Welcome into Clips and Dip, episode five of season two. I believe I
got that right off top black my new hat with the tags on, because
that's how the kids were these days. I'm Oudam Oslin. We got Will
Updike and Chuck Mockler here, the Triumphant, the Tripod. We're back and
we're live. So thanks to you guys who are watching us right now on
YouTube live. We appreciate it. That's at clippers podcast on YouTube. At
clippers pod on Twitter's where you can find a build this. Yeah, I
actually hold on, let me find that script I got. Oh no,
it's just this different body's back together. This is I mean, this is
probably the second best trio of all time, justin in all of trios.
Yeah, okay, I'll take that. Yeah, that's fair first best.
It's obviously a trio Dolly parton Linda Risa, of course. So you guys
are here because it's live today, and that means you can actually send us
questions and we'll answer them directly on this YouTube stream and Adam will be nicer
than he is on the radio. Right Usually I'm a meaner on here.
I'm a little more hornering and angry it's prone to lash out, but we'll
take all your questions. We can see him right now, Jesse says,
what's up, Fellas, that's kind of a question. What's up? Jesse?
Right back at you. Off to a good start with the nice man.
This is also this is a wonderful example of Adam not reading the Breakdown
because we have a bunch of questions from Twitter that we can get into people
breakdown too. I'm just making sure we get the hot take questions in here
also. So later on coming up in the show, we'll talk about a
clip that we posted at Clippers Pod on our Twitter and it was Coach Slew
talking about the regular season and discussion he had with superstars. Will get into
all that in the second segment. We did put a poll out there too,
talking about James Harden at Clippers Pod. But yes, Chuck, you
want to start things off with this wild mailbag of madness, so as we
like to call it, Yes, thank you to everyone who sent questions in
slow newsweek is all I'm want to say about the amount of questions we got,
which I think makes sense. There's not a whole newsweek fucking aliens man.
No one cares about that life is too hard for us to care about
the aliens. Militant mind four says, I think the Clippers should try and
go after a Zach Levine or Siakam instead of Harden. What do you guys
think and what would a package for either look like? Our last episode,
justin Russa was on, he talked his Zach Levine trade idea and he was
kind of all in with putting in draft apppal A and Terence man or Norm
Powell. With that, I do think between Levine or Siakam, I would
probably rather have. I think most people would rather have pass Kelciakam in that
scenario, but I think what I think it'd be another talking about I would
rather have Pascal. We need a guard? Are you most people? I
might be? So, what are we trading for Levine? Are you doing
the Russo all period? Yeah? Picks man Um, I'd like to keep
one like I would probably still like to keep Norm for some scoring off the
bench. Some durability question questions with Levine as of recent um and still not
exactly what Pascal's at UFA. Also after this upcoming season, I take back
what I just like, I didn't realize that was this contract, so someone
didn't read the rundown or do research. I never do research. I make
the rundown. I like. So Siakam is interesting to me because I mean,
obviously, if you're the Raptors, you're gonna want a lot. You
have seen them ask for way too much and then let players walk for nothing,
So maybe you could get a deal done there. With me, Pascal
is a little bit of a different calculus. Like for Pascal, I want
to send out one of our two forwards. We do not need three max
to maxish forwards on this team. It just doesn't make any sense from a
roster building. Like from a roster building perspective, I think that I think
that you got to get a guard in there, and I like both of
these moves. I'm gonna be pro any move, um that's it's going to
get this team younger. But I can for a younger guard absolutely absolutely every
time. Yeah, absolutely, I think anything that's gonna get this team younger
and more athletic is definitely good. But with Siaka, just with how much
money we're already paying to forwards, uh and and the you know the build
of two and three, to me, one of those guys has to go
out for him to come in like that that is kind of like that that
to me, it would be the crux of the trade. Um. And
I know that that's you know, going to be a down grade, uh
offensively from Paul Org. I don't think they're going to swap Kauhi back.
I don't know what he wants to go back, um, but to me,
like it just doesn't make any sense to go all in on a move
for yet another forward, like I just from a from a roster building like
perspective from you know, what he's going to command with his next contract,
Like I just don't really see it. It just doesn't. It just doesn't
really but like in the wrong direction, Like I know, you know,
it's just like swinging at a ball that you know is not going to leave
the park or like is not even you know, it is not even in
the strike zone to be perfectly honest, Like it's like like chill. So
that one, for me is is a noe. UM. But Levine I
think is interesting. I still don't know that he's the type of like guard
necessarily that really like fits um what this team is trying to do. I
think that, I mean, I honestly feel like Terrence is maybe like a
little bit of a better fit for how the Clippers have operated so far,
just in terms of like how he can to more positions. He's he's a
little bit more positionally adept than leaving movie. Not comparing the two players,
not by any stretching in terms of what positions they can fill in. The
one is like like all it like an elite score or all in yeah,
yeah, like level talent, and then the other is Terrence fan Um,
but I like it like I'm still I'm still kind of in on the hardened
move. Um. Still, I would still put that probably above either too,
both realistically, um, but if you know, if anything was on
the table, I do like the idea of any move that gets as younger.
So I do like the zach LEVI I do. I think I agree
with you on the thing of I'd put Harden above these two trades too,
because I mean, as is Adam, where where are you at on this?
