We're now joined by the host of the Clipper pregame, halftime and postgame show,
The Saltier, Adam Auslin. Hello, Adam, what's up? Guys?
What's up? Jason? Good to be here. Happening, man,
I'm good. I guess I got a story to tell, like Biggie about
the Clippers. What's going on? Yeah, frek teezy. You have this
big story that involved like gambling and knives and being thrown off a cliff,
all kinds of stuff. No, it's not like I choose your own adventure
novel or anything like that. With this Clippers team right now, it's nothing
that crazy. If you think Adam Austin will tell a good story turned to
page seventy five, The Cave of Time. Yeah, Well, what I'm
thinking is the story you will tell is how this team has really gelled now,
and how this team has become, if not the best, one of
the best teams in the NBA, and just how it all came together.
Thirty one and nine since November seventeenth, That marks the date when they changed
the starting lineup, started bringing Russell Westbrook off the bench. But I always
say this, it empowered James Harden to do what he does best, which
is get the ball in his hands, run, pick and roll, be
the conductor out there, and he is a system guys. I know a
lot of people made fun of that comment from him at his introductory press conference,
but James Harden is otherworldly in the pick and roll and has made life
so much easier for Kawhi Leonard, for Paul George, for Viza Zubats.
Hopefully he can get healthy again. This Clippers team obviously is surging, but
it has coincided with just that move of having Russ come off the bench,
get the ball in James Harden's hands, and also look availability with this team,
they haven't had that much in the two Pine three row with Kawhi and
Paul George. They had both of them on two A days and three A
days during training camp back in August for the first time ever, so there
was more built up continuity chemistry. You talk about them gelling and meshing their
fred because they just were able to go, and that's good fortune. You
can't always rely on that. They've still been dimmed up a little bit.
Paul George is working through something, but for the most part, I believe
they've only ended up missing seven games total. Between the two, they played
the first twenty three games of the regular season together. They're already at more
minutes this season having played on the court together than any other year, and
we're just about at the All Star break. How do you feel coming off
the trade deadline? Lots of teams yesterday, we thought we'd see some big
moves. Some teams made some smaller ones. Clippers basically, this is the
team we're gonna get. Are you okay with it? Did you want to
see something else? How do you feel? I know, I'll speak for
Clipper Nation a little bit because I know they were really interested in bringing in
another four because when they did make the move to bring in James Harden,
they lost Marcus Morris, Roco and Nicholas Batoum. So they went from wingstop
to the olive garden, as some people would say, because they used to
call themselves wingstop. They had all this flexibility and versatility out there. They
could play small with a bunch of six to seven guys, but they lost
some of that. And Kawhi Leonard's been playing power forward, and he did
say just the other day something to the effect of, well, at least
until we get a real one now. He's been thriving in that role.
Obviously, he's just starting to get in that MVP conversation. And I do
think there's been a little bit of media malpractice going on with how long it's
taken him to be vaulted up the MVP conversation standings or whatever you want to
call it the latter. But this team, they are stacked. No team
is perfect in the NBA. Every team has some flaws out there. There's
not a Golden State Warriors team with Kevin Durant anymore to worry about. So
it just matters how detrimental are those flaws. Can you, you know,
minimize them or team's going to expose them. I think the Clippers do lack
that perfect squad because they don't have a guy who can go out there and
play next to a Vita Zubats that's still a big that's still a big four,
or a guy who can play the stretch five. But they have Daniel
Tys, they have Mason Plumbley, they have a Viza Zubats. They have
bodies to throw out Nikola Jokish, they have bodies to throw at Zion Williamson,
who they just saw the other night and they they still have PJ.
Tucker who didn't get moved out, and he has been upset, to say
the least, or a little bit frustrated with the lack of playing time.
I think he had thirty four straight dnps when he came over in the trade
with James Harden. I think he thought he was going to be starting maybe
or maybe at least getting twenty minutes a night something to that. But it
just been a situation where they have an embarrassment of riches. They have a
ton of depth. Certain guys haven't been able to get out there on the
floor. I do think at this point, since they didn't move him,
he'll get more time, so we'll see what he has to offer. So
it look I think a lot of teams felt like yesterday. I posted this
on Twitter, but it was like the fire Festival, the let down of
the trade deadline. Outside of Jason Smith's Nicks, there wasn't a ton of
noise being made in the NBA. It was the Knicks, It was the
Mavericks and the OKC thunder getting Gordon Hayward. Everybody else pretty much stood pat
What about the buyout market? Adam what will the Clippers do. Well,
they don't have an extra roster spot at the moment, so somebody would have
to be cut. But there are guys out there that he is young,
Danilo Gallinari. I know Spencer did win. He it seems like he's due
to be a Laker now. At least he was liking tweets of people talking
about him going to the Lakers a socow guy. Yeah, but that he
went to the Mavericks Knicks game with Mavericks. So I think it's gonna come
down to one of these two teams. Okay, back to Dallas. Possibly.
