What is going on? Clippers fans? Welcome to season two, episode nineteen
of Clips in dip your I don't know borderline every Day Clippers podcast. We
put some kind of content out of the multi day multi day Clippers podcast.
I am Chuck Mockler, joined by Adam Auslin and will you Updyke. Thank
you to all the new people who joined. If you're new to the Clippers.
If you knew this podcast, welcome. You can find us on Twitter
at Clippers Pod. You can find us on YouTube at Clippers Podcast. Today
we're talking I mean, James Harden's debuting against the Knicks. Everyone's mad at
us for talking about him in the offseason, and here we are. How
about that. We're gonna talk his misconstrued quotes. We're gonna talk some things.
Maybe we've learned about PJ. Tucker's spot on this team, the potential
starting lineup, as well as kind of just what they have to do to
get a win against a knixt team that New York fans seem kind of concerned
about. But before we get into all of that, my other two fantastic
co hoster here, will Adam, How are you fellas doing doing good?
I mean, I haven't even gotten a chance to really chop it up with
you guys about the hard and stuff since it happened. I mean, we've
been going back and forth in the group chat, but we haven't talked about
it. Huge move that felt pretty inevitable. But I think you know,
this absolutely puts an end to the Clippers need a point guard talking point right.
This is the best point guard they could have gotten, best point guard,
point guard available. Definitely the best point guard that they've had in this
era. So I feel like we can put that one to bed. And
you know that doesn't work out, then I guess we know that wasn't the
issue. Right. It's kind of funny to think about this point guard saga
if you think about all the true real point guards the Clippers have brought it
right, We've got Rondo, we've got Wall, we've got Westbrook bloodsoe it's
almost like horror movies. I thought the Blood was gonna do better, I'm
sure, but it's almost like horror movie sequels, Like now we're at the
end, like this is the end of the series, Like it's this is
where we are. Adam, how are you doing? I don't know,
there's still more screams coming out. I'm doing good requels. Is that like
retcon stuff or whatever. I don't know how that works. I'm just a
little bit salty. After Chuck reminded me how many people said stop talking hardened
this summer. I just would like the apology to be as loud as the
disrespect was. Is that right? All right? Yeah? I am a
very petty note I said I was salty, and you're getting too loud.
Your mic is blown out, your mic, he's fired up speaking of some
people who may be thought of as petty by other people. We have to
talk. The James Harden introductory presser, there was some misconstrued quotes, which
is not a surprise. I don't think the quote going around, of course,
was that he said, you know he's he's not a system. He
is the system if you look at James Harden's career, is not technically wrong.
But then when it was further brought out, it made a lot more
sense. The main points he talked about proving that he's, you know,
elite as an individual, he wants to fit with everybody. He wants to
make the championship run work. Will how'd you feel after the podcast, like
you said. We talked about it in the group chat a little bit,
but I was I didn't think it was going to go swimmingly. I just
there's it's not a position to succeed if you're James Harden with how quotes get
taken out. So wait, do you mean the press conference in general?
Yeah, or just the vibe you got. I guess like how you felt
after the press conference with well, I, you know, I, like
a lot of people. The first quote that I saw, I can't remember
if it was Malik Andrews or who who it was that that tweeted it,
but I saw just sort of the system quote, and that one kind of
worried me. And then I looked at the full context of the quote and
there was something like, you know, I don't need to go out there
and score thirty six every night, And that kind of gave me some John
Wall PTSD. But actually, in the group chat, you guys both reassured
me that, you know, James Harden is a lot better. Yes,
So that is is certainly reassuring. But I do think people went ahead and
ran with that one. You know, it's one of those things like at
this point in his career, you know Harden is never gonna shake that perception.
Even if he's urged, he's in, he's in like a lose lose
situation because I feel like even if the Clippers, who still aren't in the
upper tier of contenders, which is fair, you know, they haven't proved
that theyre I wouldn't put them probably with like Boston and Denver and those kind
of teams. But even if they like win a championship, I feel like
it's still is gonna be people are gonna think of it with an asterisk for
Harden. Like, I still just think that that's gonna be the situation.
And in terms of him being the system, I really believe, and I
do believe this that he hasn't gotten to be the system either in Brooklyn or
in Philadelphia. I mean, Charles, you and I talked as soon as
they made the trade, the Sixers Nets trade. I could not imagine a
worst coach for James Harden. I could possibly imagine a worst coach that pairing
that like, I just that pairing makes absolutely no sense. And I know
that Harden, you know, he gets crapped on for the way he lives,
the way he left Houston, But can we be honest. That team
was a joke. The team was a joke. When he left, he
was in his prime. It made sense he wanted to leave the Nets thing.
Are you kidding? Who wouldn't want out of that situation? You would
a player like you would a player. I know Kawhi and Paul George gets
shipped that they don't want to play. You legit had a player refusing to
play, really didn't want to play. Yeah, really, And that's when
his injuries started piling up because he's, you know, he's he's having to
carry a heavy load. Which like, man, you thought you were coming
there with two other stars. You thought you were coming there to, you
know, maybe be the third best guy, and instead you're carrying the team.