What is the tag talking about attainability? I think Harden does make the
most sense because he's the one guy who seems to be hell been on getting
out of his situation and he wants to come to the Clippers. If you're
just talking about talent, Yeah, Zach Levine, Pascal Siakam, they'd obviously
be great additions, but it would take more to get them. You're going
to have to give up a lot more than you would have for Hardened,
for Harden, there's still I think a realistic possibility. You don't have to
give up Terrence Man or Norman Powell one or the other or both of the
first round picks. You're giving up a little bit less now. Even though
Pascal Siakam is an unrestricted free agent after this season, I think a lot
of teams if the Raptors made it known that they were willing to move him
now, would be in on him, and that would drive up the price
alone. Yeah. Absolutely, This is also a team Massiah Jerry's a great
GM. But they lost Fred van Vleet for nothing. They didn't make that
move. They wanted Terrence Man apparently from the Clippers for him. Regardless of
what you think of that, just the fact that they were willing to play
out a season with a guy who was about to be an unterstricted free agent
does kind of underscore who they are as an organization, how they want to
run things. So I don't know if they're exactly ready yet to move on
from Pascal Siakam or take whatever the best offer is now when they could still
wait for the trade deadline. But he'd be a great fit because obviously there's
a void at the four position with the Clippers right now. Hopefully there's quite
well. I think we're going to see some of this cleaned up by the
end of the summer where there's a clearer picture on who exactly is going to
be the starting four. But yeah, an upgrade and talent makes sense there.
Pascal Siakam has played next to Kawhi. Leonard won a championship. I
forget if it was Game one or two where he went off in the NBA
Finals against the Golden State Warriors, but kind of had his moment and he's
been good since then. He has been a first or second option since Kawhi
left there, so he's grown as a player. He's twenty nine, Zach
Levine's twenty eight. But Levine has four more years left on his deal and
that last year I think is for forty eight million, and that's a player.
Yeah, but oh loo for whatever the cap will be in realistic terms.
Yeah, tap goes up almost ten percent per year on average. So
everybody that's talking about Jayalen Brown, it's like you casual as you didn't know
he was getting that contract. Really remember when he was getting it? Yeah,
the biggest contract, you got one hundred and seventy or whatever. Who
the next guy who's due for a contract, will you serve the last biggest
contract? Ever? As long as he's in a certain tier. That's what
we saw with Jalen Brown. But Zach Levine, to me, has become
underrated. His athleticism almost works against him in the media with the narrative about
him just being a dunker. This guy, I believe shot thirty eight percent
is one year at UCLA from three. He was always a good shooter,
and he's only gotten better at the guy's been in league for how many years.
I'm making the point that it's not just that he got better as an
outside shooter recently he's been like that. It's just the spectacular dunks or what
everybody looks at the highlights. That's true, and the bulls haven't been exactly
good. So there's not a huge national spotlight on him. Yeah, I
would love any team that you coach, because you would just have a ragtag
group of kids who at one point shot well from the outside, and you'd
just be trying to get it back the little basketball. I want to bring
up a point about Pascal that I think is a really good call. Adam,
you kind of talked about how the Raptors can wait to make that trade.
One of the issues with the Hardened trade is that we all want this
to happen as soon as possible. We need as much time of this version
of the Clippers together before basketball starts to really get used to playing with each
other and all that stuff. I don't think if the Clippers don't make a
Hardened trade before the season starts and they make some big move at the deadline,
I think all of us and take a before the season starts Harden trade
to a maybe we'll make a huge move at the deadline trade, because like
that, that's just not enough time for this Clippers teem to get to where
it needs to be. I don't think. I agree. I agree,
and I honestly think with any move, especially with the Hardened move though,
right because he is you know that there's so much uncertainty about you know,
where he will be after next season, right, Yeah, I think that
it behooves you to do it before you come into the season. And I
think I've talked myself into the hardened thing a little bit even more so,
I'm still like, I still think you're you're in a weird position where you
have to ride the line, right because I think that you absolutely need to
make this trade so you can say, hey, we've tried every single possible
combination and a top to your talent, Like around two and three, we've
good of a guys, we're gonna get like we've literally we've done everything that
we can do. We you know, we've added you know, we we
win at it from the extreme depth perspective. We tried to speed things up
with you know, an older guard in John Wall that we could afford.
Uh, you know, we we got a deal and a resign on on
Russ you know when he was a buyout. Um. But I think that
this is the thing that's like he is, you know, the most traditional
of point guards who still has a great outside shot. He also you know,
plays at the type of tempo that the Clippers kind of like the play
at slow old old man. Yeah, and so I think that. I
think that on one hand, it's like this makes the most sense. But
on the other hand, I get why you're hesitant a totally because of the
draft capital that you have available should that become a you know, a factor
in an eventual hardened deal. And B because let's say it doesn't work right
Like let's say once, which is an entirely possible, the same thing happens
that always happens. You know, we don't get enough games out of Kawai
and Paul George, we lose someone late. I'm still not of the belief
that this Clippers team, with a new stadium open, is in a position
where they're ready to pivot away from this. I just don't. I just
don't really see it. Um So, I think it's it's a little bit
of a damned if you do, damned if you don't. I'm on the
side of let's get it done, but let's get it done for the right
price, and so if that means waiting, I'm willing to wait. But
the thing that I have reservation is just about like as a fan, as
a person, as a whatever podcaster is, I'm just tired of excuses like
I don't I don't want to hear if everybody like, like, let's say
everybody is healthy and there's a second round flame out again from the Clipper talent.
You're tired. I just like don't want to hear like, oh,
we didn't have enough time. It was this, it was that, Like
I'm just I'm just kind of tired of it. Yeah. I agree with
the point Chuck was making there originally of you gotta put yourself said, but
no, no, no, I like what you said about Harden being and
said right before that whole thing you were, you know, dealing with.
