The Shot Clock Pod - 2025-26 Season Preview and New Heave Rule!

The Shot Clock Pod - Sept 21 2025 === Jose: [00:00:00] All right. It is time to talk basketball. I'm Jose Salviati, Editor at thePeachBasket.net. He's Steve Purciello, a longtime educator, vice principal, high school basketball coach and athletic director. This is The Shock Clock po. The best 24 minutes of random NBA thoughts online anywhere. Now, last week we paused to the Shock Clock pod to talk. San Antonio Spurs basketball with the Spurs Bros, which was a great conversation. Today, the shock clock is back and we are gonna take a look at the rest of the teams. What I mean by that is Steve, an earlier shock Clock pod. We discussed the most interesting teams in the east and the most interesting teams in the West. So now we're gonna start to go over the rest of them. So we got all of your NBA teams covered for the start of the 20 25, 26 NBA season. Steve, are you ready? I'm ready. Let's start the clock and we're off. Alright. Before we get to the teams and I'm glad that you [00:01:00] brought this up 'cause I think it's fascinating. We're gonna talk about a rule change that came that's coming into the league this year. And it's an interesting one. They call it the heave rule. So if a shot is taken that starts in your own back court within with only three seconds left in the first, second or third quarter of the game, that shot will not count against the stats of the player that took it. I love seeing those shots. I think they're fun. They go in a lot of the times these guys are so talented but players don't like to take 'em. This rule. It's in effect to address it. What does that say about the NBA players? Steve: First of all, I think, are fans and they don't quite understand that these people, these players are playing for their living. Yeah, so players become reluctant to shoot the ball from a long distance 'cause it's gonna affect their percentage and that's gonna affect re affect the negotiations. Naturally it becomes a problem. I don't have a problem with it. I [00:02:00] didn't like that guys would just eat the ball or pretend to shoot after the buzzer went off and made something out of it. It is a fun thing because when somebody shoots the ball and the percentage isn't good, so if it goes in, people love that. Or even if it's close, you can, you feel the crowd go, but people need to sit and understand like you and I who work. Or I used to anyway, but people who work, this is their living, their next negotiation will be affected by it. Now we all wanna believe that every player wants to win. Oh, that's the most, I'm sure they do. But when you understand priorities, if the guy's making only 2 million and we say only, but it, it's a nice piece of change. But other guys making more, if their percentages go up, and I'm gonna use Beasley as the perfect example, Beasley, because his shooting. Has he's got some problems this year, but has made him some money 'cause he is an [00:03:00] outstanding shooter. And if you're a good, so you wanna keep your percentage as high as possible because that might make you money. And don't forget, for a lot of the guys, not at the top of the scale, meaning the Beasleys of the world in the NBA. If you are a top player, you're gonna get 35% of the overall team cap. So now if you have two good, and you have a second player who's a 25 or 30 percenter, that means that 65% of your money, or 60 or 70% whatever, Jose: yeah, Steve: 35% is gonna be split up among 1212. Players. So now do the math. I look at it and that's three, four, 3 million average. A little more, a little less. It's not a lot of money involved. And naturally these guys have a talent and anybody else, they'd do a mass enough money that they don't have to go to [00:04:00] work when they're done and they're talented. So you gotta have to understand that is the most important thing for the player. Naturally, they do wanna win titles. They do want, be famous for all that stuff. But the first thing is to make sure you make enough. In the limited time you have, what's the average NBA player play six years, five years? So you've gotta, you've gotta bring some money in over that time. Jose: Yeah. I'm gonna, I'm gonna go down a rabbit hole, excuse me with your Okay here, and it might impact our shot clock today. But there's no easy fix, obviously. And this is a I'm gonna make a ludicrous statement. Okay. I'm, and I'm gonna call that out right now. You do that? I do too. This one is, this was, this is top-notch. Ludicrous. What do you think would happen in the NBA if the salary cap was $250,000 per year? A good salary. Nobody would deny that. That is a very good salary. [00:05:00] Okay, two 50, that's your top. Everybody gets it. Bench player, start player two 50. Everybody makes $250,000 a year, quarter million dollars a year to play basketball. The rest of the money just goes to to nonprofits, right? Let's just, theoretically hypothetic, I told you it was ludicrous. All right. How many of today's current BA players do you think stay in the NBA? Because all of a sudden money isn't an issue. Everybody makes the same, right? How many NBA players stay or is the league decimated? Steve: No, people would play. 