And then you know, you go to the seventi sections and you know,
I'm not gonna repeat myself on the coaching thing, but I can understand
how you would want out of that situation as well. So look, I'm
not gonna stand here in defend Harden, but I can understand some of his
part of these arguments. I like it. I think he doesn't have much
a good will with Clippers fans. Some Clippers fans hate Harden right now.
But oh no, Adam, if you're not watching us on YouTube, Adam
has changed his name to Harden Petty. I'm gonna go ahead and give you
the floor because it seems like you're hyped up. Do you really think I'm
the one who has control over my name tag? That's all you will?
You can't do that. Yeah. I like Will's creativity with it apologists versus
Arden Petty. Well, look, guys, I'll just play the audio for
you. This is what was No, I'm just kidding, uh the show,
Adam sometimes will blast an unrequited audio on the mic. Great great podcasting
and radio audio technique. So here's what he said. He was asked about
being on a leash in Philadelphia because he talked about that earlier in the press
conference, and I think it was Rachel Nichols who then asked him to follow
up with that, and he said, I don't think when I'm in a
leash, I'm not shooting the basketball every time. I meant like I think
the game. I'm a creator on the court, you know what I mean?
So if I got a voice too where I can go, Hey,
coach, I see this, What do you think about this? Then it's
like, Okay, somebody that trust me, that believes in me, that
understands me that I'm just not I'm not a system player. I am a
system you know what I mean? So somebody that can have that dialogue with
me to understand and move forward and figure out and make adjustments on the fly
throughout the course of games, that's all I really care about. It's not
about me scoring a basketball, scoring thirty four points. I've done that already,
So that's what I meant by it. To me that a completely different
light of regarding him saying I am the system. This is basically him firing
back a little bit at Doc Rivers, who's gone on this media tour and
has gone after James Harden, Doc Rivers blaming someone else. I know some
people are certainly not going to be shocked by that. I love Doc,
but I understand why somebody will want to push back and give their side of
the story, and also why you would want to be heard if you're one
of the greatest playmakers and basketball minds of your generation, with what you're seeing
out there on the court, do you not think Coach lou fits into exactly
what he's saying here, Coach lou will listen to him, and he'll also
be able to make adjustments on the fly. That's all he wants. That's
what he's talking about. He's not just being a pigeonholed into a certain role
with this team. He's going to be asked about the feel of the game,
what he's seeing out there, how they can take advantage of mismatches.
That's to me, the way to interpret this correctly from James Harden, especially
when he comes in late and says it's not about scoring thirty four points.
I'd have done that already. He doesn't care about that part of it.
That's very encouraging. Although for the haters out there, I do want to
say anytime James Harden has a bad game, retweet the stat line with the
Homestar Runner the system is down and you'll always get You'll always get like from
me. That's fair. I Also we're talking about docs comments too. Look
at Nick Nurse's comments about Harden. He talked about how he was in shape,
he was probably ready to play a game. Like Nick Nurse is good
with the media, but he never said anything that made it seem like Harden
was making things more difficult for the seventy six Again, I'm not you know,
I I understand I have my reservations about this trade too, but also
at the end of the day, he's here now. We can't do anything
about that at all. Ahead, Well, I just got to ask you
a question personally. How big of a factor do you think it was for
Harden in not playing a game with the seventy six ers, seeing uh,
seeing him travel with the guitar case. I love nurse travel with the guitar
case. If you think could have factored in and not wanting to play a
game for the Philadelphia seventy six ers, I don't want to be seen.
I don't know where Adam went. By the way, if you're he's back,
if you're watching on YouTube, Adam had to leave for some reason.
I would never if my coach had a guitar case that they brought on away
games, I would fly private. I would say I'll pay for this.
I don't want to hear him start a song on the on the plane or
anything like that. I hope that's I would be fully on James Harden's side.
You don't want to sing along the wagon wheel on the on the private
flight. I would, I would blushy that thing. I would. I
would destroy Nick Nurse's guitar. I don't think acoustic guitars should ever be played.
Is a hot take that people can come at me if they want,
But acoustic guitar should be banned, Guys, I'm just amazed, and hopefully
my mic is sounding better for those two. I'm trying to troubleshoot that behind
the scenes. Okay, hope I didn't butcher the hardened quote by it with
a huge echo or something like that. But how about this side of it.
For all those who are questioning the Harden move, how many of you
were saying the exact same stuff about Russell Westbrook. If only we had a
recent example of a guy who looked like couldn't change his game and then came
to the Clippers and somehow was a different player attacking closeouts. He's shooting damn
thirty nine percent so far on this season. Going back to last season,
he was a thirty six percent from the outside. I'm not saying either of
those are going to end up holding up, but if he's shot from the
thirty four percent or above that we'll be fine. That's all they're looking for
and taking fewer threes and getting other guys involved and just trying to make the
game easier for Kawhi and Paul George. Oh, and hey, guess what
all of you who said, oh, that ten game sample size though last
season with Russell Westbrook next to the two to one three connection, it doesn't
work. We had ten games of it, Well, guess what now going
back to the last six games of last season plus the first five of this
season with that three lineup trio, it looks way better. So do we
go off the ten game sample or the eleven? If ten was enough for
you, then I guess eleven should be even better. Right, because all
of a sudden, their offensive rating this season with those three on the court
is one hundred and twenty eight. Everybody kept saying, oh, that offensive
rating with RUSS, that offensive rating with RUSS. I said, it's only
ten games. Why are you putting so much into that? You guys know
it was a huge talking point, So now why are you so upset?
