The Shot Clock Pod – Clippers Drama, Ben Simmons’ Future, and the Second Apron Problem

13 Rules_ Sept 6 2025 === Speaker: [00:00:00] All right, it's 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. And this is the Shock Clock Pod, the best 24 minutes of NBA random thoughts online anywhere. Again, if you've been listening to us for a while, I won't keep, regurgitating this bit of information, but we used to be the best 15 minutes. Of random NBA thoughts online, but we have expanded. It makes a ton of sense. Players get 24 seconds to shoot. We get 24 minutes to chat. This podcast was born out of the contents in 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, read an NBA thoughts article where he shares his thoughts on NBA drama in la. The second apron and a few other NBA problems. We'll get into it now this week. If you [00:01:00] were with us last week, we were gonna talk Spurs basketball. Unfortunately one of the Spurs, bros got sick, didn't, it's not feeling well, we're gonna do that next week and excited to talk Spurs basketball. I think that's gonna be an exciting basketball team in the 20 25, 26 NBA season. And we'll talk to the Spurs bros about that next week. But today we got a lot on our plate. Lots of good stuff to talk about. Steve, are you ready? I'm ready. Let's do it. I'm gonna start the timer now and we're off. Alright, let's start. With the Los Angeles Clippers, this came outta nowhere. The Los Angeles Clippers were enjoying a great off season touted as the best moves, the best team as, as far as off season moves. People were picking them as a sleeper choice to get to the finals. Everything was going great, and then all of a sudden this thing drops. And if you haven't been paying attention, the thing is, I won't get into a lot of detail, but. It looks like maybe the Clippers [00:02:00] circumvented the salary cap. They signed Kawhi Leonard and then magically he got, he gets a 28 to $50 million endorsement deal which is essentially money for not even showing up. And it's a problem for the Clippers right now. So you wrote about that. You said if guilty. What is Adam Silver gonna do to the Clippers? It's an interesting conversation. What do you think about it? Speaker 2: I'm gonna turn it back to you first to start it off. Okay. I wanna hear what they're saying out in LA and what you're thinking. Speaker: It's funny because La Clipper fans are a special breed of people. Okay. Let me tell you what I mean by that. The Los Angeles Clippers as we all know are. An unfortunate franchise in terms of winning history. They just don't have it right now. They've been the best team in LA record wise, for 15 years, but they don't have any rings to show for it. They live in the shadow of Los Angeles, Lakers. They always have, and I just don't see that changing and on top of that. There's this talk, you [00:03:00] don't hear about it as much, but there was always a talk of the Clipper's purse, right? Something always goes wrong. They get Danny Manning a phenomenal basketball player and then he gets injured. Blake Griffin, as soon as he got drafted, he got injured his first year. So there's this talk about, this is the Clippers being clipy, right? That was the first thought. And even Clipper fans are saying, yeah, it probably happened, I could see it happening. Oh we're gonna keep being Clipper fans. It's an interesting, reaction, right? But now that we're getting out the end of this out on the other end of it, and Steve Baller has come out and said what he said and he's saying, listen man, we got nothing to do with this. We had a partnership with this company. We have a partnership with Kauai, which within our rights to introduce the two. And that's what we did. What they did together. We don't, I don't know about Now this, that's good and that's the right thing to say. But there are some smoking guns there that, I'm sure the NBA is gonna investigate. Now, important to note, they already investigated about this. And back, I think when Kauai first [00:04:00] signed his contract, because there was some rumblings, then why did he pick the clippers? And they cleared the clippers of all wrongdoing. But the NBA has said if there something else comes up, we're gonna take another look. So they're probably taking another look. They nobody here Clipper fans are not worried. Laker fans are giddy about all of this happening to to, to their little brother. But it's a weird situation. We'll see how it plays out Speaker 2: if there's so many pieces to this. First of all. Steve Bomber is the richest guy in the league. Yeah. The second apron, which we'll talk about later, was created because of him basically. So I am sure he's a likable