What is going on? Clippers fans, Welcome to season three, episode six.
I've lost track at this point. We've had a lot of lives.
We've got a lot of things going on here at Clips DIP. I am
Chuck Mockler, joined by Adam Osland and William Updyke. We've got a lot
of good stuff for talking today. We're talking Summer League. How impressed you
are so far with Jordan Miller and Kobe Brown. Some zach lavine stuff and
some roster stuff as a whole, and of course all the into it reveals
and dips. But before we get into all of that, will Adam,
how are you guys doing? I went to the DMV today. Hey,
if you respect the DMB and give it the proper if you you get uh,
you get what you give with the DMV is all I'm gonna say.
Did you, sympathizer? Did you pre select the appointment? Because I feel
like if you schedule an appointment, it's really not that big of a deal.
If you're showing up and uninvited, you got some problems, That's what
I mean. I set an appointment. It was for one forty. I
got there at like one thirty. They saw me by one thirty five.
I got a temporary. I d think I was out in fifteen minutes.
This is the Hollywood DMV. That must be why they have the reputation they
have, because it's just shuttling through people. And I'll give it this.
The DMV has gotten better over the last decade. I do feel like it
used to be much worse. Yeah, when I got my first license,
it took forever preappointment. Sure, but we could talk about the DMV all
day. Adam, how are you doing? You've been doing all these Uncle
Austlin Summer League sessions. You've been in the lab as the kids say,
Well, be in the lab some more Sunday and Monday. Should the Clippers
make it that far into the tournament, it looks like they'll at least be
in the final four teams. But I definitely plan on doing a lot on
Sunday. If when do you find gentlemen want to join me after the game?
Uh? Playing somebody semi finals? Maybe they're rolling their way into the
semis as Chuck as, do you have a are Vetus Sabonis Lithuanian shirt on?
Yeah, my mom's side of the famous from Lithuania so I have one
of these shirts that's a bad ass. That's not why you haven't how someone
bought it for you from a vintage story. Well yeah, but my parents
are Lithuanian, so I got it wasn't passed down from your Oh that would
be I would have sold it had it been an original was someone's ass,
like the watch and pull fiction. I have this hat because you know my
dad he wore hats. There you go, that makes sense the hat.
How are you doing? Well? It's not because I bought a hat at
a store with your FBI nondescript hat. I like a blank hat. I
like a blank hat because I feel like your other options are a brand,
which most hats aren't that cool in my opinion, or a team hat,
which is great, but I can't really wear it to work. So I'm
good. I'm having a good time. It was hot. It was hot
shit out today. I am very tiny. Dog is just doing okay though,
Okay, glad that Louis is doing okay. It is hot as ship
and it's only gonna get hotter. Speaking of hot, the Clipper Summer League
Team four and oh Dante Jones got the guys playing with some good defensive mindsets.
The two I mean standout guys in terms of like actual maybe playing NBA
minutes our Kobe Brown and Jordan Miller. Jordan Miller's been fantastic. This has
been the best possible summer league for him at this point, right, Oh
yeah, because he proved Game one wasn't a fluke. He consistently has been
very good on both ends, whether the three ball is available or not.
He's getting downhill, he's getting to the free throw line, he's forcing the
action, he's putting pressure on the rim. He's just been relentless with his
aggression. Now. Law was writing some good stuff about the handoffs they're using
with Jordan Mill. It's allowing him to show what he can do when he
gets into the paint and things like that. And he mentioned the deceleration,
which is very interesting when you also think about he's on a team with someone
who is like the best or at one point was the best decelerator in the
league, which was James Hart. Good On Law I mentioned that after My
Life on Fair Night. Uh No, the deceleration is real. That that
is kind of the uh I don't know. One of the telltale signs of
the development of a young player is little stuff. I think like that.
I think that's truly what shines about Jordan Miller. The attention to detail he
talked about. You know, I think Justin Rousseau had an article about him
too. What what Rousseau French French, Canada's finest Uh. It's something he
started working on after guys were successful against him with it said, I did
to add that to my bag and you can see it. It's been it's
been really cool to watch the progression of Jordan Miller. And he's got the
no dip threes. He's hit a couple like batoom esque threes, which will
I feel like, like the twenty five point scoring is great, but also
seeing him do these things that would be called upon in like actual NBA game
situations, you know, like he's obviously not gonna be a high volume guy.