'cause that's for most people, that's a pretty good salary. Yeah. They would play, the one good thing would be the ticket prices would go way down. So that would be good. And the WNBA pretty much has that model, not that. Yeah, but they do that I guys would still play, like I said, 250,000 is a good salary for a year. It's up there near what you make. So in that way, that would be, fine. But the player would go into the [00:06:00] game knowing if I make enough, maybe I can invest in it and, live a life or b I'm gonna be working when I'm done. Jose: It might Steve: be bigger emphasis on education and things like that. Yeah. Really? Right now, let's face it. Guy goes top high school player plays one year in college, Cooper Flagg, and he's out and he's making money. So that might change a little bit. Who knows? And with the NIL. They're gonna make a heck of a lot more than 200 people stay in college. In college. That's funny. There's a lot of things you went down a rabbit hole and there's a lot of different things that come up. Oh, yeah. Jose: There's lots of different ways to take it. Yeah. You know what I might write some on that. That's an interesting take that obviously we'll never fly, but, yeah, I think it's interesting. Alright let's pause that because yeah, we could go down all of the different little nooks and crannies that I just opened up, but we don't want to do that. Let's talk about the rest of the NBA. As I said before, you discussed the interesting teams in the East and the West. Great conversation. Make sure to read read those [00:07:00] or listen to those shows. But today we're gonna talk about the rest of the teams. We'll start with the New York Knicks. This is a team that hasn't won it all in a very long time. They live in, the entertainment capital? No, I think LA is the entertainment capital of the world. Allegedly, supposedly. But they live in, that's one of the most popular cities to live in. There's a lot of pressure, I guess is what I'm trying to get at with the New York Knicks and the Knicks are a good team, but they've never been good enough. Okay. Are they good enough in 20 25, 26? Steve: I guess the best way to answer that is. If, and I don't think so in Oklahoma, but again, injuries and things like that, but in a, they ha they are good enough to win it in a down year in the NBA, meaning there's no tremendously talented team. I think, and what I wrote about was the signing of Malcolm Brogdon, right? People have to remember, two years ago, he was the sixth man of the year. He's constantly injured, [00:08:00] but if he stays healthy, he's played 53 games in the last two years, which is 26 a year, which isn't much. But if he stays healthy, they've got a player that they might use down the stretch of games. Think about that they, at the end of a game, he can finish a game and he can play, he can score. He used to be a defensive decent player. Now his legs, he is got a lot of problems with his legs and so on. Yeah. But if he stay, and sometimes again, I'll use 1986 with Boston, they've got Bill Walton who's always hurt and he was healthy. I think he missed one game that year. Things like that can happen. And if. They have a talent there that if he's healthy, and that's the biggest question, he signed a contract that's not guaranteed and he's in competition for that, that 14th spot. Landry Shat and Garrison Matthews, and by the way, Garrison Matthews could shoot and he's a tough [00:09:00] player. But that, I think there all three are fighting for that one spot. My sense is if bro's healthy. He'll make it. The other thing is the Knicks could trade somebody. And then keep two of those players because they'll be into the second apron if they keep two of them. So there's a lot of variables here. And the other thing is, can broad and stay healthy. So it's a really interesting move because he's a good player. Jose: Yeah it's always good for the NBA when there's a good team in New York and there's been a good team for a while, but obviously it's gonna be great for New York if they can get over the hump. And yeah. I love the call out to Bill Walton. Bill Walton changed that Celtics team and in my estimation is a great segue 'cause we're gonna talk about the Celtics next. That 1986 Celtics team is probably one of the best core teams in the history of NBA. They were phenomenal. Let's talk about the Celtics. Steve: That was Bird at his best. That was one of the best bird at his best. Jose: Undeniable and just [00:10:00] enough of Bill Walton to be impactful. I mean that, that team was a fun team to watch. But these Celtics 20 25, 26 Celtics, I don't think any team is gonna look any more different from last season to this season. The Boston Celtics, and it's unfortunate, right? Because it starts with Tatum and then you listed 'em, man, drew, Holliday, Christophe Ingas, Al Horford, Luke Cornett. This team is all together different, and it's not by choice, right? Sometimes teams blow up this Celtics team. It was an unfortunate injury. That was the first domino. And then everything else happened. So what do you make of the Celtics this season? What can we expect? Steve: I think you're a playing team. I know the Eastern Conference is weak, but I just, you, you lost