What's going on? Clippers fans? Welcome to Out of a Happy Hour pre
Happy Hour Saturday live pay here on Clips and DIP. I am Chuck Buckler,
joined by Adam Austin. Will Aupdak is unavoidably detained unfortunately, But yeah,
things happened today. So we're gonna talk about the Kai Jones signing.
I know a very vocal a small minority of people have been clamoring for this.
We're gonna talk to Lawrence Frank fake update on Kawhi. I don't know,
Adam, how are you doing on the day that the Clippers signed Kai
Jones and waived Josh Briba. A lot of stuff going on today. Interested
to get into this Clipper's final regular season game in downtown Los Angeles coming up
tomorrow against the Houston rock Buckets. But obviously we know at this point everything's
about the Dallas Mavericks and that four or five matchup with the Clippers having a
home court advantage over the Dallas Mavericks. But this was an interesting piece of
news coming out with Kai Jones. And yes, there were many people all
season long asking for this, and I you know, I think it's fair
to uh give him a little bit of love because it was mocked and dismissed
by many that kai Jones, come on, what are you guys talking about?
And to bring him in right before the playoffs and he is playoff eligible,
which was news to me and a little bit surprising. Pretty sure he's
playoff eligible, yeah, because he has it. He never with a team,
even though he was picked up on a ten day by the Philadelphia seventy
six ers, he never played for them, right, So I guess that's
the deciding factor here. But if we're wrong, please correct us those of
you in the chat. But that's the information we've been presented. And so
the timing of it leads to people wondering if he could actually get playoff minutes
for this Clippers team out of nowhere, which seems wild and a little bit
of a in case of emergency break glass type player just to have in case.
And you're good with that obviously. Josh Primro was the one waived,
and apparently it was a contract worked out with Kai Jones, a multiple year
deal. It'll probably be weird laden and yeah, god guaranteed. Like also,
I will say I was someone who kind of was like, I don't
think we need to sign Kai Jones. But I like this signing a lot
more than the premo signing. It makes a hell of a lot more sense
than that did Jared position to need, right, Yeah, he's a big,
versatile athletic god Like, that's what the Clippers need. So it's like
it's more of a long term play obviously, but yeah, it's like they
needed those three things. Yeah, if you're going to take the risk or
bet on a player with a very high ceiling, it makes sense to do
it in a position of need where this Clippers team needs to get younger,
more athletic, and they need more help in the front court, something we've
talked about all season long, and they just happen to be going up against
a team that really loaded up in that area in the first round of the
playoffs, which I think also plays into people thinking maybe he'll get a look.
But is he gonna play tomorrow against the Houston Rockets? Is that possible?
Could the deal be? Like? Yeah, a, can the deal
be done quick enough? We haven't seen any of the I don't think there's
any contract stuff released yet. All I saw was that was made official was
the Josh Primo news. Yeah, not the Kai Jones news. Correct,
Yes, the Clippers did. Yeah, they tweeted out a thank you Josh
post, so he's officially gone. But yeah, there hasn't been any contract
stuff released, so a lot of unknowns here. We're jumping on this a
little bit early, but it's a Saturday and when we do a lot of
Saturday lives here, it's kind of fun. What everyone if you're watching by
a Jake burn shirt. He makes great Clippers merch. Someone was asking,
can you explain kai Jones and what his archetype? Never heard of him?
If you've never heard of him, that's that makes total sense. It's totally
fine to have not heard of kai Jones. But he's an incredibly athletic big
he's six' eleven, but he was what was He wasn't a lot of
opening. He's the nineteenth pick in the twenty twenty one draft. He's a
giant, fast rip runner. Yeah, right, like with range at Texas
his sophomore year he shot thirty eight percent from the outside. That hasn't necessarily
translated to the NBA at this point, and I don't know tell how many
opportunities he has gotten. And by the way, we should probably give the
backstory of why he was released. It wasn't to do with his lack of
talent. It was issues with people worried about his mental health on social media
with something he posted and then calling out teammates on the Charlotte Hornets who have
had some issues themselves with just you know, structure and a real founigation there
in Charlotte. So I wouldn't hold that against him too much. And I
always am sympathetic for young people making mistakes when they're younger. Obviously there's some
things you can't come back from. This is not that case whatsoever. And
if you watch the interview he did with sham Sharania when he was picked up
by the Philadelphia seventy six ers, and that link has been going around.
I retweeted at follow out of May on the X formerly known as Twitter.
It was a pretty interesting delve into his mindset. I think it was well
articulated his headspace and what he was going through at the time with some desks
in the family and his situation and just some of the issues he's had.
And I don't know, I root for young guys like this. I always
do. Yeah, because he's still what twenty two years of age at this
point, very incredibly young. Yeah, he's twenty two, and this is
somebody that just has such high upside, obviously the nineteenth pick in the draft
a couple of years ago. But it's someone that I don't know if things
aren't going well. We were talking earlier in the chat about how this could
actually affect the Clippers' playoff run in Subway, I would assume things would be
going pretty bad if a player very well up before the first round started,
Yeah, or he's the human victory cigar to practice with the team like he's,
Yeah, it would be pretty unexpected to see him play any significant minutes
against the Dallas Mavericks or any minutes from even whatsoever. Or it could tell
you that Iviza Zubats is in foul trouble or can't stay on the floor.
