The Shotclock Pod: Jalen Duren’s Breakout, LaMelo Trade Buzz, and Tyrese Maxey’s Rise

Untitled project from SquadCast === [00:00:00] Jose: All right, it's time to talk basketball. I'm Jose Salviati, Editor @thePeachBasket.net. He's Steve Purciello, a longtime educator, vice principal, high school basketball coach, athletic director, and 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. ~But this is the shot clock pod. This pod will drop. Pardon? I messed that up entirely, and we will clean this up in editing. Celtic Shock. Shock. ~The Celtic Chalk Talk Pod will drop new episodes every Monday, and this is the Shock Clock Pod. The best 24 minutes of random NBA talks online anywhere. ~I'm gonna have to clean that up.~ This podcast was born out of the content 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, random NBA thoughts article where he shares his random thoughts after week five of the 20 25, 26 NBA season, which is the time of the season when teams start to show who they are. So [00:01:00] I think this is always interesting. I know Phil Jackson used to say, when you coach the Lakers. People would ask him, what do you make of your team so far early in the season? He said, gimme till Thanksgiving. Gimme till Thanksgiving. That was his line of demarcation. So I think now we get a feel for who teams are. So it's an interesting time of year. Steve, are you ready? Steve: I am ready. Jose: Let's go. I'm starting the clock now And I love that we're starting with the Detroit Pistons, right? Because we just said this is the time of year when teams show you who they are. My goodness. The pistons are good right now. You didn't think that the pistons would make another jump. They made a big jump last season. You didn't think they could do it again because they lacked a second score next to Kate Cunningham. But someone has emerged in that role who? Steve: Gentleman Doering he's gonna make a lot of money. He's gonna be a restricted, free agent. he's averaging over 20 points a game, which is right away. That's your second score. And he's [00:02:00] rebounding real well over 11 rebounds a game. And the other thing he's provided for them, first of all the pistons. Play an old school style of basketball. They're physical, they pound you, they commit a lot of fouls, it's the way it is. And they make you reluctant to, go at 'em. And then, that's how they wear you down and beat you. But Jalen Doering, one of the great things he's got as a rim protector. And that's important now. And just to make some comparisons, last year, teams shot 62% at the rim. Against Detroit this year, it's down 10, 10% down to 52. So Doen is not only scoring rebounding, but he's also making it more difficult to to get easy shots. One of the things I used to always tell when I coached the, my, my team was the team that takes. If you combine all the footage of all the shots taken in the game, the team that takes less [00:03:00] footage wins, meaning the team closer to the basket, shooting the ball closer to the basket will win. Jose: Gotcha. Steve: when you get a guy like Doran taking that away, now need a hot night to beat them. And that's a big thing. And the other piece too with the pistons, beside that Kate Cunningham is having, be in the top five of the MVP if he continues along this line. And he's great. So that's the other part. The two of them can play well. And the other thing is the pistons are just so darn physical. They pound you and they make, you earn and everything you're getting against them. And I would think a lot of players get reluctant. To keep getting pounded so they don't, continue to do the things they do, meaning looking for easy shots. And that's part of how you win a game. Jose: It is so interesting to me, right? That the Pistons, when I think of the Pistons, I think of the Bad boy era, right? Really good basketball team. Really physical a team that was a [00:04:00] team in every sense of the word. This team, this is the bad boys too, isn't it? 'cause they still play that kind of physical game. They're a really good team. Is that fair? Steve: I think yeah, you're onto something because I think what makes the pistons so lovable by the fans in Detroit. They are a, just like Detroit a, a blue collar and tough, They do and that fits perfectly Jose: Yeah. Steve: that. And naturally they, get their fans get into it because of that. So yeah they're a very physical, tough team to play. And now with a second scorer makes it a lot better. Jose: Outstanding. Good to see. Let's see if things continue to trend upward in Detroit. Let's talk about a team. Unfortunately, that's trending downward and that is the new Orleans Pelicans. They're floundering on the