The Shotclock Pod: Youth Movement Rising: Why Younger, Faster Teams Are Thriving in Today’s NBA

SCP-12-7-2025 === [00:00:00] Jose: Basketball. I'm Jose Salviati, Editor at thePeachBasket.net. He is Steve Purciello, a longtime educator, vice principal, high school basketball coach, athletic director, and the host of Celtic Chalk Talk. Celtic Chalk Talk is a pod dedicated to the surprisingly good Boston Celtics this season. Something that we'll talk about on this show that is from a life lifelong pan, Steve his pod again, the Celtics Chalk Talk will up. Drop new episodes every Monday, but this is the Shock Clock Pod, the best 24 minutes of of random NBA thoughts online, anywhere. This podcast was born outta 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 seven of the 20 25, 26 NBA season, which includes a little blurb on the Celtics, which we teased already. Steve, are you ready? Steve: I am ready. Jose: Let's do it. Clock is. [00:01:00] Going. All right, we're gonna start first with some analytics, right? Analytics show that this is a faster game, and generally a faster game is gonna favor a younger team. And this is being proven true as some teams with young high energy defensive disruptors, and I love that term, are doing better than expected. Tell us a little bit about that. Steve: First of all I believe there's, each team is averaging a little over two possessions per game more this year and what's interesting. Six, what is it? Six years ago? averaging over 10 possessions more per game, which is really, when I looked it up, it just fascinated me. the realization, and it's always been a pet peeve for me I watch these teams go out and get a 3-year-old man or a 31-year-old man and pay ridiculous money, to me it's diminishing returns. They can't play every night. They a lot, at some point [00:02:00] in their career, they're at the point where they can't play back to back. So you're paying a lot of money and they're good, and in the playoffs they can help you, but they're gonna be out and the injuries are going to occur more often. The game is getting faster and there's a lot of stars that have been hurt. an Anthony Dikumba. They've been hurt already. And the game d Dral Green's another one, but the game has gotten fast. those people, their bodies are breaking down and they're not handling, and they're soft tissue entries, which will be a length of time. So now you are seeing guys who are defending and wearing people down. The game and they always get around the ball, disrupt deflect, do different things to cause a problem. Having said all that, the game's changing. One of the pet peeves, as I said, was general managers and all still go out and get that 3-year-old and give him money, but he's Jose: [00:03:00] Yeah. Steve: He's hurting you. When these young guys and the guys I named, I think outside of Dyson Daniels, were all on rookie contract and Davion Mitchell, we're all on rookie contracts. You're paying very little money and you're getting a great return. SAR Thompson, my goodness and Event Thompson they're great defenders and you see them guard the best guy on other teams, and it just wears teams down because they're everywhere and they're on top of everybody. So the game changes while the GM's changing or they're doing the safe bet out and go out and pay for James Harden, 36-year-old man, he's still good, but he slows your game down. He slows your Jose: Yeah. Yeah. Steve: And I don't know if that's the way to go in the NBA right now. Jose: Yeah, the proof's in the pudding, right? The youngest, one of the youngest teams in the NBA is defending NBA champions, and you called out, guys like Davion Mitchell, Dyson Daniels, Cason Wallace, you've called out a few others in your article. These teams, [00:04:00] Jordan Walsh, who we'll talk a little bit about later. These guys were on teams that are doing better than expected, and that's because the game favors these guys right now. It does not favor. Older teams. Let's talk about that. 'cause there's a flip side to this, right? You talked about folks like James Harden, you talked about Draymond Green and others, the Clippers and the Warriors. They're not young and they're showing their age, aren't they? Steve: When you think about it, the Warriors went out and got Jimmy Butler last year Jose: Right? Steve: on. Jose: Sure. Steve: When you look at their roster, they had, they got curry, they got green. They wanna try to keep it going. Obviously they're built for the playoffs. They have to stay healthy, get to the playoffs and get in a position to play. But, and if you look at the Clippers, everybody thought they were a favorite in the west Coming into the season. But Jose: Yep. Steve: they're old. You make those choices with Butler and probably Golden State had little choice in doing this because [00:05:00] it's either that or Steph Curry's gonna say, I want out, now you're starting at the bottom, one more shot with the old guys. It's not working, it's Jose: Yeah. Steve: guys are getting hurt. Golden State's a 500 team. They went out and signed Al Horford, who's almost as old as me. He's and I like Al Horford, but. Jose: Yeah. Steve: Out a lot. And he's got the sciatica, which LeBron had. They're just, you wanna play with those guys, you're