an all NBA player to start and hopefully, they, there's word that he's ahead of schedule and maybe he can be back, but I doubt it. But the point being they lost him. They also lost whatever bigs that were decent. Now they're down to their number three center [00:11:00] cada, who's played well this summer in the games. Yeah, but. You gotta hope he can play. Now they did ha sign Boucher from Toronto. Who can play a little bit, but he, he's limited. Luke Garza, who's been a bench man from Min Minnesota can score, can't do much else, but he can score and Josh Minna. So they've got a few guys. But I, they're just, they're weak. They're weak at the big spots. In a year when Tatum is healthy again, they might be able to go out and fix that. They do have Derek White, they do have Jalen Brown and Jalen Brown should really have a great year because he sure the boss should be in his hands. They do have Peyton Prichard, who is getting better every year and who knows? He could be really good and. With those three and Anthony Simmons who can score, they have some talent. They're not they're, but they're not, they don't have the big people that can bring them home. And [00:12:00] until they get that. I don't see them competing with any of the big boys in the league. Yeah. It's just not enough big and it's just the way it shook out when Brad Stevens had to go in and trade these guys, he had to get under that second apron. Yeah. So it just worked out that he didn't get any big people back that were decent. So it, it's a problem. Jose: Yeah. A couple of quick shout outs there. 'cause that was a great recap of the Celtics first Nick Land a big fan, a big friend rather of our show, did a great overview of Cada and his off season improvement. So we'll see if we can link that as well. And Steve and I talked a lot about the second April. We'll make sure to link that as well. So lots of good conversations. Based on what, off of what you just said. Let's move now to the heat. And I love the way you worded this here, the heat as a franchise are not prone to throw away seasons. Some teams, some franchises are here in la we had [00:13:00] an, there was a franchise not the Lakers. That threw away multiple seasons by design. That was just, that was what the owner wanted to do at the time. Dark days. That's not what the Miami Heat do. Is that what the Miami Heat are gonna do this season? Steve: First of all, it's good that you got the Lakers involved early. But Miami's interesting. They did get Dwight Powell who can score and he can play a bit, so that's gonna help him. And they've got bam. And a lot of it rides on co wear. If he's healthy and can play well and is improved, he's gotta get bigger and stronger. But if he's improved, the heat are gonna be much better. 'cause then it allows bam to be a four man. Not the five. And it just, it changes the whole thing and bam can defend against anybody. Yeah. But he did lose Duncan Robinson, who's a good shooter. They lose Hayward Highsmith, who's a nice player. They lost those two and Heroes hurt. Now they're playing team as they are right there. If Hero [00:14:00] comes back in Powell, they might be a tad better, but I don't quite see it. I just don't see it. And I'm surprised now Miami. Is thinking about next year. Free agents out there and they get under the cap. There's a bunch of money. Powell's salary er, who's hasn't given him a thing, his salary, and there's some other money that they will be coming off and they will be able to go out and sign somebody. That's a big player. It's very, it's surprising. That the heat would do this, but I think right now that might be the smartest way to go. Now they're gonna try to win. They always try to win. Yeah. But I just don't see, there's not enough talent to, to really win. Jose: Yeah tough times in, in, in Miami to be sure. Speaking of tough times, how's that for a segue? Let's talk about the process in Philadelphia, right? I, when MB showed up and started talking about the process, I thought that's super mature, right? That [00:15:00] makes so much sense. Be patient. I think we're near the tail end of the process in Philadelphia, the MB process in Philadelphia. What do you think? Steve: If he's healthy, they're dangerous. Really? Okay. They're dangerous. And if he's healthy I, obviously if I'm a betting man, I'm gonna say he is gonna play 40 games. Yeah. But if he's healthy, they're dangerous. They've got some outstanding guards. They didn't sign Quentin Grimes yet, and he's won more. But they do have Maxi, they do have McCain. Who got hurt last year. Was on his rookie of the year. Yeah. And CJ Edgecomb, who's looked good in the summer and can play. He was one of the best guy on the court when he played so. With that. It's not a bad situation if Joel l Mbi is healthy. They also have another guy that they have to hope. Yeah. Lines the fountain of youth. And that's Mr. George. Yeah. If he can, you've got a [00:16:00] nice situation there. I don't know if it'll happen. George always misses a ton of games since he broke his leg 10 years ago, whatever it was. Yeah, that's a nice, if you get everybody healthy, you've got a nice situation. And you never know. You never know. But again, it all comes down to