The Shot Clock Pod - Smart, Westbrook and building an NBA team

13 Rules_ Building a Team === [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 shot pod, the best 15 minutes of NBA random thoughts online. If this is your first time listening, welcome. We're glad you found us. This podcast was born out of the content in Steve's 13 Rules, random NBA Thoughts articles which he publishes weekly. Even. I have exactly 15 minutes to discuss what's on his mind around the b. A today will discuss his thoughts on his latest 13 rules, random NBA Thoughts article, where he shares his thoughts on Marcus Smart, also Westbrook, and how to build a team and a whole lot more. We're gonna talk about just a few of those things. Today, and I do have to say I'm a little under the weather, so apologies if it's coming across. But on we go. Steve, you ready? Ready. Your voice is still better than mine, even when you're under the weather. I appreciate that. Thank you. Let's [00:01:00] start the clock. And we're off. All right. First, Marcus Smart. You wrote a lot about Smart as a Celtics fan, and I understand what that feels like. Watching someone like Shaquille O'Neal and his career in Boston was weird, and watching players like that who you associate with team A move to Team B and not just any team. The a rival is weird. It's weird seeing them in that jersey. It's weird to root for them, but then not root for a win. It's weird. So tell me a little bit about what that's and then and at the same time we wanna talk about Russell Westbrook. Marcus Smart got the call. Russell Westbrook is still waiting. Four. One is his career over doesn't look good. I think somebody will be desperate. In a couple weeks and somebody might get hurt with, in the summer or something will happen. But he's going to be a minimum player and he's still talented, but he's polarizing in [00:02:00] so many ways. And I guess teams don't, it's funny guys who are considered, good people on the team. Jared Dudley who played forever, didn't play, but he was on a roster forever. Adonis ha has them. They stay because they're positive influences on the rest of the team with Westbrook, I don't know but I guess he's polarizing on a team also and so he's not gonna hang on and, or it's gonna be difficult for him to hang on. I saw an article today and I just thought it resonated. It felt so good. It said, the problem with Russell Westbrook is that, and the problem in quotes, but the problem, the issue with Westbrook is that he plays loud, and I love that definition because that's exactly who he is. He's always ramped up to 11 and some, that's not a good fit for some teams. That's right. That, that's part of the problem. And the ego, of course. And I know he came off the bench in Denver. I'm sure he wasn't [00:03:00] thrilled about it. He did what he had to do, but, so I would think that kind of affects other people. He's supposed to be a great guy, but you dont know. Yeah. What you're feeling and how you're acting around your teammates and generally if you're at the bottom of the roster, you want a positive. A good influence. I'm not, again, I'm not gonna say he's not, I would think he wants to play and he wants to play a lot and so on. And that's just not in the cards right now. Yeah. Yeah. LA guy hoping the best for him. But yeah, it might be the end, but it's not the end for Marcus. Smart. How weird is it as a Celtics fan watching him put on? How weird is it gonna be watching him put on and play for the Lakers jersey and play for the Lakers? The thing, and I've mentioned this a bunch of times as a fan, and I'm a big fan or whatever, but I understand it. Yeah. What we regular people don't realize is this is their livelihood. So even if Mark Smart squeezing some more [00:04:00] money out of people, that's great and that's less that he has to do the rest of his life and you know that, that's a great thing. But for the average fan who sits there in roots for the, whatever team Philadelphia or any other team, they get very, how could Marcus Smart go against they take it personal. Yeah. And I understand it. I was a fan of his in Boston, and I'll be a fan of his with the Lakers. I won't root for the Lakers, but I'd root for him because I, he plays hard, sometimes he shoots a little too much, but he plays hard and he gives you everything. He's got, he's a fun player to watch. I think his body is starting to break down but how could I not root for him? He gave Boston some great, great games, great times. And he. He's just a good team player it's good for the Lakers. I don't think it's gonna make much of a difference. You might go from sixth to fifth or something but it, it's just a good thing. And I'm glad he's still in the league and I'm [00:05:00] hoping like all Celtic fans or teams that you root for, when you lose a player like that, you hope that somewhere before he goes retires, he comes back. Yeah. That's the nice thing. I don't think he will, but that's the nice thing. Yeah. Drafted by the Celtics, if I remember right. With Ja Jalen Brown, right before Jason Tatum. He was before he, he was the first number one pick when Brad Stevens became the coach. Okay. He played the first year. Jalen Brown came the next year. I believe he was the sixth pick. I'm not positive on that one but he was the first year. And that was when, that was when Boston began the rebuild by trading. Garnet and Pierce, and then, and he was always a hustler. Played hard and actually as for fans, they would just love that style, like never give up and on the floor and doing all kinds of things. So that, is stuff that you remember and you every fan likes it. We as fans get caught [00:06:00] up on laundry. What team what's on the uniform? And we don't understand for those people it's their livelihood and they need to make money. So this being an off year for the Celtics, for lack of a better way of putting it, why didn't they make the call? Why didn't they bring in smart now? They've got still, they've got cap problems and they're not done dealing. They can't add, they've gotta subtract. It's really it this agreement the players, and the owners the agreement they have the barring contract or whatever the hell it