Though we've moved past RUSS rules. Now everyone's on board with us. No
they're not. They're not all on board with it. And my point is,
even if even for the people who are some of those people aren't on
board with James and saying the same things about James that they said about Russ.
So I think it's important to go back to how you felt about Russell
Westbrook coming into this Clipper situation and apply some of that perception or some of
that respective I should say to what's going on with James Harden. Now,
I think that's totally fair? Is it not fair? Y'all said ten games
with enough taken down the guard lineup are with right now? A lot of
people. I'm just look, I'm gonna I'm gonna make it as loud as
the criticism was if nobody else is. I'm gonna call out all the people
that said that ten games sample size was enough to go after Russ being next
to two, one, three and saying that the offense doesn't work. We
now have eleven games and it looks like it is working. Right, So
you're saying right, like right, of course? Like no, not,
of course, nobody was talking about this. They were all talking about the
ten game that looked bad, but nobody was talking about now we have eleven
games where it looks really good. That's what I'm saying, so, make
it loud, Make it as loud as it was about the ten games that
look bad with him on offense next to Paul Georgia Kauai. Right, yeah,
I keep it consistent, make it fair, all right, Adams want
me to go back to the rundowns that said that his offensive verny next to
Kawhi and Paul George. I'm not saying you're wrong. We've all said on
this podcast that we're on board with RUSS. Now you're acting like I'm being
a rational or where is this coming from. It's coming from a place where
throughout the summer the ten Games was brought up back in March, it was
brought up like so now I'm going to bring it up the same way with
the same amount of energy, with eleven game sample size. And for all
of you are out there saying, well context, Now, where was the
context in the first ten games with RUSS next to Kwahi and PG. You
didn't apply any context. Now people are saying, well, look at some
of the teams they're playing. Okay, let's go back to the first five
games they had. Who were those teams? Were they missing a beats?
Zoobots for those sure, but you didn't want to apply context then, but
now you do. That's just interesting. Yeah, that's where I'm confused.
The same people who are so loud about Hardened, a lot of them were
doing the exact same thing about Russell Westbrook. That's where let's do it right.
So let's move on from the Russ stuff because it's good now. And
let's hope the Harden stuff is good because I believe in the Hardened stuff.
So I just hope you're not too stressed about old stuff when we do maybe
have some news struff to be stressed about. If somebody is going to make
that a talking point all summer and at the end of last season that Russ
doesn't work next to Kawhi and Paul George because of a ten game sample sized
Yes, I'm going to call it out once we have eleven games that says
it does work. I think that's fair. You're going Twitter account by Twitter
account I have been, That's what I'm saying. I'm saying for Yeah,
the receipts all right. So if you don't think you can make this work
with James Harden, maybe check out what he did with Russell Westbrook. I
think this back to back. Also, if you're anti hardened, splitting this
back to back showed both games, even the win against the Magic showed where
James Harden helps. Kawhi goes what probably his worst shooting night of the night.
We still get the win, but you know, we need a little
bit of extra effort. Harden helps that game, makes it easier on PG
and Russ. That game against the Lakers, which probably a contender for best
regular season game of the year. It's a shame obviously the Clippers didn't pull
it out, but you can't pretend what did Tyler say he saw fifty three
minutes where he could use James Harden like these are. We were shown immediate
examples of how adding Harden helps this team, and now we actually get a
see it against the Knicks, which is gonna be a good time. Where
are we at on the starting lineup? La Murray projects that even when Terrence
comes back, probably it's going to be hardened Westbrook, PG, Kawai Zoo.
Is that a huge surprise? It didn't feel like I feel like people
are asking him. It's not available right now, so no, right like
people are asking this question, like are they going to start together? I
kind of assumed they were going to with tylu especially, you know what I'm
saying, Like, it's not that crazy. I do see the point of
it being somewhat problematic because both guys are ball dominant. But Harden can obviously
play off the ball much better than Russell Westbrook. His catch and shoot numbers
last season James Harden forty one percent from the outside on threes. Yeah,
I just and if you have watched this team and you know how Tyler operates,
he was gonna try both these guys at the same time, right,
Like we've seen him play four way worse point guards together. Why wouldn't he
play these two good point guards together. It's also about massaging egos and personalities,
right, Russell Westbrook has sacrificed a lot for this team. He has
played well. He has been playing well in the starting lineup next to Kawhi
and Paul George. But I wouldn't be shocked if we see different, a
different starting lineup by the end of this season than we're seeing early on.
