NBA Week 1 Overreactions: Are LeBron’s Sixers the New Finals Favorite?

The Shot Clock Pod 10/25/2026 === Jose: ​[00:00:00] All right, it's time to talk basketball. The NBA season is underway, and I'm excited to talk about it and hear Steve's random thoughts. I'm Jose Salviati, editor at thePeachBasket.net. He is Steve Purciello, host of "Celtic Chop Talk," a longtime educator, vice principal, high school basketball coach, athletic director, and this is the "Shot Clock Pod." The "Shot Clock Pod" was born out of the content 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 be discussing his latest 13 Rules: Random NBA Thoughts article, where he shares his thoughts after week one of the 2026-27 NBA season. Now, if you're listening to us, thank you. We want you to know that we are one of several independent fan-driven shows on the Peach Basket Podcast Network of shows. We're not owned by a big media company, which means what you hear comes straight from real fans who live the game every day. If you believe voices like this should be heard, the best way to support us is simple, keep listening, keep watching, tell a friend, like, comment, [00:01:00] subscribe. Soon as this episode ends, head over to thePeachBasket.net. Check out more fan-run podcasts, videos, articles, and help this independent network grow the way it started organically, one hoops fan at a time. We're really glad you're here. Thank you. Steve, are you ready? Steve: Ready Jose: Let's go. It's been a very interesting start to the 2026-27 NBA season. Lots to talk about. We're gonna do these in order, get through as much of these as we can. First off, the biggest... probably not the biggest, but one of the biggest splashes in the off-season was LeBron to Philly, and the 76ers, look great on paper, but you never know how it's gonna work out. They've looked really strong. Are they your new finals favorite? Steve: I would have to say yeah. Jose: Wow Steve: When a team is loaded like that with talent, biggest question, 'cause every one of those guys was a s- the best guy or a star.[00:02:00] Jose: Yeah Steve: gonna give a little to, for the greater good? they demonstrated it this week last week with their wins. They beat New York in New York and that's a nice win when both teams in, are playing hard. I just think that they have the most talent, and if they are able to be grown up Did, did show. The only negative here, and it, and I did mention it, is injuries. Embiid is not the most sturdy guy, and as LeBron gets older, he's, m- last night he sat out a back to back and with the sciatica, sciatic the back problem. And, y- you just don't know. You don't know if that's gonna keep cropping up or what the problem is. And Embiid, e- every game is 50/50 with him 'cause he's always hurt Jose: One thing that caught my attention i- in LeBron's, first game with the Sixers is something that you called out, [00:03:00] and that is the concern that you had for the Sixers p- pitting him at center, playing him at center a lot of the time. They played him at center a lot of the time. That, that can't scale, man. Y- you can't do that over 82 game. Not that he's gonna play 82 games, but that's a that's a bit of a problem. They need a big, don't they? Steve: They, it's funny, they let Drummond go during the off-season. He e- ended up with the Knicks, and Jose: Yep Steve: Salary. Jose: Wow Steve: to me, they thought Adem Bona would be the answer, and he's not a bad player, but he's not Drummond. Drummond is like insurance. then the, Hukporti got hurt, as I called out and they don't have much. I- they have Walker who can play a little bit but he's not a big center. And that's an important thing in the NBA because a lot of big physical centers that you have to match up against and I don't, I don't know if they can. And that's where [00:04:00] LeBron is gonna have to, play there, and that's not great Jose: Yeah. Yeah. I think that's a concern anytime you have a 40-year-old, and LeBron's not any 40-year-old admittedly, but that's a problem. At least a concern Steve: on that, one of the things the NBA trend is you take the worst offensive player on the other team and you guard him with your center so he can more or less stay down in the box and block shots and rebound. That might be something that they will do, but then to counter that, you get... You put five offensive players on the floor. So there's a lot of things that go on in a game that could negate LeBron getting beat up as the big man Jose: Yeah. Yeah. So off to a great start, but certainly, some orange flags at the very least for the Sixers health being the biggest potential red one. Let's talk about another team. This is a team we've been waiting to make the next hop [00:05:00] for a long time. That's the Orlando Magic, and man, they started out 26-27 with a couple of duds, right? Is this a foreteller