gonna have a problem. Jose: Yeah. Steve: Golden State is still tough, but they show weakness. The Clippers, we talked about that last week. There is no way to solve that problem. They're gonna Jose: Yeah. Steve: They're just not gonna be very good for a while. Don't win. That's what, that's the point. Jose: Yeah. And there's, there's another thing you alluded to. The we, we talked about if it's a faster game, it stands to reason, older people are going to have a little bit more trouble there. But you alluded to the fact that this is also going to increase or very likely to increase injury, which you're starting to see. [00:06:00] 'cause when you have to move faster, you know your body can't do it. Your mind wants to, your body can't anymore. And that's how folks get hurt. And we're starting to see that as well. Steve: And don't Jose: Let's talk. Steve: one last. Don't, for a Jose: Yeah, Steve: Butler, he's still effective and pretty good, but you it, he's not as good. It's not like they completely drop off the, to, Jose: sure. Steve: but those little drops make a big difference and that's where a guy like Butler is. Jose: Yep. Let's talk about a bunch of little drops that have made a big difference in New Orleans. Unfortunately for Zion. Williamson is the Zion era over in New Orleans. Steve: I, I think it, it's because New Orleans can't just keep Jose: I Steve: that if he's healthy, we're gonna win more games. And Jose: sure. Steve: sit there and say what do we do here? And they've gotta move him. I don't know. He's not gonna get what he would've gotten for, two years ago. But I just think that they, every year they come in saying [00:07:00] if Zion's healthy, we can do this. He's not healthy and it's Jose: Yeah. Steve: meant to be. And the other piece that goes with that, and I wonder about this. Does he like the game? I read something a few days ago that somebody said they thought Zion has more talent than LeBron. Think about that. Jose: Yeah. Steve: said, the problem is LeBron loves basketball. Zion doesn't. And if Jose: interesting. Steve: Yeah, that it's a fascinating statement and if it's true, tells you everything. And you know what? Greatness isn't just being able to do it. It's how hard you work to Jose: Yeah. Steve: And if Zion isn't for the first time this year, he came in shape, he still got hurt. But if he's not totally wanting to be, a great player, it does happen. And you know what? Let's think about this. Scion, very talented. Obviously making a lot of [00:08:00] money. Probably made over a hundred million in the last couple of years with his contract. If you're a person that's not motivated like Ben Simmons, I got Jose: Yeah. Steve: And yeah, they do have enough, generational wealth, however. However, you could have been somebody, everybody talked about as one of the great ones of all time up there with the Jerry Wests of 60 years ago, 50 years ago, up there with, all those great players we can think about and it just isn't that important to you where all of us as fans would do anything if we had that talent. Jose: Yeah, it's almost difficult to wrap your head around that. I think something else is going on with Zion though. Let me I wanna get your thoughts. 'cause I always thought of Zion I thought of Blake Griffin. Okay. Really dynamic player. Can average 20 points, pull down 20 boards. Not a good free throw shooter. Not a good shooter. And I wonder if the game kind of pass these guys by the guys in that mold. They're still going to be [00:09:00] good. They the, again, the game has passed that era by, we don't have the bigs anymore that, that go down low. You have smattering of them, but you don't have guys that can't shoot threes that can't shoot free throws. I just, Blake Griffin's career dissipated when the game changed. And Zion is not a three point shooter, he is not a free throw maker has the game passed that type of player by. Steve: I think before you, Blake Griffin, his career downfall I think coincided with the leg knee. Probably he had leg problems Jose: No doubt, Steve: Zion. The thing about Zion, like Charles Barkley body, when you have that type of body and you watch him go Jose: sir. Steve: basket, I don't know anybody who's got the courage to stand in front of him. Because he's Jose: Yeah. Steve: over and he's a pretty big boy and Jose: Yeah. Steve: So I think Zion can still be effective. [00:10:00] I don't quite understand why he's always having leg problems I still think he can play. The problem is 20 games or 30 games in a season. It doesn't help you. And I don't know how to fix the leg problem, but by the same token, you can't count on 'em. And that's the bottom line. Jose: Yep. Yep. That sounds like that era is winding down in New Orleans. Let's see what's next for Zion? Let's talk good news. Despite having a poor record, things might be looking up in Utah. You called out some good players and they, it seems like they've got something building in Utah. Tell us about that. Steve: first of all they're probably playing for one more lottery pick, but what people need to understand is Kete George is real. He's a guard. He's averaging over 20 points a game about seven assists. And he can play. He can play and he goes through hot streaks. He can score. And then the