Victor Wembanyama MVP Case, NBA Injuries, Expansion, and Leadership Trend

Untitled project from SquadCast === ​[00:00:00] Jose: All right, it's time to talk 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 also 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 ~and I should say,~ the Celtic Chalk Pod and our show, the Shock Clock Pod, are both apart. ~The basketball or, or~ the Peach Basket Podcast network of shows. ~And ~we'll tell you a little bit more about that in the weeks to come. ~This pod though. Uh, well, let me backtrack. Celtic. Shock. Shock. This is where editing comes in.~ Steve: ~Yeah,~ Jose: ~Shock. I always have a hard time with that one man.~ Steve: ~You can do it.~ Jose: ~I'm gonna try again.~ ~Take three. The~ Celtic Chalk Talk Pod will drop at new episodes every Monday, but this is the Shock Clock Pod, the best 24 minutes of NBA random thoughts online. Anywhere this podcast was born outta the content of Steve's 13 rules, read him NBA Thoughts articles which he publishes weekly. Steve and I have exactly 24 minutes to discuss what's on his mind or on the NBA today. We'll discuss his latest 13 rules article where he shares his thoughts. After week 22 of the 20 25, 26 NBA season. Lots to talk [00:01:00] about. And if you made it this far, we're grateful. Please consider liking, subscribing, commenting, all that stuff means the world to us. Thank you in advance. Steve, are you ready? Steve: I am ready. Jose: Let's do it. Was not ready myself, but I am now and the clock is ticking. Let's go. We start. With the MVP race. Now, I had some thoughts on the Run It Back show that we do about the MVP race and I rattled off some contenders. YOIC is a contender, Luca is a contender. SGA is probably the lead contender after he broke Wilt s long standing record. But you think somebody else is the MVP who gets your vote and why? Steve: Wema it's a no brainer. Shay is great. He affects the game on one end of the court. affects every game all over the court. How many times do you watch a game where guys are going to the basket and he's standing there? either they Jose: Yeah. Steve: it away or they kick it [00:02:00] out. He doesn't get challenged that often. And in fact I haven't looked at it, but I would think his block numbers might go down because nobody's going at him. a again, I haven't looked at it, but just, it just makes sense to me defensively, and then he can rebound, but defensively. He changes games like no other player. He's gotta be also defensive player of the year. And unanimous. Now offensively, a couple weeks ago against Boston, he had eight threes. If he starts, he's only, I think 36% from three. But if he starts doing that. Is nothing you can do to stop him, because if you watch sometimes he'll take the ball at mid post. In other words five feet on a foul line, he'll get the ball. He will get the ball and nobody can guard him. He could just turn around, face the basket and shoot the ball. It's unstoppable. The only question is, will it go in or not? There, there's [00:03:00] basically outside of really beating him, meaning being very physical, there's really nothing you can do to stop. And look at the team, what they've done last year. He was hurt for a lot of the year, but last year to this year it is just incredible. And they're not out of getting the first seed. Jose: That'd be crazy. Yeah. Steve: at it, if you look at it logically you have to say wema is the most, again, and I'll say this to you, if you were gonna pick one guy. For your team, not starting a team or one guy you'd want on your team, would it be? Jose: You want somebody that can do everything to your point, right? So you want somebody that can score impact both sides of the court, who can defend, who can rebound and so with Wendy, you got check, check check, check. Now, Yoki gives you all of that on the offensive side. And he's a better offensive player than Weby, Steve: Yeah, Jose: doubt. Wendy's a better defensive player. Yeah. [00:04:00] Obviously it's a tough pick, but you go with the younger complete player. I get your point. You'd pick Wendy. Steve: remember defense wins championships. Jose: Yeah. Steve: And I think a couple weeks ago I talked about, what was it? Four or five teams were out of the top 10. Toward a title in 30 years or something. It tells you what you want. And this guy, if he starts shooting the ball better, there's nothing you can do. There's, Jose: Yeah. Steve: only thing you could hope for is he's having a bad night. The only way you know, you can shut 'em down. Jose: yeah. No, it is scary. And I know you got a chance to see him live, which I think definitely let me ask it. Instead of assuming seeing him live, did that change your perspective? Does it impact you more watching this guy do it? In front of your eyes. Steve: There's a lot of interesting things. He plays hard all the time. Not every player does that. Just the fact that how much bigger he is than everybody else. It's incredible. And he's [00:05:00] skilled for a 7, 5, 7, 6, man and it just it just like when he went, when I saw him go to the mid post and he caught the ball and he turned, there's nothing