Week 1 - Shot Clock Pod! 13 Rules:NBA Random Thoughts

13 Rules_ NBA Random Thoughts PODCAST === Jose: [00:00:00] All right, it's time to talk basketball. I'm Jose Salviati, editor at TheBeachBasket. net. I'm Steve Purciello, a longtime educator, vice principal, and athletic director, as well as high school coach. And this is the 13 Rules Random NBA Thoughts podcast. Undeniably the best 15 minutes of MBA random thoughts online anywhere. If this is your first time listening, welcome. We're glad you found us. This podcast was born out of the content in Steve's Random NBA Thoughts articles, which he publishes weekly. Steve and I have exactly 15 minutes to discuss what's on his mind around the MBA. Today we'll discuss his latest 13 Rules NBA Random Thoughts article with a focus on his thoughts after week one. So early thoughts on certain teams. And maybe certain players. Let's talk about it. Steve, are you ready? Ready? Let's do this. I'm going to start the timer now. So as usual, Steve talked about a lot [00:01:00] of things. We're not going to hit them all up, but we will link his article below, but he did start. Let me talk to him. Actually. You did start with the Knicks. Yeah. You said you tried to calm the fears of Nick fans. You told them not to despair, but you also then called out a flaw in the next team. So why should Nick's fans rather not despair? And what's that flaw with their team? Speaker 2: They have too much talent to be a, a bad team. Their talent, very talented. I think the problem is that this team is completely different than last year's team. Last year's team played hard, defended real well and made you earn everything. Carl Anthony Towns playing center isn't a good thing because in any pick and roll he plays drop. If you watch the game of Boston any good NBA player can shoot the three wide open. All Boston did was run a lot of pick and rolls with Towns getting involved and they came off it and had wide open threes. The other thing was. [00:02:00] The game when you thought about it was a mismatch and why was it a mismatch? Because the Knicks had a new team. They have to get used to each other. It takes time. Boston looks like they got out of bed and as the champs and they played like it. If you watch the game they assisted for about 69 percent of the baskets last year. They assisted for about 60%, which that extra 9 percent or so tells you that Boston found the, made the extra pass and found the open man all night. And the Knicks, once they ran that screen and roll, Towns dropped. The Knicks were in rotation, so all it took was that one more pass and somebody had a wide open three. I think they'll make adjustments, but I think they have a problem just to go with that after I printed, I believe Thursday night, the Knicks played Indiana and they beat him pretty easily. But what I was really surprised was, Indiana did not go [00:03:00] out count make towns defend and it was really surprising because indiana's a good three point shooting team And they can do a lot of things but they never made towns become part of the defense Jose: And Speaker 2: if you're not going to attack towns and indirectly brunson who's usually on the other side of the pick and roll you're defeating feeding yourself. There's an old thing in the nba if you have two bad defensive players You don't have a good defense. Brunson's not a great defensive player. He does take a charge and he does block the middle up at times on drives, but he's not a great individual defensive player towns is not a good defensive player. So now you've only got three. And one more thing they don't have, they don't have great ball pressure. And if you don't pressure the ball, that's what Boston was getting anything they wanted off it at because there was no pressure. So the ball handler can go anywhere he wanted and they were just playing in front of him.[00:04:00] Those are issues that they've got to solve to be good, or they go the other way and just try to outscore teams. Now those are the choice, but they have too much talent to really not, do well. Jose: Yeah, interesting. You said you talked about this last week. Tibideau hung his hat on being a defensive coach and here he's got a team that kind of lacks that ability. Interesting note though, cause you called it out. The Boston Celtics made 20 NBA record, 29 made three pointers against the Knicks missed their last two. 13 or 12 in a row, which was hilarious. But could not get that 30th, but yeah, absolutely decimated the the Knicks. Speaker 2: They, yeah, they did. And they were shooting over 50 percent before they missed those 30, 30, 60. It's at one point, but don't forget again, it wasn't, Boston's a good shooting team, but it wasn't about their shooting as much as their wide open. Yeah. And that was the piece that was hard. It seemed like the Knicks were a step behind the whole game. And again, Teams get [00:05:00] better when they get used to each other. And I'm going to use a case in point, Minnesota lost their opening game. They got beat in their opening game. They've got a new team too, that just got to become some melding together. And when they do figure it out, they'll both go on a streak. Jose: Yeah, the first week is always an aberration. You got really good teams that aren't gonna be really good. You've got really bad teams that aren't gonna be really bad. And I think we'll talk about that a little bit later as we move on. Moving on to the next topic. We move to Charlotte. You had some nice things to say about a team that has been a perennial Kind of middle of the road team. They'd be either really bad or really mid. They haven't been really good. Are just a season in Charlotte that they're going to be really good. Is this the breakout season for the Hornets? I don't think so, Speaker 2: but it's fun to watch them play. They play hard. They do the right thing on the court and they will trying to defend. They might not have great, even Lamella. [00:06:00] They're trying to defend. So watching them, it's a lot more fun to watch them play. Then what was, and you can feel like the organization's made a big change. The coach is different. They say the ownership's different. There's