The Shotclock Pod: Fouls and Game Flow, Hot Starts, and Injury-Plagued Contenders

Untitled project from SquadCast === [00:00:00] Jose: 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, athletic director, and now the host of Celtic Chalk Talk. Celtic Chalk Talk is a pod dedicated to the latest news and opinions surrounding the Boston Celtics from a lifelong fan, Steve. That pod will drop new episodes every Monday, but this is the Shotclock Pod, the best 24 minutes of random NBA thoughts online anywhere. This podcast 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 discuss his latest 13 rules, random NBA thoughts article where he shares his random thoughts. After week number six of the 20 25, 26 NBA season. Some interesting statistics, some interesting deep dives into teams that nobody saw common at least as as good as the a start of as they've had to the season and a few other [00:01:00] things. Let's dive into it. Steve, are you ready? Steve: I am ready. Jose: Okay. Guess what? I'm not. I gotta get my clock ready and we're off and running. Boom. All right. Let's start with an interesting statistic. This is stuff I honestly don't pay a whole lot attention to but I'm fascinated by this fouls per game are up this year. Why and why does it matter? Steve: There's too many stoppages. So I About that and I just realized that the fouls are being called a lot more. And that's why the stoppages and that kind of takes the fun outta watching the game. 'cause you want continuity and you want up and Jose: Yeah. Steve: and so on. When I looked it up I just saw the average fouls being called this year is 45.7. As of. Yesterday, so I don't know about last night, but whatever. But last year the average fouls being rolled by the officials in a game was [00:02:00] 37.2. That's eight more per team. a lot more stoppage by the way. The games have become longer as well. So those are problems. And as a fan, people want action. They don't wanna see constant fouls. My sense being. The NBAA couple years ago went through a time where they weren't calling much and there was a lot of contact that players were getting away with. This year, the NBA has decided, the officials, is just a guess, but is decided with the officials that we will now, begin to call ev. Pretty much whatever, everything. So the game is changing in that way. It could be part of, the game being more uptempo this year, the pace being, so there's more fouls to slow teams down. Could be players being tired. But the bottom line here is, a fan of the NBA, it's not as much fun to watch because you see in [00:03:00] constant fouling and from all over the place and. know. It just doesn't, for me, it doesn't seem like a lot of fun for the ca What about for you? Have you Jose: Yeah. Steve: You didn't notice? Jose: No it's not the kind of thing that draws my attention quite honestly. But the stoppage is due now, where I see it, where it frustrates me is, the reviews, for something as, as silly as a hit to the neck area or something. I can see that if it's, Kevin McHale to Kurt Rambus, of course you review that, but they're reviewing everything now and this, the actual gameplay. The time you spend watching, the game, which you could watch a game. It feels like it. I don't even know if this is right. But 10, 15 minutes of action back and forth, you don't see that anymore. There's a stoppage it seems every other time down and that's hurting the game. I, I don't, whether it's fouls or reviews or, somebody spills something. AKA j Jason Kidd a couple years ago, th there's stoppages that are ruining the [00:04:00] game. I don't know. How do you fix it though? Steve: going. It, you're right about, you're right about the reviews. The thing I find, and I'm going off the subject, but when we talk about the reviews, the things that I am, I'm amazed about is when they do a review on a file or something, they'll say the contact was marginal. I've tried to figure that one out because if I watch a replay, I don't know if it's marginal. I really don't. And Game, anytime a player gets touched, he's falling down. So Jose: Yeah. Steve: I'm having a difficult time understanding. When they say contact marginal If you can determine that, you're good because No idea about that. Jose: yeah. The whole time we've been doing this show, I've never felt more like a couple of old NBA guys talking about back in my day than we did just now. Steve: Going back to what you said about the McHale foul, I thought it was just a regular foul. That wasn't Jose: It was back then. Steve: I don't think there was anything that was, or [00:05:00] bad about it. It was just part of the game. What Jose: Okay. Okay. I'm gonna let it, I'm gonna let it go because I'm not sure if you'd be serious or not. I gotta let it go 'cause we got more to talk about. A i The bulls. The bulls seem to prove an old sports adage correct. This is something we have all heard that bulls seem to be proven in. Correct. What is that adage and what's it mean for that team? Steve: Defense wins, obviously and the bull started off five and