any Celtic could have done to stop him. Jose: Yeah. Steve: will the ball go in the basket or will it not? nothing else. And believe me, they were physical with him. It didn't matter. It didn't matter. And don't Jose: Yeah. Steve: he's still a kid. Wait till the body starts getting more muscle, Jose: Right. Steve: just gonna be, it, there's nothing you can do to stop him. Jose: Yeah. Steve: And to me, without question, and again, let's go back. If you take Yage away from his team, there's a problem. If you take Weby away from his team, there's a real big problem. Last year we saw it, I don't know, this year Yoki was out and Denver held their own, Jose: yeah. Steve: was out. Oklahoma held their own. Jose: That's a deep team. Yeah. If [00:06:00] Wendy's out? Yeah. Steve: just don't, I don't see an argument. I don't, I don't see who's your MVP. Jose: I think it's, I, listen, the MVP is gonna be Shay, mark it down, lock it down, lock it in. It's gonna be Shay my MVP. It depends on how you define it, right? The best score in the NBA is Luca Duch. The best overall player. Nicole Yoki. The best player on the best team is Shea Gil Alexander. You can make an argument that the best player is using the term you just used, right? If you remove them from the team, which team collapses the most? The Los Angeles Clippers. Kaw Leonard is that team. So you can make an argument. He's an MVP. Steve: but they're a 500 team. We're talking about a team Jose: a hundred percent. A Steve: title. Jose: hundred percent get it. A hundred percent get it. But if we're just, laser focused on who's the player that if I take them away from the team tanks, you take Kauai away from the Clippers. The clippers are [00:07:00] horrible. At least now they're a playing team. So again, just using that criteria. My point is. What does MVP mean? Is it the best player and the best team? Is it the best overall player? And I haven't even talked about wi yet. Is it the guy who you take out and his team tanks? What's MVP mean? I don't know and nobody can tell me. It depends. And the other thing you add into the mix, which has always bothered me about the MVP race is LeBron James was the best player in the NBA from, 2010. 2020. He should have won 10. He didn't because of voter fatigue. I can't give a guy 10 MVPs. If you deserve it. So a long answer to your short question. I don't know who the MVP is, 'cause I don't know what the MVP award is and who it's supposed to go to. Steve: Okay. I just see, this and honestly, you just said about LeBron. This guy, if he stays healthy, will win the MVP every year. Jose: Should win the very PM year, but we'll, yeah, we'll see. Steve: He's more, [00:08:00] and let me say this, and this is really, think about this one. This is going out there. more valuable a player. Than Yoic was over those couple years. Think about that, because he affects the whole game. Everything about the game is around him. If you really, you can get down to the fact that if they're pressured, he can come back, get the ball. And no one he can throw and wheel and throw passes off of that. And, in any kind of full corporate, there's everything he can do in the game. It's remarkable. And by the way, the last thing I'll say, All Star game when he played hard and everybody else did, was indicative of who the new top dog in the NBA is Jose: Yeah. Steve: his lead, Jose: No doubt. Steve: lead. Jose: No doubt. No, no doubt. And that was one of the, the most fun NBA all-star games I've seen, in years because of Wimpy saying, no, I'm gonna play, [00:09:00] I'm gonna play. This matters to me. The great segue, you just set me up, so I'm gonna get to it. You said it's not LeBron, there's a passing of the torch. We'll talk about that in a little bit, but I do wanna call out. Now. Yeah, you nailed it. Wee's blocks are down this year. 3.6 is rookie year 3.8 on average last year, and only three this year. And it's not because he's not out there blocking shots. It's because people aren't def aren't going up against him anymore. So it's a great call out. Alright. You talked about, the passing of the torch, LeBron kind of handing it over symbolically there was, obviously probably not something LeBron wanted to do, but Yeah, now it's Wendy's. It's Wendy's moving forward, same thing's happening with the Los Angeles Lakers. It's the hottest team in the NBA right now. They're winning games. They're winning games against really good teams. Now. When they started, they were winning games, but they were winning against bad teams, losing against good teams. Nobody really took them seriously, and I get it. I understand it Now. They're beating really good teams [00:10:00] and the team has changed. And it, I think it happened because of two reasons and I wanna get your thoughts on one. 