man, but I am sure a couple owners there might not, might be happy about this with if he's guilty, because if they force him to sell and so on. Now remember the Commissioner, Adam Silver. He runs the league. He's got a lot of people he hears [00:05:00] co owners. So he's got a, an issue. If it is true. If it's true, he's gotta make a decision. Now, remember the last two investigations I mentioned, ver in Sarver Rather in Phoenix and struggling. He forced them both to sell. Yeah, I don't know if it'll come to that. I don't know where it goes. I don't know what happens, but it gets very interesting if it gets to that point. Yeah. Now there's a couple things here and it's really, when you think about it, it's unwrapping a lot of things. One of the things you gotta realize, there's been talk, for example. Jalen Brunson was going to the Knicks before the actual time, the day signed, and there's been other free agents that this has happened. So there's a lot of shaky things going on in the NBA. Let's face it, agents being agents, [00:06:00] they're calling teams and they know if somebody wants 'em. Or doesn't want their player. So that's always been something that's gray. There's a lot of gray in the NBA. Speaker: Yeah. Speaker 2: This goes a little bit further because when you think about it, how do you get a guy to come to your team when everybody's offering similar money and a similar situation? And if really think about it let's, Los Angeles, it's a heavy tax state. Yeah. Or example, I don't know what the taxes are in Toronto, but Kauai was wanted by Toronto. Let's start thinking about it also. Bomber gave that company 50 50 million as a startup. Speaker: Yeah. That's one of the smoking guns. Speaker 2: Yeah. That's where it gets real interesting. Is he in the habit of just giving out 50 million to everybody so it, it gets interesting. They do need to prove their case. Bomber denies it. But you know what I'll say one other thing. [00:07:00] Bomber didn't get to where he is in the life being stupid. Yeah. Speaker: Yeah. Speaker 2: I'm not saying again, I'm not gonna say he's guilty, but it's really an interesting mess. Speaker: Yeah. Undeniably an interesting mess is a, is the best way to put it. You mentioned one smoking gun, that $50 million investment. The other one is in the contract, it specifically says Kauai didn't have to do anything, which is odd. And it specifically says if he ever does not work for the Los Angeles Clippers, this contract is null void. Super weird, but we'll see. We'll see it. It's up to the nba. Speaker 2: If they're guilty, what do you do? Speaker: My understanding is the collective bargaining agreement and I haven't read it. This is just stuff I've heard. But it puts limits on what you can do. It puts limits on the penalties you'll remember back, you didn't write about this, but the Minnesota Timberwolves, right? Yeah. They were the similar situation, different circumstance, but they tried to circumvent the [00:08:00] salary cap to sign Joe Smith. That wasn't Joe Smith. Yes, I remember Judge. Was it Joe Smith? And they cost them five of first round picks. The CBA now puts that limit at one. So the worst they could do to the Clippers is one. Now, keep in mind they only own two over the next five years, so that's pretty significant. But they can't, there's no death penalty, anymore. So I, we will see, we'll see. I get the sense that, where there's smoke, there's fire and something shady went on here. But I don't think it's gonna raise to the level of what we saw in Minnesota in the two thousands or whatever that was. I think it, I think by the start of the season. Do you remember last year maybe it was two years ago, everybody was talking about yeah, it was two years ago when Draymond Green hit Jordan Pool and and practice. That's all anybody talked about for a month or so. And then it just went away. And of course, Jordan Pool went away too. I think that's good. What's gonna happen with this? It's the talk of the NBA right now, and I think maybe when the season starts. It's just gonna blow over and there'll be a fine, but it'll be a [00:09:00] slap in the wrist. That's my Speaker 2: thing. I think you might be missing something. I think the other owners would like to see bomber quieted. Oh sure. So I don't know if it'll blow over that easily. Okay. That, that's the, he's coming to the league. He's built a be a perfect arena. The best arena in the league. Yeah. He's, and he's got so much money, 50 million to a business is like me throwing 50 cents away. It really it's interesting. And if he's guilty, the question is do they make him sell? Speaker: Yeah. That would be an interesting thing. Yeah. Yeah. That