other guy, Lori Marketing. He's been a all star. Jose: Sure. Steve: he's seven points, [00:11:00] 28 points this year. He's good, what and I wondered what the hell is Utah doing for all these years? But now you're starting to see a semblance of a team. Jose: Yeah. Steve: Walter Kessler who's hurt. That's a big loss. a pretty good center. He is a good rim protector. He rebounder, so he's Alpha either. They did pick Ace Bailey, I believe he's averaging about 10 a game. Ace Bailey will get better. That might be your third guy. So you're starting to put some pieces around the situation and maybe you got something here with the fact that they're going to get a lottery pick and if it's a top three. My goodness. All of a sudden they become pretty good. people have been waiting to see if marketing would be traded. People were waiting what are they doing? They're slowly putting something together. I forgot the Mitchell Palki, who's [00:12:00] another one. They got him in the second round and he's playing fairly well, so look at the pieces they're starting to assemble and they're not. That bad? Yeah, they're eight and 14 or something poor, but it's not far away from being legit. And it's Jose: Yeah. Steve: because if you think about it on the bigger picture, Danny Angel's reputation and he's one of the better GMs in the league, or Jose: Yeah. Steve: wanna say, who was taking a beating and 'cause. We, going back, he traded Mitchell, he traded Gobert and did all those things. So it's nice to see because, slowly they're starting to piece something together and they have the best fans around. Those fans will support them no matter how bad or how, whatever the situation. So Jose: yeah. Steve: good that way. Jose: Yeah. Quick shout out to the fans of Utah. I got to see a game there on a random cold Tuesday against a not very good at the time. Orlando Magic and the place was packed. I had a great time in Utah. Alright, let's talk about [00:13:00] CP three, right? CP three's career was. Carved out as being a bit of a disruptor. Now, not on the defensive side, the guys we talked about before, but he would disrupt, right? He was opinionated, he was loud. He was brash, but he was also the best player on the team. Now he's not, but he's still that loud, brash guy. And it looks like the Clippers have had enough, had enough, and that's why they did what they did was CP three, four staff or being CP three. Steve: Well lemme ask you, you're out in California. What's your a, your thoughts and what is the official word out there? Jose: Yeah, honestly, just that, man, I think, you absolutely nailed it. CP three it's just a loud dude and what I heard today. I wanna give credit where it's due. Chris something, forgive me Chris. But he reported that CP made an adjustment. He whispered in, in, in no, he didn't whisper, but he commented to Kawai [00:14:00] that he was getting torched by Clay Thompson. So he said, listen, maybe, wait till you get warmed up to, to defend clay. Let somebody else defend him until you feel like he got your legs. And so the Clippers listened to CP three and went out there and changed the defensive assignment. And Jeff Van Gundy didn't like that. And he said, listen, man, you may have le, you might have leeway in other places. You don't have any leeway here. So Jeff Van Gundy stood stepped up and said something. And that was the beginning. Not, maybe not the beginning, but a continuation of the butting of the heads. CP three was coaching, which you expect this guy to coach. He's always been that way, but it just did not sit well with Jeff Van Gundy, who's the defensive coach of the Clippers. And that's just one example of what I think are many. He would just interjecting when he shouldn't have been interjecting and now he's looking for a job. Steve: What's the feeling in Los Angeles about this? If there's left, but go ahead. Jose: Clipper fans, they're not quite Utah fans in the sense that they show up. Because you, if the team's not doing well, you're not gonna show up and sell [00:15:00] out the Intuit Dome. But they're passionate, clipper fans are very passionate about their team. They're hurt, this is not a good look. And the biggest takeaway here. That's jarred me is people are starting to say, listen, Steve Bomber's not the great coach or the great, owner or governor that we think he is he unceremoniously dumped or okayed the dumping of Blake Griffin after, pomp and circumstance to get him to resign. And now they're doing the same thing with CP three. It's telling players. You don't wanna play there, right? You gotta, you got a passionate fan base. They're not huge, but they got passionate fan base. You got a the richest owner in the game. You got a wonderful new arena, but they're not player friendly. And that is, that's a kiss of death. That's not a good look. Steve: It's first of all, Chris Paul learned what all players learn, know. If you're not very good, shut your mouth. He didn't. Jose: Yeah. Yeah. Steve: I think that story with Van Gundy, I'm, I'm sure it happened, but I think when people get ball [00:16:00] up at other people, there's been things that built up to that. So I think Chris Paul's been grading on people for a while. This was a result. When you talk about the Clippers and the