WEBVTT

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Let's now welcome in the host of
the Clipper Countdown, the postgame show,

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a halftime show, our good friend
the Saltier, Adam Austlin and Adam how

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are you today? Hey, guys
going to be here on a zero f's

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given Friday. Let's go all right, let's do it. Let's start with

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your guys really playing some of the
best basketball in the league right now.

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Kawhi gets extended. So what does
that mean for Paul George and James Harden.

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Well, Kawhi Leonard postgame seemed to
spill the beans a little bit.

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He said, it sounds like everybody
is coming back for the most part,

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something to that effect. So I
think it's looking inevitable at this point.

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Now things could change with James Harden
because he's not extension eligible. He's someone

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who is a true free agent going
into next summer. Paul George currently is.

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I would imagine that gets done at
some point and we'll see how the

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regular season plays out and throughout the
playoff run. So it's it's encouraging at

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least to see a guy like Kawhi
Leonard be locked up going into the into

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It Dome with the way he has
been playing, which has been absurd,

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where he's at twenty seven points per
game over his last seventeen on shooting splits,

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Freddy of fifty eight percent from the
field, fifty percent from the outside,

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and ninety percent from the free throw
line over a seventeen game stretch.

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You won't find better runs in NBA
history than what Kawhi Leonard's been doing.

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Nah, He's been phenomenal. And
by exigning him to extension, Adam,

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don't they almost have to design Paul
George as well. I mean, I

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know it feels like you said,
it's inevitable and we'll see about James Harden,

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but I gotta feel the same way. If they keep on this run,

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why wouldn't you? And my argument
the other day was, you know

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it's gonna go either two ways.
Fred seemed to think maybe they blow it

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all up. But you can't do
that going into the into it Dome.

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You gotta have your guys and horses
and marketable guys going into that place.

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And the fact that they are playing
well is just it really helps, you

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know, to that effect. But
if they're going to do Kawhi, don't

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they got to bring them all back? Yeah? Good call, Fred,

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they've won sixteen of nineteen. Blow
it up. No no, no,

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no, no, no. Wait
a minute, Wait a minute, Wait

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a minute. What I said the
receipts. No, no, get the

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receipts. What I said was,
if those guys are hurt or struggling this

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year, because they both have to
have good years because they are eligible for

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an extension. But if they were
not, if it was more of the

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same from the past, for whatever
reason, then you have to take a

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serious look at this thing and go
it didn't work. But now with Kawhi

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healthy and playing almost every game,
and we don't know what will happen,

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but it sure seems like he's okay. You have to take a different approach

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here. I mean, if the
whole thing is gone. I don't know

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that, Kevin. I've said that
in the past. Now, what happened

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last time we pulled the tape on
Fred Rogan? No, Kevin knows.

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I said that. Good for Fred? Uh uh, Kevin knows? I

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said that. Wait, refreshment memory, What did you say, Fred,

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Kevin? Have I not said in
the past, if Kawhi were talking lowing

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it up? No, Kawhi and
Paul George struggle. If somebody gets hurt.

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If it's more of the same,
then you have to look at it

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and say it didn't work. And
if it didn't work, then you have

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to do something. But I also
said, but I mean if they catch

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lightning in a bottle of kawhis okay, if Paul George is fine, then

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you have to take a different look
at it. In a body. This

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is why we need that new segment
in twenty twenty four. Wrong, said

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fred And first of all, Freddy, what's the alternative. Then It's not

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like, if you don't pay Kawhi
Leonard fifty million dollars, it just opens

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up fifty more million in the salary
cap. That's not how it works.

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You can go over the CAF to
pay your own guys. They're not gonna

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have all that money to play with
if they didn't resign him. If they

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don't resign Paul George. And by
the way, they've won twenty one of

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their last twenty seven games. Now
it works when they're healthy. There's not

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much more you can asked with the
way this team has been playing since they've

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had a little bit more availability out
there. It's always been like that with

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Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. They
won a seven hundred win percentage when those

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two are available and out there on
the court, and they look great.

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Right now, Paul George has turned
into damn near a catch and shoot guy

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like Klay Thompson or Michael Porter Junior. He's just letting him fly from the

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outside. And they're all having amazing
seasons. Since they brought in James Harden,

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something one of us here predicted.
I don't think it was Fred.

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I don't think it was Fred.
I don't think that's fair. I said,

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bringing James Harden would be a good
idea. Bring me, I said,

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bringing James Harden, I said,
I don't like the three headed monster,

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but the Clippers have nothing to lose, so do it and see what

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happens. So I did say that. I think we all remember that that.

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I do remember Fred saying, because
what you've been doing hasn't work,

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you might as well try something you
didn't that in a broken clock, a

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blind scurorel, it happens. I
don't need your salty now or you're getting

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it today. Baby. What else
you got from refred any tough ones?