of a rough season or just a rough start? Steve: After I wrote that, Banchero's been... He's out. He's gonna be out for a couple weeks. He hurt his, twisted his ankle or sprained his ankle. But I think they're gonna wait till he comes back. But if you watched the first game particularly, game was over, Banchero went at somebody on Atlanta, and he was ready to fight after the game. You just, and you just didn't feel that the Magic were totally in it together. Just a, a, a gut feel. I'm watching it on TV. So I'm really curious if they don't get it together, what do you do? So they're gonna give it a little time 'cause he's gotta come back. But I don't know. I don't know where that team is and I just get a bad feel that they're gonna have to do something to fix it, and this guy's making a lot of money. He's the one that you deal and try to work around. [00:06:00] So it's an interesting situation. It's something that we have to watch Jose: Yeah, I'm reading now and could miss four to six weeks. That, that's devastating for a Orl- Orlando Magic team that needed to get off to a good start. That's rough Steve: Yeah. And so that's my point. And when he does come back, they figure that he- they've gotta make up and start winning. And they've been hurt before. Last year he was hurt as well as Wagner. So it's happened, but I just don't feel like this is a, a cohesive unit that likes playing together Jose: Yeah. Yeah, and that's what you wrote about, and that's always tough, and it's coincidental. That was the concern going into the season for the Sixers. They look cohesive. They look like they've got their chemistry, and the Magic have been together long, a lot longer, just don't seem to have it whi- which is odd. Health, hoping h- for health for Paolo Banchero for sure. Let's move to the next topic 'cause this was an interesting one. I was surprised about this. When you take a look at the MVP candidates going into this new season, [00:07:00] the number that always-- The name that always bubbles to the top is Victor Wembanyama, y- which of course. GMs, you know were asked at the start of the season, "Who is your MVP favorite?" Victor Wembanyama, I think 56% this guy, he's a super superstar. Generational talent, unbelievable player, and he played really bad. And you called him out, right? He needs to be a little bit better consistently with his shooting. What happened to Wemby? Steve: If you watched in the playoffs last year, you saw a guy that a great shooter. But no matter what, he's big, he can get whatever he wants. He needs to improve that. If he's going to be an all-time great and people have projected that, I thought he, he could be he's gotta get better. He can't go 0 for 12. You just can't do that. And he did that. Stars bring it every night. Decent players bring it once in a while. You gotta bring it. You gotta bring it. You gotta go out and you gotta [00:08:00] lead your team and get your 25 or whatever it is you're supposed to get. And if he doesn't get better as a shooter, not gonna be that top 10 of all-time players or top five, whatever way you wanna say it. And the one thing I will say in his behalf, LeBron, when he started out, wasn't a great shooter. He became pretty good. Jose: Yeah Steve: it could happen with Wembanyama Jose: It's funny, glad you called out LeBron. Magic Johnson was not a very good shooter from outside when he started and ended up being really good. But the, the one thing I thought about, when I heard about Victor's, poor game was s- I've seen stars have bad games, right? Again, we'll lean on Magic, right? Magic Johnson had a, I think a one-point game or a two-point game, total points scored into the fourth quarter. But in that game, I think he had 18 or 22 assists, right? And that always stuck with me, right? And Larry Bird the same. Larry Bird was dangerous if he's not scoring 'cause he's gonna, he's gonna do these behind the back passes and, over the head passes. The greats [00:09:00] always find a way to impact the game. Even if you can't, if you're not scoring, you've gotta contribute in other areas. Now I didn't see the game. I'm not sure if you did, but I'm looking at the stats now. He pulled down 13 rebounds. He had six blocks in that game where he went 0 for 12. To me maybe this is more than... We're making more of it than it needs to be, just a bad game Steve: say something to you. Bill Russell won 11 championships in 13 years. When we talk about the top five players, would you put Bill Russell in there? All-time players Jose: Depends on how you define it Steve: Any way you want, would you put him in the top five players? Jose: Man. I can make arguments for, I can make arguments against. Steve: Most Jose: me, leave it at that. Steve: the top five. Jose: True. Okay. Steve: What did Bill Russell do? He blocked shots better than anybody that ever played the game, and