Danielle Tyson, Mason Plumbler, ineffective, PJ. Tucker's ineffective out there,
rest of the five is ineffective, and hey, let's give it a shot
now with Kai Jones because it's a desperation move and desperate times call for desperate
measures. Basically, Yeah, but yeah, I think it was Dive who
had a funny tweet about how the Clippers are kind of like reclamation projects Central,
Like if you look at the guys they've brought in, so they are
trying this again, right, bringing in a guy who a lot of other
teams gave up on. Starby at Homes asked he is he a defender?
He showed flashes of good defense. Again, the athletic ability really helps on
that end. Yeah, a lot of the advanced numbers were saying that near
the end of his time was Charlotte, he was trending upward in that area,
which is not easy to do when you have a bunch of bad defenders
around the worst team. By the way, he did potentials all there.
Yes, the potentials there. So during his ten day contract with the seventy
six ers, which was his most recent stretch, he spent all of his
time with the excuse me, what team is this? I don't know su
a G League team. I can't see the name right now. It's the
G League website is so bad. Sorry, the Delaware blue Coats. He
played two games for the Delaware Blue Coats. I'm very sorry to any Blue
Coats fans in the chat for forgetting the name, but he had two games.
He played, he played twenty four minutes. He didn't take a three.
He put up eleven points, So like, yeah, I don't know,
there's there's nothing to really take. Yeah, but he got some run
like I'm sorry he took he took one three point a type he missed it.
He averaged seven boards. He was whitest one the comp. I would
say, I don't know one guy that he reminded me of a little bit,
and just watching some of the highlights and him getting out in transition a
little bit, but also being a rim runner than you would be someone like
Willie Cauley Stein who never reached his potential in the league, but he was
a high draft pick by what the Sacramento Kings a few years back. Somebody
like that body type two. Yeah, very raw talent, athletic guy.
Commissioner Harris is asking does he have a jumper? He did in college ish,
Yeah, I'm not sure that part of his game has really been fleshed
out at the NBA level at this point. Obviously, how many people that
and aren't Charlotte Hornets fans have washed a ton of games by the Hornets the
last couple of seasons. Yeah, I bet there's gonna be some people on
our YouTube comments who are gonna send the sub mute to some Kaija highlights.
He's been an obsession for some fans, which is also very funny. So
I guess I'm happy for those people. They're being rewarded right now. I
mean, I don't mind when you are missing in the draft and everybody misses
and I think it's over I think it's overblown a little bit when you look
at two guys in the rotation right now they're gonna get missed in the playoffs,
and Terrence Mann and an undrafted player and Mirror Coffee that are on a
team trying to get a championship. I'm not going to say, you know,
it hasn't been perfect. It hasn't been a disaster though, either when
you take into account guys like that, but every team when you get into
the nitty gritty, if you go back, and I've done this many times
to point out how flawed the star coming into the draft, Jay Billis and
these guys and everybody talking about when you're watching the first round of a draft,
everybody basically being drafted is Is has the potential of being an All Star
and it's ridiculous. And I went back over a ten year period to see
how many guys actually were and I think in the first ten picks you had
about a twenty five percent chance of getting an All Star over a ten year
period. So it's very difficult, imperfect science, trying to grade guys,
trying to scout them because there's also attitude issues also and just work ethic and
all these things come into play, and you're dealing with young men, so
it's just never easy. So I don't think I think it's a little bit
overblown when it comes to people going after the Clippers front office in poor drafts.
But we way to mitigate that would be to bring in some of these
guys like Bones Highland, who allegedly had an attitude issue going on with the
Denver Nuggets. High potential. You're seeing it the last couple of games.
We saw it at the end of last season, two we saw at the
start of this season, and bring in some of those guys and see if
a change of scenery and a better culture can make a big difference for them.
And I'm guessing just like when they did that, they did their due
diligence with Josh Primo and talked about, you know, they were monitoring the
situation, but they said they were monitoring the situation for some time. And
I'm guessing it's the same thing with Kai Jones should he officially become a member
of the Los Angeles Clippers. In that interview with Shan Serania, he was
talking about going through therapy and working through some of the issues going on.
So I'm guessing they're they're checking a lot of boxes with him. Shout out
Roger for having watched lots of Hornets games in the last two years. Don't
know why, Uh, but you're totally right. This is a team that
needs to find eyes the way they have been finding them, which is through
trades and stuff like that. But yeah, it's gonna be interesting. I'm
not sure. I don't know. I hope he plays well. I hope
he is with the team. Yeah, but it's a long term play,
right, He's gonna his last stit was in the G League, so I
have to imagine that he might. You know, he's gonna be on the
Summer League team and all that stuff, like, he's probably gonna show out
in the Summer League because really athletic guys tend to do that. I remember
they didn't go after Robert Williams. They brought him in for a workout when
he was coming out of college, and I really liked him. I was
high on him. Obviously, his career has been derailed because of knee injuries,
not because he didn't have the talent, not because he wasn't very useful
in Boston when he was healthy. And the Clippers missed on that guy.