Well, I mean, I think that that's actually been the best part
about the Jordan Miller experience so far, is like the scoring is great and
like the peaks of what we've seen, but you know, with a team
like the Clippers and the way they kind of develop or their their lack of
development for young guys, it's nice to see that Jordan Miller already has some
of those sort of Clipper qualities that you can see. I mean, you
can see a pathway for him into the rotation. You know, he's not
a guy who has to have the ball a lot. He's a guy who
contribute defensively, and he has you know, he has some some pepinist step.
So just all things that the Clippers really are looking for and need,
and guys, especially if you consider that the Clippers aren't going to make another
move, if you're in the camp where you know, I think we're accelerating,
you know, at a higher speed every day towards that towards that sort
of conclusion to the to free agency. That makes a pathway for him to
get minutes even more wide open. So that that's exciting as well for me.
You know, like normally, you know, normally, even if we
had a guy putting up the couple of years, yeah, you know,
in the last five years, like if we had you know, if we
had a guy even having this great of a summer league, it'd be like,
oh, this is cool in a vacuum. But you know, it's
not. Depending on the player, there's not really a pathway towards minutes,
cool in a vacuum, what we all hope to be. I didn't realize
he's he has like almost a seven foot wingspan, which I didn't realize.
It's like six' eleven, which is real nice, not seven almost basically,
I'm sure he says seven feet. It says something about how good he's
been that a show called Clips and Dip would celebrate a guy with no dip
threes. Wow, there we go, and that's then you can take that
to the bank. Where does he fit in this rotation? I guess the
Clippers have a ton of guards he would I don't know. We're not super
deep at the wing and things like that. So I mean there's gonna be
some chances he's gonna get the Brandon Boston Minnedosach hopefully a little bit more right.
I would think so, But this isn't gonna be the final roster,
so it's hard to say what the roster's gonna look like on training camp.
I would assume he's been too good and is at a premier position that the
Clippers value to not with him turning twenty five by the end of the season,
to not give him a look at least one of those ten games sample
sizes like we saw from Kobe Brown last year. That's a good call.
Yeah, ten games would be nice. And he's not gonna be brought up.
Lucas Hand was tweeting about this. He's not gonna be brought up on
a full contract yet because it just doesn't like from the Clippers standpoint, it
doesn't make sense to not have him be a two way guy. So we'll
just have to see. But this is the year, right, Like what
was saying, If there's gonna be a year for a guy to break in,
it should be this year for and you mentioned the age, Adam.
I think that's a good point too. This is a transitional phase for the
Clippers, not just because they're going into a new arena, but roster construction
wise. There should be openings and minutes for young guys to show what they
can do and how they can contribute in the future for this team, how
they can help them out when the Clippers are back in Elite championship contender mode.
I don't know if you can make the argument they are currently with how
they're constructed, not according to some of the people in are they're not.
We we're gonna talk about that because we got a YouTube comment that we got
a couple we should Yeah. Well, and then the other guy, Kobe
Brown, I have sung his praises. I wanted him to get some more
time. He's gigantic compared to everyone else in the Summer League. He had
what he had like five and ones last night, four of which against one
guy zz, which was crazy. He's gonna put the and one brand back
on the map. I guess, Oh, go ahead on him. No,
you mentioned his size there. It's weird. I actually think in looking
at him at the free throw line on the close ups, that he's trimmed
down in some ways. He's a little bit leaner, but in a professional
sense, he's not, you know, he's not the machinist or something like
that. He's he's not overly thin, but compared to last year, maybe
he's just in better NBA shape. I don't know. Will Yeah, I
mean, I agree with you, he looks leaner, but I thought that
he looks like bigger as well. So I don't know, like maybe if
there was like a if he if he like made it a priority to try
to put on some weight, to be a little bit more league ready.
You know, those guys, especially if you have to play the four or
in small ball five or something like that, you know you're gonna get pushed
around. So I could see that being a priority for him. And then
maybe the conditioning, you know, after after seeing obviously a limited run,
but still getting to see what game speed minutes are like at this next level,
getting getting more of a taste for that, you know, maybe his
conditioning is a lot better. You know, he didn't play enough during the
season for me to be like, oh, it seems like conditioning is going
to be an issue for him necessarily, you know what I mean. He's
not it's not like a freak athlete or anything. But you know, I
like never really saw him. I mean, he's not but not wrong.