Maybe it's interesting because there are a couple of fours, and the Clippers
are familiar with Danilo Gallinari, he was there a couple of seasons ago.
But here Thadtius young I think could fill a role. But they've had this
emergence with a Mirre Coffee playing so well right now, there just aren't that
many minutes available. It's just a rotation crunch with this team. So I
don't know if they necessarily need something. What they need is health. What
they need is internally to just get healthier. With a Viza Zubats who has
been magnificent, especially paired with James Harden this season, he's been a different
player Offensively, he gets back to one hundred percent, he's always a great
rim protector. That alone unlocks more of what this team can do. And
that's what's so scary. They're one of the few teams playing at this high
of a level that you can say, oh, they still have room to
grow, they can still build up more familiarity out there on the court.
This team can be even scarier. And they have had the number one offense
since that time. The last forty games in the NBA, the defense has
been a little bit up and down and shaky at times when Kawhi isn't out
there. They're a completely different team defensively, which is understandable to a degree,
but it falls off a cliff. They go from a top three defense
to a bottom five defense when you look at the off numbers with Kawhi Leonard
out there. So there's still a mentality thing. You got to build up
those championship habits, you could say, and take things step by step.
And by the way, you know, they got seventeen games coming up in
March. It is a brutal, brutal schedule, So it's not going to
be easy for this team and it will test their death very soon here.
So if I said to you, Adam Okay, coming off the trade deadline,
looking at the schedule the rest of the way, I said, the
biggest concern you have the rest of the season for the Clippers is what fill
in the blank for me, uh, the rest of the season, as
in where they're gonna end up in the standings. Your biggest care is it
gonna be is it health? Is it can they sustain? Is it gonna
be Is it gonna be somebody else coming up that they don't match up well
with? Like what would you say would be the biggest concern for the Clippers
the rest of the way. I mean, it's always health with this team.
It starts with that. But Phoenix got a little bit better yesterday.
And you look at the standings at the top of the Western Conference, Like,
no matter who you are, you're taking on a devastating opponent in the
first round. I don't care if you're the one seed, because if you
end up drawing the Lakers, if you end up drawing the Dallas Mavericks out
of the play in tournament, that's not fun. Not with what Dallas just
did. It's gonna be a blood bath in the first round, so that
wears you down. That's a little bit of a concern. There just aren't
many easy outs because talent wise, teams are pretty close to one another.
In the West. I think there's a little bit of a tier with the
top four teams right now, with the Clippers, the Denver Nuggets, the
Minnesota Timberwolves, the OKC Thunder. But the Phoenix Suns are playing much better
basketball and they just got Royce O'Neill in there. That was a nice move
for them. They need more defense, more flexibility. They can go small
with Kevin Durant at the five. But behind them is the Pelicans in the
standings, the Sacramento Kings, I mentioned Dallas, the Lakers. I just
think it is gonna be a war of attrition going through the playoffs, and
matchups do matter. There just aren't a lot of good options. Pick your
poison, and that's what concerns me. You get into a first round series
and I do think, guys, there's a great chance we see a Clippers
Lakers matchup finally in the playoffs in the first round, and I don't know
if that bodes well for the Clippers against this specific Lakers team, because they've
been building to try to beat the Clippers for so long. They lost eleven
straight to them. The Clippers had just owned them, and now they have
a little bit more length, a little bit more versatility defensively to guard Paul
George and Kawhi Leonard. They've been so worried about the Clippers. Maybe they
lost sight of some other things, but they do match up against them very
well. And if you take on the Lakers in a first round series,
the crowd's gonna be in their favor, the free throws are likely going to
be in their favor. It's not gonna be an easy one. And they
have Anthony Davis, who the Clippers just you know, nobody has an answer
for a guy like that really to slow down. So I don't know.
I think it's it's far. You know, a lot of Clipper Nation I've
been saying, pump the brakes a little bit, cool the Jets a little
bit, celebrate the fact that this is the best running the regular season in
franchise history, but also understand it's still February. A lot can change.
There's thirty plus games left, and the first round alone is going to be
difficult no matter who you're going up against. Adam. Let's switch over to
the the Kolbe statue and veiling. Yesterday you saw it. I thought it
was handled incredibly well. I thought it was very touching, and I thought
Vanessa Bryant had a great comment concerning the pose that Kobe used on that statue.
