes. Jose: On we go. This is why we always have shot clock violations. This is why. Let's talk, oh actually, let's pause right here. If you if you're still with us after that. Thank you for watching. Thank you for listening. We're grateful. We appreciate every comment, every question. Please keep them coming and if you could subscribe, of course, that would mean in the world. Thank you. Thank you. Let's go on to the next topic. Unfortunately, Giannis. Has had an injury. Let's talk about what that means, both for the Bucks and for the teams that we're interested in obtaining them. What does that do to them? Steve: We go back to what I said before of the first 44 games. He's played 30. He's gonna be out for a month at least. That's give or take 13, 14 games. So now you're looking at 30 games. He's been out, think about that. You're gonna deal and you're gambling that he's healthy in the playoffs. 'cause he gets hurt all the [00:08:00] time. So you're gonna give away half your team to get this guy Yeah. If he's healthy in the playoffs. You got the, be one of the best players in the NBA. Jose: Yeah. Steve: that's a gamble. And we go back to what I said before. You're paying and you're doing this. Is it worth it? To me it, it's not, and by the way, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna just to think about this. How many of these stars that we just talked about will be eligible to be named all NBA at the end of the year? 65 games. So Jose: Yeah. Steve: that telling you? LeBron is just about done. He, I think if he misses one more, he's out. Obviously will be done. Yoic is gonna cut it close. These are the, of the great players in the league, Jose: Yeah. Steve: Who might have made third team, he's gonna probably not make that. And Luke is gonna work on it. He's gonna, it's gonna be interesting by the time it's over. What are we doing here? That's my point. Jose: Yeah. Fair enough. Yeah, injuries [00:09:00] are horrible. Obviously that 65 game line in the sand kind of changes everything. And we've talked about that before. But let's switch from bad news to good news in a basketball game. Forgive me for being silly here, but there's a winner and a lose. But in the latest Boston Celtics versus Detroit Pistons game, it's a really good game between the number one and the number two team in the east. You saw win-win. You saw both teams come out with victories. Tell me why. Steve: Detroit had to defend their home court. They had to win that game. 'cause if they did, they'd look vulnerable to the rest of the division. Jose: Yeah. Steve: did it. They won by a point. Brown missed shot at the buzzer. Great game. Couple things Detroit to win. They've got. To muck up every game. If they play defense and they just physical and the whistle blows every 30 seconds, what they have to do to win. They did that and they took Boston outta what Boston does and they beat 'em. But for Detroit it's good because they held up being the top team in the league and that's very important. [00:10:00] 'cause a lot of people were saying I think Detroit can be had for Boston. The real couple realizations, Jason Tatum comes back, they're better. They're better. Let's get him back. It's okay to get him back as long as he's healthy. other thing for Boston, if they can go out and get a legitimate, and Kate has played well, but if they can get a legitimate big, and we talked about zoo box before, but if they get a legitimate big with Tatum. I think they're the favorite to go to the finals and it gets very interesting and Boston realized there's no time like the president. Maybe we've gotta try to find a big before the trade deadline to take a run at this. We didn't expect this going in, and honestly, I. If you told me Boston would be in this position you're in, I would've So when and it's like in any sport, when you have a chance at a title, you gotta go after it. Jose: Yeah. Steve: Boston learned a lot because again, they would say maybe we're [00:11:00] just, lucky right now. And no. They've got something there. So it was good for both teams in that way. Jose: Yeah, I don't watch a lot of East Coast games. I watch that game and when I saw Jalen Brown go up, I thought it's over. I really thought that shot was going in. That was his shot. He was open. He was well defended, but that's a shot he makes, I thought for sure that was going in. I think it goes in seven out of 10 times. He just, Steve: thing Jose: yeah. Steve: Brown's. Career, and he's great. He's really, he's got, he's an MVP candidate right now but the last thing on his career, he's gotta learn to nail the game down. Meaning he's got to become the clutch player that wins the game. He's had a couple chances this year and it hasn't always worked out. And if he gets that, it, it just, the things he can do. He's an incredible athlete. Jose: Yeah. Yeah. It was a fun game to watch. They're definitely a good team. And you brought up OTs. We'll talk a little bit about that when we got the Clippers coming up and we'll circle back to the Celtics when we get there. So we, we talked bad news with the honest