And I think they're still trying to find him. We saw Fiando Cavin Gelli
get brought in moose yabat other big men. They're trying to find athletic big
man. Yeah, they're trying to find somebody that can help out in that
area. And this is the next I guess project in this way with a
super high ceiling obviously, and I don't know, I'm excited about it.
Yeah, this is an x wago's asking because again another guy they just drafted,
Musa. He said, who are we like to keep me moving forward?
Kai Jones or Musa? Probably both, It's not like they're you know,
probably both. Musa's had some injury, bad luck, which sucks.
He had the head, he broke his hand, which is brutal. Mussa's
more motor than just having insane cleticism like kai Jones. That would be the
difference I would say between those two. Uh. And kai Jones is bigger,
taller, longer, stronger. Uh. He is the prototypical type of
rim runner you're looking for in this league. Yeah. William Blast was a
fair point. That green hair he has as hideous. Not my favorite either,
William Blast. I think he shaved it. Oh that's good. Yeah.
And again you know all the kai Jones fans he's here. Uh,
don't get your hopes up too high for playoff minutes. Again, as Adam
is so eloquently put, things are probably going very poorly or very well.
Uh like he's not gonna have we'll see anything else. I mean, we're
excited. It's good he gets another chance. He gets to be the way
better organization. Uh. I just yeah, I like the opportunity for this
Clippers organization to have someone with that much raw talent and to see what they
can do with it. Yeah, that's what excites me about this because it's
been uh some people I still feel like and I posted every once in a
while when ever they're playing in the Miami heat. I say, what about
Clippers culture, What about the guys that they have brought in that were said
to be done or somebody like Bones Highland who wasn't fitting in with the Denver
Nuggets and apparently getting into with Jamal Murray. And now you can make the
argument that he was still sent home right before the All Star break. But
you see him on the bench and he seems to be one of the guys.
He's cheering everybody on and they're doing the same for him the last couple
of games since he's gotten this opportunity once again at the end of the year.
So I think it comes with the territory of just you have to take
some big swings here and there you do in this league. Obviously they have
that big of a swing. I feel like, right like we kind of
got right. It's low risk. Yeah, it's incredibly risk. So it'll
be interesting to see how it developed here. But for those thinking that because
they're taking on the Dallas Mavericks, that means he's going to be getting run
in a first round series, that seems like a long shot at this point.
I think the timing of it makes you think that could be a very
faunny. Yeah, but it could just be if they don't pick him up,
somebody else will. And they've been scouting him and monitoring the situation and
they want to make sure they snag him, and it just happened to be
right before they take on a team with a bunch of brim runners themselves in
the first round. Yeah. Race Marlin again, one of the better names
we get in the chat said how many years was the deal? Unclear yet.
No, it's not official yet, so we don't really have uh yeah,
any we're going off reporting from Wooje law Murray. I had it first.
Yeah, law had it first of the athletic h and the only thing
that's been made official is Josh Primo was waived. Yes again deciding that never
made sense. So yeah, that's kind of I feel like all we could
really say about Kai. Hope it goes well. We'll see what happens.
For those of you who saw, we got to talk the uh the Lawrence
Frank update on Kawhi. He was on the broadcast, which hasn't been on
the broadcast in a while. I like with Lawrence is on the broadcast.
Not a lot of gms do that, which I do I do appreciate from
mister Frank, he said. In relation to Kawhi, he said, with
Kawhi, he's dealing with inflammation. It's no secret he's out a couple surgeries
to that knee. It's not uncommon over the course of it where you deal
with inflammation. With inflammation, it limits your ability to make some natural basketball
moves. So he's working his tailoff. The staff is working their tailoff to
try to help with the inflammation. He said, inflammation a lot. And
that's what it was listed as after it started as right knee soreness, and
then you have to be more specific with it after a couple of games.
So we've discussed it. We talked about it last night. We did a
little clips and double dip on Clippers talk. That quote coming out from Lawrence
Frank. Look, unfortunately for those that were just hoping this was rest and
load management, that doesn't seem to be it at this point, guys,
it seems like something is going on. To what extent, I don't know.
Yeah, I think it comes down to you know when And there was
a report out there from tomar Razzari that he did get the MRI and there
was nothing significant found, which good news. Tomarazzari of Clutch points, by
the way, I would say, there's a lot of unknowns and even maybe
Kawhi Leonard at this point. You know, it's a wait and see type
of approach with how he responds to treatment, and they're working around the clock.
He was at at least two of their shooter rounds now suited up,
but somebody was taking a lot out of that and extrap laying well, then
he's okay, it's just a little management. Well, no shoot around and
shoot around. It's not five on five. It's definitely not intense playoff basketball,
which is what will really ultimately hopefully he'll have a chance to test it
out. And that's the one thing I keep thinking about with this injury.