would, that, that would change everything. I hope it doesn't come to that. Me too. Let's see. Yeah. While we're on the subject of kind of sad news, let's talk about Ben Simmons. How's that for a segue? You wrote that he's talking about retirement. This is a guy who, there's a term that I've heard, and I don't remember if this is school or where I first heard it, but a firecracker kind of career. And that was Ben [00:10:00] Simmons. When he came out there was a big bang. And it, he was, it was a, but he, everybody watched It was an awe. And he was dynamic and, triple double A, 6 9, 6 10, dude who could, would handle we knew he couldn't shoot, but he could do everything else so well that it didn't really matter. And then all of a sudden his decline has just been shocking. Shocking. And now he's, talking about retirement that just blows my mind. What do you see in the future? What do you think is gonna end up what do you think is going to be the end game this season? Prevent. Speaker 2: As I said, his whole world blew up in that game against Atlanta when he didn't shoot, tried to pass it off, afraid of getting fouled from that point forward. In the fourth quarter, he became unplayable because teams are fat and he doesn't want to go to the line. And it took away everything from him. But the thing that you really couldn't count when the Nets traded for him a couple years ago. Trading hard and all, you couldn't account for the fact he doesn't like ba I don't know if he likes basketball. Yeah. I don't know. And that, [00:11:00] that's the piece, because I think in his mind, if he comes back, he's gonna have to take the minimum salary. And I don't know if he thinks it's worth it. He's made a lot of money enough for his life and to live a nice life, so i, you have to wonder that. And as I said, what has he played? A hundred and something games in three years. Over with. Yeah. Yeah. And less than half of the team scheduled games on the teams he was with. He got in, he was constantly sitting out, back to back always, his leg hurt or whatever and became ridiculous. So I guess the best way to put it is I don't know if he ever really liked the game as much as he was pretty good at it. And, and I think he was a very. Not a confident man, obviously. And once they blew that balloon up, it was over and that's what happened. Yeah. Evidently from that game when he was with Philadelphia and then Doc Rivers after the game said, I don't know if we can, if he can win, if he's a winner. [00:12:00] And that was the end of him really. From that point on back surgery and everything else that went on I'd love to see him come back. He was a good player, but I don't know if he's interested. Speaker: Yeah. And it's, that's so infuriating, right? For people who love the game, but really you can't play it like, like me, I love the game. Gimme six more inches. Gimme a jump shot. I would've loved to have had that opportunity and it's so infuriating when you have somebody like that with all of the talent and just doesn't wanna play. Speaker 2: I wouldn't be surprised if he sits out a year. If he really loves the game, he sits out. Okay. And then next year he tries to get back in and he knows he'll have to take minimum salary and everything else if he really likes the game. If he doesn't, then say goodbye. Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. We'll see how that plays out. And, there's always the possibility, right? That somebody, mid-season, entices him to come back. He was impactful [00:13:00] for the clippers. He played a little bit for them at the end of last season. And he was fun to watch. He made good decisions. Coach, he didn't shoot, but you didn't need him to shoot. In the right situation, and we've talked about this before, get the right player in the right situation with the right people and he can blossom. Let's just know. Hope, hope, find back. If you Speaker 2: think about it, if he's gonna come back or if he's gonna play, he's gotta sign. Not with a very good team. He played with the Clippers last year and he played minimal amount of time. He needs to sign with a team that's not that good, so he gets time and can reprove himself as a reliable basketball player. Speaker: Yep. Yep. Let's see how things play out. Hopefully things do well for Ben Simmons. I just think he's too young to hang him up, but we'll see how I see how things go. You wrote next about the NBA in a problem it had with restricted free agency, and you called out specifically Camp Thomas. Jonathan Minga, which is another big [00:14:00] storyline in the NB off season. Quentin Grimes and Josh Giddy. Now I, you and I talked about this earlier, been following a little bit