Wembanyama’s Impact, Pistons’ Dominance, and Durant’s Off-Court Drama

SCP Feb 23 === [00:00:00] Jose: A 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 latest news and opinions surrounding the Boston Celtics from a lifelong fan. Steve. That pod will drop new episodes every Monday, but this is the Shot Clock Pod, the best 24 minutes of random NBA talks online. This podcast was born the content Steve's 13 Rules. B Articles which publishes weekly. Steve and I have 24 minutes to discuss what's on his the B. Today we'll discuss his latest 13 rules, B thoughts article where he shares thoughts after week 18 of the 20 25, 26 NBA season, which included the All Star. A little bit about that. I think we got a little bit more to talk about today though. So before we get into it, if you've made it this far, please subscribe, comment, all of that stuff means the world to us. And we're grateful for all of it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Steve. Are you [00:01:00] ready? Clock is on. Alright. We start with the all-star game. You started by calling out that Wim Bama. Set the tone. Now you also said you didn't watch it, so we talked about this last week. Did you not watch any of it? We just had literally no interest. Steve: it after I read about it on Monday. I was Jose: Yeah. Steve: what in my mind, I'm gonna give you a bigger thing. I think it was a changing of the guard. WEMA is now the face of the league guys follow him. LeBron is the one who really started the half-assed game in the All-Star game where you don't play hard. And I think this was the changing of it, and Wema deserves a lot of credit. He's, he will be. A great image for the NBA everything he says and does is the right thing. That's what you need. If you have somebody. People can't take a piece of him. He doesn't take it easy. He plays hard all the time, [00:02:00] you every, just a perfect image for the NBA. Jose: Yeah, it's ironic. I know you didn't watch it, so I don't know. They, that you caught this nuance, but it's ironic that, 'cause I did watch it and Wendy absolutely played, there were blocking shots. People were di diving on the floor. It was crazy. I just hadn't seen that in an all-star game in like forever. But he lost both of his games. So the guy who put forth the effort didn't get any wins out of it. So I hope that isn't, a precursor for something where guys are gonna say, what's the point? What's the point of playing that hard? You're not even gonna win. Steve: to that and think about this will make it beautiful if this works out. And I'm trying to be nice. He's an opportunist. He saw the Miami heat having something of him and Wade and so he ran, he went back to Cleveland 'cause he felt guilty, went to LA 'cause he wanted to live out there. All these things. It's all about LeBron. And he played with four different teams. I think he's starting to realize something. Yesterday they had the [00:03:00] statue for Pat Riley and all that and he was watching it. I think Jose: Yeah. Steve: He will be lucky if he sees a statue. He might get one in Cleveland, but he ain't get, I don't think he'll get it anywhere else. And in other words, with Wema, unless San Antonio does him wrong, will play with San Antonio till he is done playing. And maybe the rest of the NBA Jose: Sure. Steve: will begin to do similar things because when LeBron began moving around. That became the mantra of the league. There was no loyalty to a team, Jose: Yeah. Steve: want loyalty, so I hope you know Jose: Yeah. Steve: is part of it. That's why I say everything out of Yuma's mouth. Every action is all positive and good for the league, where LeBron wasn't always that Jose: Yeah. Wow. Wow. I think Miami might browse him up. It's just d Wade out there right now. He's a little lonely, but we'll see how it plays out. But yeah I, listen, I agree. I like Weby. I like Weby as a player. I like what he [00:04:00] stands for. And I really enjoyed watching the All-Star games. The All-star game games. 