When James Harden is in there totally and it's the closing lineup, right,
that's what we're all exactly gonna be looking for. Is who's going to actually
close this game? And Russ at times. We saw it in the Laker
game. Uh three turnovers three of us six came in that fourth quarter.
There were some tough moments there and that pasta Zoo shout out to La Clippers
film justin w on Twitter that past to Zoo like he drove straight to the
rim. He dumps it off to Zoo. There's three guys there. It's
a tough shot no matter who's there. There's just yeah, like there's there's
things that can help. By having another guy like Hard, it's just less
pressure on everyone else. Who's gonna be running point for the clips. Well,
what do you think? I still in bite everyone's head off mode?
You're afraid to say? Is pretty good? By the way, is Dale
in the house? Take that from data? I think I think it.
I actually don't love having both of them in the starting lineup. I don't
think that. I think if this is gonna work, Harden is already in
a position where he's gonna have to kind of sacrifice a lot. I think
he's gonna have to be comfortable taking more catch and shoot threes. He's gonna
have to be more comfortable like moving off the ball, initiating stuff without the
ball in his hands, and I think asking him to do that with another
point guard, I don't know that it sets things off on the right foot.
You do kind of run into a problem of okay, but then who
is the guy? And I think with no terrance, which we're gonna,
yeah, we gotta talk about that, maybe maybe you give Tucker a shot
at the at the I mean yeah, at the four he hit the two
next to Harden Harden. I mean, like, you know, Tucker,
the offense it's bad. Are you saying because we don't have Man right now?
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, I'm not saying with man in the I'm
not saying when Man returns to the rotation, but without Man, maybe give
Adam. Adam will keep that receipt. Adam will keep that CVS. Maybe
Tucker shot and it's it's sort of what we talk about on you know,
an old podcast that won't be named, uh the Gore tot Start, which
is we can say lock clip, No, it's a new era. It's
clips and DiPT baby after unhinged clippers baby. Yeah, you guys are losing
your damn But I think for the I think we take a step you know,
we're taking a step back with Harden defensively, you know, Russ at
least he's like a high effort guy. James can do some things well,
yeah for sure, Yeah, deflections, all that sort of thing. But
I think adding I think bringing in Tucker's bad asset, which is the defense,
and then adjusting from there would be my would be my thing, Like
he's maybe the first sub out. I want to talk about the Terrence thing
because this I feel like because of the trade hull of baloo, unless you're
really really following the Clippers and maybe uh in a perhaps unhealthy way, you
missed this part. Should we have an ad break at some point? Fellless,
are we get a couple of weeks? Keep the lights on? Or
what I got say in this segment, how dare you will? My god?
Yeah, Adam Adam Adam's hand is going to come into both of our
frames somehow and smack will and we gotta have to come right back. We
got to talk about Terrence Man and the recent news about his injury and what
that means for the starting lineup ads coming up. They have been a little
loud, but maybe that's fixed now. We don't know. Uh, but
we'll be right back in three two one. Welcome back to the clips and
dip I jumped off Adams toes on there gotcha. We're talking Terrence Man's injury.
I learned that Terrence Man had a podcast today. Uh, he talked
about his injury. He said basically along the lines of it was a pretty
tough sprain. He may have tore something. There's no confirmation on that at
all, but he's out kind of indefinitely. There's no definitive plan yet.
And this means that PJ. Tucker is gonna get a lot more minutes like
we saw in the game against the Lakers. I will say PJ Tucker on
the boards, love it, Love PJ. Tucker's effort on the offensive boards.
We needed that everything else offensively. If he's gonna be thrust in this
larger role because man is out, I'm a little worried about is it possible,
Like what he just meant, like when there is a sprain, there
are micro tears like we're not because if there was a feel none we don't,
but we don't know. There's just no timeline, which I think is
like there's not He's traveling with the team, but law Murray doesn't think he's
going to have any you know, we're definitive start or anything like that.
So PJ. Tucker will be getting time. Can we also say, just
traveling back to the Tucker thing, I mean, we are talking about a
guy who was a starter, would have continued to be a starter on a
team that was at you know, in the contender circle in the conversation in
the Eastern Conference. So I don't I don't know, like why shipping across
the coast. Look, man, I know that Tucker is not what he
was. He's thirty eight, he's the second oldest player in the I know
that he's not what he was years ago. I know that he's not what
he was even on the when he was on the Bucks. But there's still
you know, like it's it's only it's he's only one season removed from that,
right. I'm just I'm just a little worried about the offense. It's
all. I'm a little worried about. It's going to be a pinch,
it's not the whole. We just need these first ten games to go with
Harden, PG and Kawhi. You're worried about the offense, right, that's
what you're worried about. That's what I think. That's the great just with
PJ. I mean, you are right, but just with PJ Tucker.