Like I, I still believe. And we heard from coach Lou last night
too, who was pressed on this by Brad Turner of the LA Times,
and they're basically saying, yeah, hopefully he's available to go for Game one,
but they were non committed on saying he's for sure playing in game one,
so it could come down to gain that information down. Was still a
week or so left before Game one against the Dallas Mavericks, at Crypto and
everybody has to just wait and see how is Rightney responds because the part that
stuck out to me with Lawrence Frank and what I brought up immediately was it's
his right knee. That's where the acl was, That's where the meniscus injury
was. His right leg was where the tendonopathy was with the San Antonio Spurs.
So yes, and I wasn't trying to panic game when we first talked
about this, but I was like, yeah, I'm concerned. It's Kawhi,
It's that knee. How can I not be concerned about it? Of
course, hopefully it doesn't amount to much, and maybe the timing actually works
out to have it now instead of in the middle of a playoff series to
where he would have gotten three weeks off between his last game played in Charlotte.
Coincidentally, since we've been talking about Kai jonesy, yeah, I'm Charlie
Day now, I got that FBI strip. But yeah, hopefully it all
turns out that Kawhi Leonard just needed some rest there. And it was the
most games he had played since the twenty sixteen twenty seventeen season. He got
to sixty eight games in the regular season, and that's all it was.
But we don't know. And I feel like with everyone saying, oh,
they're not being transparent enough, well, maybe it's because they don't know how
he's going to respond either. He doesn't know. It all comes down to
just how things go in the rehab or whatever's happening right now. It's Yeah,
I did like he was happy in being fun on the bench yesterday.
That feels good. I've tweeted that out. I was like, I'm taking
that as a good sign. I'm just floating in the sea of we don't
really know. But he looked happy on the bench. So it's better than
what we saw with him with the torn acl on twenty twenty one, way
up in the stands, you know, obviously laboring, he was standing up.
I don't know. I don't want to take too much away from things
like that, but I guess we get a hope for the best. And
the one thing I kept thinking about last night after we talked Chuck was as
much as I have said, I think I'd rather see the Pelicans in the
first round over the Dallas Mavericks, and I've been in the minority there.
Yeah, they had that I watched the game on tn T Thursday against the
Sacramento Kings. But I think if, and it's a big if, they
don't have Kawhi for some games or the series against the Dallas Mavericks, Dallas
would be a better matchup for the Clippers to get by against them, just
because as good as their defense has been as of late, we talk about
pace, and you brought up they've been eighth and pace since the All Star
Game, and the Clippers or bottom ten and pace and consistently have been really
in the two to three era, but all season long for the most part,
as you would expect in the playoffs, a slower pace favors a slower,
more methodical team. Possessions are of course even more important, and playing
a little bit slower and taking care of the basketball. Yeah, the intentionality
out there is different. So I'm thinking about a team that is going to
be in their half court defense much more you would expect the Clippers to be
where they're better, where they're getting back. And then on the offensive end,
you know, even if Kawhi is not there, they have James Harden,
they have Russell Westbrook, and we're still hoping everything's Finn and Kawhi is
there, and if I had to guess, and it would just be a
guess, he will be there for Game one. Yeah, but I still
think they might have enough firepower to at least compete against Dallas. It's gonna
be tough to say, yeah, they can win the series against Dallas without
Kawhi Leonard because of how good he had to be in twenty twenty one just
for them to win in seven. But I think they can be competitive.
And if you're competitive enough, you got a shot, and you got the
home crowd. That's the first time we're gonna have an actual home crowd for
Clippers baths, which I know I've harped about it, I've talked about that,
but I'm very excited to see what Clippers fans do for Game one on
Saturday. Yeah. I think that. I mean, no Kawhi if for
whatever reason, first case situation, case scenario, Yeah, yes, which
we still expect him to Yeah, I think, yeah, they could be
competitive. It's obviously a lot harder you have a guy who can put up
forty five on wanted to play effective defense later the other so because Dallas has
likely been getting by collectively by playing together five guys on a string on defense
because you look at the individual personnel and they're starting five with Derek or excuse
me, Derek Jones Junior out there with PJ. Washington, with Kyrie Irving,
Daniel Gafford and Luka Doncic. The Clippers have guys to go at them
with. They have guys you can match up hunt. There are mismatches that
coach lou who's already been preparing for this, going back a couple of days
now, when he had that quote at the very end of his press conference,
which was pretty gangster, He's like, I already have he was asked
by Lombary. They got up and left, like there are holes defense on
this team individually with the Dallas Mavericks, and what you can get away with
during the regular season, when a team may have a day or two at
most to prepare for you is very different than when you have two weeks almost
to prepare for this Dallas Mavericks team, since it's pretty much been in the
works now or they've been in that five spot for some time. So I
do think the Clippers firepower, especially because of what we saw last night from
James Harden. I thought there were some really encouraging signs. We talked about
this also postgame, but the movement from James Harden. I'm very much less
concerned about James Harden now after what we've seen last night and going back over
the last week, even going back to that game against Denver where I think
he was six for twenty three. I was encouraged by the fact that he
got up twenty three shots, that he was that aggressive out there, and
so many of those threes were just like spitting out, rimming out, and
it was just kind of, I don't know, sighting the scope a little
bit, zeroing in a little bit, because the three started to drop after
that for him in the next couple of ball games. I just like the
fact that he was turning the corner last night. Yeah, the way he
was in that first quarter. It was him with a blow by going to
his left with a kickout to Terrence Man, and then another blowby where he
got the lefty layup to go. James hard looks good like that burst seeing
that in person last night, he was moving very quickly, and yeah,
he's another guy who's had I totally agree he's been moving quickly. It's something
the Clippers need he's had the foot inflammation thing which Tylo mentioned shouldn't be an
issue, or I believe that was the quote going into the playoffs. I
think that was Tye kind of big coy, kind of a dick, if
that makes sense, like a coach, Like how a coach is a dick,
you know what I mean? He played it. He from dealing with
so many quick over and over again. Honestly, I think that's what that
response specifically was. For sure, he's exhausted by this stuff. He doesn't
no coach wants to talk about this stuff. But I'm not super worried about
the foot inflamation, like you said, mostly from what we saw last night.