If you listen to this podcast, go ahead to rewind back like three to
five minutes, and I can't remember did you mention that Harden played at Arizona
State? I can't remember. If we're just position breakdown from ASU, dude,
like, are you even like what beardless that was his position. But
the point is I agree with what Will saying too, and that you don't
want to hear any excuses of this season not having enough time because time is
of the essence. They're running out of time right now. So if there
was ever a moment where you push things all in and try to get a
team together, in training camp with James Harden, it would be now,
not waiting till the trade deadline and then saying, oh, if we just
had more time with these guys later on, it can work out. We'll
kick the can down the road and say, next season is going to be
different, because we thought last season was going to be different. We thought
last season they were going to get off to a better start, that we'll
get into more of this a little bit later, but the regular season we'll
be taken more seriously, and they didn't. And it was the same situation
where there are a lot of moving targets. They were playing whack a mole
out there with the different problems they were trying to fix all the time.
The roster that came in, the guard situation they need to come in and
signing us and signing Mason Plumley gives you some continuity right off the bat that
wasn't there obviously till later last season. And that's great. But if you're
going to do the James Harden experiment with the two in three era, I
think it behooves you to make the move now and not wait too long.
And something else I would say to people who aren't interested in James Harden.
Is I feel like there's this disconnect where some fans are coming from the perspective
of we're okay, and this is a championship level team right now and we
don't want to disrupt that. It's not as if you know, bringing in
James Harden is a risk to taking away a contender because you brought in James
Harden. At this point, with the way the roster is, I feel
like there has to be some moves made here and there. So I'm with
Ja Russo. I asked him this last week, does Harden ultimately make them
closer or get them closer to a championship. If the answer is yes from
you, then I think you have to make the move, and I think
it is. I think he does bring them closer to winning a championship.
And I still think one of the best things that he can bring is giving
them an opportunity to bring Russ off the bench. If James Harden is starting,
there's a more likely chance that Russ is running the second unit, where
I think a lot of people would say he's better suited. So there's a
lot of reasons to do it, a lot of wills that we'll see.
We got a couple of questions. We got a couple questions. Get to
you. We're gonna talk about more James Harden stuff from the SEC. This
one I liked from Hovester nine. It's something we haven't talked about all offseason,
which does make sense. They ask, what is the expectation for Zoobots
this year? Do we need to see him take the step offensively? Are
you good with where he's at? Disregard the favorable contract for a minute,
which I like that that end piece. Where are we at on Zoo?
If we get Harden? Is it just more of the same. He's going
to be even less of a factor if we get a starting lineup of hardened
Russ KAUAI PG Zoo. I mean, Zoo's literally fifth on the pecking order
by quite a bit in that offensive option. I don't think. I think
we just want to see maybe a better percentages. Like I don't. He's
not going to be asked to do very much more so I'm not really sure
what his ceiling is right now. I do know that people will complain whatever
he ends up doing. I have high expectations for Vitza Zubots. I always
have but especially coming into this season off of the playoff, I think overall
poor performance from him against the Phoenix Suns, where all of us pretty much
unanimously we're thinking, oh, he can get the better of DeAndre Eighten.
May not be totally lopsided, but he played very well against him in the
twenty twenty one playoffs, and that didn't happen. Mason Plumley outplayed him,
especially obviously in that game five or Zubas didn't play much at all in the
second half, and big plum took over. But Zubots is turning twenty six
now, and at some point you just want to see more consistency from players
as they age, where the glimpses and the flashes of potential turn into consistency.
And what he showed us the first couple of weeks of the season last
year, when the Clippers were a top five defense and he was basically holding
it down as the anchor because not a lot of guys were playing that great,
but Vitza Zubats was making up for their mistakes on that end. I
would like to see more of that throughout the entire regular season. They were
still so much better with him on the floor. Defensively, they went from
one fourteen point nine defensive rating with him on the floor to basically be in
what would be the worst defense in the league without him on the floor,
at a one twenty one point two defensive rating. San Antonio had the bottom
defense last year at one nineteen, so one twenty one's pretty damn bad without
him. But he's still had his worst individual defensive rating for his career after
that hot start. Now he was banged up, he obviously missed games.
I do think, though, there's more untapped potential to a vitsa Zoo bots
in terms of just consistency, and I want to see it this season.
He's twenty six now, he's not twenty one anymore. He's not twenty two.
He's not just a guy who we think has this ceiling that will see
down the road. It's time for it to come to fruition because he can
really actually help this team by becoming a more consistent player, more reliable player.
And some of it's still on them, like getting him involved and keeping
him involved at times feed Zoo find him. But I'm hoping just the fact
that Plumbe is there to start off the season that stays that saves his legs
to a degree. Will I look back, he's bad. Yeah, you've
been just leaving this episode if you haven't been watching on YouTube. Will has
entered and exited in some form of another at least two times so far,
just two times. Well, the first one I had to turn off AC
it turned it off. It's it's hot as hell, but like at the
noise is it's loud. I have a like a well we couldn't hear it
aggressive air conditioner. If you want to turn it back on, go ahead,
and you might get reviews about it might be on the audio. You
know, I'm always caring about the audio. Of course, you're an audio
file. Um yeah, I agree with that. Him. Wait, where's
Zoo go to college? So one thing I like, Adam. I totally
agree on the consistency part. We love the highs of Zoo, but there
needs to be some consistency late in the season and things like that. I'm
excited you mentioned kind of like rust being with the second unit. Tyler loves
offense. Zoobots is going to be the starting center for the Clippers. I'm
really interested to see what Mason Plumley's minutes per game is with one part of
the big two one three, because I think that Zoo on the bench really
helps the defense a little bit, you know what I'm saying, Like,
obviously Mason Plumley does not totally help the bench on defense, but I wouldn't
be surprised if we see more Zoo with the second unit time and things like
that. Not saying that, like Mason Plumley will play more minutes than Zoo
with the first unit, but it'll be a pretty healthy dose, I think
because last year we had Moses Brown who was not going to see any time
with the two one three unit. There was that comment from Plumbly that was
kind of interesting for the team. Plumbly big plum truthers out there that thinks
that he should be starting over Zoobots, But they talked about competing in I
don't know if you're talking about training camp or preseason, but like it wasn't
a foregone conclusion. It felt like in his mind, I'm totally paraphrasing here
and being based it should play one on one whoever, that's how the game's
played, So it's just do it like that, Hikim and Chap one on
one game. We never got from before Opening night. That's how this team
kind of operates at this point. Let's see before the national anthem they play
one on. They do it at warm ups. Yeah, that warm ups
opening night. That's who the starting center is. They're playing harsh. It's
h A r S and say hrs. I'd like that edge though from Plumley
and that could he's a great bat. Like. I think there's a friendship
there or a good relationship and everything, but it's still a competition. You're
still competing for a spot and you still want to have I dangle that carret
a little bit to always keep guys as motor is possible. Competition is a
good thing, even within a team. I think the big thing for me
with Zoo like even it's hard to disregard the contract just because of where the
Clippers are at in terms of the cap. If not Zoo, then who
is kind of like like seriously like looking at them, like you know,
looking at the market out there. Maybe you know, trade for a center.