'cause you know we talked a little bit about it, but one of the reasons is LeBron is taking a step back. This is Lucas's team. He knows it now, he's okay to be the third wheel on this team. Another piece is, as it turns out, maybe ~Clint Capella, uh, or, or~ Deandre Eaton is Clint Capella. He's fitting into that role, isn't he? You wrote about that. Steve: I think what really was going on throughout this whole year JJ Reddick was frustrated people wouldn't play the roles he wanted them to play. Jose: Right. Steve: And I think Aton is the key person in that. Deandre Aton was a, what is he? First picker, whatever Jose: Yeah. Steve: And he thinks of himself as a top dog. He makes big money. He got bought out by Portland and that didn't register with him, that he sat out and he didn't register. He always thought he was a top dog. He made the comment that [00:11:00] he wasn't. Clint Capella a couple weeks ago, meaning they're trying to make me into a rebounder, a rim protector, and all those things, and a screener and what a big man does. Jose: Right. Steve: he wasn't happy slowly and suddenly. Or maybe Reddick put it straight to him. You're gonna be outta the league if you continue with this attitude, but he has accepted it and he does a lot of little things during a Laker game to win Now. I think if the message got through to him, it got through to other guys on the team. So you're not hearing Rui Haar complain about not getting playing time or Jake Lavia getting less time than he was getting because all of a sudden people were accepting and seeing if they accept. Reddick believes they can win. And I think that's a major thing. Now, do I think, and I think it's admirable, but I do, I think they can beat the big two, meaning Oklahoma and San Antonio? I don't think [00:12:00] so, Jose: Yeah, Steve: what? There, they have a chance and that's better than where they were or four Jose: sure, sure. L let's dive into that a little bit more because again, it's hottest team in the NBA. They're worth a little bit more time. If things stand the way they are right now, they're the number three team. They would meet the Denver Nuggets in the first round. That's not a great matchup for any team. Denver nuggets are great. Steve: that's always been the Lakers cryp tonight. Jose: It has been a lot of teams cry nights and the Denver. Do you think they have a chance in the first round against the Denver Nuggets? Not a chance. Let's say, let me call it out. Are they gonna beat the nuggets in the first round? Steve: I think they will. I think the Denver nuggets are on the downside. Not a major downside, but they're not, each year the incremental drop has been there and I think they, they will Jose: Yeah. Steve: to do it. And the shame of that for, and we're off the subject, but just let me mention one thing. The shame of that was a couple years ago after they won the title, they didn't wanna spend money. [00:13:00] They Jose: Yeah. Steve: keep Bruce Brown and those people, that's when they could have won a second. Now I think it's beyond that and I think Denver is just, they're good, but they're not great. And they always have yo, I think the Lakers would beat them in a series I. Jose: Outstanding. Alright. Yeah. I think it'll be, these are two grizzled veteran teams. But yeah, I think right now as things stand the way they are right now, the Lakers have the edge the tough thing. Steve: One interesting thing to add to this and just think about this. What happens if the Lakers decide, 'cause they've had trouble guarding Yoki, to guard him with LeBron. Jose: You sure. Why not? Steve: would be interesting. First of all, you're telling LeBron you've become the ultimate role player, but also. You're asking him to do something. He's [00:14:00] never been, he can guard people of course, but he's never been that interested and in the last couple years his defense has slackened off. Jose: Sure. Steve: it, it would be, 'cause the Lakers have always had a problem guarding Yoic. Jose: Yeah. Yeah. Like the entire association. Steve: Yeah but they've lost in the playoffs because of Yage and not being able to they tried Rui a couple years ago and they thought that was gonna work and wow, that was not good. Jose: I'll tell you another reason why I think that's a great fit and something that's probably on, on JJ Reddick's whiteboard. The thing that makes Yoic such a good player is that he sees things and thinks differently than every other player out there, right? He'll see a pass that nobody else sees, and he'll make that pass that nobody else sees. He sees the game differently like most greats do, like Magic Johnson, like Larry Bird, the all time greats. They just saw the game different man, which is why it was men amongst boys. But I'll tell you something, LeBron James sees the game the [00:15:00] same way Yoki does. So who better to defend him? Steve: It's just an idea. It's crazy. It, it makes it interesting. It Jose: Yeah. Steve: it very interesting. Jose: Agreed. Steve: players in the league, and I'm gonna use Derrick White as one athletically. He's not athletic. As a ball handler, he's the best average. But you know what? He makes great decisions Jose: Yeah. Steve: he always makes winning plays. Jose: Yeah. Steve: And there's something in yo, he's not Yoko chair. There's no comparison, but there's something in people like that. Yo, of course makes good decisions. And Derek White, and again, there's a lot of players like that. I just thought of him as an example, Jose: Yeah. Steve: does