'cause there was multiple games in large part because of the effort he put in. Undeniable. Let's move to real basketball now, if you will. You mentioned that there was an Eastern Conference power shift, the Pistons, the Celtics, the Knicks, the calves. The four best teams and right now it's, I don't know, pick one, right? Harden revitalized that team in Cleveland, you wrote about that. The pistons have been good from the get go. The Celtics might be getting. Jason Tatu back then Nick's got Alvarado, who I think, it's a tiny little piece, but I think he's a spark plug that can really, he can change games, especially in the playoffs. So what do you think, what do you think I know you said you, you called it in your article's, hard to judge Cleveland right now, but judge them, rank 'em one to four. Steve: would I still think the Knicks have the most talent. I think Detroit owns them, for whatever reason. And I don't think the Knicks have a toughness, a tough streak to 'em. And that might be why Detroit's To get over on 'em. I guess if [00:05:00] I'm to do it, I guess Detroit, K Nicks, Boston and Cleveland. Boston though you Jose: yeah. Steve: asterisk next to it because with or without Jason Tatum. With Jason Tatum, they can play with anybody. Without Jason Tatum, you might not have as much talent, I, I if again, if we get down to coaching, you got Missoula, you got Mike Brown. I know where I stand. You got bicker staff or Missoula. I know where I stand. Missoula does things that, that, you know, who thought this team would be anything? And so I see it and I watch it, and I'm amazed by it, to be honest with you. But that's why I would do it. Jose: Yeah. Steve: you got one factor. I, I think they're much better because Hardin plays and Garland didn't, however, don't ever forget what post-season career looks like. Jose: Yeah, he did, doesn't he? Yeah. He dip. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah it's, if you get redemption, a redemption run from Harden, you got [00:06:00] something. But if you got the, the business as usual Harden, and then unfortunately you got nothing. Interestingly, you called out in your article the record against each other, and it's shocking when you look at it, right? Where we're CL or Detroit is seven and two against the other three teams. Cleveland is one in five and the other two are right in the middle. So it really is Detroit and it's Detroit right now. Steve: Yeah. Jose: Let's shift to the West. Now the west for a long time has been Oklahoma City and everybody else, right? The way they started the way they've looked, and all of a sudden there was just a bump in the road and. All of a sudden they look beatable and they've lost games. And so when you did the same thing and to me it's pretty staggering. Oh let me call out the Western team that you called out. The thunder, the Spurs, the rockets, the nuggets, the Lakers, the Timberwolves, the record against each other. ~It's not a dominant spur. Shoot, I just blew it right there. It's not that the thunder aren't that dominant.~ Who's the dominant team in the west? Steve: spurs had the best record, but you gotta throw it out because of all the injuries Yesterday for example, there are [00:07:00] two best players on Oklahoma. Did not play Williams and Shay. Jose: Yeah, Steve: And they went out, they did beat Cleveland, which was interesting. But the point being they're beat up. So you gotta think the defending champs. Or the favorite until somebody knocks him out. It's like boxing, you Jose: Sure. Steve: the way you'd look at it. But I gotta think San Antonio, they have no real experience in the playoffs, but I've gotta think they've got a shot and don't forget again, he's better than anybody and, crazy and they got some good players around him. But crazy things can happen with this guy on the court because. Defensively. He changes the game offensively. He changes the game. How do you guard him? Jose: Yeah. Steve: anywhere he wants at any time nobody's gonna block his Jose: Yeah. Steve: It's, unless he doesn't jump, but it's incredible. So that's what's. Jose: I I, in, I think it was in part of Run It Back [00:08:00] podcast a couple of weeks ago. I had a little feature on Wendy. And, I called him Kareem 2.0, not because, certainly there's a lot of things that, they resemble each other, but it was really more, they're both readers, they're both intellectuals. They both, spent some time east studying Eastern mysticism and yoga and all that. The similarity, similar similarities are there when you think about their game. There's no sky hook, which I would love to see when we pull out a sky hook. That would be epic. This is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, but with a three point shot and probably a better defender. Kareem was really good at the start of his career, by the, when I gotta see him in the late eighties and stuff. He wasn't a great defender, but he's ba a shot but's, a solid defender. These guy's, he's a unicorn man. He's unbelievable. Steve: He stays healthy. Jose: yeah, I. Steve: and this is and I think the world of Jamar, if he stays healthy, there's no