Maybe we pull the all switchero Hardens off the table, we end up
with embed ships Zoo on out of here. But I don't really see that
it's happening Um, so I'm not worried about him offensively, I think that
what he provides on the other end of the floor is more than enough.
Um. But just yeah, once again, like looking at the field of
of what's available out there and what the Clippers have to spend or like what
I mean, like, are you willing to give up assets for another center?
Like what is the upgrade level from zoobots? You know what I'm saying.
Like I'm not saying that there aren't better centers out there, but I'm
saying, kid, yeah, like what are you realistically willing? We just
prayed to shore up that position, Like if there was if the mythical center
existed out there that was better than Zoo on offense and somehow he could stop
yo could like a yoga stopper, Like sure, yeah, let's go for
it. Um, I just don't. I don't know that guy, all
right, last question before the break. This is from Clippers Meme King and
the person who made our wonderful background here on clips and Dip. If you're
watching this on YouTube YouTube dot com slash at Clippers podcast er, that is
there. That's all dangle. Eric l l WTF. Eric asked given Chuck
Mockler's huge affinity for podcast p which player on the team would you want to
see a podcast from and who would their random co host and gimmick be.
His example was Underground Uninterrupted with Lou Williams Live from Magic City featuring Ralph Lawler.
Well, that's the best one that you could possibly make, So I
think I would go with there's a famous photo that may or may not be
Kawhi Leonard or was a video of Kawhi Leonard. I would do a similar
thing, but with Kawhi and Zoobots live from Magic City called I guess we
would call it Zoo and the Claw is what we would call it, and
they would just be them kind of, you know, kind of a daily
update on what was happening in Magic City that particular night. I like the
idea of Kawai being the guy because while he doesn't talk much at all,
we hang on to every word he does say because of that he's a conic,
there's weight to his words. But I want to see him paired up
with the guy who brings a lot out of him that we know has a
reputation for doing so. In serge Ibaka Kawhi on his cooking show Serge right
now, free agent, I'm hoping. I mean, he's not gonna come
back. Man. No, the co host doesn't have to be an active
player, just okay, the main guy, right, the main guys Kauhi
co host Surge Ibaka because Kauh I also had the what A Do Baby while
in the car with Search. So I think that tandem would be a good
podcast. Well what are you going with? I guess I have two.
Um, one would be Russell Westbrook with either Ralph Lauren or Rick Owens,
and it would be called Ralph Lauren would definitely listen to that or Rick Owens
like I'm trying to think. I'm trying to think of the dichotomy of Russell
Westbrook and to me, it's an old white fashion designer. I love that
the podcast would be called Street Clothes. Even though Russ does play a lot,
he's not generally referred to a street close. Um, but you know,
they could they could call out bumbs in the NBA, they could do
they could do all sorts of stuff. It's a good idea. UM.
So I like that one. And then the other one would be Terrence Man
and h multimedia artist Jeff Koons and it would be called Yeah, it would
be called modern art, but with an F in like a little but they
get taking modern art. Yeah, well, Terence has terrible taste in art,
and Jeff Cone is one of the most divisive artists. I feel like
that'd be a really funny pairing. Those are great, Those are great options,
Adam. I don't want it to be about basketball. I guess it's
also what I'm saying, Just make a podcast, don't make another NBA podcast.
Want I want Paul George's podcast to be about fishing. I would love
Yeah, are you kidding me? I would actually I would listen to that
podcast. You guys still detractors on his podcast. I wouldn't call me a
doctor an I'm an active suppressor. I'm okay, fine, give me my
credit. All right, coming up, we're gonna be talking. We're do
kind of a throwback to the what you Say Wednesday Bowl for the old lockdown
Clippers fans out there. We got a couple of questions about Westbrooklyn and Harden
and then we're gonna get into Tylou on All the Smoke Podcasts, which is
hosted by former NBA players, which is a great idea. But first there's
ads coming up, so those have been too loud for you, go ahead
and turn it down. But after that we're talking James Harden trade options coming
up in three two one. All right, we are back on Clips and
Dip season two, episode five. Thank you for listening to us, Thanks
for watching us, which is something I never thought I would say in my
life. We are over at YouTube dot com slash Clippers podcast. You can
see Adams. He's very proud of his new hat. He's now he has
every tag on you guys see it was twenty did you keep the shipping tags
on that? Like? There's more tags on that hat than I've ever seen.
Um. So we asked Clipper Nation over on Twitter at Clippers pod.
I like it a lot more than the other one. You got. Wait,
which one? The gray one? People are hating on the gray one.