It's just like it's your but I never really saw him, Like I never
really thought I saw him dog in it. But like I said, part
of that is probably just due to the amount of minutes that he ended up
playing. So you know, you would think he probably just knowing from those
changes approach and knew that it was going to be at a different level physically
than than how he's ever played before. And I mean, you know,
I don't. I'm truly curious what the conversations were like internally among uh,
you know, the front office and coaching staff, among the players in locker
room about what the future of Paul George was Like. I don't know exactly
how long people in the locker room knew that that it was likely that he
wasn't coming back. You know, obviously they had more of an inside track
than we did. But you've got to think as well, if you're seeing,
if you're if you're smelling an opportunity out there, like that has got
to change your entire mindset in the way that you you know, the way
that you train and condition and approach even the summer league, which you know
isn't the most serious of basketball, but for a guy who's not who doesn't
have any assured place in the rotation, could be a very big deal.
And playing under a guy like Dante Jones, he's made them take it seriously,
which has been awesome. Like he has seen Kobe Brown kind of in
this like, oh, this is serious summer league basketball, right, Dante
Jones is like, we're gonna do some actual things you might be called upon.
And Kobe's again just like Jordan Miller up and down some games, but
overall not I don't know if it's a step like you know, he's not
taking a step. He's just on this path of like gradual improvement, close
to make or break when it comes to I mean, the power forward position
for this Clippers team is pretty shallow unless it's Kawhi and Batoum and that's it.
So he has a chance. He definitely has a chance. The only
thing that that I get a little worried about is the foot speed on defense
at the perimeter. You mentioned the athletic thing. Big body obviously can move
on offense, but there's just some some That's my main concern with him on
the perimeter. You know, he who he reminds me of overall game wise,
when you talk about about to get in, oh you're hearded. Don't
know, Well, you owned yourself. I was gonna say, are we
about to get an Adam oslind insane com? Adams inane com? I don't
know. People coming around on what I said about Cam Christy after seeing him
in Summer League and how good a shot looks Uh, I'm gonna say he
looks like a slightly more athletic Kyle Anderson and his game. How about how
about that You're l a guy drafted by the Spurs, thriving in Minnesota last
year, just a connector, a guy that can do a lot of different
things. I don't know if he's a leader in anything, but if he's
solid in all these different areas and play is good enough defense, I agree
with you. I don't know if he can hang on the perimeter with some
of the quickest guards out there in the league on a swim, he might
get burned. People do though, Yeah, and Kyle Anderson, you know,
finds a way to still be a contributor. I like that comp.
That's a good comp. So we're gonna see. And then finally Cam Christie,
who don't get Oh a disclaimer, I think, at least from me
personally, when I think about Summer League, don't the stats do not matter?
They do in some specific instance, as I think, But I feel
so bad for him. Tell that to the Frenchman. Yeah, but like
so, like sure, if you're like the number one pick, you want
to make your shots, you know what I mean. But like Cam Christie,
the form is there. The form is one of the more blissful experiences
you can have watching someone shoot a three pointer? Who's that young? Oh,
it's incredible. I told you all, well, this ain't Michael Kidd,
Gilchris, this is Michael Porter Junior. We didn't say he was Michael
Kid. We did will did we ever doubt any of you said Paul Pierce
or something, And I was like, let's not get too crazy. I
think Michael Porter Junior with his release is real. It's somewhere between there and
Devin Booker. It is God tears shooting form. And he just out to
turn nineteen a couple of days. It's exciting. He also other side of
the ball wise, because that's the biggest thing when you have an undersized young
players, how do they look on defense? His confidence was growing with each
game. He wasn't exactly like handling business on the low block, but he
didn't look completely overwhelmed or anything like that. So I don't know. I
hope you have some fun insane G League stat lines. I hope he gets
run there. But yeah, the form is there. He could shoot now
over anyone. Now, can he do all the other things it takes again
on the NBA court, I don't think so. I think it's too Yeah,
even though his defense has been better than advertised, considering everybody kept saying
he's gotta put on is he's gonna put on muscle? He does, though
it's yeah, physically pretty damn good, like staying with his opposition, staying
with his primary assignment. I I couldn't be more impressed. And you're right,
like, you can't just look at the box score to evaluate these prices
whether or not a guy can project to be an NBA player from Summer Lake.