big picture with bomb. I agree with you. I think, there's some problems there, but I think bomber, supposedly, there's a big thing about his loyalty to people. At some point, and I know Tyrone Ls got a great reputation in the league Jose: Yeah. Steve: it. He almost became the head coach of the Olympic team and all hit was either him or Smra, all that good stuff. However. As long Frank has been there forever, and I'm sure there's a Jose: Yeah. Steve: at some point you gotta sit there and say, we're in a mess. We gotta do something here Jose: Yeah. Steve: not asking to fire somebody or whatever it is, but something, if we're gonna do this the same way, look at the results. Jose: Yeah. Steve: In every way we're falling apart. and the Chris Paul thing just looks [00:17:00] bad. It just Jose: Yeah. Steve: looks bad. And bomber, know he okayed it, but he should have gotten in the middle of it in some way Jose: Yeah. Steve: soften the situation because it's horrible. Jose: Yeah. Steve: last thing on that is, will they, in five years, two years, will they think about retiring? Chris Paul's And Will Chris Paul accept that? Jose: Wow. Steve: Retired, and that's really a hit when Jose: Yeah. Steve: If Jose: Yeah. Steve: no part of it. So that's how bad the situation is to me. Jose: Yeah, no undeniably agreed on all points. The Clippers are the only NBA franchise that have not lifted a jersey. So when that happens, can you imagine if the player says, no, thank you. Steve: I Jose: Wow. Steve: yeah. Jose: Wow. Let's let's talk for, go from bad to worse. Potentially worse. We talked about the Zion era potentially being over in New Orleans is the Giannis Kubo era over in Milwaukee. Steve: I think I think Giannis is torn between loyalty [00:18:00] and what's good for him. So I think, there's a back and forth on that. I think Milwaukee has tried to what they think, fix the problem, meaning to get good enough. So Yna stays, they're not good enough. I think it probably is best for everybody if he gets dealt. 'cause it's a waste of a great player. The prob the interesting thing though is now for Milwaukee, if he wants out and he picks the Knicks. That's a problem. Why is it a problem? Because the Knicks don't have what they need. They need draft picks, and they need younger talent. The only thing the Knicks could offer is Carl Anthony Townsend, an nobi a big deal. They, you're not gonna win and you're not gonna win much, and you don't have a future. The Knicks don't have many draft picks, so if Giannis pushes them into a corner, they've gotta think about it and say, okay, he was great for us. He won us a title. Jose: Yeah. Steve: Do we do what he wants or he's got to [00:19:00] understand not helping us. It's only gonna mean that we're going to be five years or whatever it is to be decent. Don't forget they don't have many draft picks. if he doesn't, it opens up supposedly San Antonio's waiting and wanting him, figuring with him and Lama and Fox, they can, they, they have a chance Jose: Yeah, for sure. Steve: Or at least if you compete with Oklahoma. there, there's a lot of variables. Houston's another team that could get involved in it. But when they say that, you're talking about Shang Goon and I don't know if that's, a great move. 'cause I think Shang Goon has become a really good player. Jose: Yeah. Steve: there's a lot of teams that could get in. I don't think the Bucks wanna trade Giannis to an Eastern conference team because you don't want him. Going after, and if he goes to the Knicks, that's an Easter conference team. The word was in the summer they tried to trade, the Knicks the Bucks wanted Brunson. Knicks wouldn't put him in. So they, that's what killed [00:20:00] the deal. If that's Jose: Wow. Steve: That's interesting. Yeah. That's an interesting thing. But that's, I guess the thumbnail on what's. Jose: Very interesting to see always hard to see when the separation of somebody who's just been the face of that franchise brought 'em a franchise. But, it happens. It's just the way the game goes now. Steve: the Jose: Go ahead. Steve: that is that Giannis injuries, Jose: Yeah. Steve: He's out now for a couple weeks with a Jose: Yeah, Matt, Steve: and he's missing more and more games each. Jose: right. Steve: You're gambling, you're giving up your future with draft picks and everything else, and you don't know if this guy's gonna stay healthy, Jose: Yeah. Steve: then that's Jose: Yep. No doubt. Let's see how things play out in Milwaukee. Now the shot clock is winding down. We've got two topics, so I'm gonna conflate these into one. Okay. One is bad news, one is good news. The bad news is the Washington Wizards, and I'm gonna read what you wrote because this is not come from me, this comes from Steve Perello. And I'm just gonna read it. If you are watching the Washington Wizards, I have one. [00:21:00] Question for you. Why are you watching? Which is funny, but they're not playing defense. So let's talk a little bit about the Wizards and then on the other side of the spectrum are the Boston Celtics and their early ease the season surprise, they're playing better than expected. Tell us about both teams. Steve: First of all, I've watched the weeks, I've watched a few games with the Wizards. you're a basketball