I don't like the gray one. I don't get it. People were
hating on it. What does it have to do with the Clippers? What
do you mean it's the Clippers logo? It's boring. Um We asked clipper
Nation over Adam So during the season, Adam had a fun time. But
I think Adam is seeing what offseason Will and Chuck could be like sometimes.
Adam, no doubt was going to read the breakdown for the first time halfway
through this episode, so we asked cliber nation on Twitter, what is your
biggest hold up with the James Harden trade. The options were including Terence or
Norm, including first round picks, including both Terence or Norman first round picks,
and then nothing send whatever. The runaway winner in this was including Terence
or Norm, and it was not Norm. Every single person who commented who
said they voted for this option said they would miss Terrence a lot more.
So it doesn't seem like people have an issue with trading Norm Powell. Including
both Terrence or Norm and a first round pick was second place with twenty eight
percent. Nothing send whatever was third place with twenty percent, And no one
cares about first round picks because eight percent of people took that option. Adam,
you just had to go do a rage walk and put on an uninspiring
hat. Design wise, what would you have voted for on this on this
option? Like, camera didn't pick up me and my own doors? No,
I don't know, dude. All your camera's picking up is uh,
cinder blocks and Ninja Turtles. Yeah, I gotta get this cleaned up over
here. Okay, someone on YouTube just said trade for Ben Simmons, And
I'm about to text Joseph Fry Award and see if that's his burner, because
that's a Joseph Fry Award want right there. The name is ghost. I
could Adam, where would you vote for on this? What's your bug a
boo with trading for James Harden? Well, I I think people just assume
it's baked in that Norman Powell would have to be included, and Terrence Man
is the guy that would be too far or too much to get up from
the Clippers side. And he's a homegrown player here. He's beloved his game.
Six thirty nine points is an old timer against the Utah Jazz to get
him to the Western Conference finals. We love Terrence Man. And he's also
on the much cheaper deal. So if it's not Norman Powell, then who's
being included to match the contracts of James Harden? Who's everybody? Nine points?
By the way, I thought I said thirty. He said go back
to college stats. But I'm gonna pull up a scantron here, slap little
to face. But I can understand the trepidation and the reluctance to want to
include Terrence Man. So it makes sense to me how the polling went.
Norman Powell is more of a mercenary type you bring in to get over the
top, to get your first championship. But they're both obviously very valuable for
this team. And if Philly can pull off the trade and bring in Norman
Powell, that's not nothing. I know Daryl Morey's talking about, Well,
if we're not getting another star player in return, then we have to get
a bunch of high draft picks and turn those into you're not getting called George.
Everyone keeps keep seeing Philly fans on Twitter, but like you just swap
PG for James Harden, Like the Clippers aren't going to do that. It's
posturing. Is the big beginning of negotiations. It makes sense that they would
be that staunchly against it right now, so they up the offer from the
opposition. But yeah, I don't want to see Man leave either. I
don't want to see anyone leave really, but you have to give to get
all kind of saying James Harden can make this team better and get them closer
to a championship. I don't want to see anyone leave. No, I
love them all. Who are you? Who do you want to see?
Marcus Morris? Jeez? What name? What do you mean? What do
you mean, dude? I want to see leave? Um? Well,
where are you at on this? Are you in the Let's not anybody?
Uh? We're a great team and we rule. Yeah, can't we just
absorb him into space? Yeah? Yeah? We trade cash for cash or
more cash or whatever. Um, I think since we already have Westbrook completely
different player obviously than Norm Powell, but I think we're bringing in yet another
guard. Um. I feel like Norm is like kind of he is the
one thing of value that we really include in that trade. And then I
mean the thing is just the difficulty of it being sort of a one year
situation, right. Um, So I think like Norm filler because they have
to take some salary off of our hands. Um, Tucker in and some
horrible like you know what I mean. Like, I feel like where I'm
at is like the Clippers pick the first pick that they can trade out is
twenty twenty eight, right, I think so might twenty seven? Um?
Either way, you know, long time for now, we still don't even
know the future of what you know, like Paul George and Kawai situation is
going to be with this team, I would say my best offer this is
like, this is my best offer, and it's it's norm a swap and
filler. That seems like a good offer, norm a swap and filler and
like and if the hang up is that it can't be a swap, it
has to be at first you say good. So like, I don't know
that I love giving up. I still don't know that I love giving up
at first. Not that the Clippers have drafted, you know, spectacularly well,
but it's just it's just one more It's I understand what you're saying.
It's just me. Yeah, it's going if we get over that double apron,
then you know, things get tighter with what we can trade. I'm
not even thinking about like the draft prospect um so much as you know,
like that's ammunition that you have if you have to do some sort of other
deal. Right, all right, So we got a couple of questions about
this. Trent Maddox, one of Adam's favorite people on Twitter, said said
in regards to pairing Westbrook and Harden. Are we just going to ignore the
part where Russ is back and Tie is still the coach? How is this
gonna work? So to Adam, when you were talking about you would assume
it seems like that when Harden joins the team, Russ would go to the
bench. I do not think that's a given. I would like to see
that. Okay, totally agree. I would like to see that too.
In your heart of hearts, does it seem like that would be the case
or does it seem like we're starting all of those guys and then potentially because
someone else asked if we should move Kawai and Michael Hannich asked, like,
you know, if we trade for Harden and we bring everybody on and we're
starting those five, move Kawai and PG down like a lot of people who
have wanted. I wait, you're saying start Westbrook and so before you disappear,
sorry Russ, Sorry you're saying to start Harden and Russ. So we
were just saying it before you left. But if does that see my headphones
on, hey you we couldn't see. We know what you're doing them there?