Yeah, and even yeah, I don't know, will do you have
any other I mean, I feel like the jury's incredibly slid on Cam Christy
other than his shooting form and you know, pedigree and whatnot. Yeah,
I mean, like I still think it's an interesting pick. You know,
if Jordan Miller wasn't playing the way that he was, you know, maybe
there's a there's a larger you know, like there's a larger role for Christy.
And we're talking about this a little bit differently because you know, I
would discouraged necessarily by what I saw. It was kind of what I thought.
I mean, that's that's what you're getting when you get a late second
round pick. You know, it's not that, you know, there's a
reason that they're going that late. But I still think that there's there's good
bones there. It's just he just had you know, he's just still pretty
wrong. Like there's just still a lot of areas where he's going to need
to develop. And I don't think if there's anything wrong with that. I'm
not getting down on the guy, but yeah, if you were, I
think if you're like over like underwhelmed or disappointed by this summer league performance,
I think maybe you needed to sort of check your expectations at the door with
this draft pick. And we're gonna talk some expectations in the next segment because
with what this team is projecting and some of the things I've seen just floating
around, I'm a little confused at some people's outlook for the season. Did
anyone else in summer league pop from for the Clippers? Ray J? Dennis
hit hit, the long Shot, the guy for the love of ray J,
Denis the Bannon guy from m is not good one. It's not this
year man. Supposedly he put in last year and withdrew his name and then
put in this year. Ah, Yeah, I don't know. I think
Elijah Harkletz with his defensive intensity has been kind of a tone setter at times,
and he was pretty good for them as G League over the last year
too, So the G League guys for them you look at You mentioned Dante
Jones and what a great job he has done with just Coach of the year
Summer League building up. Yeah, a lot of instant chemistry and connections happening
with this team, and they looked really well organized, not like a DMV
not that good, but like pretty well organized. Hey, for a Summer
League team. I don't think you could expect much more than what they've been
able to do, especially when you see maximum effort at the end of games
and guys not just taking it upon themselves to shine and I sew and play
hero ball. They come together and just tighten the screws on teams and all
of a sudden nobody can score on them, and they're executing offensively on the
other end. I'm really interested to see what's going to happen over the weekend
where they're likely going to be one of the last four standing, because I
don't know how to gauge the level of competition still, have they only been
beating up as have. They had a soft schedule in Summer League with the
four teams they played. The Jazz are what was their record, I don't
know if the record was, but their roster was one that people were saying
like, this is probably one of the better Summer League teams the Clippers will
have played. I mean, you know, okay, well, I want
to see them be tested because I really like how well they have played together
and some of that, as Juligue experienced, but a lot of this is
just straight coaching and really trying to build an identity over a couple of weeks.
This is not easy. What's happening, Like this level of basketball,
with how crisp things have looked is not normal for the Summer League, and
the Clippers are doing it. And I like that. It's a through line
too, right. You have the Summer League team playing with a defensive identity
under assistant coach Dante Jones. In between him and Tyler is Jeff Van Gundy,
who's also a defensive guy. So like we're we're seeing top to bottom
defensive stuff and he's in between Charles Oakley and Alonzo Morning on the floor holding
on to a shoe, fighting for dear life. The first man to be
fighting for his life out there, dude, it's so good. All right,
coming up, we're gonna talk Laurence Frank had a press conference but it
was it was not a scary one, so we're gonna talk kind of the
overarching themes from that as well as the Tias Jones stuff is not being true
at all. So yeah, that's coming up. We're gonna do an ad
break. So if you listen to this on audio, which we really appreciate,
you can listen to us anywhere you find podcast. But if you're watching,
we're still going to be here on your screen. Maybe eat chips,
but quietly. We got ads coming up, and then we're talking Lawrence Frank's
stuff and three two one. All right, welcome back into Clips and Dip
if you're watching this over on YouTube dot com slash that couple of podcasts we
never left. But we've talked about the summer league roster. Now it's time
to talk about some players that may or may not actually be on the roster.