he rebounded over 20 rebounds a game in his career. So [00:10:00] Wemby can do that. Do you put him in the top 10 or top five? That's my answer to that and that's what I'm trying to Jose: Yeah Steve: Yeah, he can be a great deterrent. And by the way, the other night against Houston, it's been played all over the place. He went for a short five-footer and Amen Thompson blocked it. Let's think about that. Thompson's one of the best defenders in the league, but if he went up with force and threw it down, arm might have been broken. That's where... And again, I'm gonna go back to show my age, when Wilt Chamberlain had something like that, get out of the way. Jose: Sure Steve: this guy went up soft. And th- those are the questions we have, and he's got a, he's got... What is he in his fourth year? He's got plenty of time to prove that, we're wrong Jose: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah I, frankly, I'm not too worried about Wemby. I think he and the Spurs are gonna be okay. But yeah, undeniably weird start to the season for them. [00:11:00] Now, probably the biggest news in the first week of the NBA and again I'm West Coast, Steve is East Coast, so maybe I'm overselling this, but the biggest news out here has been Yaxel versus Luka. I thought... I found it incredibly interesting. I thought hearing Yaxel communicate his concern, I just thought th- this guy just talks like a 10-year vet. I was impressed. You had an interesting thought, which a- again, there's two schools of thought here. You thought, and I don't want to put words in your mouth, but you kinda wrote, "Right message, wrong messenger." Is that fair? Steve: That, that's perfectly said. this guy just he's played two NBA games. He's not... He's gonna be a good player. Nobody's go arguing that, but he played two games. Who the heck is he to come along and talk about somebody that's been All-Pro, first team All-NBA a couple times, and been great, and involved in the MVP? If somebody, s- Steve C- not Steve Kerr, Steph [00:12:00] Curry said something like that, ooh, that's interesting. And nobody's denying Dončić is a moaner. D- Dončić is a whiner. Nobody's denying that, but it's the wrong person telling us this. him a couple years and he can talk any way he wants if he continues to get improve. Jose: Yeah. Steve: talking about Yaxel Jose: Yeah. When you start to peel back the onion a little bit y- you, that Yaxel defended Luka pretty well, right? The only shot Luka made on him was that half court shot wh- where they were yapping. Some would argue and say, "Listen, you're two games in," but he earned that voice because he defended Luka well. But you, y- you're not buying that? Steve: Well, over the years I've seen many guys defend somebody very well, and the second game that star went out and went after... So come on, we're Jose: yeah, Steve: Here's Jose: Yeah Steve: years in the NBA, a lot of games on, behind him, and we're taking one game. Okay, if that's what [00:13:00] you wanna do. If they play, when they play again, I'll take Luka. You can have Yaxel. But I, so let's be logical here Jose: I got it. I got it. Yeah, a- again we're throwing back a lot of old school references, but I remember Ruben Patterson was a self-proclaimed Kobe stopper, Steve: Yeah. Yeah Jose: Yeah, there were plenty of games where Kobe took that very personal. And there's a lot of talk here that Luka's gonna take that personal and yeah, I that next matchup between the two is gonna be very interesting to watch, for sure. All right, let's take a look at the start of the season for the two NVA NBA finals teams, which is interesting because both have started 0-2. So I'm gonna ask two questions. One of them pretty simple, right? Is it time to panic in either San Antonio or New York? Then the other one is something you talked about later, late- a little later in, in your article, and that is both of these teams are finals contenders, undeniably. They both go they both play games on their home court and they lose. That, [00:14:00] y- you have some specific concerns about that. So let's talk about that, and is it time to panic for either of these two teams? Steve: No, it's not time to panic. But wh- when you watch early in the season, you look for indicators, something that is gonna tell you what kind of year it'll be and so on. And most time- a lot of times it's wrong. But if you look at this and you think about this, the Knicks played Philly opening night, they got their rings. And now those are two teams that are mentioned to get to the finals. You know both teams are playing hard. if the Knicks were to be playing the Nets, y- you can understand the Knicks not out there, not completely hard. These two teams are playing hard. Generally, when two good teams are playing, you're looking for the home court team to prevail. It didn't happen. It opens your