right. Of the Minga thing and the Josh giddy thing, but I didn't know there was a problem here, so educate us what's going on there? Speaker 2: Okay. It's really simple. If you're an NBA player, if you're good. A rookie coming into the league. Sometime you get your contract renewed each year after you, sometime in your third year or after your third year, a team will sit down with you and offer you big money or good money, whether they're gonna, get rid of you and you sign and you move along. These four guys were never. They were offered, but they didn't resign. Now, when you think about this, they're restricted. The idea being go out and get an offer, bring it back to your team, and if they [00:15:00] match. You stay with them, if not, but the problem becomes with offers, they're not gonna come. Why would anybody offer Minga 20 million or 25 million, whatever it is, when he might take it back to Golden State and they're gonna match it. So what happens is exactly what Cam Thomas is doing. Cam Thomas is taking the normal, whatever it is that a guy would get, which is 6 million. He's getting paid 6 million next year plays one year. They can't trade him. He's gotta stay with the nets for the year. And then he's a F free agent where he can go anywhere. So Cam Thomas is giving away one of his prime years for only 6 million. He's losing that and if he gets hurt. It's over now 6 million is nothing to Snee sneeze at, but he's got the potential to make a lot more. Yeah. Yeah. So it, it's an interesting [00:16:00] problem. And the teams in the NBA have figured out why would I offer Minga money? Why would I offer Gdy money or any of these people when the, their team will sign them? Giddy is an interesting thing. They're offering 22 million, the bulls. If you look at point guards quickly got 32 or 35. Giddy is pretty good. He's gotta be worth it on the market at least 27 to 30. So they're only offering him 22, he's holding. But at some point you're gonna take the six or you gonna take the 22. You're gonna take the 22 and deal with it, I would think, although some people could be stubborn, so that, that's an interesting thing. Now, when you talk about giddy, I'll talk about him specifically. He's not a good defensive player. Not at all. Teams always go at him. He's a real good offensive player. The question I have is, do you want a title with a point guard who [00:17:00] can't guard. I don't know about that. So especially in today's NBA, so I don't know, is he worth it? Yeah, the bulls are, they're the bulls. It's an interesting thing. Quentin Grimes played real well with Philadelphia last year. I. What happened? Nothing. Nothing. Minga has been a problem with Golden State and they're trying to figure that out and it's holding up Al Horford and everybody else 'cause they've gotta figure money. So these are issues. Cam Thomas can score, but a lot of the NBA isn't sold on him 'cause he's a shoot first, shoot second guy, it's a lot of interesting stuff going on. He will get a great opportunity with the Nets 'cause they're gonna be horrible. So if he plays he'll score but it's very interesting. If you're a restricted without a contract, you got a problem. Speaker: Yeah. Yeah, I know we've been sitting on, of the four Jonathan Minga. I think again, that's been dominating the NBA off season news. And it's weird to think that [00:18:00] we're still here. Preseason starts, the preseason game start in about four weeks. So shocking. Maybe a little longer, about six weeks. But yeah, let's see how it plays out. Let's leave a good amount of time for this last topic, which we've talked about before. And I'll admit it's still fuzzy to me. But it, it's, it again, it's been dominating the news since this became a thing, and that is NBA second apron. Essentially, right? Every team has a cap. There's a salary cap, but you can spend over the cap, right? So essentially, if you spend over the cap, you get penalized if you spend over a little even more. That's the second apron. First apron, second apron. And the more you spend, the more penalties you get. The idea is. We don't want everybody just collecting all the best players. Now, you said earlier today on this very call that this was the Steve Baller rule, and I don't think that's, I've never heard that before, but it makes sense and it wasn't directly created because of Steve Baller was it? But it was created for players or [00:19:00] owners, ownerships like Steve Baller, guys with a lot of money. Speaker 2: Small market teams were always concerned because. They couldn't match pay spending the money that those teams did. And we can get into all the television money and all the other money they're getting, which