court last in the Western Conference as we tape the show and shuffling things around in the front office. So I gotta ask you, is this season [00:05:00] salvageable for New Orleans or is this just a lost cause? Steve: I think the whole situation's a lost cause, but a couple things about New Orleans. First of all. If you've ever been to the Smoothie King Center, it's right next to the Superdome. Jose: Okay. Steve: It's not a great arena. Probably one of the worst in the NBA. the owner of the team, Gail Benson, she also owns the New Orleans Saints. New Orleans is a football town or Jose: Yeah. Steve: whichever, but so you have that and there's not a great deal of interest. In the in the pelicans, if you like, if you go around the league and buy tickets in different places and see different cities, which I have tried to do, the Pelican tickets are generally the cheapest. They're not very good, but also there's not a great fan base. If you watch a game, you don't see a lot of people at the game, so the franchise is not good. have to at some point. I know the NBA talks about expansion, but [00:06:00] even think about, I don't think Benson will. Her husband used to, he died. He was the owner of both. And she's a New Orleans woman. But you gotta think about New Orleans. Vegas is a nice place to, to put a franchise. But having, or Seattle, having said that, they're in New Orleans, they're the poor stepbrother of the, of the Saints. Now you get, she went out and hired Joe Dumar. Joe Dumar, if you don't know, was Detroit Piston GM when they won a title in 2006, I believe. he's got a, a pedigree and he's been working in the NNBA offices for the last couple years, is like the administrator of defense, meaning punishments, which is what his job was in the NBA offices. They, she hired him, not a bad hire. Around the league. He, here's what's ironic. He hires as his general manager, Troy Weaver. for those who don't know, Troy Weaver was in Detroit. was the [00:07:00] person that was part of the 20 something game, losing streak. Troy Weaver's record was abominable. As the GM or the president of the Detroit Pistons. The word is in the NBA. First of all, Dumars came in and said he won a tough physical team. So I guess like the Pistons were, Jose: Right. Steve: first thing they do is get Jordan Poole from new Orleans. Now Jordan Poole can shoot and he can score, but he's not tough and physical. So that tells you right away. Is he running it or is Troy Weaver running it? And the word is in the NBA, the Troy Weaver is doing more of the work. Which is really interesting. The other thing that's really, and maybe this will be the telltale thing, they fired Willie Green as the coach, Kevin Ollie who was the University of Connecticut coach, who's the interim at the Nets and he played for Connecticut way back. I think you wanna tie a championship with them for the university. But Kevin [00:08:00] Ali is Troy Weaver's pick to become the new coach. If he does, it tells you that Do Mores is like more or less just letting Weaver run the show. And I, I don't know if that's a great idea. Because of, you know what his track record. Jose: Yeah very difficult situation and we've talked before on the show how difficult the job of a GM is. I think the only thing you could say for Weaver is, yeah, he took the hit, but now look where his teams are. So maybe there's some method to the madness, but we have to just wait and see. So staying down at the lower teams, we go from the four win Pelicans, no, pardon me, to the two win Pelicans, to the four win. Charlotte Hornets. Let's talk a little bit about their best player. At least the guy who's been the best player, certainly the face of that franchise, and that's Lalo Ball. What are the percentage chances that Lalo Ball ends this season in Charlotte? Steve: Before we start, what's your [00:09:00] impression of him as a basketball player? Jose: What a good question, right? He's an LA guy in Tino Hills. So I've been hearing about him for a very long time. I always thought we, we've not seen a player like Magic Johnson, and I'm not creating that link, believe me. But we haven't seen a player like Magic Johnson since Magic Johnson. But anytime you see a big guard with handle and that kind of court vision. You can't help but think, right? This is, this guy cut in that mold and there was some hope that he would be, and flashes of it. He's got great court vision. He was shooting threes really well at the start, but now it just feels he's magic came into a tough situation with a bunch of veterans and stood up amongst them. Lalo had an opportunity to be the veteran and is shrinking in that responsibility or so it seems so I like him as a