injury. We talked good news with a [00:12:00] win-win basketball game. Now let's teeter back to bad news. Steve: all Jose: Yeah. Steve: always lead to the Celtics. Remember that? But go ahead. Jose: I, believe me. I know. Let's, unfortunately, more bad news. The Warrior's Dynasty has been teetering for a while, but it looks like with Jimmy Butler's recent injury, it, this might be the final blow. Are the warriors done? I, Steve: yeah. But I think the irony of this whole thing is the minga situation. Jose: yeah. Steve: He wants out, the Warriors now need him. Jose: Right. Steve: Either they trade him and get some asset something for him, or he plays and scores points, and I guess that'll make the organization and Steve car look bad. So whatever they do is not a good thing. He got hurt in the first or second game back but, and I think he missed a game or he is gonna miss a game, so it, that's not a good thing. However, there's a problem. And, what do you [00:13:00] do with Minga? And by the way, even with Minga, he's not gonna make up for Butler. They're in trouble. They've got one great player and he's getting old and not much else. Jose: Yeah. Yeah. Obviously when I heard about the injury, it was sad. I think it's unfortunate for the worst, certainly unfortunately for Jimmy Butler, certainly, at this stage of his career, does he come back? Is he gonna be the same? Obviously I think he'll come back, but, things change for him. But then I thought, yeah, it's an open door for Minga. Maybe everything will be okay, but it just, it doesn't look like there's any righting that wrong now. I think that ship has sailed and. They're likely gonna have to move on from him. Steve: But the problem is the market. The, what they're saying is there's no market. And if there's no They got a problem Jose: Yeah. What I think the GM said if you've got a desire to be traded, there's gotta be a desire for you or something like that, which I thought was harsh. But anyway, on we go. Let's talk about the LA Clippers. Alright. This is the team that I covered a few years back. A team that you know near and dear to my heart because this [00:14:00] is the lovable loser. Although they had been great for the last decade plus, this is a team that just cannot seem to get over the hump no matter how much they try, no matter how much money they throw at the team. They started off horribly this year after great off season, but now there's a, there's been a resurgence and we teased the zoo box. We'll talk about that for sure. But what do you see at the heart of the lake or the, pardon me? The Lakers, the Clippers resurgence. Steve: It's fascinating. They were six and 21 and everybody thought they're, maybe they'll get the first draft pick, but now they've got 14 and three and that's incredible. They're only now four games under 500. What I'm amazed about, and we talked about old players. The one person who defies logic is James Harden. He plays. Jose: Yeah. Steve: he's 36 years old. He in, in this stretch, 25.5 points a game, and a half assists a game. Jose: Yeah. Steve: this is a 36-year-old guy Jose: Yeah. Steve: [00:15:00] MVP and a great player, but he there, there's no, you see the gradual deterioration with injuries for guys as they age. This guy has defied that Jose: yeah. Steve: and he's good. The one thing I'll say. If you watch the Clippers, and I saw one of the games they went to overtime, was it with the Knicks or the Nets or whatever. But anyway, the Po the point being, every time down, he just took the ball and it was him. He played one-on-one and shot, Jose: Yeah. Steve: even a pass, just shot. Jose: yeah. Steve: was over about a five or six minute span. I, I don't know if that's good for a team. but he took the game on and they won. I guess it worked but it's incredible that he's done that and the defense has gotten a little bit better Jose: Yeah. Steve: since he's been doing what he does. I. Jose: Yeah. And we gotta throw in a resurgence. Resurgence of not resurgence really, but more of the opportunity the game time the playing time of Kawhi [00:16:00] Leonard, right? Because he's been healthy and he's been playing really good basketball. I think he's got something like 20 plus games in a row, scoring 20 or more, so he's a score, he's a defender. He's exactly the kind of players we just talked about, right? He's not the defender he was, but he's still a really good defender and they've got a big, a legitimate back to the basket. Big in a zoo box. Now, what they don't have and what they need and what they want is another guard. Are you talking about Harden? And that's great, but they need a shooting guard. They've got a big in zoo bots. They've got a backup big in, in, in a guy named Yannick who is certainly raw, but I don't see the Clippers making a whole lot of noise in the playoffs. They'll probably make it, they're certainly make the play it, but I think there's OA opportunity for them to move on from someone like Avita Zba, who's still young, a walking double. To a team that needs a big, you mentioned the Celtics. That might be a marriage