It makes it harder lineup around Tucker than that. Like I just can't think
of one the center entirely and have him at the five. But I don't
think that's we'll start with. Let's not even get into that argument that's going
on on Twitter right now for Clippers fans. Some people think we should start
small, which you can't start it doesn't It just literally never well for remember
when Marcus Morris was taking jump balls when he was good at basketball, Like
it was bad even then. I just and I also think that Lakers game,
what a tough position to be thrown it. If you're PJ Tucker,
your first start is against the Lakers. And you know what I thought,
down the stretch he looked a lot better. The boards were huge, and
I talked about this. He was one of the few guys who could cover
somebody without picking up a foul too. Five of his rebounds were offensive rebounds
and he had one off a miss got it out to bones. He would
miss a three point or two that could have tied the ball, I thought
that one was money. Yeah, Bones just had an off night, as
did Norman Powell, partly maybe because one of the effects of them not having
their former lineup and their forwards and also not having James Harden yet coming out
of the trade move. Was Norman Powell from the six minute mark of the
third quarter, played till he fouled out in overtime, played over twenty straight
minutes on the court. Yeah, and I was surprised by that. So
if you're thinking of guys they were missing, like Terrence Man is soaking up
those minutes, that would have been the guy even without James Harden in that
game. If they just had Terrence Man, I think he would have been
huge and very impactful. Maybe Kobe Brown gets more than five minutes, who
knows. You know, some are saying I only played in the first half,
you got Chuck, I get it. Hey, if you want to
go off about that Bill for Solid, I will say that, No,
I don't keep receipts. No one should keep. You do on me with
John Wall But I guess, uh, well, that's a funny bit.
That's a funny for from Three's a funny bit. Yeah, it which is
like the Cripkeeper but even bit like more petty. I guess give me the
yeah. Okay, so we're talking Clippers Knicks on Monday. James Harden not
official debut, but everyone is saying that that's his probable debut. He played
in the classic La Clippers Stay Ready game with the young Players per Tylou Today
the Knicks, Adam, you're doing the show with Andrew Claudio. I feel
like this right this Sunday, Yeah, Knicks film School. I think it's
called Yes Knicks Film School. Knicks fans are uneasy about their team right now.
They play the Bucks the night that we're recording this. H R.
J. Barrett has maybe been their best player on both sides of the court.
Jalen Brunson not really efficient, he's volume scoring. Julius Randalls shooting twenty
seven percent on the season, And I will say, if he has a
bad game against the Bucks, I'm a little worried about Monday. I'm worried
about how he might bounce back if he has another shitty. So Will's point,
they may need more size against the Knicks. They may need PJ.
Tucker to play the four. Yeah against the Knicks. Now, and I
wasn't when we always talked about this summer getting Kawhi Leonard and Paul George to
move up positions and play the three and the four more often. My idea
behind that wasn't so much as related to yeah, because you have to have
Russell Westbrook and James Harden the backcourt starting backcourt. At the same time,
I was thinking more about Terrence Man next to either Russ or James, not
both of them back there. But it's easier said than don especially you know
Russ. He took four million dollars to come back to this team, and
he's done all these little things to help this team, and now you bump
the lineup. I'm sure three bucks. Yeah, I know. Yeah,
I'm a huge fan of PJ. Tucker. Like Will said, he's not
the guy he once was, but as in situations, in certain situations,
as a specialist out there, I think he can help you, especially when
you have Harden, PG and Kawhi already out there to handle things offensively.
People complain about he's he's turning down three pointers now and he only took one
against the Lakers and missed I think one shot. I believe it was a
three pointer. Those corner threes aren't coming as frequently, even though he's always
shot very well in that spot and did just this past year with the Philadelphia
seventy six ers. I'm not that worried about his offense and actually being a
threat out there. I know that could mean he hurts you with floor spacing,
but it may be a situation on this road trip where you're just needing
bodies in a veteran presence and a bigger guy, especially against the Knicks.
That's where we're at. I think right like we're shorthanded again. It just
kind of as we always are. Losing Terrence is huge. The Clippers shooting
from three has been insane. They're shooting forty two on thirty five attempts per
game, which is like right kind of middle ground for the rest of the
league PG fifty on eight three point attempts per game, and Kawhi is it
forty seven percent on seven three point attempts per game. I hope this keeps
some semblance up against the Knicks. I would love for this to continue.
It's depressing that they lost that game where two point three had one of their
best games ever as a duo and they just needed a little more hell from
somebody else. It was them two russ scoring, but was just nine to
twenty one. If Bones had his yeah, if Bones had his typical night
from what we've been seeing with him as a Clipper, they likely win the
ball game. It was that simple. Sure, yeah, Well, and
normally us both had ineffishing games. They were both like forty four. Paul
George was heroic in that fourth quarter. Guys twenty points in the fourth,
the three field, the three free throws, down nine with about two minutes
left. That was unbelievable. That would have been one of the ultimate Clipper
comebacks, and we've seen a lot of them. The thing about the Clippers
too, in this Knicks game right now, points off of turnovers is kind
of a weird stat in the NBA. The Clippers are first with twenty two
points per game off of turnovers, which hey testament to want to run more.
We love that, we love the offseason stuff. Being true, the
Knicks are eight and they're scoring nineteen a game, so we're right there.