one thing. Yeah. Joel, I don't picture him playing back to backs. I don't picture him playing, all four four games and six nights or any of that stuff. But I, I do picture if they're lucky and they get 60, 65 games out of them. You got something going there. Jose: Here. Here's my take on the Sixers. Anytime you start a, an overview with if that's a problem. And I think you rattle off multiple ifs there and I get the sense. That Paul George has reached the end of his career in that, and lemme be real careful when I say this, okay. Phenomenal player. He's still very good. He's going to have nights where he is gonna go off for 35 and play lockdown [00:17:00] defense. He's good, but he can't consistently do that anymore. He just can't. He's at that end of his career or that, that point in his career where he's just gonna be good in spurts. So I just, I don't see that if coming through and like you said, I think best case scenario, unless something incredible happens and it could, right? You're looking at 40 games, 45 games maybe for Joel and Beat. I just don't think that's enough. Too many ifs in Philly. Steve: Remember when you're talking about George, just remember what I always think about stars. Stars Do it every night. Every night, right? Once you it every night, you're not a star anymore. Tough. You gotta bring it every night. Every night you've, the pressure's on you. You've gotta go out and get your 2025, whatever it is you have to get. And the team needs that every night. Some nights you might get, and for Philadelphia, Kelly Ure, he might go off and get a 20 or two, a 25, but you can't count on that. You gotta count on your stars to bring it home. They won't, they do have Maxi who's gonna [00:18:00] bring it. He, oh yeah. 25 every night. But the rest of it, if MBS there, it changes the whole game. Jose: Yeah. Yeah. I see. This is a, the start of a transition from the MB era to the Maxi era. The Edgecomb era the Ms. Cain era just to start, but Steve: lemme add something though, if that's the case. And they become a 500 team. It's gonna be the start of an era or another way, there'll be new head coach and a new general manager. Yeah. There, there's more to it than just that. And by the way, I think he's got about four more years on his contract at Ridiculous Money. Yeah. They're gonna have trouble staying under the cap or around the cap with his surgery if he's not giving them anything. Jose: Toughest job out there is GM building and keeping a team together. Let's move to the West to talk about a team that's been struggling for a really long time, but they're starting to build some momentum now. I think. They've they've gone all in with their coach, Chauncey [00:19:00] Billups. And again they've brought in some players and they're looking to make some noise. And this is a team that's, I think, under some pressure after not being good for a while. To be good this year. They've gotta make some noise. They've gotta be, at least in the play in, and that's obviously the Portland Trail Trailblazers. What do you make of the Blazers this year? Steve: I think first of all, they're ahead of management is ahead of where they should be. They're getting better. Yeah. Not if they finish in the top six, I'll be the first most surprised person around because they're not that good yet. They won't, they could get there, but they're not there. So there's gonna be a lot of pressure on people to overperform. They do have some talent. They've got some good young talent. K Clingin, they're hoping gets better, but he's not a bad center for modern today's NBA. Tomorrow is a very good defender. Denny Avia is a player. He's just a flat out player. He's borderline star. [00:20:00] And the other one. And probably the most important ingredient is Scoot Henderson. He's up and down and if he does become the player everybody thought he was. Remember he was second person chosen in the draft. If he does, they're in business then they could be decent. They've got a couple guys on the bench, not bench, but Jeremy Grant we all forget about because he's out. He can play. Robert Williams is always out. He can play. He almost was defensive player of the year a couple years ago. So there, there's some people and they did bring in Drew holiday's getting a little bit, he's getting older. Yeah, but they bought him in for one reason. As they bought. Damien Dane is a local and they want him back, but both of them think are there to work with Scoot Henderson because they the organization understands how important his development is to where Portland tries to go. But I think they're getting ahead of themselves if they think they're a top 16. Jose: Yeah. Yeah. [00:21:00] Undeniable. And I love you, you called it out. I think the feel good news of the NBA off season was Dane picking Portland. That was. That was kinda shocking to me, but good to see. Hoping for some success in the Pacific Northwest. We're gonna finish with a franchise That man has not had success in as long as I can remember ever. The New Orleans Pelicans. They've made some interesting off-season decisions. Obviously everything revolves around Zion Williamson. It's a big year for them. They, if they, yeah, I think at this point, man, if they