comparison between the two of them. Think [00:09:00] about Jose: Wow. Steve: what Jabbar could do and what this guy can do. There's no comparison defensively. He's better Jose: Yeah. Steve: offensively. He doesn't have a, he Jose: Yeah. Steve: have a sky hook, he's got everything else in every way. He's seven, five, or seven, four, whatever it is. But he's got Cort usually playing next to him. So he's not even a five. How do you compare him with anybody you know? Jose: Yeah. Steve: Kevin Durant. Durant's got a more fluidity in his game but. How, who could you compare him with? There's nobody you can even put in the same sentence as him. And I've watched a lot of basketball Jose: Right. Steve: I can't even Dr. J? No, who, there's nothing. There's nothing. This is an Jose: Nah, no. Steve: And the beauty of it is not only is he good, he just doesn't says the right things. Sort of and this is crazy, Judge in baseball. [00:10:00] Aaron Judge says the right thing at all times and he's dominant. Same idea, but I think Wendy could be way more dominant than Aaron Judge in the sport. Jose: Yeah, that's crazy. That's crazy. And we're just at the start of the webe experience. So I'm I'm excited to see where it goes, but yeah, it's shocking for me, I'm in the west to, to see that all of a sudden Spurs. I don't think anybody gave much of a shot. When you talked about preseason favorites, nobody said the Spurs. We talking about the nuggets. We talking about the thunder people said the Lakers, nobody said the Spurs. And now here they are. I'm excited. I'm excited to see how far they go in their first, playoff run with this team. Let's talk about rookie plus minus leaders. This was an interesting one. You wrote about. Yeah. Yeah. If we were to ask and I'll ask you then before we dive in, if those of you who are listening and haven't read Steve's article, if you were to guess the top rookie in terms of plus minus start to throw out names. You're thinking Dylan [00:11:00] Harper you're thinking flag For sure. Who are we missing? Steve? Give it up. Go ahead. Steve: He's way ahead of the next person. a plus two 50 what is it, Harper's 180 7 I believe. Like that's Jose: Yeah. Steve: It's incredible. And Hugo only plays about 12, 13 minutes a game. So how do you even obviously he affects winning. Now when you look at Cooper Flagg, he's playing on a bad team. So his plus minus isn't gonna going to be Jose: Yeah. Steve: Ples not gonna be going to be high because they're not even 500 team. So you understand why they wouldn't be, but you just still can't come up with a reason for ego. And it's really something. He's such a, he's a very good defensive player. He is a pest. He's offensively, he's more of an opportunist. He's not really, he doesn't, if he gets a shot, this guy will be a star. But the point being, he just affects winning obviously. Jose: Yeah. [00:12:00] Yeah I never gave a whole lot of weight or put a whole lot of weight on, plus minus. I see the value of it, but you're on the court. When your team gets a good run, your plus minus goes up, right? You didn't really do anything but you were there. But when it's consistent then it matters. And yeah. UO Gonzalez right now, updated numbers plus 2 55. It's gone up after the game yesterday. Yeah. Plus 2 0 8 and then, yeah, then, and it just falls off a cliff con ple one plus 1 1 4 Myron Gardner, that's a name, I dunno. Plus 50. He just, he dives off a cliff after that. But yeah. So you have, you've watched him play. He just needs a consistent shot. Steve: if he does things, he can go to the basket. He made a big three at the buzzer against the nets to put him into overtime so he can, but he's, and he's not a good foul shooter at all. It, this is, he's 19 years old. puts his time in, this guy could be a star in the Jose: That's great. Steve: people will like him because of the way he plays the game hard. [00:13:00] Yesterday Jose: Yeah. Steve: guarded Don Trick and he was getting under his skin, where he didn't like it. And that's what he does constantly. But now if he can score, you're looking at a guy that's gonna make a lot of money. Jose: Yeah. Probably price is way out of Boston at that point. 