basketball player. I just don't think he's not displaying the leadership skills that you would want from somebody who's gonna be the leader of your team. I think he's really good though. I just think, and we've talked about this before, you gotta put the right player in the right team in the right [00:10:00] situation. And right now it, it looks like Charlotte might not be the right team, situation for him. That's what I think, Steve: Who was Ella's a u coach? Jose: so I have no idea. Tell me. Steve: I believe his dad. Jose: Oh, probably, yeah. Steve: What? What do you think that would say to you if the father's coaching the son? Jose: I love coaching my kids coming up. They weren't Lalo ball though. Steve: What would it say to you though? The Coaching this kid who's very good talent, very talented. think he'd teach him the game or teach him how to take care of himself? Jose: no. I gotcha. I gotcha. Yeah. Probably more the latter than the former. Steve: If you watch Melo Ball, there's times where you sit there and say, this guy's great. Jose: Yeah. Steve: times when he decides to throw a 30 footer up. With 20 seconds left on the shot clock. You sit there and say, Jose: Yeah. Steve: gotta be sitting. Jose: Yep. Steve: when you watch him defend in any kind of screen and roll or anything like that, his man goes to the basket. He'll just stop at the foul on and [00:11:00] not defend it. His game to me, I could be wrong, but I don't think he's a winner. And I think that's the biggest thing in this, Jose: Yeah. Steve: Do I think he'll get traded? I think it's a 50 50 but I think that with Con Keppel and and some of the other players that are coming along, they, Miller just came back yesterday and had a good game. might think about, trying to get 'em out and see what they can get If they get a couple first rounds. I wouldn't give up a lot, but if they get a couple first rounds and a player, you know what, it gets interesting. But the other interesting piece to this is there's three point guards that have been talked about, could be traded. They're all talented, but I don't know mentally, I don't know where they are. And meaning John Morant, Trey Young and, so that gets interesting and it's gotta decrease his market value because you got three of 'em out there who's gonna give up a [00:12:00] lot when maybe you can get the other one. So there's a lot of, interesting situation. It's an interesting situation for Charlotte, but again, I, it's just not the concept of basketball that I think wins that often Jose: Yeah. Steve: that would be the best way to put it. Jose: And we're seeing that in Charlotte. They're not winning and he's been the face of that franchise for a while. So yeah, lack of leadership and immaturity. But somebody will take a chance on him as well as the other names that you mentioned. We, we do not here at the Peach Basket and on this particular shot clock pod talk a lot about betting. But you had an interesting. Betting tip, based on a recent evaluation so far in this season, what can you share? Steve: First of all, it's really interesting if you follow the NBA, you realize that teams in the east will go west usually twice a year. There's eight teams that are far west. I'm not gonna name 'em 'cause I probably couldn't. I probably forget [00:13:00] 'em. But there's eight teams that are out west. So generally an Eastern team will go out and play four games and four games, four and make two trips. Four and Generally, not always, but generally now the east is a lot different. So the Western teams might come east and go six or seven games, or they might divide it up to two, three trips. 'cause it's 15 teams, Milwaukee and teams like that, that are further Midwest, wouldn't be as bad. But when they come east it's, sometimes it's a longer trip. Now the Clippers went on a long trip into the east. And did Golden State and Clippers are just finishing one, but Golden State did. Now, they did play well against San Antonio, sweeping them in San Antonio, but they were they were, I believe, three and three going into game seven against the heat the other night. There's a little thing that people talk about anytime a [00:14:00] team who's on a long road trip is on the last game of the trip, generally. let the rope go and the line was 10 and a half on this game. Now, not only did Golden State not cover the spread, but they sat out their three best players. If you follow the rule there it gets very interesting. Now, one thing I'll say now today the Clippers are finishing, I believe, their road trip. The interesting piece is that yesterday they won against Charlotte and I think they've only won one or two games on this road trip. what the interesting