the same things. He doesn't have yo's abilities, obviously, but the, there's certain athletes that, and again, white is not athletic, but he does things when it's needed and he's just got a clutch gene or Has, some Jose: Yep. Steve: have that. Jose: [00:16:00] Yep. And every NBA champion in the history of ever has had that kind of player, right? You just need that guy. And Derek White is that certainly. And sometimes you've got that and you're great. Nicole Yos. Yeah. Let's talk about another great guy. You wrote a lots of things. We're not gonna be able to get to all of them. And that's not the intent. We want you to read Steve's entire article. We'll link it wherever you are watching or reading this now. But you wrote about Cade Cunningham, right? The Detroit Pistons were riding high. This is a contender. They're the best team in the east. And it was, everybody else was second. And then this happened such a weird injury. I can't remember the. If there's ever been a collapsed lung in an NBA game I, first time I heard of it, when I heard that it happened, I thought, oh, he was in a car accident or something. I didn't know it happened during a game. It's so wild. But you said that, listen, Detroit, it might be okay. It may not be the worst thing in the world. What's the [00:17:00] silver lining for the pistons? Steve: They're up by tech. I believe they've got four losses ahead of Boston and I think six over the mix. they own a tiebreaker against both of them. So it would take a total collapse. What is there? 11 games left. And if you think about it let's say they go four and seven. Boston would have to go 10 and two and yeah, it's possible, but Jose: Yeah. Steve: sound too good. And, and the Knicks would even have to do better because they're further behind. So I don't see them losing the first seed which is good, although they'd have to play Cleveland and that's not gonna be easy. But if Cade comes back. And is able to be healthy in the playoffs, meaning he doesn't have to re, recalibrate, meaning he's gotta get himself back into better and everything's fine. be the, in the same situation. Jose: Yeah. Steve: there were in. Now the interesting thing is I believe he needs to play five or six [00:18:00] games to make all NBAI think the, you gotta play 20 minutes or more. In the game and the last game, he's got 61 games he played, but the last game, he only played five minutes when he got injured. So He needs, I think, five games to, to make all NBAI don't know if he's gonna be back. Now what does that do? And this is really, this is the worst thing that could happen if he comes back and plays healthy. Detroit, he loses first team all league. loses being a top four MVP voter vote getter. Jose: Yeah. Steve: all the honors that should have come to him. Jose: Yeah, but that's individual who cares. Steve: I think for guys like that, Jalen Brown is another one this year. These kind of seasons, they don't come every year. Jose: I got you. Steve: If we were to talk about, [00:19:00] yeah, Cade Cunningham will be first or second T-ball, NBA forever. But being that close in the MVP race, don't happen every year being and there's going to be people again. Shaa won it. Last year we talked about the MVP. There's going to be people that say, wait a minute, this guy from Detroit, at what they did. turned it around completely. wouldn't I give him votes as the MVP of the league? Jose: Yeah. Steve: It is just, you don't, those kind years for Luca, they come along all the time for Yoic, they come along all the time. I don't know if Cade will have these kind years every year Jose: Got it. Yeah. Yeah. We're bundling it into maybe bams 83 point game. It doesn't come along that often. You gotta ride it for all it's worth. I got you. Alright again, lots of great topics. We're time is winding down. I wanna give a little bit of time to this one. 'cause I'm just fascinated by this and I'm curious to get your thoughts. The [00:20:00] NBA is, it looks like it's expanding. It's pretty much a certainty now. The sonics, coming back most likely. And then the weird thing for me is a team in Vegas. Now, you wrote about this, it wasn't that long ago when it, that was a pariah. Nobody was gonna touch Las Vegas for obvious reasons. With a pro team now. They've got a soccer team, they've got a hockey team. They've got the WNBA, they've got the Oakland A's are coming. And now it looks like the NBA is coming. What changed? Why is Vegas the destination it is now. Go ahead. Steve: Gambling's legal. You don't have to go to Vegas to make a bet. Jose: There you go. Steve: it anywhere. From my couch, I could sit and on a site and make a bet on a game. Before the fear was, illegal, the gambling and Vegas and all that. So that, that opened up the whole thing for Las Vegas and made them a place. And don't forget. [00:21:00] Every, just about every athlete loves to go to Vegas. Jose: Yeah. Steve: else could a 22-year-old with a lot of money to throw away, go and enjoy, their time. So teams and players don't mind, having to go to Vegas, I would think it's a no brainer. They will. get there. I think the thing that really interests me is