eyes. When the Spurs played Oklahoma City, Oklahoma is good and I think they're gonna win it but the Spurs came [00:15:00] up empty and they did it again against Houston. So you begin to think maybe, this might not be real good because Jose: Yeah Steve: beaten on their home court. And I'll offer the counter on that. The Knicks went up to Boston on Friday night, and Boston was 0-1, the Knicks were 0-1. Boston's the home court, two good teams. Jose: Sure Steve: It did. And it tells you Boston could be taken seriously because both teams went at it and they played hard. They're... Now, early in the season you do, it- it's sloppy at times, but they're playing hard, so you're getting a feel of who's got more talent Jose: Yeah Steve: and... or whose... this is their better year. And it's just a feel because y- you gotta go by something to try to figure out who's good and who's bad Jose: Couple interesting things about that. I had to look it up, but the percentage of time that the defending champion wins on their home court on ring night is 80%, [00:16:00] right? So this is a pretty telling loss, for sure. And I think it's, y- there's a lot of, even the guys on Charles Barkley and Ernie and that group, sh- dow- downplayed it. "It's 1 of 82. It's 1 of 82." And it is. It's 1 of 82. But there are some losses that, that can come back, that, that plant a seed in your head, and losing on your home court to a contender is one of those losses Steve: I just think when... Yeah, teams are given at their all. So if they're somewhat equal, the home court's gonna bring you home, and it Jose: Yeah Steve: it. And that just, it makes me think, and y- you're looking for any indicator that will tell you what kind of season it might be. Jose: Right Steve: that to me was an indicator. I don't know if it's right, but Jose: yeah. Steve: I look at Jose: Interesting. Interesting. All right, and it makes the start of the season really interest- super interesting, super fun when you, which is when you start to see which [00:17:00] I'm curious now to see which of these two teams is gonna bounce back. One of them is gonna have a five or six game winning streak, I think. I Steve: d- don't forget, the NBA schedule early in the year, the good teams play the good teams. Jose: Yeah. Steve: now, don't forget, for San Antonio, there's gonna be a lot of nights they're playing a not good team, and they're gonna get their wins, Jose: Yeah, for sure Steve: about four or five teams that measure with them. And the same with the Knicks, so they're gonna get their wins. But it, so you gotta find something that gives you a feel of where we're going Jose: Yep. And this is probably the best indicator at this point. Steve: Yeah, Jose: Let's see if it, Steve: is, yeah Jose: Yeah, for sure. I agree. Now let's talk about, for me, one of the cool things about the start of the season is that y- lots of, you know, let's call them oddities, blips, r- guys that are just excelling and guys that aren't excelling. And we'll talk a little bit about a team that maybe isn't excelling that we thought might. [00:18:00] But I wanna call out, and you called this out, the surprise leading scorer in the NBA after week one is who? Steve: Ty Jerome. And, when he played with Cleveland, he, you could see he can play. Now he's in a situation where they're building and, or rebuilding and probably the most, best offensive guy on the court for them. So he's just taking the ball and scoring. And he's got a nice little, I guess it's a little push shot in, in the middle, like about 12-footer dead on. And a floater I guess would be the best term for it. And he's scoring. He's tough. And suddenly... And I didn't think, I thought Memphis is a, not a good team, and I still don't think they're real good, but he's made them respectable by going out 43 on opening night, not a bad night. And then he came back, what, with 27 or 28 n- next night. That means it, it's for real. W- [00:19:00] Memphis, they'll have their problems. I think they, one of their wins was against Golden State. Golden State is a sad situation. But, Jose: Yeah Steve: when they begin to play better teams, I don't know how well they'll do, Memphis. But it's fun. It's fun seeing somebody come along Jose: 100%. 