But no one's gonna play tomorrow. So it was great. I hope
no one plays tomorrow. Uh, So it was great to see the burst.
Him and Zoo looked great. They look like their chemistry is is right
there, which Zoo is gonna be such a huge We're gonna talk about this
war in depth next week, but Zoo being able to stay on the court
is gonna be very important for the Clippers. That's probably my biggest X factor,
Like if Zoo can stay on the court, Oh, we just got
the injury report. What do we got? Yeah, that's fun. Here's
out Kawhi Leonard right knee inflammation, questionable, James Hard right foot inflammation.
That's the end of the report. Yeah, we're not likely to see anybody
when it comes to the starters tomorrow against the Houston Rockets, because we'll see
him for like eight Like we're gonna see him for like the first whistle or
something like. It's gonna be weird. Oh, in those eight minutes from
Paul George though he was like a plus eleven, he had ten points quickly
against Utah. They looked the part against a lesser team last night against Utah
when they actually were playing their guys to start off the ball game, they
didn't play down to their competition. They looked dominant, uh and they were
playing fast out there. So it looked like a team that's focused and ready
and knows what's ahead. And they have really overall since coach Luke called him
out for being soft. Sometimes you gotta press that button. Xbago project asking
Paul George playing maybe for ten seconds or something. Nothing. Yeah, I
mean I don't want to do nothing. This is doing Nothing's been very funny
at the chat he said needs some metal chemistry with Kyle. Everyone's asking about
Ky. There's been no contract details we have, I don't We don't know.
Track could get signed in eight hours or something like that. No idea
if Kai Jones going like probably not would be our guest. Yeah at this
point, sorry, he's not officially signed. I'm not gonna bet on him
being able to play tomorrow. My logic with PG and why I think he
shouldn't play any of the Stars is if you're playing him, is to keep
a rhythm right, to keep a good lather out there, to keep them
warm, to keep the timing there. Is that really gonna hold up?
I don't know. It was a It was a term used by my friend
Kevin Kennedy, former MLB manager who called games for the Dodgers for years,
and he would talk about that that with pictures like working up a good lather,
you know, getting a rhythm, getting warmed up. And the thing
is, can he really hold that over five or six days off anyway?
So what's the point, Like that's not gonna have carry over from Sunday to
next Saturday or Sunday, even if he does play five to ten minutes tomorrow
against the Houston Rockets. I don't see a need for that. Uh,
I'm biased Cliff fans asking Chuck is Kai going to be the starting center for
the playoffs? Yes, only for the Western Conference finals though, that's what's
gonna happen. Oh yeah, Tomorrow's gonna be weird. I don't really know
what. It's Steve Barber bobblehead day for those of you who would like a
bobblehead of a billionaire in your office or hope. I don't know what to
expect. Are the Rockets going to be playing anybody? Do they have anything
to play for? No, they don't unless E's got a wild hair like
I don't. Just just to everyone's playing. It's their new culture and identity.
We're going hard all the time, like he's the new Thompson. Yeah,
they're five game Yeah they don't. Yeah. I'd love to see Jalen
Green, just because his progress over the last couple of months has been interesting.
Yeah, and selfishly I did say the Detroit Pistons should take him over
Caid, but uh, yeah what, Uh, I don't know what we
Yeah, I don't know. There's not much to talk about tomorrow star War
with a great prediction Clips. I agree starving Clips and three. It's gonna
take three. That's gonna upset some Mavericks fans that end up watching this doubt
welcome. Also, we should say there was a MAVs fan of the chat
who gave us a super chat thank you. Uh to all the MAVs fans.
Hello, welcome to Clips and dip usually will Updike is with us.
We cover the Clippers. Uh, we don't mind your city. We like
it more than Phoenix. The city the team is gonna be a blood bath,
but hey, yeah, this will be fun. I guess should we
give people already yelling at you in the chatift? Have you watched both guys
so far? Who has the highest ceiling? I think it's Jalen Green but
sort losers gaming on the Zuba trade, which is good to see. Should
we give him a little preview nugget just talking about zoobots in this matchup and
how yeah, let's do it. I mean yeah, if people don't,
some people don't. I mean Carl Tart front of the show famously even on
the broad Carl Tart not the biggest beats Zoobos fan, but he's gonna have
to get behind him for this one. Yeah, we need the support.