Um, does it seem like Ty would actually bench Russ? Or are
we getting two one three Russ, Harden and Zoo, because that's two different
things. I think we're probably closer to getting two one three plus Russ and
Harden. When has it worked for the Clippers with two starting guards when one
is a non shooter. I'm not saying that it's worked before. I'm saying
this is what we'll probably see from Tyler. I agree it hasn't worked,
like I'm not. You're not going to get me to argue that that.
Even if let's say those four guys started, two of them are going to
the bench pretty early in the first quarter to get them ready to come back
at the end of the first quarter, I'm gonna play his whole one like
in one of Russ or James Harden is definitely included there. But I just
think there's a better chance of Russell Westbrook coming off the bench if you have
the excuse of James Harden is in our starting point guard. Now agree with
that, and that is more meaningful than almost not than what James Harden brings.
Is what he brings a special too. But that's another way he can
make the team better. I think Russ with the second unit could be really
fun, could be exciting and could be the best position for him to thrive
at this point in his career, maybe always in his career, because I
don't know if you can have him, even at his best as the number
one option on a championship team because his up and down erratic style at times.
But I do think it works. You just have to know when to
hold him and when to fold him. With Russell Westbrook, you got to
know how to use him, and I thought at times the Clippers were very
good with him obviously last season and Coach Low not playing him in a few
fourth quarters and stuff like that. But yeah, I'd love to see a
starting lineup where maybe it is Kawai and Paul George moved up a position.
We've talked about this before, but the question comes down to is it more
physical for Kawai to have to play against bigger bodies out there at the four
position or is it more physical for him to have to run around the perimeter
more if he's playing the two or the three. And I'm sure there's data
on this and they can figure that out. I don't know they can figure
most players shift down a position, like if you play the three, like
It's like the natural progression is you shift down a position. Yeah, sure,
Jordan did it, Kobe did it at the very end. A lot
of guys have done this, and Kawhai is obviously strong enough to do it.
It's just about wear and tear, and putting the least amount of strain
on his body obviously will wear you if. Because someone brought in a good
point on YouTube, Starman said, if we get hardened, maybe Russ comes
off the bench. But do they all close together? I actually think I
might weirdly believe in Taylu on this one. He's gonna ride the hot hand.
But do you think if we're starting hardened Russ PG Kawai Zuo, it's
a bit of more on the unserious train than you'd like to be. Yeah.
Yeah, And I don't really know that that unit should be closing games
either, Like that's not that good defensively. It's like, you know,
I'm not really I just don't really see those for the expectations that the team
is supposed to be. I don't really see those two working together for long
stints. Like I think they can work in periods in time and like maybe
they can play with like you know, with tempos with with that's how they
end up choosing like who's bringing the ball up or whatever. I just don't
like the fit. Like we've tried multiple iterations of the fast non shooting guard.
Uh. You know, like I just know it just doesn't really work.
And you know, like while Russ, I do like the effort defensively,
like, let's just not a nine, Like that's just not that's just
not a great kinds of unit to close out games from, you know,
a team that already wasn't wasn't stellar outside of the first you know, eleven
games or whatever in that department. I do want to bring this up regarding
Russ and Harden on the court together when they played together in Houston, there
was about a two months stretch um the second half of that season where US
played. It was it was a su it was UCLA, it was it
was a fantastic This was the Russ in the fourth quarter to guard James Harden.
But Russell Westbrook put up some of his best numbers, some of his
best play in about a two month stretch with the Houston Rockets when they went
to that five out with him next to James Harden. He was averaging about
thirty three on fifty three percent shooting for two months, then had the quad
injury, took that with him into the bubble. Wasn't the same, didn't
play the full series against the Okasey Thunder. Eventually they lost the Lakers in
the second round. But for everyone saying they can't play together, I like
what Will said instance, it could work at times. Yeah, you just
have to know when that time is well. And the big thing about like
the difference between that and this is like those were the anchors of that team,
right, like either one of these players, like you know, if
Harden comes in, if Russ ends up being the starting point guard, yes,
they will be very important players. But ideally, you know, given
what we've traded, given what we've been trying to build around for four years,
they wouldn't be the anchors. And so I think trying to cater a
backcourt around those two where you have like Kauai and Paul George into more like
stretching the floor kind of positions, Like I understand that it could work,
and like there's there's definitely an argument for it to be used or employed in
certain stints, but as an overall plan, I don't really love that as
a focal point or a focus. The option should be getting Paul George and
Kwhi Leonard in the best spots for them to be successful while minimizing the amount
of time they have to initiate stuff on their own and keep that wear and
tear down blow so they can keep up two way play. So Paul George
said on the Tyres Halibur An episode of his podcast that he at this point
in his career, likes me were a facilitator versus dominating with his scoring.
Do we think that adding Harden would hopefully maybe get him to lean more on
the scoring side of things, because if we add James, we do not
need Paul George to do jack shit with distributing the ball in any kind of
I'm the starting point guard since and George was more aggressive with his offense once
Russell Westbrook came in last season, to his credit, wanted to do lay
off the ball more. It sure seemed to work. The numbers and percentages
show it, and obviously had his best season you can say, third in
MVP next to Russell Westbrook, So there's something to that. And James Harden's
definitely the more focused passer at this point, like he's more comfortable in that
role and it is just I mean, he can pick and roll with the
best of them all time in the NBA. I would love to see what
he and uh him is a random option off of PG and Kauai as like
a pretty fucking sick pick and roll. Did he ever play in his rookie
season with Kenyan Martin junior or was he already gone the year before. I'm
wondering James Harden, that would be an interesting pick and roll. But yeah,
James Harden is so elite as just more of a prototypical um floor general
out there, like that's he's always had it, but people saw always scoring
thirty five a game, like that's not who he is. Well, if
you look, he's also getting eight assists per game too. Now he's just
doing much more of that as he can't blow by guys as much as he
used to with that dribble drive move. It was here a three pointer step
back or just going right past guys or throwing a lab to a capello or
something. Yeah, that's a good call. Um. We're gonna see what
happens. Hopefully we get some news at some point about this again. We
all want to tap before training camp, so let's just pray that it happens
at some point before then coming up well in agreement that like for this season,
Yes, this is just this is the best move for the Clippers.
