The Shotclock Pod: Hawks Face Trae Young Decision, Wembanyama Rises, and Lakers Struggle Defensively

Untitled project from SquadCast === [00:00:00] Jose: All right, it's time to talk Basketball. Christmas day behind us, the Christmas games are behind us, so week 10 is behind us, and Steve has some random thoughts. I'm Jose Salviati, Editor at thePeachBasket.net. He's Steve Purciello, longtime educator, vice principal, high school basketball coach, athletic director. He's also the host of Celtic Chalk Talk. Celtic Chalk Talk is a pod dedicated to the latest news and opinion surrounding the Boston Celtics from a lifelong fan, Steve. That pod will drop new episodes every Monday, but this again is the shot clock Pod, the best 24 minutes of NBA random 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, right? Maybe a thoughts article, but he shares his random thoughts after week 10. Of the 20 25, 26 NBA season, which included the Christmas games that we just talked about. And we will be talking about two of those today. Steve, are [00:01:00] you ready? Steve: I. Jose: All right, let's start the timer. All right, timer is on. And let's start with a possible changing of the Guard in Atlanta. Tre Young has been the face of that franchise since he was drafted, honestly. But who is the Hawk's new best player? Steve: Jalen Johnson he's taken off. He's an all star easily. And he's probably gonna be all NBA one of the three teams. Just take a look at it. He's averaging 28, 10, and eight. And shooting 37% over 37% from three over the season. So it's pretty good. That's a great season. When you look at it, it's almost a triple double. so he's done well. And more importantly, the hawks with without Trey Johnson have done much better than with him. They lost last night in a tough game to the next, but they're, I believe, two and nine with him [00:02:00] something around 13 and nine without him. So if you are the hawks I don't know what his market is. That's a great question it's time to about dealing and if you watch the end of the Nick game last night. Each time down the Knicks were trying to get Trey hung on the ball. and, and it worked sometimes and naturally, obviously, if they're going at him, that means he doesn't defend as well as everybody else. And that's another problem for the Hawkes because they're all over the place in a, how they play one night, they're getting bought out the next night, they're playing well. And then b, how they defend their numbers go all over the place when you study game by game. So the Hawks are a team. Quinn Snyder came in with a good reputation, but that hasn't gotten better either. What do you do when you're in that situation? You gotta make change. the obvious [00:03:00] change here is Trey Young. Not even talking about the coaching situation. And I think Quinn Snyder's got a long contract. He'll be there, but I think it's more importantly done that they think about dealing Trey Young, which was interesting also last night at the end, in the last minute or two, they had Kel Walker. Who's the backup point guard, Jose: Yeah. Steve: about 20 points a game with it. When Troy was out when Trey was out, but they had him on the court with Trey well as Dyson Daniels. So they were going three guards and they were using Walker and Walker. There was a sequence with about 40 seconds left, a one point game. The Knicks were winning. who was on fire at that point came across half court and Walker picked his pocket and had a layup, which put the hawks ahead and if anything could exemplify situation where. Walker's value might be more to this team than Trey Young [00:04:00] that would do it. They've got some decisions to make and of course the salary, I don't think they wanna pay that salary anymore. Jose: Yeah. Steve: Obviously the only thing left to do is think about how, what could we get for this guy? Jose: Yeah, I am glad you brought up Ika Alexander Walker. You called him out in your article as well. Averaging 20.3 points per game. Clearly they've got somebody who can fill in that gap if they have to move on from trading. And it looks like now might be the right time in this show. Over the years you've been done a great job of introducing us and me to players I hadn't heard of. And I follow the NBA, but there's always these little nuggets out there, and you call 'em out. This week though, you introduced us and me to a coach who's the next head guy. Tell us about him. Steve: First of all, you gotta, you have to be retired to be able to have the time to waste watching or figuring this all out. But Jordy Fernandez. Did a pretty good job with the Nets last year, but you really have to sit down and realize [00:05:00] this year they started the season oh and seven and they've, they had seven first they had draft picks all over the place and all. He had to infuse a new team. Since then, they've gone, I believe, 10 and 12, and in the course of that they've beaten Boston, Toronto, Philly, and last night Minnesota. So they're real. He's taken Michael Porter and he's a star and he's infused