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Talk Lakers? Where are they?
What do they need to do that is

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kind of a tough one. Where
are they one of the worst teams defensively

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in the NBA since the n Season
Tournament. When you look at what's happened

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to the Los Angeles Lakers, it's
on the defensive side. That's where things

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have completely fallen off. They were
the sixth best defense on December twelfth,

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and I think they won the nd
Season Tournament on December eleventh, and a

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game that never counted, never really
happened because the stats they're erased from history.

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But Anthony Davis had forty one.
They looked great, They looked like

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they were peaking. The problem was
it was still early December, and that

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is the problem. They got too
high emotionally for that n Season Tournament where

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they didn't just win in Vegas,
they won all the games leading up to

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it. They were perfect. But
ever since then, teams have been torching

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them from the perimeter. It's not
even just that they're getting into the paint

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and getting easy buckets on the interior. Anthony Davis is still fantastic. He's

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having an amazing season defensively in on
offense, but on the perimeter, and

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he talked about it last night.
Teams went from shooting thirty seven percent from

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the outside on the Los Angeles Lakers
before the nd season tournament to now shooting

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forty two percent from distance on high
volume at thirty eight attempts from distance per

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game, So that means they're hitting
about fifteen to sixteen three pointers on the

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Lakers every time out. And we
saw it yesterday with the Phoenix Suns,

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and they're big three, they were
just walking into three pointers. So until

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they figure it out on the perimeter, and I think they are just fundamentally

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flawed with some of the roster construction. I told you guys this a month

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ago that the Lakers have too many
guys that are one dimensional, that can

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play on one end of the court
but get beat up on the other.

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You look at Austin Reeves, you
look at d Lo. They're good on

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offense, they get picked on defensively. You look at Van don Cam they're

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good on defense, they get picked
on because they're zero's offensively. They don't

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have enough two way guys on this
team. So it's put them in a

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really tough spot where this early in
the season, already with the trade deadline

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coming up on February eighth, they're
already speculating how do the Lakers salvage this

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thing? And it doesn't look like
Darvin Ham is going anywhere. According to

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Chris Haynes earlier today, Yeah,
I don't know how much anybody coming in

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could do what you just talked about
the way the roster is constructed. They've

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got issues beyond the coach, and
I don't you know, you can't go

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from oh, a really good coach
in early December to now he doesn't know

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what he's doing. It just doesn't
make sense to me. But how much,

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Adam, do you think the absence, because this is where you go

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when you start losing the absence of
Gabe Vincent, him not playing at all,

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the fact that they were counting on
him to be one of those two

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way guys. That absence has really
affected them. I mean it's hurt them

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to some degree, But I don't
think Gave Vincent was saving this team.

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It was a nice pickup for them, but he's also a smaller player who

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would get hunted in matchups on the
defensive end. I mean, they have

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Austin Reeves who's having a down season
from the outside. He's just a thirty

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three percent after I think shooting almost
forty percent from distance last season. So

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some of the guys that you relied
upon continuing to grow and ruy Hachi Moor

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has been hurt now and what the
message was coming out of that series in

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the Western Conference Finals getting swept by
the Denver Nuggets. But granted the Lakers

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were in those games in the fourth
quarter. If you're looking for a silver

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lining, was hey that Denver team, they had continuity, they had been

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together for a while, and Rob
Polenka and the Lakers said, we want

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the same thing. We want to
bring this team back, run it through

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for eighty two games this time,
make some moves on the margins like with

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Gabe Vinson and will be okay.
But it hasn't worked out that way.

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Injuries, guys regressing or just having
down years. And even with Lebron James

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and Anthony Davis being this available,
there's still a game under five hundred.

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That's really the most flexing thing with
this Lakers team. They've had their big

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two for the most part, and
they haven't taken advantage of it to this

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point. Adam Brian Windhorst wrote that
you mentioned the trade deadline and the Clippers,

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I mean the Lakers are gonna have
to do something. But the problem

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is, according to Brian Windhors,
there aren't a lot of players on the

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Lakers roster that other teams are interested
in. And if that's the case,

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how do you make a trade.
Well, if you're not giving up Austin

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Reeves, if you learn from what
happened with Alex Caruso a couple of seasons

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ago, and obviously they had sellers
remorse there. They could have just matched

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and held on to him and kept
everybody, but they made a decision there.

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It didn't work out. And Austin
Reeves has beloved in the same way

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that Alex Caruso was for his hard, tough play, and he's on a

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very team friendly deal too. So
when it's rumored that Okay de Johonte Murray

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could be floated by the Atlanta Hawks
and that's somebody the Lakers could be interested

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in, that's great. He's an
upgrade talent wise, but you're also spending

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much more on him. He's making
almost thirty min million dollars over the next

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three or four seasons now, so
you got to commit a lot of money

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to a guy that may not work
within the timeframe. Of when you have

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Anthony Davis and Lebron James, who, well Lebron could be out after next

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season obviously with BRONI coming into the
NBA, But nothing's really lying up for

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them on the trade market. You
could still say tomar DeRozan with the Chicago

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Bulls, Zach Levine with the Chicago
Bulls, who also makes a ton of

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money over forty million per year over
the next three seasons. I know he

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has a player option for forty eight
million on the back end of that.