a new GM in town. It's all new and they were playing like that. So anytime a team does that. It's fun because there's an enthusiasm. Just like Detroit. They might be over so far, but they play hard and there's a little bit of an excitement to their game. Last year, both those teams before the game started, they were going to lose big because it just wasn't that enthusiastic play involved. Yeah. Jose: Yeah. It's funny. And as a fan that that matters too, right? You want to, you're drawn to a team that looks like they want to be there, right? That's having fun. Not necessarily having fun together. Chemistry, I think is overrated. I see those videos all the time. Oh, my [00:07:00] team's got all this chemistry. I couldn't care less about that personally, but I want to see them battle. I want to see them going after the 50, 50 balls. I want to see them, having fun, making that extra pass. I haven't watched the Hornets yet this season, but it sounds like that's what they're doing. Speaker 2: I think if really if things run right, don't forget the Eastern Conference is strong on top, but, six teams or so, seven teams that are pretty good, but there's a lot of bad. And I think if Charlotte, if things fit right, they have an outside shot at a play in spot. Because it's very difficult to name 10 teams, you're saying Chicago and Atlanta would be playing teams. I'm not sold on them. And you never know what a young enthusiastic team, what they can accomplish. Jose: Yeah, no agreed. And happy for Charlotte. Happy for those fans. Happy for those players. Happy for LaMelo who's from from California, not too far for IMAP so it's hoping things break well for for that team. [00:08:00] Moving back to a team that, I think has a big following a team with some championships. Now that is the Miami heat before the start of the season. You were relatively optimistic about them, but now that the season started and you got to see him a little bit, you've got some concerns about the heat. What's going on in Miami. Speaker 2: It's interesting. Anytime you track a star player through their career they don't all of a sudden go from 20 point scorers to two point scorers. That doesn't happen. Jose: What Speaker 2: happens is they don't go out and get you that 25 every night. Jimmy Butler scoring three doesn't mean he's finished, but it does mean he's coming into a part of unless I'm wrong, unless it evidence is different. There's going to be nights where he's just not good. And that's part of as you age as a player. There's gonna be some nights where he goes and gets 40 or 30 or whatever it might be, but there's also gonna be the next night where he scores two or five or [00:09:00] three like he did the other night, and that's something that goes with it. Now, when I thought about them coming in forth, and maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm right that a will, I thought Butler would be, but. If that's not there, there's a problem here. Because though they have some decent pieces, Rogier's a nice player, Hero's a good player, and Adebayo had another bad game, which I don't expect that to happen that often. But unless they pick it up for Butler, they're in trouble. And by trouble, What are they seven or eight and a play in team type situation. Again, there's enough talent to get them into the playoffs because the bottom part of the East is not strong, but I don't think it makes them a what they usually are a dark horse. I don't if we have to wait a couple of weeks, but they could be a dark horse in, not a dark horse where other years they've always until everybody's scared of them. Yeah, I don't know if that's gonna be this year. Jose: Interesting. Yeah, probably [00:10:00] the toughest thing as a fan is to watch your once great team fall to father time like they all do. Speaker 2: The NBA is difficult if you think about baseball. Baseball, you have minor leaguers coming along and it could change things. In in football, draft picks and, they can make it. And in football, you need so many guys that a free agent could become a star in the NFL. In the NBA, you need first 10 picks. And you've got to hit on them. You can't mess them up. Let's think about Detroit with Killian Hayes was the number, the seventh pick in a draft. He's playing for a G league team now. Those kinds of things happen. So for team, if you go down, it's very difficult. And Boston was lucky using them because they were able to trade. Garnett and Pierce and get those picks that became Jalen Brown and Tatum if they didn't trade them And I guess what it's saying is when you see yourself falling Trade get rid of [00:11:00] those guys that have some value because it might be a quicker rebuild Jose: Toughest call to make right? Is it great? I'm too early rather than too late Speaker 2: You're right. There's the old thing and we go back to 1969 which was my favorite year with boston. They only won 48 games that season And winning 48, you're not close to being a good, they came in fourth in their division, but they kept, they, they went for the playoffs and they thought they can win and they did win. But the point being, sometimes organizations see things like that happen and they think that it can happen with us. So we stay with them. But by doing that, you're adding about five years onto the rebuild. Jose: Yeah, no, it's easy to sit here and GM. But yeah it's, yeah, it's not an exact science, but hoping for the best out in Miami personally. Cause again, I think a good team in Miami is good for the [00:12:00] NBA, but we're down to a couple minutes left and I cannot. I wouldn't be doing anybody justice and certainly myself. If we skip past the most obvious epiphany that I've ever seen you write about and all the time you've been doing 13 rules you said, and I'm saving the best for last. Some very nice things about the Los Angeles Lakers, the three and oh Los Angeles Lakers, the number one team in every week, one power ranking Los Angeles Lakers. Are you ready to admit Steve Prello that this team, the Los Angeles Lakers, are the team to beat in the west? And the prohibitive favor to win it all this season. Speaker 2: First of all, we have to decide, are