the young around him and they've just taken off. And by the way, the developing of Michael Porter is really something that's significant because don't forget Denver trade him for Cam Johnson. Now they all thought, everybody thought that Cam Johnson's the better player. No. Porter just needed the chance to step out and show people what he can do, and he's done that. So it's really interesting. But he's also able to take guys like [00:06:00] Claxton and he's got a rookie and I'll get the name wrong, but Deon or Igor, I believe Eva. Deon who was their first pick? First, first Brown pick. And he can shoot and he can play and he looks like he's about 15, but he can play and he's gonna get better. And what's interesting, Fernandez, when you watch the Nets, he will pull these guys they're not doing exactly what he says. And that's a throwback in the NBA today, coaches always acquiesce to their players. But the, what he's done last year, he did a nice job with that team. They were tanking, but he kept winning. Which hurt them in the draft, but he coaches to win. And again, last night going up in Minnesota and beating them. It says something about, the job he's doing. He, as the team gets more talented, he will become one of the better, best coaches in the league, I would think. 'cause Jose: yeah. Steve: got all the makings for it. Jose: That's crazy and it really does speak to something that we've seen happening as [00:07:00] NBA fans over the course of the last. Decade, maybe decades. And that's the internationalization of the game. We just talked about a Spanish coach. You brought up a Russian player in Igor Demmon, the best player in the NBA is arguably Serbian and Nikola Yoki. And the most exciting player right now is arguably from France and Victor Wema. It's wild, isn't it? Steve: You opened up something that's very interesting. The Europeans, when they train younger players, they work more on fundamentals. In the United States, people handpick this talent, put an a U team together and they play games. So those habits that aren't good aren't as well worked out in the US where in other countries do a good job with that. And I'm gonna use Hugo Gonzalez with Boston. He's 19 years old. Defensively, he's outstanding. He's got a [00:08:00] great motor but more importantly, he's ready to play a lot of the American 19 year olds. Take time to assimilate into the, the game. Jose: Yeah. Steve: so I think the Europeans are onto something and I don't think the Americans are going to change the way they do things. Which might mean that the US dominating in the Olympics and all might be over or coming to an end. You gotta look at right off the bat, you gotta look at what France is gonna have wema so right away you are realizing things are quickly are rapidly going to change. Jose: Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy looking back at it now it's been a slow evolution of the game, but the European great players are here to stay. Let's take a look back at the Christmas day games, right? We had some really good ones. You called out the calves and the Knicks at. That game meant something to both teams. You wrote about it in your article. We'll link it below, but what did the [00:09:00] end result? Tell us about both teams. Steve: The Cavs came into the game winning too straight, and it looked like they were getting their act back together. Jose: Yeah, Steve: and this would be a Jose: I Steve: point game for them. They led much of the game. Jose: right. Steve: the Knicks won, beat him down the stretch and won the game. Now, for the Cavs they were playing in New York. That's always difficult but for the Cavs, if they were thinking that this was gonna be the turning point, or they can turn it up now and start winning. They, they lost that game and that had to be a tough thing. And last night they went out and got hammered by Houston. So it tells you something where they are and it doesn't appear that they're getting better. Jose: Yeah. Steve: for the Knicks. They lost to Minnesota. They didn't play a couple guys and an Obi. I believe Hart got hurt. I don't, Brunson didn't play. They didn't play a but they lost a game. Now you don't wanna fall into that rut because they're gonna be going on the [00:10:00] road a lot more in the next couple weeks. I. You don't wanna fall into that rut. So they went out and they won. They won that game against Cleveland and that was important. And last night they won another tough game against Atlanta. So they were able to right the ship. But Cleveland, I said a few times, there's something wrong and it's just not right. And on. They even got Evan Mobley back who was out for a while with the calf and they played well for three and a half quarters, what, 45 minutes. But the last couple minutes they in and they got beat. And one other interesting thing in that game and he's a great offensive rebounder, Mitchell Robinson. But in the fourth quarter, he just, he, in the last six minutes, I guess he must had four or five offensive rebounds that led to baskets for the Knicks in their