made in heaven. Steve: There's an, Anthony [00:17:00] Simons is out there and I don't think Boston needs a zoo box. Tone it down a little bit. They need somebody who, one of the problems that with Boston is. We turned it into Boston. But one of the problems is Kate is a decent backup and not a bad starter. Not good, but a decent starter. But one of the problems is when he plays against thicker players, he struggles. Because he's not thick And so they need to go out and get somebody that's big and strong. To counter that when they need that against big centers. When they played Utah a couple months ago, Nage, who's a journeyman player, but a journeyman. Jose: Yeah. Steve: scored the winning basket because he just basically muscled Kate out and put the ball back in so that, that's part of what the problem might be for Boston. [00:18:00] And they do, they could use that. But for Z bots, if you take Z bots away from the la clippers, even if he get assigns a shooter, are you getting better? Jose: No, I think the clip the Clippers have got to stop really thinking about now and start thinking about the future. Right now I think they're relegated to that mid-tier. They're gonna be good. They might make a noise. They might even beat some teams that they're not expected to beat. They might take Oklahoma City in one game out of four. Steve: Lemme ask you this, if you are Oklahoma, Antonio, Houston, Denver. In the playoffs? Or would you rather play Portland? Jose: I would rather play Portland because I'll tell you because I, the Clippers have got veterans and when you get to the playoffs that matters. Portland's a young team, so I would rather play Portland. Steve: of course. Jose: Yeah. Okay. Steve: the point being, I don't think any of. Let's say any of those four teams I mentioned, they [00:19:00] play them, that's gonna be a six game series and that's gonna take something outta you Jose: Yeah Steve: and you don't want that early. Jose: you're right. Steve: The Clippers still can be a problem for teams Jose: Yeah, Steve: is my point. Jose: sure. Steve: and and who knows, Kauai, he's one of the greats of the last 20 years, but. Jose: Yeah. Steve: You don't know, he might come in all healthy and just go off. And Harden is hardened, so it's not like a done thing. And knowing what the Clippers believe in, think they wanna go backwards. Jose: Yeah, no. Steve: bots will mean you're gonna go backwards. Jose: Tough. I can't argue any of that, but I will say they don't raise any banners for Gabe Oklahoma City, a tough first round. That's not what the, that's not what bomber wants. That's not what the Clippers want. They gotta think beyond that. We gotta go, we're running out of time, but I wanna do a quick shout out to Yannick Niederhauser, who's the Swiss backup. Who I think it's certainly. Steve: seen him play. Jose: Yeah. All right. On [00:20:00] we go. We got two more topics and the clock is winding down. Let's go again. We'll keep with, we'll stay with the big kind of we're gonna talk about the Knicks and the Knicks back. They won a big game against Philly, but again, the big in that game was Joel, LMB. He looked pretty good. Three eight points was his total, but are the nicks back? That's really the topic. Steve: I, first of all, I'll say this, in the third quarter, there's a big knock on their defense. In the third quarter, they limited Phil. 13 points and Philly really couldn't get the ball inside the three point line. They had trouble and the shots they were taking were not good. And the defense was tremendous for that quarter. And I was stunned to watch that. And the Knicks opened up a big lead. But now the negative with that game the stretch, the Knicks couldn't make a foul shot. They had a, they were winning by, I guess I don't, something high with a couple minutes left and it became a one possession game. They couldn't they really didn't have it down the stretch. Now for me to say [00:21:00] they're back. It would've meant they held that 17 point lead and Jose: okay. Steve: away with a 12 point win. Don't know. I think they're showing signs that they're coming back. 'cause that was a tough game in Philly and they play, they played well enough to win. So it was interesting, by the way, when the Knicks took that lead in the third quarter, what was really interesting, one guy got in foul trouble and was on the bench for much of that quarter. You know who that was? Towns. Jose: Okay. Steve: So the defense picked up, remember what I always say? Two bad defenders. You don't win. Only had one Brunson then. 