But let's kick things off. You mentioned it at the end of the
last segment, but Lawrence Frank has some media availability. What what was this
about? Let's let's go back. This is the this is the first time
hearing of this. Who is Lawrence Frank? So the big the big quote
from l Frank was We're not going to be reckless if it affects future flexibility
going further. The thesis of this. The most important thing to take away
from this conference was, or this press conference, I think, was they're
waiting until after this year because there's a kind of a crazy potential max contract
offering pool to go after twenty six. Yeah, they're saving that max off
for twenty twenty six. This press conference had a real vibe of what we
remember when he was talking about how they wanted guards who basically weren't Russell Westbrook
and we didn't think we were gonna get Russell Westbrook and then we did.
This had that vibe of talking about what the Clippers should do, which is
not spend and basically not trade for Zach Lavin who's making a bunch of money.
Pretty slid union. Yeah that could change, you know, depending on
what things look like. Right Like they're gonna have to reassess not only what
they want to do in a postseason, you know, like how like is
there an avenue for them to sort of you know, like re up from
a talent perspective and actually make a run if we see some if we see
some good process leading leading into the All Star break or uh, you know,
another consideration will be in a new arena, like is it not enough
the team that you've currently fielded on the floor, because that certainly will be
part of the calculus too. But outside of that, I think it's pretty
safe to table any any sort of levine conversation. And it just sort of
reaffirms, you know, what we've known for the last couple of years,
which is it seems as though twenty thirty is off the table for a potential
deal. And I'm curious, like with these quotes, what that means for
the you know, the future of our youngish guys, certainly in Terrence and
Zoo, because if there's not a swing to be made, you would assume
they're keeping some of that financial flexibility to retain, you know what of their
sort of home homegrown talent that they have. Zoo counts his homegrown talent,
I think we can Yeah, I mean I'll go with that. E didn't
have to change hotel rooms when they got traded, even though it was on
the road because I have the road work walk across the hall to the other
locker room. I thought that particular moment of him addressing keeping flexibility and not
being reckless. I mean, it is something I said on my plea declibernation
recently. You can't be reckless if you're the front office. I think it's
wise. I think they have the right philosophy. I think they had the
right philosophy when they brought in Kawhi and Paul George. Things don't always work
out. You can't account for everything, So I think it's encouraging overall if
you remember a clibernation and you're looking ahead to see how they can crack back
open the championship window. It's having flexibility. It's having roster pieces that are
movable. I think as soon as we saw James Harden sign the one and
one, that was the identification that, oh, so they're not just going
to lock in with James Harden for three years to match him up with Kawhi
Leonard. They have a real chance to drastically change the team, possibly after
this season or in two years. So that to me me was the initial
uh identification of just where this Clippers team and roster is going and what the
front office is thinking. It's interesting too, he mentioned he mentioned the Terrence
and Zoo during this and their extensions. I'm curious if they're gonna get the
four year extension or if they're gonna get two to line up maybe with this
window that they're thinking or something like that, you know what I mean,
Because we don't. I think I think maybe you start that you started too
from an offer perspective, but like I don't see any of those guys taking
a shorter deal, right, yeah, Like it would not totally. So
just the money. The money's out there, you know. Again, this
is their first time. This is the first time the Clippers front office is
negotiated an extension with someone with a player like Terrence or Zoo in a kind
of a long time, you know what I mean. Like it's not like
the Clippers have been handing out extensions other than like Norm and Terrence's small one
and stuff like that. Like this is they know what they're doing, obviously,
but it's just interesting, Like this is kind of a pivotal moment in
the whole two one three timeline post two one three timeline is Norms not on
the Blazers deal. Still, was that a Clippers extension? I can it
was a Clippers extension. I would say, if you can get them annually
on a lesser contract per year, but a longer term deal with either Terrence
Man or Viatza Zubots, that could be a nice little bargaining move. It
was a Blazer's one, I believe. Sorry, you're correct. So not
even Norm Powell territory. Yeah, other than Kawhi and Paul George extensions,
which you're like, okay, of course like that. So seemingly no Levine,
seemingly no bigger swings on deck. Everyone's worried about the guards. One
guard we don't have to be worried about is Tias Jones, who is lat
Murray has just killed those which I think makes sense. He's basically said,
like, the interest was not from the Clippers side at all. We brought
up a meat. By the way, this is from someone on a hoops
hype. This is not Woes, this is not shams, this is not
a I mentioned woes, this isn't Chris Haynes. So that's the make of
it what you will. Uh So, Ty Jones looks to be out of
mix and ty Jones might have cost them too much anyways, Like whatever his
next contract is, it could be twenty million a year, so you'd have
to send out PJ. Along with maybe Terrence Man, Like you'd have to
give up a lot to hold on to that guy. And if he's making
twenty million a year, how much more are you into the luxury tax?