But even during the radio broadcast last night, between plays, at times,
Carlo and I are already previewing the series against the Dallas Mavericks because what happens
tomorrow is inconsequential against the Houston Rockets, and that's a good thing. Clippers
have the four spot wrapped up so we can start to get into it more.
But we talked about this in our preview to the preview, UH beats
the Zubos, to me, is so important this time around because they don't
have the pieces they did in past years against the Dallas Mavericks to play small
and to thrive playing small big that wing stop, with that wing stop mentality.
Now they still have Kawhi and Paul George, so you can do some
of it. But to act like a guy like Nicholas Batoum is on this
team with the versatility that he has defensively and the switch ability that he has,
you know, you had to get to get when it came to give
to get. When it came to bringing in James Harden, I'm sure that
was the guy they were most reluctant on giving up in that trade and he's
gotten you know, minutes here and there and could be very valuable for them
in the playoffs. But they just don't have the small ball lineup that they
used to now. If they go PJ. Tucker at the five, Kawhi
Leonard at the four, Paul George at the three, with some combination of
James Harden next to Terrence Mann or a mere coffee, there's still something there.
But I worry about PJ. Tucker isn't a high flyer. How are
you going to contest those lobs that are going up to Gafford? PJ.
Washington is a very respectable way. The tuck Wagon brigade will be respectful.
The tuck Wagon stays on the ground. That thing is not That thing is
not built for air travel or anything like that. So to me, it
beats the Zubats is integral to what is going to play out in this series.
If he is able to stay on the court. And if you're raising
an eyebrow to that statement, well, what the Dallas Mavericks would do against
him in twenty twenty and twenty twenty one was put him in actions with Luka
Doncic and get the switch. He would pull him out to the perimeter,
and therefore you're negating what a beats Zubas can do with your rim protection,
as he is an elite rim protector. If he's out there guarding Luka Doncic,
he's not helping you in that area, which is really going to hurt
you this time around, because of the front court of the Dallas Mavericks and
the makeover they've had. I'm hoping they just say, you know what,
they're going for that switch, We're gonna stay with Luca. We're not We're
not going to We're not gonna fall for the bait and not switch when Luca
tries that against the Beatsa Zoobots and just keep him in drop. I don't
know that will be difficult because they've been switching all year. They switch everything,
but that's where we've seen kind of a slippage and some of the defenses.
Guys switching that you know exactly maybe engaging as they should. So I
agree, but it might take some adjustment. We've seen this team go down
before. I'd rather live with a guy having to fight through Luca's man having
to fight through that screen and Luca getting an open look for three for a
half a second. Because of that, then you putting a Beatza Zobots on
him, which makes him somehow even more confident, even when it's good defense
by a beatsa Zoobots. It's like, I don't know if I said this
on the last show, but it's almost like it's the ladder drill or something
or Lukitsch and he knows how to get the perfect arc over a seven to
one guy in Avizza Zubats. It just works out. It's right in his
wheelhouse when he's going up against someone like that. Maybe it's just because of
early success early in his career against the Vizza Zubats, and he's never forgotten
about that, so he's just comfortable against him. It is I say it's
Fluky, it's Luca, but it is a really weird phenomenon where you could
play great defense with a seven footer on him with his hand up and Luca
knocks him down at like a seventy five percent. Yeah, you're just like
whatever you have it is good, deep, like what shot and you want
him to take? Yeah, And that's why they lived with it for so
long. They kept trying it, like this makes sense on our side,
but he's killing him for whatever reason, and it's the other guys that we
have to worry about too. Right, Luca can score his it's gonna be
kind of the That's what you know a lot of people want the Clippers do
is let Luca score. Don't let him get into that fifteen assist rage,
because then you're getting into a world where other guys are getting open shots,
and that is where you get in trouble when he gets like the meady triple
double ex Bogo saying Luca versus or Luca versus Harden, it's I mean,
I don't think Harden's gonna be put on Luca. I don't think. But
that will be the other new wrinkle to this series where he hunts that miss.
Great question, because what was the starting five and twenty twenty one?
It was Kawhi, it was PG, it was Patrick Beverley eventually got benched.
It was Marcus Morris, so Kawhi, PG, Marcus Morris, if
eats zubots were definitely out there. There was four and then the fifth eventually
I think turned into Reggie Jackson. Yeah, and Ron they tried. Rondo
had a couple of solid games against the Dallas Mavericks before things fell apart.
We sucked I think maybe the Game four. But there's one more guy to
hunt for Luca outside of just debats the Zubats and pulling him out to the
perimeter. It's James Harden on the perimeter. Now, James Harden the post.
We don't mind that matchup. Maybe ill love, but yeah, that's
that's where his strength is. It's been an underrated part of his game.