oh, and everybody was giddy about their new offense. And I believe Billy Donovan's a good coach. He takes what he has and tries to make that into a group. But since that start, I believe they lost last night again. So I think they're four and 10 they're three and nine. In the last 12 games, I didn't see the score of the game last night, but the previous 11, there were three and eight going into last night. had given up over a 20 points. Every one of those games, 120 or more in every one of [00:06:00] those games. Now there's a problem. And one of the problems is if you look at how that team is structured, there's no real defensive players on that team. They had Caruso two years ago. Giddy is a good offensive player, real good offensive player. He can't guard anybody. And Vu Vukovich has never been known to defend Kobe White's coming back from MCC Caff, and he was never a great defender. So a lot of these, a lot of those players just don't defend well, and they haven't played it real well in the last. A couple games. So again, you have one bad defender, you can hide it. If you have two, you have trouble. If you have a Jose: Yeah. Steve: it's not a problem. Jose: Yeah. Steve: Where the bulls are and they just can't defend. So they have quickly. Not just back to the pack, but below the pack. Back to being a team that's gonna be fighting for the playing game. And, if they're lucky, I, when I look at it, there's 11 [00:07:00] teams that would be playing worthy or playoff worthy. Somebody's not gonna make it. The Bulls, the Celtics, the Bucks. Those are teams that, that are on the edge that might have a problem. But if I were a, a betting person. I would bet on the Bulls being the team that doesn't make it. And I think last thing on that, I think they'll begin to start when they, if they continue to lose, they'll, you're gonna see Fu Vukovic and Kobe White's gonna be a free agent. They're gonna be gone. So Jose: Yeah. Steve: then everything will, go to pieces. Because I don't think they're gonna keep these guys and Vu. I think Vukovi is last year. Also, he's a free agent, so you know, if you can get something for him, get 'em out. Jose: If you're not going to be a good defensive team, then your best bet is to put up 140 a night. But they've tried that. Remember the Phoenix Sun seven seconds or less, that doesn't work. So yeah, the old adage is right. Defense wins championships. Let's talk about a team that started out [00:08:00] rough. But has really improved. And you called it out, you said that the Toronto Raptors would be good this year, but did you expect them to be this good? Steve: They lost to Charlotte last night, so I dunno how good, but they did win nine straight. Jose: Yeah. Steve: very interesting, they started the year one in four. And in that time we go back to the defense in the first one in four they were giving up 127.8 points a game. Now that's a lot of points since then. They're down around 107. Since with the winning streak, not counting last night, the point being they've decided to defend. The other thing they have Brandon Ingram, who's played more games this year than he played LA all of last year, is legit. And Jose: yeah. Steve: become their scorer down the stretch and they use him. But what I found very interesting about this, team was that they're balanced. They're scoring Ingram's getting [00:09:00] 21.9, but then Barnes is at 20 Barrett is 19, over 19 quickly is over 15. And then they picked up a guy from San Antonio, Hawaii thought could score, but I didn't think he was. Sandra, Manu, Kelle, whatever it is, I can't pronounce it, but he's scoring 10 points a game off the bench Jose: Yeah. Steve: them more, the guy that didn't, hasn't produced as Grady Dick, who everybody he can shoot hasn't really played well. But the point being they have a balance group, they defend, they've got some guys a and she off the bench who can really get after it defensively and it's really. Picked up and they, it seems, watching them, they like each other and that in basketball, that goes a long way Jose: Yeah. Steve: to give the ball up to somebody else to get something done. Again, it goes a long way towards, into the winning piece. And the big thing was they've been waiting a long time for Scotty Barnes to become this offensive juggernaut. [00:10:00] He's not. He's not going to be, he does a lot of other things real well, but he's not a shooter. He is not. And Ingram has been able to fill that and take some of the heat off of off of Scotty Barnes. Jose: Yeah, it's good to see things happening in Toronto. Now we have to wait and see if this is, if they have staying power. Because again, you said they lost last night to a really bad teams, which. He's never a good indicator of a team's trajectory. But things are going good. Good. Steve: tonight, which is a very interesting situation and an Jose: Yeah. Steve: game to watch because we'll learn a lot tonight. Jose: Good early season. Bounce back for the raptors. Let's talk about another team. They went all in this year. They they traded for Desmond Bain. They, th