fan and you really like the game and kind of know the game, you like a team that digs in and defends and is gritty. Jose: Yeah. Steve: Washington is none of that. they, it, it seems like every guy is playing for another contract outside of McCull, the Middleton, but they're playing for a contract and they just wanna score. And it, it's just horrible to watch them. I feel sorry for their coach, Brian Keef, because God it just, I watched a Celtic game the other night and they were joking. I was watching them on the Celtic and I guess [00:22:00] Gallab or Drew Carter. The announcers were joking 'cause they thought that Washington would be out of timeouts by the end of the third quarter. Because Brian Keefe continually tried to, time out and try to get him to defend somebody, They weren't. Jose: Wow. Steve: other piece to that is I believe they're giving up over 128 points a game. The all time record in the NBA is 130.7 by the Nuggets. They're taking a shot. At trying to beat the all time record which takes a lot of work to do if you think about it. That's what is that 33 points a quarter or 32 and a half points a quarter, which is Jose: On average. Yeah. Steve: Yeah. It's just wild. And, and Boston didn't really shoot well in one of the games. In the other game games, I saw nobody, it wasn't like a team was hot as much as they were just scoring at will. Jose: Yeah. Steve: And that was the, the take I had, I felt sorry for their coach because I guess his message isn't working. And, [00:23:00] and I guess for Washington, they'll stick with him because they're not very good. And let him, and when they get better, then they'll move on. But it's just, now you wanna talk about the Celtics? Jose: Tell me why they are doing better than people thought they would. Steve: I believe the more I watch Brad Stevens is just does a great job and I'm gonna give you why. Two years ago he took a guy in the second round who was supposedly a good defender and he is one of the top people coming outta high school from to go to Arkansas, was Jordan Walsh. They said he was a project. This year he's become a player Now, they also this year, had a first ball pick, I believe it was 28th. They took a guy by the name of Ugo Gonzalez. Now he's 19 years old. Missoula's putting him on some of the best guys on other teams when he plays. going to be a player. It's just a matter of time. Then they, then what [00:24:00] Brad Stevens did, he signed Josh Minot. Minot was playing on the bench for the Minnesota Timberwolves. Now they picked up on it and they grabbed him. signed him very cheap for two years. Now Minot is also playing a lot of the four for Jordan Walsh, but also. Luca Garza, another guy they picked up from Minnesota wasn't working as a backup center. They're using Minot, who's only about six eight. using him as the backup center behind Cada, which I'll get to Cada in a second, but Minot has the small five. It really opened things up for him offensively when Cada goes outta the game. Now, the Mayas Cada was a guy two years ago. Jose: Right. Steve: Sacramento of all teams. Cut him. Which doesn't surprise me, he came to camp and had another guy, Wayne Gabriel, was supposed to be the big guy that they were looking for the future. They cut him and they [00:25:00] kept Kada, Kada played, showed signs of being very good, but then he showed break down defensively or do stupid things, and he'd constantly get pulled two years later. Now, don't forget, they had Horford Cornett. Bazinga ahead of him. Those guys are gone. So now they put him out there he's a pleasant surprise. He's excellent on the pick and roll, going to the basket for the AlleyOOP and defensively, taking up space and he's blocking shots and rebounding. you have to, it's almost like a perfect thing, Kevin. All these guys mature, played well. Now the last piece that is Jay Brown, all n bf. He's just outstanding. So he got all these pieces and wow, like expected it. I never saw it coming. But that's where they are Now. If these guys continue to play well, this team's dangerous, this team's really dangerous in the playoffs. And let's just [00:26:00] see if Jason Tatum a comeback this year, they've got a shot at the east. I didn't say because beats Oklahoma, but shot teams. Jose: Yeah. Outstanding. This was a two partner, right? This was 13 rules over time. 'cause you heard the buzzer go off and we went to another topic and it was also, apparently we morphed into Celtic Chalk Talk. I don't know how that happened. Steve: We didn't Jose: I. Steve: the Celtic Laker game the other night. I was away. What happened in that one? Did the Lakers play well? Jose: You heard the shot clock go off. That's it. Thanks. Our time is up. I appreciate you listening. Thank you for watching. Make sure to read Steve's entire 13 rules random NBA Thoughts article link below or wherever you are listening, watching this show today. Yeah, the Lakers got spanked and it was Chris Haynes, who I referenced earlier. I do want to give those two shout outs. But of course, please subscribe, follow, comment, and all that stuffs means the world to us. Thank you. Thank you. Join us next week for more [00:27:00] random NBA thoughts as we recap week number eight. We'll talk then. Thanks, Dave. Steve: Take care.