But that is a flaw on this Clippers roster that everybody knew was going to
be there. But you're hoping their offense is so juiced up on the other
end it makes up for the fact that their teams are going to hunt James
Harden defensively, and maybe he rises to the challenge and plays some of that
defense we saw early on this season as a member of the Clippers where I
thought, for sure, that's solid enough right there where you can easily get
by having James Harden on the court for forty minutes of the playoff game.
Yeah, yeah, excuse me, Yeah, we saw flashes of it.
And it's not like he's not used to being hunted in the playoffs either.
It's been happening his entire career and yet somehow, you know, he's been
in some pretty big playoff games and deep into the playoffs anyways, and it's
going to be interesting what the late game defense looks like too, Right,
Like, what we start with is maybe not what we're going to finish with
when it comes to late game defense against Luca. That's when you want to
see you know, Kawhi something like that taking on Luca late in those situations,
so to figure out, oh yeah, but there's no one more equipped
to do so. And that is one of the that gives me more confidence
than many things in this series, regardless of who is available for the Clippers,
Tyleru. You guys talked about Tyleru versus Jason Kidd being a mismatch.
Let's hope it plays out that way. But what I hope is in order
to keep Avitza Zubats on the floor, because ty does have a tendency to
want to go small when things are failing. He reversed back that does.
My hope is that they are getting a Vitza Zobots involved because Gafford, PJ.
Washington, and Lively, they're not big bigs, they're athletic bigs,
let zubots go to work against them, say leaving in a viza zubots,
because those are taxing physical plays as well, not just with trying to get
those guys maybe in foul trouble, but just he's leaning on guys. Then
when he gets touches in the post, you know, it can compromise your
defense because of how big he is if he's gotten a couple to go already.
But also they're just physical plays out there. But I think if he's
if he's bringing offense on one end and showing his effectiveness there, there's a
better chance that coach lou will not try to go away from him. Yeah,
he needs to earn that trust, which is one of the more frustrating
things I think with how I love what Tyler does for the most part,
but one of the things I don't like is how Zoo has such a short
leash with some of that stuff. Yeah, especially at this point, it
kind of feels like he has to earn trust almost every game or something like
that, which is kind of frustrating. Jimmy G asking what do you think
about the MAVs bench. This has been a large talking point for Clips fans
about how our bench is better. I think maybe the top half is,
but it gets a little murky, right, like half is being generous if
we're talking like four bench guys. Well, a lot of that's going to
depend on Russ and his abilities in this series, and I do think it's
a good matchup for him. Yeah, Russ is hot and cold. Often.
He can be inconsistent, high variance player, volatile out there. He
can you know, win you a game in the span of a couple of
minutes. He can just be a force in nature and take over, or
he can be a little bit radic and out of control. We've seen that
throughout his entire career, but it seems like it's even more rising as he's
gotten older. Which Russ, you're going to get it could swing with the
other Yeah, in game that can happen, because yeah, it's a little
harder with the age. Someone came after me in the comments after our last
show saying, oh, Russ on Luca, Russ's on Kyrie, Good luck
with that, okay, bet. Also, we know Luca's gonna get his
This isn't We're not trying to pretend the man is going to be shut down.
What we're talking about making things as hard as possible. It's like when
they went up against Jokic in the bubble and the difference of I heard people
say, well, he's gonna kill everyone, so what does it matter,
And it's like, well, there's a difference between him shooting seventy five percent
from the floor against Montrez Harrell and fifty five percent from the floor against Avitza
Zubas. All you're trying to do is get a few more misses and a
few possessions that falter for the Dallas Mavericks. And I do think Russell Westbrook
engaged defensively, can be a disruptor for Luca and Kyrie at times. I
do like that switchability there and him of the passing lanes. We've seen him
be a little more active of the passing lanes as the season's closed, which
is nice. You don't want him to gamble too much, but he has.
When he's making the good decisions, he can get out in transition and
hopefully finish at the rim, which is another thing, but we'll talk about
that later. This is an interesting comment from s the last one that was
just put up there. Yeah, Charles, because one thing when they won
in Dallas earlier this season. Remember, these teams haven't played in the New
Year in twenty twenty four. I wish, I do really wish a from
a basketball perspective, I wish we could see the Clippers play this team post
deadline, and just it would be kind of nice to really actually see the
matchups. Plus as I just wish that would have happened. It's funny because
all the familiarity with Luca and even Kyrie Irving because coach lou coached him in
Cleveland obviously, and how well you know those two players. But there's all
these other unknowns and factors now with the Dallas Manver totally, and so there's
some fear of the unknown. But I believe it was the game without Paul
George where Kawhi Leonard had that spin move he blew by Derrick Jones for the
baseline, but he had a spin move on Grant Williams, so again a
guy who's not even there anymore. At the end of that game, Russ
was on the floors here that or the other game in Dallas, and he
was saying, go at him. He was screaming, go at Luca.
That's the dog I want to see out of Russell Westbrook in this series.