there was expectations where, I don't think Toronto had a whole lot starting the season. Orlando did and so far it's paying off. Orlando's playing good basketball. Steve: One in four to start the season. Everybody thought, oh my God, [00:11:00] they're 11 in four. Since Desmond b Bain has come a long way. He was struggling shooting around 30 from three, and suddenly he's just taken off the other night against Detroit. I think he had 30 something, Jose: Yeah. Steve: and he was just great. So he's been a key to it for the magic. The very interesting thing is, and make you think Ben Carroll's missed, I believe the last eight games. And this is when they've been playing real well. They're, like I said, 11 and four in the last 15, and included in that is two wins against the Knicks and one over Detroit. That means you're playing some good basketball. Because those teams are the ones that are, are considered the good team. So you're right up there with them and I really. I guess the, what's the name? Franz? Wagner. Wagner is scoring 22.8 points a game. Bain is at 18, so they're getting a lot of production from them. I believe Ben Carroll's at [00:12:00] 21 or a little over, other guys like Anthony Black they're score, they're all in double figures. Who else? The Silva's in double figures. Wendell Carter's in double. Figures. So they're getting a lot of people that are scoring black had over, I think 26 and a quarter the other day against Philly, something ridiculous. And so they're getting contributions from others. And it brings up the question, there's Ben Carroll. That's another question for another time, because I don't think he can win unless you do bring Carroll back, and he can contribute and play with those guys. But I'm really impressed with Franz Wagner. He's just tough. He's slow, but he gets to where he is gotta get and he can shoot. He just, he's a good, real good player probably this year. Possible All star. Jose: Outstanding. Now you said the last two teams we discussed, you talked about their, their depth and how they've got a whole bunch of people contributing, double digit points. We've talked a [00:13:00] lot about how you need the guy who's gonna put the ball in the basket with 10 seconds left in the game. The guy you can trust. The guy who's gonna bring it every night do either of these teams. And we're talking about the Raptors and we're talking, and I think the Raptors probably out with Ingram but the magic, do they have that stud that you need? You think? Steve: I think Wagner and Bain can both, Jose: Okay. Steve: play Bain. Bain is probably one of the least the best, most underrated players where he's real good and. Maybe 'cause he played in Memphis. People don't quite realize how good a player he is Jose: Yeah. Steve: strong, he physical and he can shoot. Orlando gave up a boat order picks and sowell pope and, they had to match money, but they gave up a boat. This guy is valuable and he's playing that way and he seems like a good team player and a good person, which makes things a lot easier, Jose: yeah, [00:14:00] no doubt. Good to see things going well in Orlando. Let's see if it keeps going. Another team that. Things are going well, at least when you consider the expectations. And that's the Phoenix Suns. Now, I would wager that very few casual fans outside of Phoenix could name their head coach, but he's made a difference. Tell us about their coach and what difference did he make. Steve: It's Jordan Ott. He came from Cleveland. He was an assistant with Cleveland, and there's people saying that Cleveland struggling this year is a result of him leaving, which I Jose: Wow. Steve: that is the interesting thing. Phoenix, they've changed the whole chemistry. Durant obviously is gone. Beal is gone. Booker's still there. They've changed just how they play the game. Their chemistry's much better if you watch them. They space well, they shoot a couple more threes a game shooting about the same percentage, but take a few more per game. But there's one other factor I really, besides Jordan Knot, and I really believe this guy [00:15:00] affects winning as well as a lot of most players and more as well as anybody, just about in the NBA. It's still in Brooks. Dylan Brooks is scoring over 20 points a game. He's the guy if he's on your team, you'll love him. If he's on the You, what a pest. He's a winner. He likes he I've watched him in fourth quarters, just come on strong. He's tough. He'll fight anybody in the league at any time, which could be a problem if you meet up with Stephen Adams or somebody like that but. He he just affects things and gets teams playing. They play hard because of him. 