they the best team in Los Angeles? Before we, before we can get to the West or anywhere else, you have to figure that out now being the first best team in power rankings. I think the only power rankings, they might even be in the top five would be yours. Otherwise [00:13:00] I don't, three games, that's 79 games left. They want them all. They might lose one or two. But, so I wouldn't get ahead of myself on that. I would just slow down, enjoy it while it's there. But don't forget, now being serious. J. Reddick became the coach. Yeah. What's interesting about this is not and if you think about it, it's not like hiring Darwin Hamm or anybody else. He had instant credibility because LeBron bought into him. So it became a lot easier. For him to get his message across and guys to follow and it's a very important thing in the nba and If you think about it being a head coach in the nba is most about being your players want to play for you Reddick walked in if lebron accepts him everybody accepts him And so he's got credibility and that makes it easier because they're going to do the things. If I remember at the end of the year last year, you had D'Angelo Russell eating a sandwich in a corner. You [00:14:00] had other guys just waving at him and saying, basically, you don't know what the hell you're doing now. It's a lot different. And there's something to be said. Now it's a long season. Reddit could make his mistakes and things could change, but he's showing signs That he's doing right. I don't know if it's him because you have to realize the Lakers are smart. They went out and they got Brooks and McMillan as assistant coaches those guys have been there So and i'm sure reddick is a bright guy. I'm sure he's listening to him I think there's a lot of good ingredients But the biggest thing is that credibility on a team you can draw the x and o's all night But if you are credible, they're going to do what you say And that's a big thing that the lakers have done Jose: Yeah, buy in is key, right? I think, as a coach when your time is done, when you've lost the locker room, right? When there's no longer buy in, when, like you said, they're eating sandwiches on the bench that's the start of the end. It has been [00:15:00] surprising to me to see relatively, essentially the same team. who had struggled. They ended the season on a run and they, they showed what they could be. But over the course of 82 games, they struggled last season. But so far they're defending well, they're playing well. And the only difference is the head coach. Of course, as we know, the pillars of that team, are 40 year old LeBron, who I'd rather have over just about any 40 year old, but still 40 year old LeBron. And, a suspect Anthony Davis, who's had it, had a good, healthy season last year. Let's see if it lasts this year, but off to a good store. You'd rather be three. I know that Owen three. Speaker 2: Oh, yeah. Yeah. And it's a good thing for the league because LA is, one of the franchises that everybody, pays attention to. So it's a good thing in all ways. Again, I don't know if that will continue, but it's a good thing because in the NBA talent usually wins and I don't know if they have as much [00:16:00] talent as the good teams in the NBA. Okay. Jose: We'll take the snippet of positivity from Steve here in LA. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. Welcome to the bandwagon. Speaker 2: I'm looking forward to reading your power rankings. Who'd you have? Number two in the West, Jose: who'd you have? Number two altogether. I think overall it was also Oklahoma city. Okay. I'm not going to tell you where Boston is. And what about the Speaker 2: Knicks in Boston and Philly? Did they get in there? Cleveland. Jose: Yeah. They're all on there. I, we ranked. Oh, sure. You Speaker 2: have every team. I'm sure you even got to have Charlotte in there, but they're not near the top. No. Who? Charlotte Jose: or Cleveland? Charlotte and Cleveland. If I remember, I'm going off memory. Now they're in the middle. That Boston, isn't top five for sure, but keep in mind, our objective power rankings are based on who you play. So they're a little different. But anyway, I'm going to link that below and thank you for the plug, but our time is [00:17:00] done here because I've got a whole nother show dedicated to the bar rankings, which are always problematic at the first week, because you do have teams that are winning and that aren't going to stay there. And teams that are losing like the Denver nuggets are owing to, they're going to be okay. Trust me. Speaker 2: I don't know about that but you, I think they're headed for like a 45, 51 season. And I've talked about no depth and the problems they have and they lost Caldwell Pope and so on and so forth but so when you do these power rankings, does it start where you put the Lakers on top and then you begin let's see, they lost three games this week. Let's drop in the number three. That kind of thing. Jose: That's what's that's what most power rankings do. Because they try to put in, their fandom into it. We do not. We just let the we put all of the games, the wins, the losses into a computer and it spits out who's where. That's it. Can't argue with our power rankings. Is [00:18:00] it the Laker computer? It is not a Laker computer. I'm gonna end this. Speaker 2: Where are we going with this? Where we always go. Somebody disillusioned and I'm trying to pull them off the wall. Pull them off. Jose: That is it. Our time is up. I, there's just no clean way to end this. Thank you for listening. We appreciate it. We have fun. We always love to talk basketball and we could absolutely go forever. But we want to limit this to about 15 minutes because we are the best 15 minutes of NBA random talks or random thoughts online. Make sure to read Steve's entire article. He talked about a lot more than what we covered here. We'll link it below. We'll also link to the power rankings again. Thank you for that plug, Steve. And we're excited. This is just week one. It's going to be a great NBA season. Thank you for joining. Thanks for listening. We hope to see you again next week. Steve, we'll talk then. Thanks man.