piece is Kawhi Leonard's gonna play today, Jose: Yeah. Steve: makes it interesting about if they cover, I didn't even look and see if there's a point spread, but it's a long road trip. Last game. And by the way, there's one other thing too. Statistics say and Golden State bore this out. Statistics say the first game back at home. [00:15:00] After the long road trip team struggle, the clipper the, yeah, the port the Warriors last night, I believe lost to Portland and that was their first game back. it, it's really, and I don't think they covered because I would think they'd be favored against Portland but the point being, there's little rules within the betting world. Now nothing's 100%, That's the things a lot of gamblers will utilize, Jose: Interesting. All right. A again, I'm I really am not a gambler, but I think I'm reading this correct. The odds right now for the Clippers at the Cavaliers, the five and 11 Clippers at the 11 and six Cavaliers, the Cavalier Cavaliers rather, 8.5 is the spread that they are favored to win? Steve: happens. But what's interesting is Kawhi is playing Jose: Yeah. Steve: That kind of throws everything out the window Jose: Yeah. Yeah. Which again, is par for the course for Kauai. But Def desperately needed for the Clippers. Let's talk, let's stay in the West. Talk about the nuggets a little [00:16:00] bit. They added Steve: to say, we used to say about people, players like Kauai, using all his vacation days. Jose: indeed. Steve: So he's sitting a. Jose: Yeah, indeed. In Indeed. And it's and it's wear and thin for the Clippers personally, but not a conversation we can dive into today, but maybe another time. But let's, again, let's stay in the west. Let's talk about the nuggets. They added depth and it's paying dividends. Man. The Denver nuggets look like probably the only team in the west that can challenge the thunder. What's changed in Denver? Steve: First of all, don't sell Houston short, but they need a shooter. Jose: Okay. Steve: the. What they did this year. They don't like to go into the second April or any of that, but what they did this year was they went out and brought in Bruce Brown, who was part of the championship team and a pretty Player. Jose: Yeah. Steve: they also bought Tim Haraway who can shoot and can, open up a game for everybody because he can hit the three and it gives driving lanes and everything else for other teams. they also bought in and this was the key. Jonas Valentinos.[00:17:00] Jose: Yep. Steve: Valentinos doesn't play a lot. He's playing about almost 12 minutes a game. That means Yoic is playing 36 minutes or a little, give or take, but the thing it does for years when Yoic went out of a game, Denver just got outplayed. Valentina gives them a fighting chance when he is on the court, and it's very interesting. In that time he's been playing. He's averaging eight, eight and a half, 8.5 points a game. he's giving them something and also 4.6 rebounds. So he's giving them a lot. and by doing that, it allows Yage not to have to play as much and it's just a common sense thing. I believe CHUs is making 10 million. But it's well worth it for the Clippers. And by the way, one of the things that opened up the ability to get these three guys I just mentioned was the trade of Michael Porter to the Nets because they got Cam Johnson back. The Nets were able to [00:18:00] swallow a lot of the salary, or didn't have to be even salary in the deal the money they got and the difference between Porter and Johnson enabled them to go out and build a bench. Jose: Yeah, I'm looking at UL's numbers and we can't dive too deep into this, but yeah. 8.5. Over 12 minutes. If you play 30 minutes, you could do the math there. That is incredible output from your backup center and something that's been missing in Denver. But yeah, we're up against the clock. I'd love to talk a little bit more about that 'cause that's pretty fascinating. But I, Miami is also an interesting team. This is a team. Who started the season without last season's top score, and yet they're playing really good basketball. What's the secret to Miami's hot start Steve: first of all, Ty Tyler hero should be due back any day, and it's gonna be interesting to see his effect on the team. Good or Jose: right? Steve: They got Norman Powell from the [00:19:00] Clippers, and one thing Norman Powell can do is score. Jose: Yep. Steve: averaging 24.6, so he makes up for hero being out. And he gives him points. But what's really interesting I know I was wrong with Detroit, but I'll take some credit on this one. Khalil Ware is playing real. He can shoot a three, believe it or not. But what the big things here is he's playing about a little over 24 