'cause they're not gonna have a lot of money to give. I don't think that's a conversation for another time. But Steve: and Brown will be, getting a little older. So maybe he's Jose: there we go. They're great segue. Here's a you handed it to me. Speaking of getting older, let's talk about the Golden State Warriors. You called out that you watched a couple other games. They've got no curry, they got no butler in the games, that you watched. It made you sad. Steve: Yeah. Jose: What made you sad about the Warriors? Steve: I was looking at that and I was thinking about it. They never came up with a butler and Curry are good. If it was seven years ago, they could win a title. But they never came up all Jose: Yeah, Steve: and it's what, 10, 12 years. [00:14:00] They've never come up with another guy. And I was looking at who they've drafted and I'll say some names. You wouldn't even know who they are. Some of them Baki, these are their first round picks. A guy by the name of Baldwin, Patrick Baldwin, who's been going around the league, he's played with everybody now. They've signed up for 10 days and all minga, which we know the story on that. Wiseman was the Jose: Yep. Steve: pick, I believe in the Jose: Yep. Steve: Pool. Jordan Jose: Yep. Steve: he's, he's not even getting time for New Orleans. Evans, who, I don't know who he is, and da Damien Jones. These are people, these are their first round picks, so they've really never been Jose: Yeah. Steve: compliment what they've got. and let's face it, Curry's a Player. And Butler, Jose: yep. Steve: he's. Really good player. They just couldn't really do anything around it. And now they're gambling by taking a pingus. Who's hurt every other day. In fact, he played against Boston the Jose: Yeah. Steve: last night. I believe he was out, he was sick against Denver yesterday. Already and [00:15:00] sick isn't the flu or whatever it isn't all the other injuries that he has. So gambling because they're just trying to piece things together for Curry. But it's not a good situation. And I'll say the thing, if it continues and they're not good. And it's sad to watch this champion so bad. It's like watching an older boxer get in the ring and just get beat up when he, could handle. Jose: Muhammad Ali, Larry Holmes. Steve: But yeah. Yeah. And Jose: Yeah. Steve: it's like when you're watching this team. So it really like just. It's sad to watch but somewhere, management's got to think about it. Now, the other thing I'll say, and it's really interesting, just in the back of your mind, watch Curry and Charlotte, that's where he is from. How's Charlotte doing? They're getting better and just if Curry some point doesn't wanna stay with the Warriors. Don't think [00:16:00] Curry would wanna leave, but if it does, just as Charlotte gets better, you begin to wonder does he want to go home? And I would think Golden Jose: Yeah. Steve: he asked for, Jose: that would actually be a kind of a feel good story, though. That'd be cool. I'd like to see that. Steve: does the right thing at all times and just a class act. Jose: Outstanding. Let's see how things play out in Golden State. We talked about the east earlier. We brought up teams like the Celtics, the calves, the Pistons, the nicks. We didn't bring up the Philadelphia 76 ERs with reason. But you did write about them and you said, you and I talked about this before, right? If MD is healthy and con, contribute, like he can contribute, they're a sleeper. He's just not playing. So what do you think, what do you think? What's the ceiling for the Philadelphia 76 ERs? I wish I knew. I, I, the, I think I've watched a little, I think I watched half of one of their games. I'm a big fan of Tyree Maxey, and in this particular game, Edgecomb went off and he looks great. They gave up on Jared McCain, which I thought [00:17:00] was shocking. Weird. I they look to me like a mid-tier team, the kind of team that might win around. And that's it. That's based on nothing but one game. Steve: playing and they getting to the conference finals would be big. If MB is not playing, they're gonna get knocked out quick. What's really interesting with this is this, you got George making a lot of money you got MBE making a lot of money, and I believe, and Jose: Yeah. Steve: more years or four years left on his contract. That means that you're restricted. You're going into the, those seasons with less on your cap, 60 million less on your cap because you've already, spent it on mb. And if he's not playing, it's a lot of money out the window, 70 million on whatever he is making. So it really restricts them though. You have Maxi and Edgecomb who's going to be great and Edgecomb will be. You're a max player unless something [00:18:00] happens in a couple years. So you know, you just don't have the money to, you gotta hope you hit on a couple of fringe players to compete. Jose: Yeah. You know what I, I always re remind, I'm always reminded, when we talk