Points off of turnovers. If the Clippers can be better than twenty first in
the league in turnovers against the Knicks, I like our chances a lot in
this game. It's a fair point. You mentioned them pushing the pace.
There was a play early on the first quarter. Yes, Bones had an
off night, but one of his two buckets was him going one on two
down the left side of the lane against Anthony Davis for a little scoop lay
up around him. That's just one of the things I love about Bones,
just fearless, like he doesn't care. One of the best defenders in the
league. They don't have an advantage, and he just took it to the
basket because they're preaching get out and transition and run and try to get some
easy buckets that way. And I'm not sure what the knicks pace is.
Let me look it up. Real quick. Pace is kind of a weird
stat I think this game that would make sense. I'm just looking to see,
like what the roadmap is going to be for these three sort of playing
together. And it's really interesting because this matchup, I don't know. This
matchup I think is like the right amount of difficulty, but we create some
unique issues. Weird. They have some size and some things that can kind
of throw us off. And plus Brunton is like just a difficult guy to
stay in front of so I think they'll be tested on both ends of the
floor. But it's not like it. You know, it's not an insurmountable
matchup. It's not a Denver or something like that. It's a it's it's
it's a good test of the waters. And you know, you're not expecting
a whole lot from game one, but just seeing that people are sort of
on the same page and we can kind of see you know, you talked
about what you have in the notes here, it's like sort of smaller guys
like bones screening for Kawhi, and I feel like that's a rough that's like
the rough draft of if we can see Harden do sort of those things like
if we can see hard and set an off ball screen, if we can
see Harden take a catch and shoot three. I feel like that's really good
process. And you know that that's all you're looking for, That's what I'm
looking for. I want just a just a even a glint of cohesion,
a glint of this looking like everybody's on the same page. Everybody know what
knows what they need to do to make this work, and they're willing to
do that even if it doesn't look great out of the gate, Like I
just need like it to look like a baby step in the right direction and
they should win this game. Also, let's not like no disructor the Knicks,
but the Clippers are in a better They're playing better basketball than the Knicks
are right now. So I love that point too, Like this is a
nice scenario to get everyone, but not, you know, it's not a
walkover. It's not it's you know, you're not gonna you're not gonna walk
in yeah, Like you're just not gonna walk in there, and like,
you know, like waltz out with a win. Yeah, especially because in
they're one really true road game in Utah, they didn't look great. I'm
interested to see how they start this road trip, uh, and if they
can apply those same principles we've seen at Crypto dot com where everything they've been
talking about during the off season has come into effect there. But the knickser
I believe twenty eighth offensively and second defensively. Uh. And it's only a
handful of games. That's so fun. I love I love an end of
this both ends of the spectrum team. They're also just quick up a twenty
seventh in pace so yeah, and the Coppers are what sixteenth in pace,
the middle of the pack. To me, it's one of those games where
when you're making adjustments with top end talent and you're not taking on a top
five team in the league, one of the best teams in the league.
Granted, team that got to the second round last season, and they have
a lot of continuity. The same guys are back, but there's gonna be
wonky possessions, there's gonna be miss cues out there with Harden for the first
time, and you just need your superstars who have been there for a long
time in PG and Kawhi, to raise their level of play when they have
to and overwhelm the Knicks with just having more talent, Like it's not gonna
be It may not be pretty at times, but when they need buckets like
Kawhi and Paul George just need to continue to play the way they have so
far this season, where they have looked spectacular. I mean, we will
go as far as those two take us. You kind of talked about it
maybe getting a little ugly. This NIXT team plays very slow. They grab
a lot of rebounds. Their second in defensive rebounding percentage, fourth and offensive
rebounding percentage and second in total rebounds. So it's not some fluky thing.
They're getting a lot of boards. Clippers middle of the pack, twenty first
in total rebounds. We saw the second chance points being issue against Utah and
seeding these possessions and things like that. That is where the Clippers get in
trouble in this game. If things don't go Are they still starting PJ?
Are they still starting excuse me, Mitchell next to Julius Randall in their front
court? Because if that's the case, I don't mind that matchup for PJ.