'cause he's always going at it and he's got a motor on him. Just, he's dirty. He can be dirty, but he's somebody, if you watch him enough, you just gotta like him and he affects things with the team. And don't forget, with Phoenix and they lost last night, I know to, to Denver, but. Jalen Green has not played many games this year, and he can score they get him back. Now they've got, Booker's got a [00:16:00] wingman that can score with him, although Dylan Brooks is scoring over 20 a game. But, they can be, they're not good enough to win it. And I forgot there's one other factor in this, but they're not good enough to win it, but they are good enough to cause problems. The other factor I missed in this was Mark Williams. Jose: Yeah. Steve: Williams is the guy the Lakers and their infin decided not to take. Williams is averaging almost 13 points and nine rebounds a game. Also. He's a good rim protector. Now the big knock, of course, is if he stays healthy. if he does, they've got their center in place for a while. So they become, they, you need a rim protector and he's becoming that. So that's where Phoenix is. And they're a good watch to, to see on, Lead Pass. Jose: Yeah. Yeah. I haven't watched them yet, but I'm excited too. I will say speaking on behalf of all [00:17:00] Laker fans Deandre Aton is putting up 16 and eight, I think maybe they made the right choice. They're getting better production outta eight and by a little bit than they would outta Mark Williams. Steve: I know you can look for any reason to make the Lakers look good but the point on that was Williams would've been. We'll see with Aton. Let's just leave it there because if Jose: fair. Steve: If his cold in the morning, he's out for a week. We'll see. We'll see on that Jose: Okay. Alright. Open for hot oatmeal in la. You heard it here. First, let's talk about the 76 ERs. They're 10 and eight despite being a mash unit, right? They're they, it's just it's hard watching what's happening, but they're playing good basketball. I take that as a good and a bad, right? The bad is obvious, but the good is these guys are going to get healthy. They get healthy at the right time. They could be really dangerous. Steve: If one other person gets hurt and he's played every game, the season's over. That's Tyrese Maxey. Jose: Yeah. Steve: playing every game so far. He's great. He's just flat out great. He can go off at any night, just [00:18:00] has to be defended once he crosses half court. What's interesting is M Beat is missed 12 games already. I think he's gonna miss the next one today or tomorrow, whatever. George has missed 14. That's over a hundred million dollars on the bench. Hub is gonna be out for a while, and he's already missed six. Edgecomb missed three. Dominic Barlow, who's a nice player, missed nine. Trendon Watford four McCain has missed nine. So you start adding it up and you realize they're on a wing. And Tyree Maxey. They're just, they're trying to get by Quentin Grimes has played all their games and he's played well. But they've really they, and I don't know, they're stuck with George for two more years after this, and them beat, I think about three or four more years. I don't Any way they're going to get out of that. And so that's gonna make it hard for them to win, because you gotta spend money. And a hundred million is already going out to [00:19:00] two people. Jose: Yeah. Steve: if you really think about it who would take MB or George? They're not going to deal, unless they attach a bunch of number one picks with them because would want either one of them at this point. George is another one. He's at the point now where when he plays, you wanna celebrate and to say what Embi and Embi is a shame 'cause this is, he was one of the greats in the game, but Jose: Yeah. Steve: just aren't, it's not working anymore. Jose: Yeah. Yeah. Tough to see. But hoping for the best for MB and the Sixers. But let's pivot. You talked about Paul George, right? A dotted line to the next topic, and that is the Clipper's interest in DeMar de Rosen. And this is why there's a dotted line. This flew under the radar. I'm based outta la. LA area. I didn't hear about this. But, I Googled it. Sure enough, there was some mutual interest or not. I won't say mutual, [00:20:00] but the Clippers were at least exploring the possibility. They are already the oldest team in the league. They went all in with Paul George and Kawhi Leonard a few years back. They had their best shot in 2020 and fumbled it. What? What, how, what's going on? Steve: You are the LA guy. You tell me. Jose: I can't make sense of this unless they're trying to, build the best 30 and over team in the history of the NBAI. I just don't get it. I, it just makes no sense. Steve: If you, all types of ownership in the game. Some owners like to win, but they stay out of the scene. Steve Bomber is over the place and he is got more money than anybody. Jose: Yeah. Steve: I think in his mind not allowed to lose. So he's going out and just bringing players in and not even thinking of age or any of the other factors that might go into it. And so while he's doing that, [00:21:00] you look at the team draft, pick wise, I think they don't have a draft pick for the next two years, then they have one. There's not much you can say except they're gonna have a, an incredible collapse at some point because, you don't have draft picks. You got old people who are only gonna get worse. They're not gonna get better. They're