So yes, you do need to attack Luka Doncic. That's that is the
biggest central point, or would be my number one key to winning this series,
attacking Luca and Kyrie and taking something out of their legs. So you
beat them up on the defensive end, it takes something out of them on
the offensive side. Yeah, one hundred percent. You got to put him
in actions at things like that, Jay reminding people that Terrence Man and be
a coffee rosso on the team. They stack up that they're playing, they're
doing. The Clippers are doing the thing. I tweeted this out where when
they were twenty six and five and all that every bench guy was basically playing
like plus fifteen percent in terms of their usual ability, right like they were
playing that slight level over. We're kind of getting back to that. That's
how some that's how the fridge not fridge. That feels disrespectful, but you
know what I mean, Like that's guys who are the major stars are playing
a little bit better right now. The MAVs bench is you know, it's
it's even right, like they don't have a bunch of holes. It's not
like Denver. They have a better bench than Denver. Their guys have been
playing well though too. XM has been really good. He's having kind of
you know, he was I think it was the sixth pick in the draft.
I'm just glad to see him, you know, finally kind of find
his footing at n ACL tear. Those are the guys I usually were on
the Alters. Yeah, but he and Tim Hardaway Junior obviously coming off the
bench, those are tough matchups. Those are good bench players for them,
and they're also trending in the right direction like a lot of the Clipper's been
players right now. Yeah, this is gonna be a day of war.
It's the war of the combat sectual already, which I hope. I wish
everyone good luck in that. I don't like the revisionist history from maz fans
now, or at least the ones who are coming at me. I posted
the uh uh I think his name was Gamble or something like that in the
Dark Night, the uh, the guy saying enough from the clown Yeah,
and I was like enough from the Lucas Stans. I did that meme the
other day because Lucas Stans are like, you know, Luca didn't have any
help in twenty twenty one. It's like ways christasporzingis played in all those games.
He may have not liked his role, but he was out and you
had role players that started off that series in the first three game shooting sixty
percent from three. I literally think when you combine percentages, Tim Hardaway,
Dorian Finney, Smith, Jalen Brunson, Maxi Kliba were out there shooting like
sixty percent from three in the first three games of the series. Don't tell
me, Luke it didn't have any help. And that's It's not because I
was saying Kawhi Leonard was better in both of those first round series. He
was. That's why the Clippers was, Yeah, the Clippers are gonna need
Kawhi to be better than Luca to win this series. Kawhi shot sixty percent
while getting thirty points per game in that seven game series in twenty twenty one,
something that had not been done prior to Shaq doing it in the two
thousand NBA Finals against the Indiana Pacers. Shack's average distance per shot attempt was
four feet. Kawhis was about fourteen feet. Don't tell me he wasn't the
better player, especially when you know you add in that other side of basketball
defense, he had the better team and was also the better player at the
same time. Two way players also are held up to an annoyingly higher standard,
I think than players who are very good at offense that don't play a
lot of defense, because they expect Kawi is expect he can be very much
when he's locked in. I think someone said the chat, he's the best
player on the court. But if he's just okay at defense but still better,
you know, than the average guy, I feel like that's a knock.
They expect elite on both ends at all times, which is so much
harder than just doing one just doing one thing elite. And also, you
can be doing your job to the best of your abilities in covering your bases
as well as you can defensively, and somebody else has a blown assignment and
you're on the floor and it hurts your defensive rating. Like right, defensive
analytics stuff has been very tough to keep track of because it's hard to start.
Even more specifically, it's it's a team game already defensively is such playing
great defense, it takes an entire team to be together, right and talking
and communicating, which we got to hope the Clippers are after the second half
of basketball that we've seen. I think that about wraps it up good.
We have a thanks everyone for hanging out. If you're new, we are
Clips and Dip. Will Updike is usually with us. We talk about the
Clippers three times a week or so, and we're also gonna be doing a
double dip. Adam, you want to tell these five people what a double
dip is? Yeah, that's on Clippers Talk Your Clippers official postgame show where
I take calls like it will be tomorrow in their final regular season game at
Crypto dot Com Marena formerly Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles, basically where they're
taking on the Houston Rockets and postgame we'll have it for you on the Patriot
A M eleven fifty when the Dodgers are on A five to seventy Clippers are
on the Patriot AM eleven fifty, but take callers and also have guests on
like Chuck Buckler, like we'll update Will Updike, like Carl tart Oh,
yeah, came on with me recently, So if you guys want to check
it out. That's also a podcast Clippers Talk, and then we take that
section of the show and put it up on clips and dip as well.
We do. It's gonna be funny. We should maybe have Carl on the
Tuesday episode. We're gonna do a couple episodes next week leading up to Game
one. One's gonna be in depth. That one's gonna come out on Thursday.
It's gonna be let's get let's get locked in this week everyone, everyone,
just do everything you normally do just a little tighter, you know.
Let's let's all stay locked in and get ready for this blood bath. You
can find us if you're not subscribed. Check us out on YouTube at Clippers
Podcast. Find us on Twitter at clippers Pod. Adam is follow autam a
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is at will Updike. We hope everyone has a great rest of your weekend.
And we're supposed to get some rain, so I don't know, bundle
up, let's go