Tucker on Julius Randall at all and big Zoo on Mitchell. Yeah,
they're starting. I mean they're pretty much just starting Julius Jalen Brunson, Mitchell
Robinson, Quinn Grimes, and RJ. Berry. Are those who are like,
oh, well, PJ. Tucker's wash. What are you guys talking
about? He hardly ever scores, It's never really been his game. Are
those receipts I see seats coming? Sure many guys have been rejuvenated in a
Clippers uniform. When are we actually going to sell people on hate? It
seems like they got a culture over here, guys, it seems like players
like coming here and thrive and play well next to one another. Nicholas Batoom,
Reggie Jackson, many thought they were done. They had some of their
best years with the Clippers. So I don't think it's out of the realm
of possibility that PJ. Tucker also looks revitalized on this Clippers team to some
degree. I don't think he can play them thirty five minutes all of a
sudden anything like that, but situationally, I think he can help. Who
are we looking for a will? What's a Clipper who's not Kawhi, Paul
George or Russell Westbrook that you're looking for to make you help us in this
we get to look a couple of days off, which is nice. In
this this first East Coast trip, it's gotta be Adam's guy, the guy
who the guy who is single handedly responsible for the for how far the Clippers
go on time. Gross mischaracterization. I have said he is somewhat tied to
their ceiling. I have and I do think he is one of the keys
to this season, especially as Chuck always brings up seventeen games of March like
with this schedule, being this agree, I'll even with James Harden. I
still think Bones has to find minutes. If you're talking about pacing yourself during
the regular season and not playing guys that are over extending them too much,
then Bones has to get run out there. I know they have all right,
so sorry, but Will said Bones for this next game? Who are
you picking for this next game? Who's not Bones high or Russ or choir
PG. I guess I'll go with PJ. Tucker. I'm stealing that from
Will Bones for me. I'm stealing his idea about PJ Tucker starting all right,
that's fair, I'm going uh. I think James Harden does a very
James Harden thing and maybe has a really good first impression. I think James
maybe has a good game, and there's a little bit of showcasing going on
by the Clippers, which I'm okay with make him feel a little comfortable.
I think he has a good game in his debut. Yeah, it sounds
like he looked good. Bit of a low blow, but everybody's talking about
the shape he was in. I pulled something from Tyrese Maxi. By the
way, last night I put her at follow out of May on X,
But he was talking glowingly about just what a good teammate James Harden was with
them when he was there at training camp and not getting in the way and
still helping guys and playing hard when they did practice. And it seems like
he's in better shape, coach lu said earlier today than they expected him to
be at this point. Well, he had that training camp in Colorado.
He like rented a cabin and was doing the rocky thing. Wait when Yeah,
Harden like rented a cabin in Colorado and had some crazy offseason train anything.
He was walking through the snow with tree limbs on his back like he's
ready. He's ready for the He's ready to go to Denver for a playoff
series. Yeah, he was in Butte, Montana working out. All right.
Coming up, we're all predicting a win. Right. I'm feeling feeling
I said, we split the back to back, but I'm feeling pretty good
with this rest going to New York. Yeah, I like it. Good
vibes. Well, yeah, I'm feeling good, feeling good. All right.
Coming up, we're talking the mid season tournament. The Clippers City Edition
was finally revealed. We have to give a shout out to the Clippers Meme
King. But there are some ads coming up. They've been loud for some
people. If that's been the case, we go ahead and turn it down.
Ads coming up in three two one. Welcome back in to Clips and
Tips season two. I'm at a Mason. We got Chuck Mockler and Will
Updyke here, and as we said earlier, we appreciate all the new listeners.
I don't always get this upset, but when I do, you're gonna
hear about it. I've been waiting for that one, so I guess just
wait for a twelve. Well, look, I don't believe in either of
them. It's not enough. But if you believed in ten, I guess
you gotta believe in eleven games, right, get enough? So let's talk
about something that has people more confused. The mid season tournament. I guess
it's starting soon because they want to compete with the NFL. This is a
dead time typically in the NBA. Well, look, normally people complain and
say the NBA doesn't start till December, doesn't start till their big tip off
is on Christmas Day, where they get the whole day to themselves. That
doesn't even happen anymore in the NFL, I think has been getting a game
or a Christmas Eve game, so they want to draw more eyeballs and marketing
wise, Look, the bar is it'll be a little bit more exciting than
you normally are at this point in the regular season. That's all they have
to do. So I don't I don't hate it. I really don't.
I Visa Zoobots was talking about it, like yeah, I mean he's yeah.
So a few different guys have been like, oh cool, we're gonna
play for something else. I like these courts. Kevin Durant. They probably
did some selective editing there, but other guys seem to genuinely be interested in
the different configurations and color patterns for the courts out there. Yeah. I
said on here that I didn't think the court was going to look that blue
in person. I'm retracting that statement that court is going to be blue as
hell in person for the Clippers. Will you hyped on the midseason tournament?
I think it's kind of nicer process wise, we're gonna play these games anyway.
I'm I'm in the same boat as bones. You're confused. I don't
get it. So it's the regular season, but it's also mm hmmm.
You know, I know, like a ton of other sports leagues do this.
I just don't watch them, so I don't really gets It's it's five
different uh groups of pool play per conference, and then each conference also gets
a wild card team, so four teams per conference end up going to Vegas,
eight teams, and then it just whittles down to the last two and
that's the only game that doesn't count. That's game eighty three for those are
the only two teams that play an extra game. Wait, that's part of
the that's part of the Cup. There's like a whittle competition. They got,
Yeah, you make it post, you make whoever can make the best
representation of the turtle that Earth's on the back of. All I can imagine
this thing is like it from Major League when they're like ripping the when they're
like the things off the cardboard cutout of the lady, and that's what I'm
imagining happens for every win in the mid season tournament. But it's also a
regular season, I think. But that's also the cutout of Steve Balmer.