This is the best. Yeah, this is probably the best like arrow in
your quiver or whatever. Like I don't see a realistic like trade target.
I'm not really seeing another realistic option out there that is both fitwise good,
still high, I mean still high potential for failure. Don't get me wrong,
but like anything around this, this duo has a high potential for failure.
M sure that's fair. Also to Adam's point, James Harden, I
believe was there for eight games before he got trickie year. Yeah, not
before he got moved to Brooklyn. Yeah, but this is the year.
Will like that like this, but it's before some super crazy cap stuff happens.
Let's make it happen. And I can't emphasize enough for the people who
are like, no, he'll ruin things, ruin what like they haven't already
sucks? It doesn't suck. But do you think, as currently constructed that
this team has you know, a great chance of winning the championships. Sure
you can say if they're healthy, but does James Harden not help during a
regular season when one of your stars is out. We saw how Russ can
help in that area with the game he had against Memphis. James Harden could
do some of that stuff too. Absolutely can, And again we just want
some real news about it. Coming up coming up after this break, we're
gon be talking a couple of clips that popped up of Tyley one All the
Smoke podcasts. If the ads of a lab, you go ahead and turn
it down. We got All the Smoke talk coming up after this in three
two one. Hey, welcome back in the Clips and Dip your Friendly Neighborhood
Clippers podcast. Look, we've talked about James Harden. We took some questions.
We are live right now on YouTube and on Twitter, so we will
still feel some questions. If you're hanging out with us, go ahead and
shoot those over it. But right now we're gonna talk a little bit about
an appearance by head coach Tyrone Low on All the Smoke and Charles you have
some clips, so yeah, apparently play the clip clip clip. We have
to play clips, guys, it's in our name. He apparently the clip
click play click the space part, I should just play the clip that's rolled
up. Tyler has apparently told Kawhi and PG this summer that it's time to
take the regular season more seriously. Um, which, hey, great,
But the issue I'm not rolling the clip for those of you watching on YouTube,
The issue with that is how can they do that if they're hurt.
And this is not a knock on them, This is just kind of like,
if you're hurt and you really can't push it all the way and you
gotta get healthy during the regular season, that's what you have to do,
which leans into like you guys just talked about having a guy like James Hard
who can be that top tier talent when someone goes down and things like that,
Like I mean, I'm and we we're starting this season with like an
actual backup center that will also help us take the regular season more seriously.
But like we just it's really just ultimately how much these two guys can play
together. Like It's not like I don't think they take it incredibly un serious
now, but like I just don't know how much more we can get if
I mean, if they start the season healthy let's go, but we'll see
if that happens. Yeah, I mean, like I think it's I think
it's really tough because, like Alls pointed out, I mean, if you're
coming back from an injury during the season, I mean, you're just not
going to be at one hundred percent. I think it gets difficult to trust
your body. Um, you know. I do think that we see and
have seen historically with this team, like some less than inspiring performances even when
healthy. And maybe you know, maybe some of that does still come down
to not being like one hundred hundred percent but still able to play. But
I mean there's no way around it, right, Like I can play it
here if you want. I had it. It doesn't sound very good,
correct PG this summer, like we do got to post a regular season a
different way, Like we gotta be you know, post regular season, like
let's be serious about it. Let's not wait to the playoffs or yeah,
because it matters though who you get matched up with. I have a whole
point advantage not fight the last ten games of the season, so we won't
be in the play in So now you can get arrest, you know,
now you can Now you can get yourself together and be ready for the playoffs.
So they both understood that as well. Great clip. I just want
to make sure nothing was taken out of context. Guys, that was important
to make anything out of context. I don't know, I don't know.
They also mentioned half the man I can't I can't even look at that damn
hat. At one point they mentioned that it's like, oh, it was
the medical staff. So it's like, sure, like, I guess we
can blame that. Oh my god. Someone in the comments saying four guard
lineup with Morris at the center. Never again. Um, he wants the
Clippers to be at full strength, which I think makes sense. I think
I think that's all he's ever wanted. Literally, I think that's very true.
Adam, go ahead, you're going to say something in that hat.
No, as you're getting to. Ultimately, it's can you take the regular
season serious? When you know you're two superstars? It's pretty much built in
they might miss thirty of the regular season, And to that I would say
yes, because up until last year, I felt like they did even the
season before without Kauai year long, and Paul George missed a ton of games
too, I still felt like they were trying to win. They were going
out there. We didn't see a game like against the Cavaliers in Cleveland this
year where they played pretty much nobody. And there's been four years of the
two and three era, and last season was the first time I felt like,
Okay, we're not being serious enough with the regular season. They're they're
disrespecting it too much. And Lawrence Frank said as much afterwards, and now
coach lewis echoing that too. So I think you can't have that mindset regardless
of who is available and who is out there, you can still play to
win within reason. I think every team at this point in the NBA tries
to cut corners and balance things enough where they're not putting the playoffs in jeopardy
while also not putting their players in jeopardy from being too tired or too gas
by the time they get there. Everybody's trying to strike that balance, and
they paid for because Joe l Embiid wore down so much trying to go for
the MVP. I'd say I think every team. It's not just unique to
the Clippers. What is, though, is just the lack of availability from
their two guys so much more than pretty much everybody else when you're talking about
two of them being this injury probe. So I mean, like, you
know, whatever, health is what it is. I don't know how to
say, like, stay healthier, play more games. I mean I can
say it, but like, I don't have an answer for you. I
don't have a good answer. I think, like the most discouraging or disheartening
thing about last season was it felt like the supporting cast kind of at a
certain point hung their heads and we're like, well, I guess we're just
doing this again, and like I understand that too, but it definitely was.