Where they're about two million dollars into it right now? I think after the
Chris dud deal, I think they have a four million they're like under,
they're four million under it. I think so there's like a four million,
there's like three million of an mL the Clippers can still use. Yeah,
but that doesn't count against the cap. Oh right, that's why exception.
I think there's I thought I was Lucas say two million over. I mean
sure, I'll take it pretty good with it. I thought they might still
be under, But I don't think that's the case either way. They have
a chance to get under, like with the moves that are still available,
right, Yeah, you trade PJ. Tucker for a big Fax machine or
something. Facts. I don't know how they clear so looking at it.
At five fourteen pm on July nineteenth, the depth chart for the Clippers is
hardening done at the one we're just this is from lat Murray. We're talking
guys who have serious money committed to them and who are actually going to be
getting playing time. So Kevin Borter Junior is not going to be listed third
because they gave him like a minimum, you know what I'm saying. So
it's for all intents and purposes, it's harden and done. Shooting guard.
You have Terrence Mann and Norm Powell. Small forward. You have Derek Jones
Junior and a mere Coffee power forward. Kwhile entered Nick patom center of Vitza
Zubats Mobamba law set on Twitter. Anyone waiting for a power forward hold their
breath. Kobe has the shot. Obviously he's kind of number three. What
do we just range wise? Will you and I have kind of talked about
this. How are what are you feeling about this roster right now? Let's
take it, you know, take a step back up a schedule we haven't
even seen yet. Kind of seating wise, where you placing this this roster?
Oh? Play? Yeah? I think I think mid to high plan
is where I'm at. The goal of this year is see what we got
and you know, Derek Jones Junior, see how the Terrence and Zoom maybe
with more responsibility thing goes. Kawhi is Kawhi. Yeah, no, it's
not. It's not bad roster. There's still like a question mark at the
backup center position, and you know, like, I don't know how we're
going to be able to rebuild the wing death that we once had, and
maybe that's just not even part of their part of their long term plans anymore.
Still a lot of guards. But you know, it's not a bad
roster. I think it. You know, it fully is going to depend
on how many games Kawhi. This is because without Kawhi, I mean,
yeah, it's not I don't even to playing roster on the West unless you
know it beats a zoo boss. Terrence Man, these guys take off and
the young guys we've talked about progress all of a sudden, it's not totally
out of the question. But his hair out grows his hair out. We
can we can do with a lot more. There's no more time. He
keeps cutting that thing. This season. The season starts in like three months,
and was the thing Homer Simpson put on his head to get the regrowth
going really Oh it wasn't rogue and it was something else. Yeah, odam,
how are you viewing this roster? It's got a defensive vibe. You
know, there's not a lot of pop on the other side of the ball.
But yeah, not a bad roster at all. Upper good plus y
And to Will's point about the wings and what direction they're going in, I
mean, at least they brought in Derek Jones Junior and Nicholas Batum back and
Chris Dunn, and he can guard up So he may not be a wing
certainly, you know, on offense, but he could guard wings like they
have some guys that could really dig their heels in defensively and make life difficult
each and every night. I agree, they look somewhere between you know,
the top or middle of the play in, somewhere between seven and nine.