It's a Steve Balmer gang of a shirt and they're going and they're ripping off
like a shoulder. Yeah. I don't know if it's going to be as
successful as the plane was, but everybody criticized that to it first, and
it's then we got a game between the Warriors and Lakers and the plane and
everybody loved it. It was that simple. So yeah, that makes it
just like makes a little bit more sense to me. I think. So
here, here's my only issue with the mid season tournament. I get that
they're I get that they you know, they want viewership up. They're still
trying to somehow compete with football, which I just don't think that's really going
to happen. But my issue with the mid season tournament is like, what
does that mean to someone who's not already very into the NBA, Like,
what, like what kind of draw is it? If someone was at a
bar or to tell you, you know, this regular season win is actually
a part of the mid season tournament and this moves the them in their group,
which was pulled from a pot based on different records. And again,
dude, if someone told me that at a bar, I would throw up
and I would leave. All the NBA cares about is that question? What
is the mid season tournament that is enough. The bar is that low that
it just peaks interest to find out what it is that's enough to make a
difference. They're not. It doesn't mean they are all of a sudden gonna
take over the NFL. NFL is king. Don't let perfect be the enemy
of good. It's just if the ratings are slightly better because of this n
season tournament. That's a win for mid season tournament, everybody. There's costumes.
Winner of the three game series. You play a three game series against
a Pacific Division team, all right, I'm a winner gets to choose the
losers costumes that they have to wear for the next three games. I think
it's more NBA spooky seas. The Clippers City Edition jerseys were finally revealed.
Hey, here's an update. Uh, here's what's new that we found out
based on what I looked at. Nothing the other merch I think looks really
good though. There's a there's a gray sweatshirt that just says Clippers basketball and
it's what's the name of the artist against Charles Jonas. It's the Jonas Wood
basketball design. I I could, I can. I'm probably gonna buy that.
I can see myself buying that. Okay, okay, yeah, it
looks good on the players. Uh, but no, no backstory other than
than he's a season ticket holder and he took an inspiration from the nautical theme
from the seventies and eighties Clippers jerseys, which is fairly perceptible. It's barely
perceptible. You're not wrong, it's very If they didn't, if they didn't
send a print out with like, oh the little piping on this is an
homage to the nautical San Diego Clippers, I would have no fucking idea.
My argument was, if your jersey's complete backstory can be figured out off of
a leak with no missing details, it's not interesting enough to be a jersey,
a special edition jersey, especially with what last year's. Let Eric design
the jersey. Just just yes, Steve Bomber, you have the money,
figure out a way to get the in and out jerseys. Yes, Eric,
we have to give Eric we a shout out for the drawing. He
did yet another drawing for Clips and Dip. It's over on Twitter. We're
gonna use it. We have it as our profile pick. We also might
have it as our banner. We got a really good crop of what it
looks like is the banner over on Twitter dot com slash at clippers pot.
But he makes the good vibes jankie drawing, go follow him on ideas.
He also makes very legitimate like all sorts of He makes the spectrum of art.
Yes, Adam, you have looked like No, we should make that
like part of our crusade to make sure at some point he gets to do
one of the alternate jerseys in some year he should make that. I mean
podcast he's given hats to Paul George like they wear his hats on podcast p
Like, it's kind of to me, like why no team has like done
an official They've done merch, but they haven't done an official NBA paint jersey.
And I just don't know why you wouldn't write it. It's fun.
It'll see. We're gonna be back, I believe with a double dip on
Monday. If Adam will let one of us on the radio again, we
could do that, depending on he's gonna be too busy talking about the sample
size. He's gotta yell about sample size to every caller. He's pretty booked.
You guys are more mad about that than people who are hypocritical about it.
I'm just trying to shed some light on it. That's all just about
it interesting. We'm gonna try and do a full time podcast a week.
Just funny. Could be the move, uh, Adam, can we get?
Can we get a positive thing to say? We're also well, where
can these people find us or tell their family to listen to us? It's
holidays, you're gonna have to talk about something Michael talking about. Yeah,
so you can listen to us anywhere you get your podcast. We're on Spotify,
We're on Apple Podcast, We're on Amazon Music, Google Podcasts. Like
I said, anywhere you listen to it, we should be there. If
we're not, let us know. Go ahead like and subscribe. If you're
watching this on YouTube if you're not yet, check us out. That's YouTube
at Clippers Podcast. Yeah, we bring you the viits multiple times a week
and you can chop it up with us at any point over on Twitter.
That's at clippers Pod. Adam, I kick it to you. What is
a positive thing to send us out on on this fine Friday. I'm just
a big believer in coach lou making things work and putting guys in a position
to succeed. How many times do we have to see it? I just
Harden isn't John Wall who just unfortunately didn't have much left. James Harden still
has a ton. He's not coming off an achilles a freak achilles tear.
Yeah, and his playmaking. I think people are gonna be shocked because most
people just you know, kind of put him in a box and say he's
the dribbler and he just wants to play one on one isolation basketball. I
think you are going to be pleasantly surprised when you see some of the dimes
he's chopping out there for the Clippers. Pleasantly surprised by the dimes. Always
a good time. We will be back with y'all soon, and as always,
let's go clips.