is. It, it's Boston now paying for it, but in a couple years it's gonna be other teams and Oklahoma City will go through it. And you know what, maybe, we'll never see what the Warriors did. Unless maybe Oklahoma City has a shot, but you're hoping that there's no injuries and no problems for the next year or two because in, in two or three years, they gotta make some major decisions because they're paying three [00:07:00] guys almost the whole cap. So this bar, this agreement, and it's still got about eight or nine years left, or seven, eight year, whatever left on the agreement. It's poor. And what to me it did. Was, the owners that don't win are the ones who wanted this. Because this, evens it off in some ways, but you know what, they're getting money when teams go into the tax. So they, they were doing fine, but now they want a disagreement. So no one team could win every year and so on, and it's just not right. You work hard. Like Oklahoma City, they've worked hard to build a great team. And it's gonna be slowly pulled apart unless the owner is willing to go for a lot of money. Yeah. Yeah. The dreaded sec, second apron in the collective bargaining agreement is, that's a whole nother conversation for another time. Yeah. It's hard doing what was meant to do, but now we're sitting here thinking [00:08:00] maybe it's not the right idea. Y you, you're, to me, you're catering to the teams that don't win. When, again, let's use the Celtics, they had to trade everybody, or two guys, two key players, but let's use that. They were paying a big tax, ridiculous amount of money, but they were trying to win. And not through their mistakes as a, as an organization, they had to break it up and that's just crazy, right? That's just crazy. Yep. Yep. Alright, we might have a little discussion around that and I've been wanting to dive into the CBA in the second April for some time, just for me personal. So we're gonna table that for another time because I think that's an interesting conversation. Now I wanna just gloss over this quickly 'cause we're running out of time. This shop clock pot, after all the clock is winding down. You've been hard on the son's owner Matt ish, but you gave him some props today. Again, we can't talk about it too long, [00:09:00] but what is he doing right now that he hadn't been doing right before? I think the first thing he traded Durant. He got two pretty good players. Dylan Brooks is tough. He's a winner. He's a winner in the way that he'll do what he has to do to win. Plays hard good competitor, gets everybody else playing hard on his team. And then they got Jalen Green who could score. So now you got Booker and Jalen Green. That's not a bad nucleus. And then he went out. And he still got a few other players, O'Neill and a few other decent players on the roster that he can use. Grayson Allen and so on. But then he went out, he traded for the pick and I know the kid from Duke, Mauk. Hasn't done well in the summer. And I watched and he looked like he was, he's gonna need time, but they also got Mark Williams, the guy that, the Lakers almost. Yeah. So he picked up a few guys that might be able to play center. He's got Alan, he's [00:10:00] got Booker, he's got, brooks. So he's gonna be, they're gonna be competitive. I think in the East they'd be a playoff team in the West, God only knows because the West has got a lot of pretty good teams. They could be pretty good or good, I don't wanna say pretty good. Good. Or they could flame out if the, if it doesn't work where they don't, they don't gel. Yeah. Yeah. Outstanding. It's always good to see a team pivot. Rookies got, and it should be as a rookie owner, right? He's gotta go through some learning curves. Maybe he's there. One of the things, lemme just add one thing. One of the do, they don't wanna lose and start over. No, they don't want, because crowds won't be there, they won't make money, and so on and so forth. So what they do is try they get in that middle. Atlanta has been there forever. They get in that middle. Yeah. And it's very difficult to go from there up, but at least Phoenix has made themselves [00:11:00] somewhat respectable. Considering it was a disaster area the year before. Yeah. You used the term earlier when you and I were chatting, building from the middle is not easy and that's I never heard it put that way. It's pretty interesting. So hoping it works out for the suns, but building a team is obviously one of the key jobs right now during this NBA off season you talked about. If you build it from the middle to win, you've got a hit on a draft pick, meaning you're, let's say you got the 12th pick, you've got a hit on it, and that's more difficult than having the first or second or third pick. So that, that's, the crux of it. Yeah. It does come down as, as funny as it sounds. 'cause so much of it is about planning and preparation, but sometimes you just get lucky, and the ping pong ball bounces your way. Look up the Dallas Mavericks. But you finished with three franchises who are having some trouble building a plan right now from your perspective. Now I wanna call [00:12:00] these three out. And I'm gonna ask you, what is wrong with these franchises? What are they doing wrong? What in your perspective, and which of the three do you think is gonna have the best chance of getting it right? This coming 25, 26 season, you listed the Milwaukee Bucks, the Sacramento Kings and the Toronto Raptors Kings, I don't think anybody would argue. There might be some questions about the Bucks. I understand where you're coming from, but Milwaukee might be frustrated and the Raptors just seem to be unlucky. But what do these three teams have in common and which of them are gonna get out of the mud first? I don't, each of them have talent. But how they go about amassing it. Let's start with the Bucks you got Giannis. The big fear is Giannis is gonna leave. So they're doing anything they can within what their resources to, they got Miles Turner. Miles Turner's a nice player. Yeah, I don't send him a star. And then they've got the rest of their, and then they picked up Cole, Anthony, Cole, Anthony can't defend in the [00:13:00] playoffs. Boston picked him. They