not gonna hit their best day. DeMar, the Rosen a great, the hall, he's gonna be a Hall of Famer probably, but he was a real good player. Jose: Yeah. Steve: still a decent player, but he's not. A great player anymore, so you're gonna collect all these old people when that crash comes look out. Jose: Yeah. Steve: It's not gonna be pretty. And what I, in my mind, and I don't think, going back to the owner, I don't think Steve Bomber. Thinks that they can lose. Like he doesn't want them to lose. He just bought a, the new arena and nobody be in there if they lose, but it doesn't it just [00:22:00] doesn't look good. The only, if I I don't know a lot, but the only suggestion I would make is. Start trading all these people and see whatever draft picks you can get and also get rid of the money, get expiring contracts in return for these people. 'em out like Harden. I don't think anybody will take Kauai. But all of the other, even zoo bots, just get a bunch of draft picks and get some free agents after you. Reuse some money. Because it's gonna be a bad crash if you think James Harden's gonna still be able to play when he is 39 or 40, God bless you. If you think Kauai is gonna continue he's not playing much now, but if he's gonna continue, plan in, in four years, forget it. Although I think he's got Jose: Yeah, Steve: after this on his contract. You got problems and then the Rosen, you gonna bring one more. I, it makes no, no sense, Jose: no. Steve: At all. Jose: Now, there's no way to spin it. Things are unfortunately [00:23:00] spiraling outta control. In la they had, they had a really good team. They had a really good shot. And that's what you want, right? When you trade, when you make a trade, like what they did, or they brought in Kauai and traded for Paul George, you want a shot? They had their shot, they fumbled it, and and now it's just it's over. I think you're absolutely right. You gotta just dismantle the thing and start over. There's just no other way to get where they want to be. And I'll tell you who is rooting for the Clippers collapse this season more than anybody or the Oklahoma City Thunder. 'cause guess what? They own their number one pick. Can you imagine clippers right now? Are they could, absolutely. They're gonna be in the lottery. Unless something absolutely changes. Can you imagine the thunder being the defendant champs and coming up with the number one pick? The last time that happened? That was in Los Angeles and the Lakers got James worthy, and that was the start of a continuation of that dynasty. Steve: I think the Celtics traded a guy by the name of Henderson in the late, mid eighties, and sadly the number [00:24:00] two pick, they ended with Lenny bias Jose: Any bias? Yeah. Steve: I wanna, get away from this Laker talk. But, because it Jose: Fair enough. Steve: It's but with the with the Clippers, I, I don't know any other way of it. I have to think that the owner wants to win and is saying, go get anybody just to get it. And, if this was, 2020, maybe you could, those guys you'd be okay, but right now it, the game's going by Jose: Yeah. Steve: there's not, they're just not good enough. They have some, a couple young guys that haven't looked bad but they're not close to being competitive. Harden is the only thing that carries the shell, Jose: Yeah. Yeah. Which is yeah. Tough to see, tough to watch. But everybody in OKC is rooting for the Clippers demise. Steve: I just wanna add something on that. Paul Presti should be or will be in the Hall of [00:25:00] Fame. Think about when a team gets better and I'm gonna use the nicks. They've gotten better, but they have very little in draft picks. Jose: Yeah. Steve: This guy got rid of everybody and waited a couple years. Jose: Yeah. Steve: he still got draft picks less left. Anytime a team gets good, you generally, you'll find that they'll have traded draft picks to get players and they really don't have many for the next couple years. Look at the Lakers, a couple. I'm bringing your team up, but look at what the Lakers did with LeBron and they traded draft picks left and right. Jose: Yeah. Steve: players, but they didn't get, they ended up taking second rounders all the time. But second, because of that. So Sam Presty, what he did this, if there's no, this could go on forever with Oklahoma. And it's really ironic, the smallest, probably the smallest market in the Jose: Crazy. Steve: Yeah. Yeah. Jose: It is crazy. It's it, yeah. It boggles the mind. And whenever you see success in the NBA, everybody else tries to replicate [00:26:00] it. But nobody's doing. Sam Presti likes Sam Presti. And yeah, it's it's beyond impressive. But you heard it. The buzzer went off. Our time is up. Thank you for listening. Thank 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 show today. And of course, please subscribe, comment, follow, all that stuff means the world to us and we appreciate it all. Thank you. Thank you. Join us again next week for more NBA random thoughts as we recap week number seven. We'll talk then Steve. Thank you. Steve: Hey, care.