But again, as we'll also mentioned, I don't know. Tell me how
many games is Kawhi Leonard are gonna play? Tell me how many games James
Harden's going to be able to play at thirty five? What if I could
if I could know that those guys were playing sixty five plus each, and
I say, you know, they might have a chance to be the fifth
of the sixth seed. They might really have a shot. I just don't
know if that's realistic at this point with Kawhi Leonard at all. We've talked
about it, but there will likely be some experimenting with how to use him
and how many games to play him, and how he's feeling. And you
know, the load management, I guess you know all the talk about him
being the poster boy of load management, even though San Antonio Spurs were doing
this, you know, with older guys long before him. You know it's
probably going to continue. It's unfortunate, but this is his body betraying him,
and how do you manage that? Well, you got to do something
because so far it's not working. I don't know if you can be like
craying and get a new body like Ninja Turtles or like that my body,
But yeah, I work on my craying off it. It comes to handy
once every two years. So I let me know what Kawa's availability is before
I could make any prediction on where this Clippers team is going to land into
the Western Conference, which is looking deeper than ever. Yeah, and I'm
I'm thinking too, like it just does it feels like there's some people who
were kind of worried about the Clippers like competing for a championship, like like,
oh, we have so many guards, we need another power forward to
really make things happen. There's this is not like I feel like the front
office, as much as a front office can say this, has kind of
said like, this year is not a contending year, like disrespectful and they
obviously can't go say that, but you know what I mean, Like,
and again, I don't mean this in a disrespectful way. It's just what
all the tea leaves and they've been preaching we're going to be competitive over and
over again, said it today. We think we have a good team.
Yeah, I mean like, look as soon as the Paul George like contract
negotiations went south. I mean look, in my opinion, the championship window
was already closed, but they made the final decision that it was time to
move on from that, and like, yeah, this is this is going
to be a different team with different expectations. And it's not as much right
now about that singular goal so much as it is building the foundation and trying
to get the same sort of like quick turnaround that we were able to get
when we came out of our last two star era. So it's timeline works
out perfectly. Yeah, it's just I mean, it's just completely different.
And like if this team made the plan, I could be pretty happy with
that result, Like if you know, if they were able to snag if
they were able to snag a playoff spot. I mean, you know,
I could be. I could be happy with that result. And there's no
reason not to be. It's not like it's ruining a draft pick. We
might that's what's this is what And maybe this is because my brain is warped
from just being a Clippers fan. But the upside of not having a draft
pick this season is that we can these guys are going to go all out
and try and win as much as possible in a situation where the roster is
maybe not as good as a team should be trying to go out and win
as possible. You know what I'm saying. I'll say too. I mean,
you look at you look at teams who have had the highest draft picks.
You're still looking at a longer turnaround time because you're bad all team,
It's still bad enough for you to be getting into the lottery, and even
if you get that generational talent, it's not like you're one or two seasons
away. You know, you're you're likely at least through that who whatever star
ends up popping from those draft picks, you're at least through their first contract
and onto their rookie max extension before you're realistically doing much of anything. And
I don't think that the Clippers, even in a situation, let's say where
they had draft picks, would be in a position to bottom out. It's
just not it's not really gonna work. It can't work in a market like
this where they already have so much competition. There can't be four years where
this team doesn't make it doesn't it doesn't have a playoff. There can't be
you know, there can't be four years where this is a below five hundred
team. Like it just I won't you know, the fans of the fans
and I still think they'll stick with it, but like, I just don't
see that happening with this organization, even in the situation that we did have
the picks. People have criticized over the years the Golden State Warriors trying to
work on two timelines where they have a youth movement while still contending for championships,
and to their credit, they won the championship in two Some of those
young guys helped them. Plus they went out and got Andrew Wiggins, who
played a big role. Isn't it best case scenario in a realistic NBA universe
right now? What's happened with the Clippers considering they lost Paul George. Where
if you can stay competitive while having that door open for a big move in
the future. For a team that doesn't have draft picks right now, that
actually has a couple of young guys that are playing really well in summer League
that look like they could be contributors right away, it seems like this is
a pretty decent situation considering the pitfalls they're trying to avoid here, Like they
are being nimble, they are being flexible, and they can go from being
a competitive team to ascending right back to where they were with being a contender
very quickly. Here, wouldn't that be the best case scenario? Absolutely the
best case scenario. I'm hoping people have their expectations in some kind of check.
Someone on our YouTube was commenting, they see this team, this current
team being a forty eight to fifty two win team. The Clippers have not
won fifty two games since twenty fifteen to twenty sixteen, and they haven't won
forty eight games since twenty nineteen twenty twenty. So I respect the optimism,
but they're not winning. They're not flirting with a fifty win season. Here.