comeback. Don't forget, the Knicks were down by over 10 with about six or seven minutes left. So Mi Mitchell Robinson did it. But then wait a minute, you have Jared Allen, and you had Mobley. [00:11:00] How come they're not rebounding down the stretch? And what's going wrong here? And that, that's a problem. Now, last night they got hammered by, houston and Kenny Atkinson, more or less said after the game, we just weren't ready. It just, there's no urgency. Now, when is the urgency going to be there? Jose: Yeah. And we, when we talk about the cav it's almost. It's almost hard to remember how good they were at the start of last season. They looked dominant and then since that phenomenal start and petering out in, in, in in the playoffs, they've been a different team now. They, it's like they're trying to find themselves again. Steve: If you watched the them, a lot of times if you Jose: I. Steve: a team over the year, you'll see oh my God they're winning all these one point or two point games and this is gonna be a magical year. That's what last Until the playoffs came around this year. The Knicks are the magical team right now, and they're winning games, just pulling games out Jose: yeah. Steve: some tough games and one [00:12:00] point games. And when that happens, you almost think it's, is this a ma magical year for them? Jose: NBA Cup Champion New York Knicks. Let's not take that away from them. Steve: Hope they, I hope they hang that banner about as high as what? Jose: Let's stay on the Christmas Day games. This was also a very interesting one. I won't talk so much about the game, but more the outcome of what it tells us, the teams, everyone talks about when we talk about the teams that could really challenge the thunder in the west are the nuggets and the rockets. So those are the ones that generally people spit out, right? With, understandably good reason. After the Christmas day game and three games, three wins in a row against the thunder. We gotta add the spurs to that list. Don't be there for real. Steve: Yeah they beat, OK C3 times two weeks, and they blew him out the other day in Oklahoma. Jose: Yep. Crazy. Steve: It said a lot. It is a bigger effect though it, it makes other teams that are contenders say, wait a minute. They might [00:13:00] not, they might have been more reluctant a while back, but now they're looking at this and say, wait a minute, maybe they can be had, and let's think about the trade. And we'll talk about that in a second. Jose: Yeah. Steve: Victor Wema, in mind this is only his third year in the NBA. He's what, 22 or 21 or whatever he's going to, if San Antonio continues putting good people around him, they're gonna be, at least now we know somebody will compete with Oklahoma over the next Oklahoma City over the next couple years to win it. One more piece to it. That was interesting. I found interesting the game. Oklahoma never decided to put ho. Two things I saw. never decided to put their seven foot guy on on Weby. And that was interesting. The other thing I saw was, Lou Dort is a very good [00:14:00] defender. Jose: Sure. Steve: He was getting eaten alive. They couldn't ha he couldn't handle the quickness of a Harper or castles. And Harper has only played in what, 15 games this year and had that trouble. And by the way, I was talking about Holmgren, and when I said the seven footer, why didn't they even take a shot? I know Wendy's bigger than him. He's bigger than everybody. that's something that's very very interesting that they didn't do that. But also the quickness of and Fox was another one that was beating them off the dribble that really was, 'cause you always think about Oklahoma's outstanding defense and Lou Dort. I always think he's one of the best guard defensive players in, in the game, and he was, humbled I guess, in that game. So there was a lot of interesting things that came out of it and we'll see the ramifications over the next, what, two months with the trading deadline. Jose: Yeah, let's talk about it. You hinted at it. [00:15:00] Now all of a sudden, you know this team that started out like 28 and one or something, it wasn't that good, but they were phenomenal at coming out the gate. Now all of a sudden, people are looking right teams that you know. We talked about the rockets, you talked about the nuggets, but maybe other teams in the west, maybe the Lakers. I can't think of another one off the top of my head, but these guys are all looking at these guys and going, yeah, like you said maybe they're getable, maybe we're a player or two away. So you said that will likely drive, the trade deadline and turn into more of a seller's market. What do you envision? What do you see happening? Steve: When you think about it, you got Detroit, they need a shooter. As we talked last week, Always on the prowl for a star. And you know what, we'll talk about that without ABI in a few minutes, Jose: Yep. Steve: you have the Lakers we'll talk about that in a few minutes too. Jose: Indeed. Steve: Denver, Minnesota and the Knicks are all knocking on the door