is a whole different thing. I think Brad Stevens said this, the problem isn't and the Celtics payroll with tax, they had to pay tax on their players 'cause they were way into the second apron. Their payroll was over 400 million, which is ridiculous. Speaker: Wow. Speaker 2: But Brad Stevens said, and the ownership said that's a problem. Sure. Nobody wants to pay that. But the bigger problem, instead of like worrying about the 400 is the rules that restrict you. In other words, and I'm gonna give you a few first thing is. If you have, let's say here, Celtics had JR. Holiday. They traded this year. They were in the third. In the second apron. The guy they [00:20:00] got back had to make less than holiday or the same. Couldn't make more. Now also, you couldn't trade and put, let's say, holiday and Pingus in the deal. It can only be one player. You can deal. Which kind of restricts you. So that's one thing. You couldn't what's called aggregating salaries. In other words, put people together. You could get two players back, but you can't trade two players. Also, you couldn't put any cash in trades. You couldn't put money in trades. Also if you do it three out of five years, you will lose your first round. You won't lose it, but your first round pick will automatically be last. No matter where you are as a franchise. So for three, three years in the second apron you got a problem. Out a five. The, these are issues. There's another thing too called the mid-level exception, a team under the cap. A non-tax team can go out and sign a [00:21:00] guy, I believe it's 13 or 14 million right now. They can sign a guy just even if they're over the cap, but not in the tax or even under. And if it takes 'em over the cap. If you are in the second apron, you can't, if you're in the first apron, you can take the room, which is a lot less, 6 million I believe. So there's rules that restrict you from going out and getting the extra player. And let's use the Lakers. The Lakers have used that in the last couple years. Try to fill a roster around LeBron. Yeah. Take that away. Boston couldn't do it. A couple teams still are in that. The other thing that's really interesting, let us say that tomorrow morning who, Boston waves. Who do you want? Jalen Brown. It's ridiculous. But if they do, if you are in the second apron. You can't, you have, you can only go after a guy making, I'm gonna guess 14 million or less, somewhere in that area. So now [00:22:00] that's not gonna happen. But what happens is in March, the buyout time, guys begin to get bought out. You have a team that's good and you have a chance to win it. And that player who's making 15 or 16 million is being bought out 'cause his contract's up and boy, he'd push you over the top. You can't do that. So these rules are just some of them that, that take you out of it and really just makes it very difficult to continue winning. It's really to me it's wrong because if you build a team, especially if these players are yours, there's nothing here. Let's use Jalen Brown and Tatum again. We're talking about the Celtics, brown and Tatum. Making big bucks, probably between the two, about 140 million. That's if the cap is only 2 0 5. Think about that. You gotta fill out the rest of your team on 60, $70 million now. You it, do you see the restriction? And [00:23:00] those are guys you drafted. You picked up, you figured out how and how they fit. And now you have to, you come to a point where you might have to get rid of one. That's not right, but that's, and that's gonna happen with other teams. Not Boston is back under the cap. I know Cleveland, Cleveland might be the only team right now above the cap. So it's gonna happen. It's going and Mitchell just resigned, but I'm sure he's, he was all league. And when you're all league you get more money. When his next contract comes up, it's way more so it, it's a major problem for teams. And I believe a lot of teams just feel it's not, it's just not fair. It's just it's really an unfair thing. Speaker: Yeah. It yeah, it's interesting. Yeah, I did look it up. You're absolutely right. The calves are the only team right now over that second apron, so teams are adjusting, they're figuring it out. It's interesting to me. You brought the Celtics up a couple times with some hypotheticals the Celtics [00:24:00] wouldn't have done. Let me ask it in the form of a question. They wouldn't have done what they did with Pingus and and on Horford and, so many people that, that have left that team. If the second April wasn't a thing, is that fair? Speaker 2: If Tatum getting hurt changed the whole thing. Speaker: That's true. You're right. Speaker 2: That changed it. So I if Tatum