don't have some success, if they don't make a move forward everything's gonna change. What do you see for the pe Steve: You hit it. If Zion plays 70 games. They're a playoff team. They're a pretty good team. If he plays 70 games, everybody will be shocked. But that's the key. They have some talent. They've got Herb Jones, they've got Murphy who can just play offensively. He is a player. They also have Jamal Murray coming back from an injury. And the Achilles, [00:22:00] if he can come back and play like he used to, that's one more good player. And. For those people who didn't realize, they picked up a pretty good score during the off season. A guy by the name of Pool from Washington. And if you remember a couple years ago, Jordan was playing with the with Golden State, and he was instrumental in beating the Celtics in the final. He had some good games so he can play too. I don't know. If he likes playing with a team, but he can play. And so there's a lot of decent players. They also have the center Messi who he's, I don't know if he's a good center, but he's got potential. And if he can play, there, there's some pieces. Yeah. But it all comes back to Zion without Zion. What do you got? So if he's healthy, which will be a surprise, then you're in business. The other thing too, and it's funny, Willie Green's the coach, Willie Green's whole future [00:23:00] is right around Zion because if they don't get off. Mr. Green will be out of a job. Yeah. And it's not really his fault because, again, you don't have the pieces you want. Last year he didn't, and it didn't work out too well. Jose: Yeah. It's always the coach's, it's always the coach's fault. And I think the times that the coach deserved to be fired or probably in, in the lower percentage. Oftentimes it's just they're the ones who take the blame for it. Steve: One other thing I wanted to add and it's very interesting. They made a crazy trade to get Derek Queen, I believe from Maryland. Yeah. The University of Maryland, to draft him higher, and they gave away a number one pick in a year. Now if you read into that what position does he play and who's that play that position on New Orleans, right? He's playing science spot. Jose: Yeah. Steve: Is there a thought. That if this guy can play and if they're right, [00:24:00] we move Zion. Sure. And then you get to the next conversation, which is off a rabbit hole as you would say, but the rabbit hole would be, who the heck is going to give up a lot for Zion? I think a lot of teams would give up a lot for Zion. You're gambling Jose: and you know what, that's all the NBA is man. It's always a gamble. You know what? Gimme a short thing. I'll take it. There's no such thing being, Steve: being a gm. You wanna keep your job. If you take a risk, if you take a risk like that and it doesn't work, I get it. You kinda lost your job. So there's more to it than just that. My sense would be, it would be teams that are on the way down and trying anything to get themselves back up. Those are the teams that would be interested in it, or the teams that are weak. Just try to, don't draw because Zion will bring people to the games if he's playing right. Sure you won't bring people be sitting in the second row. But, so that, that's what it would be. But I don't know if you're gonna get a lot. I [00:25:00] think he, if you check his salaries, I think he's gonna be making over 40 million a year over the, that's a lot of money for a guy who doesn't show up a lot. Jose: No, I get it. But yeah, of course. I think if that we're having that conversation, then things have worked out well in new Orleans. That's that's the takeaway and I'm hoping things do, I'd like to see some success out in New Orleans. Now you didn't hear it 'cause it was a bit muted, but our shot clock did go off right at the tail end. Of the the New Orleans conversation, which is cool. We don't usually beat the shot clock. We're in violation pretty much every week, but that's okay. It's what we do. But that's it. Our time is up. Thanks for listening. Thanks for watching. Make sure to read Steve's entire 13 rules and be a random thoughts article. We'll link it below to, again, more of his thoughts on the teams we discussed, the rule we discussed. Of course, go back, take a look at the second apron conversation, the East and West coast team conversations. Lots of good stuff there. We are actually, Steve, you don't know this. But we are nearing our 100th episode, which is pretty spectacular. I think [00:26:00] most shows don't last that long. I don't know how we've made it this far. An LA guy and a Boston Celtics fan. But we're this close to 100 shows. I don't know exactly where we're at, but I think we're in the mid nineties somewhere. When we do get, when we do our hundredth, I'll make sure to let you know. I think that's pretty, pretty spectacular. Yeah. Something to, we can make a hat or something to commemorate the event. We'll do something. But make sure to join us next week for more random NBA thoughts. We will make sure to share everything on our socials at us there. Of course, please subscribe, comment, all that stuff means a lot. We look forward to talking to you all again next week. Thanks, Steve. Steve: Thanks. Take care.