as well as San Antonio, but I [00:16:00] think they might feel fine with what they have, but the point being, each of them might, some might need a big time player. Some, oh, and I also Boston I don't know if I mentioned that, but, or some of them just might need a good role player to do certain things. When you look at Boston, I just bought them into it. If Tatum and it all predicated on if Tatum comes back. Jose: Sure. Steve: comes back. You're close. You're close. Especially in the east, you're close and if he comes back 75% of what he is, it's pretty good. There's a whole bunch of teams here that now are looking at it. If we take the shot whomever. We have a chance, Miami, using them for an example. They might be thinking let's see now we might be able to put a package together and get if Giannis is on the market, we might be able to put something together that might be, workable and we'll still have something left. To win with. [00:17:00] So there, there's a lot of things going on right now that changed a lot of GM's thoughts because a lot of 'em were gonna, hold themselves and not trade away big trades if they didn't think they could win the whole thing. that's what San Antonio's th wins have done Jose: Yeah. Steve: rest of the league. Jose: Yeah. It's funny how, three, three wins reverberate, right? The ripple effect and how it impacts everything because now people are looking at the thunder and going, eh, nick, we got a chance. But we'll see. I do think it's a small chance, if it's a chance for anybody outside of San Antonio, though, that team remains. Dominant. Let's talk about, this is a bit of a bombshell for me when I read your article because I, it was outta my radar. It is a team in the east. I don't follow the east as well as I follow the west. But you mentioned that bam, on bio's, time in Miami might be coming to an end. What's that about? Steve: That, that's just a prediction. I always thought bam was [00:18:00] the next big man that they keep forever Jose: sure. Steve: and he dies, a heat guy and all that. when you start to look at it, a, he's starting to get hurt a little bit, which means he's getting a little older, but Jose: Yeah. Steve: in the last four games he hasn't shot he shot 13.7%. I have 13.8 whatever, but not nearly as well. And then now kli where. Starting to play well. It's okay. Now. Bam has got value he can defend and he's a better scorer than what he's shown in the last few weeks. But now you start thinking about it if we put Bam and Hero and a draft picker two, what could we get? Jose: Yeah. Steve: now if you take that and all of a sudden you have Norman Powell. Let's say use Giannis as the person, you got Norman Powell, Giannis Coley Aware. Wiggins and Dion Mitchell running the show. It gets a little interesting and you [00:19:00] become very dangerous if Giannis is healthy, but you now have moved into the upper echelon where you can, possibly beat anybody in the east and if you get to the finals, who knows? So it, it kind of changes and I don't know if Riley. Would do that. by doing that, I mean trading bam. But it's the logical thing to do, Jose: Yeah. Steve: right now, by the way, heroes from Wisconsin. He'd be going home in, in its own way too. And I'm sure Milwaukee, if they're going to deal him, getting a home, a pretty good scorer from their area wouldn't hurt. Jose: Yeah, it's a weird thought, right? This is a guy who was drafted by the heat, spent his entire career at the heat, and you just, at least for me, I, it came outta nowhere. But when you start looking at it and looking at what's possible yeah, that he could really turn a corner here this trade deadline. Like every trade deadline. It could be a bust, it could [00:20:00] be a whole lot of taco and a whole lot of nothing. Or it could be some really big names, Trey Young Giannis, and others moving. Very interesting. Let's move from the east to the west. A team we've talked a little bit about on this show in the years in the year that we've been doing it. And that's Los Angeles Lakers. They are a good offensive team. Defense wins championships, and it doesn't look like the la the Lakers have got that memo. What's going on with a team that started really well and has now hit the skids a little bit? Steve: It's your turn to talk. Tell me what's going on. Jose: I think the cream rises to the top right? It, there's two things here. And again, I've said this before here, Phil Jackson has always said, well known by Thanksgiving, who I've got and at the Thanksgiving trade or trade deadline. But the line of demarcation, the Lakers look good. Austin Reeves has made a jump. Luca Doni is just, is being MVP, caliber Luca. And LeBron is he's settled into that complimentary role. Things look good. [00:21:00] You could tell this was a team that had some real holes, right? They have a center that's up and down. They don't, market smart is not the market smart of, the Celtics era. So they don't really have a defensive stopper. And they weren't. They were playing good teams. They weren't playing really great teams. So it all looked to be a little bit of a mirage. And now you know you pull back the cover and yeah, that you can see that they've got some limitations. This is not a good defensive team. You called it out in your article. 