were healthy it wouldn't, I would think they would've kept them. There's one other thing that's interesting, that tax money, everybody that pays the tax Boston, the Golden State, they all pay tax when the money comes in. 50% of that money is divided up among those teams that are under the tax. Yeah. So last year or this year, whatever, $11.5 million. Yeah. Yeah. Went to each team. So just follow me. Yeah. The Charlotte and I use Charlotte 'cause that's one of the small markets in the NBA. Speaker: Yeah. Speaker 2: Jordan owned him and he made a bundle out with him. He didn't have to win. He's walking away with 11 million. Now, [00:25:00] the NBA contract with tv, they're walking away with a couple hundred million each team each year. So now you start thinking about it to own an NBA team, just off tv. Forget the people that come to the games. Just off tv the national thing that, and that money you're bringing in, you're making money while you're winning 20 games. Why would you want to win? Yeah. If you're in it for the money, this is the way to do it. Yeah. So there's some problems with it and it really separates the teams that wanna win and the teams that are just, yeah. And then when a guy, Indiana has not paid the tax. I believe in over 10 years, or I don't know if they've ever paid the tax. Think about that. They were pretty good last year and with Miles Turner this year, he would've put them in the tax with Halliburton hurt. They let him go and it tells you. You know a little bit about it in Indiana, they're always packed. They're always got a good [00:26:00] crowd. Yep. Who was it? Herb Simon, I believe is the owner. He he's counting his money and he's doing well. Yeah. So winning the championship in the NBA might be about 10 teams wanna do it, and then there's 20 teams. Wow. Dollars and I'm guessing that, but that yeah. No, I Speaker: get it. Yeah. Speaker 2: Piece that it really, I believe Golden State a couple years ago. Two years ago maybe was paying over 500 million in salary, in tax. Think about that. 500 million for 15 players. Speaker: Yeah, Speaker 2: it's wild. And then the Speaker: Charlotte Hornets are sitting there, win winning 20 games, getting 11 million plus a TV money for nothing. I've been on the fence about this, but I think you just convinced me, I'm gonna go ahead and buy a team. So thank you for for pushing me over the edge there to Speaker 2: a topologist. I'll take care of it. Yeah it's absolutely, I understand if you're in a small market, but don't forget. You are in a small market. Boston went for 6 million. 6 million. [00:27:00] The Lakers went for 9 billion. Charlotte only went for about two, I believe. I don't know the exact number. Speaker: Bargain. Speaker 2: You're in a small market. What do you expect? You're making money. If Charlotte was to be sold now, they'd probably get over three, and Jordan walked away with a lot of money, boy, when he sold them, and they never won. Speaker: Nope. No nope. That's the, but they still made money Speaker 2: that that second apron was really and Oklahoma City might be something that we don't expect or won't see that often a team winning it once and having a chance to win one or two more because you have to break up before you go broke and before you can't do anything. Speaker: Yeah. Outstanding. Yeah we've talked about it before. We've never gotten into that detail. Lots of good things to talk about regarding that Second apron. I wanna encourage all of you to read Steve's article, get a little bit more information, but you heard the buzzer go off. Our time is up. We went past the shot clock again.[00:28:00] Again, good conversation. And again, interesting topics even during the off season. I guess that's what we love about the NBA. But that's it. Our time is up. You might've heard the buzzer. Thank you for listening. Thanks you for watching. Make sure to read Steve's entire 13 rules, random NBA Thoughts article. We'll link it wherever you are watching or listening to this show today. And join us next week for more random NBA thoughts. When we talk to, we mentioned at the start of the show, the Spurs Bros, about the San Antonio Spurs. We're gonna talk about their off season moves. We're gonna talk about Deandre Deandre. No, we're gonna talk about DN Fox. We're gonna talk about Victor Wema, Stephan Castle. Lots to talk about from, what I think is gonna be a pretty exciting team. Next season we'll talk about the off season and expectations. For the San Antonio Spurs of course please subscribe, follow it means all of that means a lot to us. Hope that you'll join us again next week when we talk to San Antonio Spurs. Thanks, Steve. Speaker 2: Thank you. Take care.