minutes, but he's getting over 10 rebounds a night. only gonna get better. He's going to be, he's gonna become a real good player and it allows Adibi to become a four, which is probably where he belongs because they had him at 6, 8, 6, 9, battling people that were much bigger. So it might make him better for him, although Adibi can defend against anybody. But the other interesting thing I found when I was looking at it was. Jacque or ya, whatever his name, whatever you wanna say, Jaime Haque he's averaging and last year people thought this guy ain't gonna pan out. He didn't play well last year. [00:20:00] averaging six over 16 a game. And that's not bad. But here's the other part, five over five assists and over six rebounds. giving them way more off the bench. So the heater getting play from him and ware two people, they weren't getting play from last year, plus Norman Powell, and that's in nab. Oh and I didn't write about him, but the guy that is Marcus Smart Jr. Davion Mitchell Jose: Okay. Steve: is. Giving them valuable defense and as a point guard. So these people that they've bought in have really helped the heat. Now how good are the heat? I look at them as a five or six seed. However, think anybody will want to play them, and if Hero comes back and really can fit a role. Look out. Jose: Yeah. Steve: difficult to play. Again, Jose: [00:21:00] Outstanding. Steve: three guys in the hole, you're legit. And the key is how can they play together? Jose: Yeah. Steve: that works out, Nobody saw this coming. Nobody saw any of that coming with the heat. Jose: There's just something about good coaching and good foundations. Like you've gotten certain franchises, I'm thinking San Antonio, I'm thinking Miami. They tend to bounce back quicker than teams that don't have that. And as a J that sounds like an H guy. My name is Jose will say it's Jaime Haken two hs. Boom. And he's gotten, he had a second, he had a rough second season to your point. But yeah, he is rebounding in the third Jaime. It's an h. Alright let's finish with Tyrese. Maxey a name that, that, that has no silent H He's off to a hot start in Philly. Is this who he is or is this just a hot start for Tyrese? Steve: I think it's who he is. Jose: Wow. Nice. Steve: points a game, 7.9 assists per game, [00:22:00] meaning he's accounting for almost 50 points a game. Think about that. Jose: That's incredible. Yeah. That's wild, right? Steve: Of what your team would score. Jose: Yeah, Steve: Maxie was always good, always overshadowed by the big guy Embi. Jose: sure. Steve: Now it's his team and they do, him and Paul George Embi and George. People would think they should be, 'cause they're making all the money should be these. It's not. No. Time for them when they do play become secondary players Jose: Yeah. Steve: VJ Edgecomb. Jose: Yeah. Steve: a real stud too. Jose: Yep. Steve: and is coming back. Who's a nice kid from Duke? So Jose: Great. Start to his rookie season. Yep. Steve: They've got some depth, they've got some some talent there with these people. They also have a young man by the name I believe it's Dominic Barlow, who's a nice role player. He's from the hometown where my wife is from in Jose: [00:23:00] Cool. Steve: yeah. Yeah. And he went to that high school. But Dubon, New Jersey, but. He's not a bad role. So they're starting to fill in and find bodies and players that can help them. Now, going back to Maxie, if he's not all NBA, I don't know who is. He's made that team respectable. I don't think it's gonna last over a whole season because. I don't know if there's enough, unless MB makes a miraculous recovery or something, or Paul George finds the fountain of youth. I don't know if there's enough there to win. They've been winning a lot of close games. Generally that evens off over the course of a year, but he can play Jose: Undeniably. Undeniably the absolute best that we have ever done came in just under the shock clock. That was, I'm not even going to I, that I, we cannot elaborate. It does not get any better than that. It took over a hundred shows for us to [00:24:00] do this. I am so pumped. That was absolutely incredible. So yeah, let's go. We gotta button this one up. This, that was absolutely perfect. That is it. Our time is up. You heard the buzzer. Steve got the shot off. Add zero, zero. And it was a switch. 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 the show to get more NBA random thoughts. And of course, please subscribe, follow, comment. Everything that you do means the world to us and we're grateful for all of it. Join us next week for more NBA random thoughts as we recap week number six in the 20 25 26 NBA season. We'll talk next week. Thanks, Steve. ​