It felt different, It looked different on court, the body language was
certainly different from players. So I get addressing this to Kauai and Paul George
because they are ultimately your leaders, and even if they're not the type of
vocal leaders or whatever, uh, you know that they can still set that
example. And I hope to see them set that example even in games that
they're not playing, because I think, like, look, I don't like
to over analyze this stuff because at the end of the day, I don't
know how much it matters. But like we saw some games last season,
KWin, Paul George, on the bench look pretty disengage, and I you
know, I'm not asking them to like bring up the clipboard or anything like
that, but like, if you can't, I don't want Paul George to
be called play if you can't be on the floor. I do think there's
something to be said at doing your best to like at least elevate the vibe
of the people there on the floor you want them doing Like yeah, I
mean he was a T shirt kid and Paul George at whose shirts the someone
had to join ROCO make them feel not as embarrassed for being only allowed to
throw T shirts. I also think when it comes to the regular season and
then every team, you know, having one eye on the playoffs, a
one eye on the president and the regular season at the same time, it
makes things tricky. But we did just last season see a team that was
the aced go to the finals in the East and a seventh seed in the
West go to the Western Conference finals. I don't think with the state of
the NBA, that were that far away from a team that is below a
top three seed winning the championship for the first time since the ninety five Rockets.
Like, I don't think that's out of the question. I don't think
you have to necessarily be a top three seed. I think it's going to
happen soon. I think soon maybe, but definitely not next year. And
that's the Clippers window. So for me, it's like, let's make that
happen. Anything else you want to bring up, anything else, just Clippers
wise. We gotta get off our chefs. Anything Adam knew had go fund
me for that or anything like that. Ghosts has a question for Charles.
I feel like, are the open positions for the Clippers every season? They
have performance analysis sports scign associate and strength and conditioning associate jobs available. Wonderful
question and Ghosts the answer to it. This question is yes. If you
go to the Clippers LinkedIn, they got a whole mess of positions available.
They're always looking for people. Be that for better or for worse. I
will say, compared to other professional sports teams, I seem to have fewer
job openings posted on LinkedIn. I don't know if that's actually indicative of how
many are actually open, but they're always looking for people, and I'll be
looking for a new pre app and post guy. You never know, hey,
they might I think they're they're will shake you on radio right now.
I'm just going to do this to do more than three a week if they
put his job up there. But yeah, they're they're hiring for every single
position. They've had marketing stuff on there for a while. I won't say
what I really want to say because I'll wait to see what the slogan for
the Clippers is this year and if it can beat give no quarter in the
passion that that brought out of the fans when that was revealed. What do
you guys want? What do you guys want the slogan to be this year?
Give us a break. We're doing our damn beath. I don't know.
You know what I wanted to be. I wanted to be the GTA
button combination on PS two for infinite health. That's what I want the Clippers
slogan to be. I like it. Adam all in, dude, I
will they have the T shirts made up. They're good to go, dude.
They can release that ship tomorrow. All right, Well, that about
wraps it up. We thank everyone. Someone said break a leg on the
YouTube channel, all right, the YouTube channel. I wanted to be shiver
me timbers it means nothing, but it's so fun to yell that's actually true.
I want that. So you want the rebrand to happen before the new
stadium. They're going full pirates. Yeah, they're going. Actually I'm with
that, dude, a pirate rebrand if you really want to make a mark
as a team owner, rebrand your team to full on pirate thing like the
Buccaneers, but the West Coast version or the Pirates and base the mute.
That's different. They're not actually pirate themed though they don't have like a pirate
they would be dope. The mutineers. Yeah, so we're mutining. Yeah.
So people are saying fun that they're leaving. Yeah, no, we're
just overthrowing. We're just overthrowing the government. The defectors. Yeah, the
defectors. All right, chivermy timbers. I'm gonna vote for that. If
they put that on a list. Can you imagine yelling that that'd be fun
as well. We just released his player or did he walk the plane?
Did he walk the play of course? Yeah? Yeah, they make player
releases fun. It's like a really dystopian team to play for. We're getting
off the rails. We are going to be back next week, hopefully with
the guest. Hopefully something more will happen with the Clippers and James Harden.
Who knows will If these wonderful people were going to review us or perhaps subscribe,
where could they possibly do that? Great question? Great great question,
new logo. We gotta get more efficient with the syllables on this. Yeah
you can. You can review us over on Apple Podcasts, also on Spotify.
We'd love to see some more reviews over there on Spotify. Haven't seen
enough lately, but whatever, will absolutely read your review on the air.
You can listen to us on either one of those wonderful platforms. We're also
on Google Podcasts. We're on Amazon Music, We're on Stitcher, We're on
deezer. Anywhere you listen to podcasts, you can listen to us there.
We're also over at YouTube that's at clippers Podcast. Go ahead, check this
out. You can see some fun names that we do and the things sometimes
you know, sometimes we do a good job with it, sometimes I'm lazy.
And also follow us over on clippers Pod. Yeah. Thanks, and
thanks for hanging out everybody on the stream. We appreciate Adam anything you want
to send these wonderful folks off in the middle of their Week two. Yeah,
we got one more question. I'm going to give away this hack anyone
who wants it. It's would you want this hat? It's you never warned?
Brand New Jay says Marcus Morris. Is okay, never mind, Yeah
we can get out. We're all right. We're out here. We back
next week. It is always let's go. Clips