about MBI and the Sixers, his mantra when they started, 'cause there was so many high expectations, trust the process. It's weird to think that we're almost done with the process. It's weird to me. It just feels like yesterday. Steve: league, and I believe he sat out his first year. Was that foreshadowing, The future, and. He's just All the time. And it's, Jose: yeah. Steve: now I guess he's missed five games now with the bad leg. So the bad knee again acted up and at any time that could happen. And how do you depend on him in a playoff series? You gotta hope or he goes out there and plays like he did last year, I guess it was it last year or the year before. I guess The Knicks with his, and he couldn't do much, but he was out there. That's what you might see. Sad. Sad. Jose: Yeah. Steve: 'cause he's a great player. Jose: Yeah. It's sad. [00:19:00] It is sad to see what's happening in Golden State and sad to see the end of potentially right. The end of Joel l B's career. I, Steve: is got Jose: Let's see how it plays out. Steve: gonna, Jose: That's what I'm saying. Yeah. It's This maybe the start of the end Steve: that Jose: and not Steve: that's one year is worth. Jose: that show up money that is show up money for sure. I hate to end on this but we got to, you wrote about Kevin Durant. Not, we talked about him earlier. But we're not gonna talk about his game. We're not gonna talk about his scoring. We're not gonna talk about, an outside chance to catch LeBron's all time scoring. Record the greatness. That is Kevin Durant. Unfortunately, we gotta talk about is burner controversy. And you said it, and you're right. Whether it's true or not doesn't matter because now this is how people think about him. And it's unfair if it didn't happen, but I really have not gone down the rabbit hole, so I was really grateful to read this. He apparently, he criticized his teammates. I read Deb Booker, Alfred Sango, safari Smith. That's rough. [00:20:00] That is rough. What do you make of this? Steve: bad for him. There's been other stars through the years that are just as insecure and just as, but they were smart enough to shut their mouth. This guy he's done this before. He said stupid things and he gets offended by fans saying something, you know what? You know what? You are one of the greatest player, 15 greatest I don't know, 15, 20 wherever, 10 wherever you wanna put him. He's one of the greats of Jose: Yeah. Steve: Just play the game and shut up because, you forget the fact that when a couple years ago, and he was with the Nets, Irving was out and Harden was out, and he was a toenail away from getting his team to the finals on that three that they called the two. You forget all this. And you think about this guy who just sounding off, keep quiet. Let your game speak for yourself. It's really a shame. And people, think a lot of people don't realize how great this guy was I because of that. Jose: It's interesting you said was Steve: Oh, he Jose: he's still pretty good. Steve: Still [00:21:00] great. Still can score with anybody. And he's not the Jose: Yeah. Steve: but he just, he's unstoppable. If he gets on a roll. Jose: And the other thing you called out in your article is, you alluded to it, he's got more money, doesn't know what to do with it. I don't know. At this point we're putting on our psychologist hat. Is this a boredom because he does have more money. Why? Why is he doing this if, assuming he did it, what's the idea behind it? Steve: yeah, it Jose: What's a thought prospect? Steve: absolutely no sense. Why? Who knows? But and it's a shame, it's a shame for such a great player. Jose: Yeah. Yeah. I'm starting to go down the rabbit hole right now, but I don't think I want to all. Steve: Made it. Jose: Perfect. That was perfect. I think two or three times in the history of our show, we've actually hit the shot right as the buzzer went off and this is another one of those times. Outstanding. Alright. Yeah, I think I'm gonna probably save this for another time, or maybe not at all, but unfortunate way for the, for us to end the show. But that is how the show [00:22:00] ends. On kds burner controversy. Let's hope things get worked out for kd. However this is gonna work out for him. But that's it. Thanks for listening. Our time is up. Thank you for watching. Make sure to read Steve's entire 13 rules, thoughts article. We link it wherever you're watching or, and of course, please join us next week for more random thoughts after week number 19. The season is winding down. It's gonna start pretty soon. Steve: Take care.