Let's play it real quick. So much goes into this process, and
I'm really grateful for everyone that helped make this special day happen. And for
the record, Kobe picked the pose you're about to see, so if anyone
has any issues with it, tub there you go. I thought the pose
was great. What'd you think? No, it was perfect and that disarms
anyone from criticizing it. Plus there's two more statues coming on the way and
that was a surprise too. But she always speaks so beautifully, guys.
I have a tough time with it, still, I do. I was
on the air that day the Clippers were taking on the Magic. The entire
show, of course, turned into talking about Kobe Bryant and the tragedy.
But I still have trouble wrapping my head around it, computing it because nobody
has lived rent free as an athlete, as a celebrity more in my head
than Kobe Bryant growing up in Zchermento. This was somebody that I thought about
all the time because I was so anti Lakers, I was anti Kobe.
I missed the hell out of him now as everyone does, and just I
don't know. It feels like sports for me have been split in two,
time with Kobe being alive and now time without him. And I thought it
was a beautiful santamony. She was great. Phil Jackson what he said at
the very end when he talked about Kobe Bryant sticking up for one of his
teammates not playing very much too. I think it was Jay Leno or somebody
on a talk show it was, who was an Adam Morrison? Adam Morrison.
He said, you know, he's one of our teammates. He puts
in the work too. And Phil Jackson said, that's when I was proudest
of Kobe and it was great to hear from him. Everybody just handled it
perfectly. And the you know, Pau Gasol makes me emotional seeing him with
Kobe Bryant's daughters and the family, and yeah, it's just it's still tough
for me. I'll just put it that way. It's tough, but man,
it was. It was a beautiful site yesterday. I think it was
the right aside from the fact that it's what he wanted to go with.
I mean, he holds up the one because he's already wearing the eight when
he gets eighty one. It's just perfect. And that is one of the
greatest performances in NBA history that will never be forgotten. I was there that
night and I just like, oh my God, keep shooting, keep shooting,
keep going. When when did they put up the sam Mitchell statue for
getting to single guard Kobe Bryant? So to allow that that that, I'm
not true? Why would say they did everything? Is sam Mitchell on the
side like any like his hands out going, you know, no, no,
no double, just have one guy, just have one, Just have
one guy. It is funny how sam Mitchell was asked about this before.
This was probably a decade ago, and somebody was trying to troll him during
an interview and he sniffed it out and was like, no, we're not
going there, We're not talking about that eighty one point game. He was
still upset about it. I just love that. But obviously Kobe he had
something for Jalen Rose after what happened in the two thousand finals with him intentionally
stepping underneath him. Either one of you guys surprised that they're they're actually gonna
have three statues. I think it's appropriate. It's Kobe, he's got two
jerseys retired. Why not. This is the city's favorite song. How do
you think Kareem feels? You know how long it took me to just to
go through to get one? He gets three, I get one. I'm
hoping the next statue and this is me selfishly the one I want because I
love the eighty one. It's awesome. I could just because this is so
emotional. But what I would want is that shot of him after this final
game, after the sixty he's got the towel on his shoulders and he's standing
and he's smiling and he's waving to the crowd, that iconic moment of the
you know, farewell to basketball from Kobe Bryant. Like, that's kind of
what I would want the next statue to be because it's it's it's iconic,
it's emotional. It's a night that I don't think anybody's ever gonna forget his
final game when he scored sixty, when when the sports world just exploded with
that, and it kind of puts a cap on Hey, you know,
two biggest things he had is he has eighty one point game, his sixty
point game, and standing for everything he did for the Lakers. That's what
I'm hoping the next statue now could be something else could wind up in And
I can't wait to talk to Vic about about this coming up next hour on
the show. But that's what I would hope it would be. For the
next one, it's gonna be One's gonna be him with him with Gigi.
That'll be the third one I think is in with Gigi. Yeah, I
think you're right. It could also be the Game seven victory celebration with the
confetti coming down and him jumping up on the table with Laker Nation there.
I could see that happening as well. But whatever it is, it'll be
fantastic, I'm sure. All Right, Salta, thanks for coming on,
Adam, all right, I appreciate you guys. What's up, Jason,
how are we doing? Man? Good? I want to go to Wingstop.
Now now I'm excited about Wingstop. I mean, yeah, the name
it used to fit for this team, now it's now. It's the olive
Garden. No, no, bottomless basticks aren't half bad, so I'll have
grown is not that bad. But the thing is olive gardens. Like in
the mall, you have to go and you have to park and walk in.
It's not as convenient like wing Stop. Boom. I'm just pulling right
in, Hey, right in, hey, wings right here, ready to
go boom. Remember all day the hole when you're here, your family thing
doesn't play as well when it's at a mall like that. All right,
thanks Adam,