121.4 points per game over the last 10 in that stretch. Their four and six defense win championships. The Lakers just are not a good defensive team. That's it. Steve: Go back to something I, I talked about in one of the previous weeks. When teams are past their peak in their championship, Begin to just grab players. Jose: Yeah. Steve: And oftentimes they don't quite fit with what you need. And that's what the Lakers have been doing now. They've been pulling out straws and hoping that this one, oh, this will get us there, they're not building a true [00:22:00] organic type team and that's where I think the Lakers are hurting. I also think. The transition from LeBron to No LeBron, which is going on this year. Jose: Sure. Steve: I think that the piece to that, I don't think LeBron's really buying into him leaving. and I think it's just not working the way they play ball. LeBron can't be expected to be the defender he was and give it 35 minutes doing everything. Jose: Yeah. Steve: not a defender. And Austin Reeves is not a defender. So now you're, the old rule is two bad defenders on the two bad defenders on the court are gonna kill you three, forget it. And you've got a problem. And somebody just made a statement. I'm trying to remember who it was. It's very interesting when you think about it. They said that Luca without the ball can't play. He [00:23:00] doesn't make anybody better. He's gotta have the ball in his hands. It's a very interesting statement. I'm trying to remember who made the statement, but it's a very interesting statement that goes with it, and I think what it shows you is when a team's lose and everybody finds fault with everybody. It that, that's to me, Luca, I don't want the ball at his hands at the end of the game. If I'm rooting for the other team, if I'm rooting for the Lakers, which probably will never happen in this life but if I'm rooting for the Lakers, I want the ball in Luca's hands. It's really interesting. And then you're forgetting Austin Reeves, who's. He was a good player, great offensive player. He's just over on the side now. We're not even talking to him. He's hurt, but Jose: Yeah. Steve: not even bringing him into it. So it, it's really not a great situation For them. And I feel for JJ Reddick, who appears to be a pretty good coach. Again, you need pieces. pieces and if you don't have them, you don't win. Jose: yeah. Steve: And I[00:24:00] Jose: Simple as. Steve: Isn't running the front office anymore, so he can't make any trades. Jose: Which is a good thing. Sam Mitchell, former NBA coach, said of Luca, he can't play basketball without the ball. He doesn't cut. He doesn't move, he doesn't set screens. So was Sam Mitchell. That said that. Very interesting. So Steve: yeah, Jose: let me ask you hypothetical, as we wind this down, 'cause we just, we have another shot clock violation on our record. You heard the shot clock go off, but I gotta ask you years down the road, it ain't won't be this year, but who knows, maybe Lakers versus the Knicks in the NBA finals who you rooting for. Steve: It probably would be the first time in 40 years that I'll start watching the hockey, the Stanley Cup finals. that would probably happen because, it just, they don't appeal to me. Actually. In all seriousness, I guess you always watch what your enemy's doing but I try to catch a lot of, as many Laker games. They're later for me. I'm on the [00:25:00] East coast, but I'll try to catch them and I'll try to catch the Knicks. I can catch whenever, whenever I can. So I'll watch those games more intently with curiosity. And I'm, so I would watch it and probably just watch basketball and Think, and it's hard to watch something when you're not really rooting because, Jose: right. Steve: If you have a rooting interest, you're really concentrating on what's going on out there. Jose: Yeah. All right. So I tried to get it outta you that you would root for the Lakers, but it's not happening. Okay. Fair. Steve: you know what it just. It's again, I guess we'd consider the Lakers with that big win a couple years ago. That's Jose: Sure Steve: That makes 18 like Boston, right? Jose: that's right. Steve: yeah. Jose: I. Steve: I guess, have to roof to the Lakers. Jose: I got it out of 'em. And on that note, we're gonna move on. That's it. Our time is up. You heard the clock go off. Another shot clock violation on our record. But thank you for listening. Thanks for watching. Make sure to reach Steve's entire 13 rules, right NBA thoughts article. We will link it wherever you are watching [00:26:00] or listening to the show today. And of course, please subscribe, comment, follow all. That means a lot. It means everything to us and we're grateful for it. Join us next week for more NBA random thoughts as we recap week 11. In 2026, the first week of 2026, we'll talk then. Thanks Steve.