100%. I love that. When you look at his career trajectory, right? A- and this, and he's been in the league now going on it looks like about eight years, but three points, 10 points, seven points, seven points, two points. So he, just not, no blip in the radar. He's just, he's collecting a check being an NBA player Steve: what's interesting is has a contract and he's got an option for next year, about 9 million. And what's really interesting with that is he can opt out. And if he finishes the year getting 20 or 20, he's got a payday coming to him. And that's nice. You like to see guys like that who work hard and get their money Jose: Yeah, 100%. And it was in year six when Ty [00:20:00] Jerome figured it out, right? He jumped from two points a game, and he got more minutes for sure, but he went to 12, sixth Man of the Year, came in third, 19 last year, and now this season 36.5, which is wild. Steve: for that one, but yeah Jose: But th- that's where he's at. Yeah, but you're right, it's not where he's gonna land. But kinda cool, and I love stories like this. I think it's that's super exciting and I'm happy to-- land. But kinda cool, and I love-- success for Ty Jerome. All right, let's talk about another surprise. To share and continued success for Ty Jerome. Guys, apologies to all Miami Heat fans. What is wr- Is this a foreteller, man? Are Are the Heat not as good as we all thought they might be? Steve: The thing that's let 'em down is their defense. And everybody thought when they got Giannis with Bam, be, a tremendous defensive team. That's been the letdown for 'em. They're giving up a lot of points. I think last night they gave up 115 in a loss, And that [00:21:00] was to Charlotte. Now, Charlotte is not th- they're... and Knueppel is not playing, so they're trying to figure some- And neither is Coby White. So they're trying two starters out, and they got beat. So there's some issues here. And I think the best way to look at this too is Giannis is scoring. Who else can score? know Bam had 83 last year, but can he consistently get 20 to 25? No. they're not gonna get a lot of points, so their defense has to be better. And Klay Thompson is not Klay Thompson that we know, Jose: Yeah. Yeah Steve: but Mitchell's been playing well. Mitchell Wiggins, night he's the best guy on the court, the next night you don't even know he's playing. They're not getting a lot out of these people. Their bench isn't strong. So they've got a lot of issues here. And it doesn't it doesn't look like... They'll come out of it a bit, but I don't... I think, I thought they'd be a play-in team, [00:22:00] and I still kinda hold that, that view. Hopefully, 'cause I do like Giannis, I'd like to see him prove us wrong Jose: Yeah. Yeah, it's tough. You look at the numbers, they gave up 131 points, then 128 points, then 115 points, and that was their best defensive outing and again, started 0 and 3. So you think, listen, they're gonna be okay, just a rough start, but even best case scenario, it's a play-in team Steve: Yeah, okay. I don't know if it's okay but I think they'll be better than 0 and 3, obviously. And, the East is loaded, don't forget. and, if they win 43 games, let's say, don't think that's gonna get them in the top six, So I- I maybe I'm wrong, but I just don't I don't see them... And I can name six... I have to think for a while, but there's easily six better teams, so that, that's my take Jose: Yeah. Yeah, agreed. They've [00:23:00] got an interesting road ahead. Dallas with Cooper Flagg out, that might be a winnable game for them. Yeah but then the Hawks who've been playing well, the Pacers who've been playing well, the Lakers who've been playing well, Steve: Pacers are Jose: be a bumpy... Steve: Pacers are Jose: With Steve: I'm I watched some of them the other night and I'm not totally convinced on... I think they're trying to figure it out with a big man that, 'cause they were always a wide open team, and with Zubac who can only play down basically a post-up guy. Jose: Sure Steve: and how it works, and they're struggling. They're struggling to figure themselves out yet, and that, that's, that, that's something. First night they, I guess they played the Pelicans, and they struggled. They pulled it out at the end, but they didn't, and you'd expect them, they'd do better against the Pelicans. That, that's my... And I think they got beat up last night somebody. Jose: Yeah. Steve: Yeah. Yeah, and without... Flagg got hurt in the first half. If Kyrie's playing, I guess they still [00:24:00] can hold on, play with people. But yeah, so Jose: Yeah. Steve: take Jose: Nice. All right. And interestingly that Dallas game, or pardon me, that Pacers game with the... Who were we just talking about? Steve: Well, but Cooper Flagg. are you talking about? Jose: no. We were talking about the Miami Heat. Steve: Oh, Jose: The Miami Heat versus the Pacers game, that's the start of NBA Cup. So we'll for both teams, so we'll see how that plays out. But yeah, you heard the shot clock go off. A bumpy end to our first show of the 2026-27 NBA season. But excited to be back. Make sure you subscribe, comment. Again, all that stuff matters. Thank you for listening. Thank you for watching. Make sure to read Steve's entire 13 Rules NBA Thoughts article. We'll link it wherever you are watching or listening to this today. And join us next week as we dive into more NBA random thoughts on the Shot Clock Pod. We'll talk next week. Thanks, Steve. Steve: Take care