'cause Robinson could, he's a protector, a rim protector and Jose: Yeah. Steve: rebounder also. But that's where the game changed in that quarter. Jose: Got it. All right, so we'll put the Nicks in the almost back category, not quite yet. Steve: let me just, and I know we're running out of time, but let me just say one other thing. Philadelphia, everybody's saying 'cause MB scored 30, whatever, Jose: Yeah. [00:22:00] 38. Steve: that they're on their way. They're on their way. I would say this, I'd caution you. They need a rebounder and B just doesn't get off the ground and he doesn't rebound like he did. he plays on offense, the perimeter. He doesn't really like to go inside anymore. He could shoot, he's always a great shooter, they need somebody because the Knicks had 16 offensive rebounds in that game and that's where they lost Philly lost. Jose: All right, so we got it done. Yita ZBA for Tyrese. Maxey. Done and done. On. We go Steve: Yeah. Yeah. Jose: on. We go Steve: Max's one of the best. Jose: on we go. Steve: Yeah, we got, Jose: let's finish with this again. On a high note. I think, 'cause again, I gotta a soft spot for franchises that have never won anything and the hornets have never won anything. But you and Charles Barkley. Sparkly came out and said, Hey, this is, that's gonna go to the play. You both him agree. You are high on the hornets. [00:23:00] Why? Steve: They got some young talent. They have some players. Brandon Miller's a player. And he's been healthy this year. Josh Green Ello. Miles, bridges, they all can play. In fact, there's talk of Trading Miles, bridges and see if they can get a draft pick and Con Keppel is probably gonna come in second in the Rookie of the year. And his ability to shoot a three has really helped them a ton. So they've got that. In fact, there's been a couple games where LA Mellow down the stretch, didn't quite get in much, or they took 'em out here and there. They've gone with these other players that have done well. Now the short hornets need one thing. They need a big man. They're hoping that Ryan Co Brenner will be that, but he's only playing 20 minutes and he's getting about eight, nine point nothing. Great. So they're hoping he can develop, but if they can and let's just picture, how about Bridges goes to somebody and they get a big back. Now you getting interesting, because [00:24:00] then legitimate, big. then you really, you know it, it's really interesting. The irony is, by the way, Phoenix wants him, but you know who their big man is. Mark Williams, who played for Charlotte last year, that's not gonna But that's the irony of it. But Bridges could be the person that brings them, the big man to get them to that point. I think they're gonna make the playing game too. They're playing real well. They've beaten some good teams. In the last couple weeks Jose: Yeah, Steve: they went out west and won some tough games, and that's tough to win out there. so they're getting better. And Charles Lee does a great job with that. he's Jose: that's. Steve: it like Boston, where they defend from the inside out, meaning he'd rather give up the three than the, something inside. Jose: Nice. I, yeah, again, I have a soft spot in my heart for franchises like that. I wanna see success in Charlotte. And I wanna see success in LA for the Clippers. We already threw out Anthony Simons. We threw out Zazu [00:25:00] bots. Tyrese Maxey. I know the numbers don't work. It doesn't matter. Now, how about Lamella Ball? These are three teams. I know the numbers don't work. Forget logic. I'm trying to fix the clippers. They got a big, they need a guard. There's three good guards clippers. Go out and get 'em. Steve: Let me ask you this though. Who, who will get a rebound for the Clippers if Zoo Bots is gone? Jose: Yeah. No, this season doesn't matter. And that's the hard realization that I'm throwing out there. And I know Clipper fans hate to hear it. People outside of LA don't know that there are Clipper fans. They are a passionate group of fans that love their team. And I hate to say it. But the best the team could hope for right now, honestly is an eight spot in, in early round loss to the thunder. Why do that? Let's flip zubo, get a guard plan for the future. Steve: Who's better than are the Lakers? Jose: They just beat the Lakers. Steve: I know. Jose: The last 12 years they've been the better team. Steve: No Jose: I think there's, right this year, I [00:26:00] think they're pretty even, I think the Clippers are a better defensive team. But you got Luca's Magic, so I call 'em pretty even. Steve: Okay. And, and the Lakers have a lot of problems. Jose: There Go. Steve: It's an interesting way to put it about Zbox. You know what? You got a guy on making what? 17 million, 18 million for another two years after this. That's a pretty valuable piece, that guy that can Jose: Yes, indeed. Walking double. You don't have to call plays for him. He's just a baller, a dependable basketballer. Steve: yeah, that makes it hard to trade. I do understand they need somebody that can hit a three. I got it. But it's just a hard thing to trade. Jose: We will see how it plays out. The trade deadline is always fun, but I did my part Clipper nation. Now let's see how it plays out. Alright, that's it. You heard us. We had another shock clock violation. It's what we do. Our time is up. Thank you for listening. Thank you for watching. Make sure to reach Steve's entire 32 rules. Maybe your thoughts article. We will link it below. Join us next week for more NBA random thoughts [00:27:00] as we recap week number 15. We'll talk then. Thanks Steve. Steve: Take care.