wouldn't use him 'cause Boston went right at him when he came in. He can score and he can play a little bit, but all you're doing is picking up these pieces that aren't bad. Trying to keep Yiannis happy, but meanwhile, I don't know. Now Giannis is so good that you're gonna probably be over 500 and be a competitive team, but you are still not in the title talk in any way. But they're gonna make every move they can to keep Giannis happy. Now we go to Toronto. They just signed Brandon Ingram for 40 million a year for three years. I think Brandon Ingram is a real good player. The only problem is he doesn't like getting on the court. He's always hurt. I think he played, what'd I say, 54 games a year for in his career. Not a season, it's 82 games. So he's not even playing two thirds of the season. What could what could we say here? And then you've got a rest of a cast and they've got some good players, and they could be good. If everybody's healthy and they play, [00:14:00] they could be good. But, last year, I think they missed a ton of games, your starters. And they only average 55 games, I believe. Each, as a starting group, they playing for. Five games. So again you're banking on health and when the track record says it's not, of course it could happen, but that's not sensible. And then we take the Sacramento Kings you just traded your point guard to San Antonio last year. You had to, he was wanted out and all that stuff that fans get angry about, but so they trade him. Okay, no problem. But what do you do? You go out and get Dennis Schroder. Now, last I looked, you got Levine and Der Rosen. Who needs the ball to score Schroder if you're gonna talk about a point guard. He's ball dominant. He likes the ball in his hands quite often. What are you gonna do with that? And then let's think about it. The Rosen and Levine, then they tried that before. Yeah, they did with the Bulls. [00:15:00] It didn't work. So now that's where you wanna go. And then you got the big guy. And they don't defend. They don't defend at all. So there's gonna be problems there. It's just trouble. It's just it's just a situation. Now, there's talent that's a lot of talent. But who knows where it's gonna go. Each of these teams have talent, but how they're building it Sacramento, they, they've always been a mess. Toronto I don't know. I don't know. In Milwaukee I understand, but it's not helping the situation by signing miles. Yeah. No, I get it. At the end of the day, you need a plan. You need a fit, you need things to come together and you need a little bit of luck. I'm certain it's proximity bias, but I feel so bad for the people of Sacramento. This is a city that absolutely loves their team. The energy in that arena is incredible. They support them no matter what, and they just can't get a team to win there. And it's tough. I feel for the people of [00:16:00] Sacramento two years ago, their head coach, Mike Brown, was the coach of the year, I believe. Yeah. There was the executive of the year. Monty McNair is now looking for a job. Mike Brown is with the Knicks, right? Somewhere in ownership that vva is a disaster somewhere. You gotta sit and study how teams that are successful, what they do. And what you're gonna find most times is you find people, let 'em work and give them time. Yeah, you just can't, when one thing goes bad, throw in the towel. So now, if you are the new gm, I think it's Scotty Perry, but if you are the new gm, you know that if Sacramento doesn't do well next year I'm in trouble. So now you're doing things not for the long term to build, you're doing things just to get through. So if we win 50 games, I'm in I'm in great shape. [00:17:00] That's not a way to do it. Supposedly Vivek's coach, Doug Christie, that's who he wanted. The one thing we learned when owners get involved doesn't work real well. Yeah. So that, that, those are the reasons why things don't do well. Yeah. Colonel Hilton for the best in Sacramento and Milwaukee. And, I want every team to, I, I would love a season where every team gets, everything goes their way health wise. They get the team they want and we get to actually find a champion. 'cause I guarantee you I made this point earlier. I don't remember what, where, but if every season. From the fifties onward, every team was healthy. I guarantee you the champion would be different. Every champion every year would be different because a lot of times it comes down to luck and it comes down to health. So if I'm hoping for good luck and good health for all teams I agree, but you know that within.[00:18:00] I don't know. By December there's gonna be a couple guys that are gonna want out and they're gonna wanna be dealt, and then the whole game starts up again. And I'll just use two things. If Milwaukee starts off poorly. Gianni might start. Sure. Yeah. And I'd hate to see that because, he's a special, he's loyal. He's a good player, a great player, a great good person. And then out in LA you got your friend LeBron there. I don't think he's dealing with not being the focus real well. And I think. If things, and not necessarily the Lakers, were losing as much as if he's more and more phased out. He might start up too. Yeah, which brings in another interesting wrinkle, right? We've got luck, we've got preparation, we've got drafts, and then you gotta deal with the drama. And every team has got bits and pieces of that. But that's why we love the game, plenty to talk about. You didn't hear it because it didn't go off, but the a shot clock did go off [00:19:00] and again. We kept going. It's what we do. But that's in our time is up. Thanks 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're watching or listening to this today. We will be off for the next three weeks. It's the NBA off season, so we all need a little bit of time to recharge. So please enjoy the balance of the NBA off season. We'll see you back August 24th. Make sure to subscribe so that you'll know when we're back. Always as always find us@thepeachbasket.net, the peach basket on X. Easiest thing, just mark it down August 24th, we'll be back. Join us then. The best 15 minutes of B online anywhere. We'll talk to you then. Thanks, Steve. Take care.