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He like likely picks that up.
But it's just not the robust trade market

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you would hope it would be for
the Lakers. And yeah, they're missing

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some of the pieces right now because
they haven't had a chance to show off

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Ruey Haschimore and the growth that he
has made over the offseason because he's been

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hurt and banged up. They are
in a really tough spot in a Western

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conference that has loaded, that is
packed, that is licking their chops every

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time. They're taking on the Los
Angeles Lakers, who are going to be

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in Utah tomorrow against a team that
I think is one twelve or fourteen and

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looks a much better now when they
were supposed to be sellers. Oh market

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is going to be available. They're
back in the hunt now they could be

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a playing team. So it's a
highly competitive situation right now in the West

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where the Lakers really didn't have a
lot of room for error, and to

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struggle to this degree where they are
five and eleven, I believe now since

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the n season tournament, is a
little bit shocking because again, Lebron and

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ad have been there enough where they
should be a more competent team than this.

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Yes, when those two guys are
playing, that's a scary part about

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it. Those two guys are in
the lineup number one and number two.

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They've been playing well and they just
don't get any help from anybody else.

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And I'm going back to the Clippers. You know they are playing well,

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but you know Fred tried to deflect
to the Lakers. I didn't like that.

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Let's go back to the Clippers.
We knew you wouldn't like it,

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but we had to do it.
You want me to read that suitet that

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you put out calling out Lebron James
Freddie the other night when he was taken

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out of the game against the Los
Angeles. Now, was that somebody else

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tweeting for you. No, no, no, you meant no no,

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you meant Kawhi okay, and that
was that was Kawhi. You got me

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mixed up now because you want to
talk Lakers too much. No, Kawhi,

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And I don't understand why he was
taken out of the game. At

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him. He just came back from
a hip injury. No three minute minutes,

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no rection, stop it, minute
restriction. There's three minutes left in

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the game. It's in eighty two
game season. If you're the guy that's

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gonna say Kawhi Leonard is injury prone, but also the guy that's saying,

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oh, it's just three more minutes, those two things don't work. He

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didn't have that restriction the other the
game after that, My god, So

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what did he say? And then
he put him back in with his name

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blew out Phoenix and he only played
thirty minutes. It doesn't matter too So

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they save two minutes and forty five
seconds of the game they should have won.

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Come on, if he gets in
that time and re injured the hip

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that he already reinjured. Yeah,
but what's necessary if he's not sup plus

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supposed to play more than thirty five
minutes in the ball game, and you're

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in a tight game down the stretch
and it's game what thirty five of the

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regular season was still a lot of
room to go. I don't think the

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priority is just winning that game against
Los Angeles Lakers. They got bigger fish

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to fry. That is absurd.
That is absurd. Two minutes well,

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00:13:09.960 --> 00:13:13.080
you know what, he could get
hurt walking under the court too. It's

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00:13:13.120 --> 00:13:16.000
two minutes at him. He could, but it's necessary to walk out on

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00:13:16.039 --> 00:13:18.639
the court. It wasn't necessary for
him to play those minutes, and it

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00:13:18.679 --> 00:13:20.879
wasn't a guarantee they were gonna win
the game anyways with him as he was

207
00:13:20.879 --> 00:13:24.399
having an offer. But you're in
that game and you deserve to win.

208
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You deserve to have that opportunity.
Come on. Then he put him back

209
00:13:26.240 --> 00:13:30.919
there on the front end of a
back to back with a guy that you

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00:13:30.960 --> 00:13:33.639
have said is injury prone. But
you don't think that they should keep him

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00:13:33.639 --> 00:13:37.159
from playing forty minutes. No,
no, no, yeah, no,

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00:13:37.200 --> 00:13:39.679
it makes a lot of sense to
me. No, it makes no sense.

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00:13:39.759 --> 00:13:41.799
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, it doesn't

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00:13:41.799 --> 00:13:45.840
make any sense. And you know
it, it does make sense, Freddy.

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00:13:46.279 --> 00:13:48.480
You can't have it both ways.
Kawhi's injury prone. You gotta baby

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00:13:48.559 --> 00:13:52.039
him. But also you're gonna get
mad when they take him out of a

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00:13:52.080 --> 00:13:54.960
game late. No, this is
beautiful, This is beautiful. Come on,

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00:13:54.679 --> 00:14:00.279
I'm he's eating his popcorn. No, I'm done with you. Nothing.

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It hasted your pipe, Freddie,
huh, you know what, take

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your sultan, get out all right, Adam, have a good weekend,

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00:14:09.000 --> 00:14:15.200
all right, Love you, Rodney, fred What you got something else coming?

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Oh God,