Seattle. If you've been to Seattle. I've been there a few times. Jose: Yeah. Steve: you've ever been there, key arena, they fixed it. It's by the, by the needle, whatever, but, and it looks better. But you really, when you talk to people there or whatever a broken heart that they lost to Seattle Sonics. Jose: Yeah. Steve: Supersonics or whatever you wanna say. But this, this is something that just belongs in the NBA. It's been 20, almost 20 years and it's a shame. They deserve a team. They deserve to come back and I think the NBA [00:22:00] should have moved quicker than 20 years later, 18 year, whatever it is later. But that is the thing that I wanna see badly. piece on that. You gotta think about this. That means if two teams come in there, one team from the west has gotta go become an Eastern conference team Now Minnesota, Jose: Yep. Steve: Memphis or New Orleans. And one of them will become an Eastern team, which Jose: Yep. Steve: interesting 'cause I'm sure with Anthony Edwards being pretty good. They're not, the Eastern Conference owners aren't going to want any part of Minnesota coming over. Jose: Yeah, I was just, it's funny because great minds think alike. I'm looking at the map now of NBA teams by conference and yeah the western most team are the Minnesota Timber Wolfs, so that makes the most sense, to move them or maybe to keep them, makes the most. The Eastern most are the Memphis Grizzlies. Maybe move [00:23:00] them. And with the Pelicans, pretty much, almost a straight line. But there the reshuffling is gonna be interesting. I'm gonna say this. Yes. I've been. And we could have ended it there and been perfect, but on we go I've been to Seattle. I got family in Seattle. I love Seattle. And you're right, man, that is a broken heart for the people of Seattle. Not only did they have an NBA team, they had a really good NBA team with great history, great players, Steve: Right. Jose: and an NBA champ. And so I, I would be super excited and not just, because I watched a game in with the supersonics years ago as a kid, Steve: Yeah. Jose: I would love to go back and do that again. And the romanticist the NBA romanticist in me would like to see Kevin Durant finish his career where he was drafted. I just think that would be epic. Steve: I agree. I've always, had the soft spot. I liked the city, but Jose: Yeah. Steve: spot for the Seattle Sonics going way back Jose: Yeah. Steve: Going back to when Bill Russell coached him. I've [00:24:00] always had that, and I've always liked them. But and I could start Slick Watts and all the other players that played with them, I could start naming Tom Burleson. There's a name for you, this is going back into the seventies. But Jose: Yep. Steve: there's always been a nice spot for them and Jose: Yep. Steve: to see it, the NBA come full circle. Jose: Yep, that would be great. And then I just outta curiosity I'm gonna leave you with this. There is no official, obviously, 'cause it hasn't been made official. There's no official NBA team for the Vegas for the Vegas team, but there are names rolling around. They will be either, more than likely the Las Vegas spades. The Las Vegas venom, kinda like that. The Las Vegas high rollers to really, to feed into that gambling thing. The Las Vegas gamblers or the Las Vegas crown, any of those kind of fit for you. Steve: if you think about Jose: I. Steve: and not, those things are nice but if you think about this, if like most [00:25:00] teams, their fan base is loyal fans in Vegas, who's the loyal fan? Jose: Oh yeah. But there, yeah, exactly. Vegas is a commuter city, right? For the most part. So yeah. That's gonna be, that's gonna be the tricky part for any Vegas team. I don't know. I don't know. Steve: That's the interesting thing, if you're a, Atlanta Hawk fan, you're not moving and you're not going away and you're not, where Vegas people come in, people go out, Jose: yeah. Steve: few days. So Jose: Yeah. Steve: a little different. Jose: Yeah, perfect spot for the va the Las Vegas Raiders. I forgot the NFL is there too now. Because the Raiders have always had, commuter fans, right? Because they moved around so much. But it is gonna be very interesting to see what, what happens for the NBA, not just in Vegas, but in. Seattle. And then of course with the conference shifting around like it's going to have to, but that's it. You heard the buzzer go off. Another shot clock violation for Steve and I. That's okay. Our time is up. Thanks for [00:26:00] listening. Thanks for watching. Make sure to read Steve's entire 13 rules. Random maybe thought MBA thoughts article, which again, we'll link below wherever you're watching your listening to this show. There are other. Topics that we did not get to including, let's see the case for a shorter season. Jalen Brown has a unique leadership approach, which Steve wrote about, and then the Houston Rockets. Houston, we have a problem. They're imploding a little bit in March. Read all about that. It's Steve's article. And join us next week for more NBA random thoughts as we recap. Week number 23 is the week is or either the NBA season is winding down. We'll talk then. Thanks Steve.