Things can change in the deadline, maybe there's some maybe something happens,
but this I mean, and that's not bad. This is still gonna be
a really fun team. You should absolutely find some favorites to watch. But
it's just not gonna be what it was. If you if you're new during
the two to one three era, welcome, but it's not. We're not
gonna be contenders this year. They did win fifty one games last year,
right, yeah, but this person said fifty two. Oh yeah, that's
kinda I saw that comment. I think it's unrealistic. He also pointed out
how the West looks brutal but prioritizing defense, and then he comments how it
all depends on mister Kawhi Leonard. Will he play an entire postseason? And
is he still that guy? Let's not get to the postseason yet. Let's
talk about Kawhi Leonard and how much he can play in the regular season right
now, considering sounds like for two and a half months he's been dealing with
this same knee injury, because he said at training camps with Team USA he
had a turnaround a couple of weeks ago. So therefore Mar thirty first,
that time about two and a half months that he has been managing that knee.
So it all comes down to Kawhi Leonard and what he could do during
the regular season and how much how many games he can play and how much
he can be there for them. And we were talking kind of how they're
keeping the twenty twenty six you know that twenty five twenty six max slot open
to Mayer Azaarrely wonderful Clippers reporter put together this of who's basically going to be
available, some interesting names if they are available. You know, this is
if they make it to that, you know, hey, Shay, come
on back, maybe Luka Doncic. I don't know for the freaks out there,
but there's some There's gonna be a bunch of cap space for the Clippers,
and the class at this time is going to be one where it could
potentially be nice to have a bunch of cap space and stuff like that.
So I don't know if you're worri just I have personally made the annoying defensive
high playing team bed and I am nestled in it. So I hope everyone
else can make their beds as quickly as they can with that, because I
think that's what this seems form the going to be. Who's who's the best
player on this list given age at that time? Yeah, like by far,
I mean maybe I mean Jared Jackson. Something's gonna have to go wrong
in their current situations to want to leave. It's not gonna be easy.
Lebron is probably gonna be out of the league or I don't want just about
to be out. Uh what are we talking about with some of these other
guys big men? Oh, John John Collins is gonna be available on the
strike and finally get Sean Collins on this team forever Stray Young. It's tough
to win with a guy like that as your point of attack defender. Yeah,
Kevin Urant's gonna be a couple of years older, Jimmy Butler's gonna be
a couple of years older. I thought Jason Tatum so Jason Tatum signs his
new deal was takes him out of this timeline. Yeah, yeah, Again,
this is from Mara, so any errors direct them to him at E
O M E R easy. Some other comment that got me erked in our
last video that we did yesterday, the Live Galaxy Cat TV fitting says Chris
Dunn is a loser. He gets in a ton of fights and is less
of a player than Russell Westbrook. Westbrook is a way better player. I
am losing my patience with the team. You know, Well, we didn't
get your comments on Russell Westbrook being moved for Chris Dunn. Now that it
might be a good time, I mean, it's great, Like it was
one of those things that was that was needing to happen. Look, I
think that he's a good person. I think that he's a good man.
I just I don't know what we were doing with him. It was just
kind of apparent that it wasn't working. I'm just glad that we don't have
to talk about all the energy and intangibles in our game, you know,
in our post game sort of breakdowns. Look, energy doesn't make up for
eight for forty two in five games. It sure doesn't like, I don't
know why or how, like the people come to his defense so hard.
Again, I do believe that it cuts both ways, because some of the
criticism of him does seem awfully personal and awfully fucking weird. But at the
same time, so does the fandom, Like, Yeah, I just can't
you know, I can't sit up here and be like, oh, he
did a bunch of good things and stuff every after every game anymore. Yeah,
he's not a fit. He's not a fit here, and it's not
because of the way the Clippers used him, And when the same thing happens
in Denver, it likely won't be because of the way Denver used him.
Lord help the Denver locker room. The day that Russell Westbrook plays better than
Jamal Murray, if Nikola Jokic, when's the championship with Russell Westbrook, Maybe
maybe he's looking for a new challenge, Like maybe that's the thing going on
here because people say that Russ is done and not the same guy. And
I've called him at this point kind of a zero level scorer, Like Russ.
Appreciate what he did, but if you can't make layups, you can't
make threes, you can't shoot the mid range. What are we talking about
now? And if you're wondering about the layup thing, go look up the
numbers at the rim this past season and how many times those turned into fast
break points for the opposition When he smokes a layup like that. It was
really tough to watch. So appreciate Russ. The game against Memphis was an
all timer. The way he played against Phoenix with the Clippers being down in
that series was great. But Chris Dunn to does he fight? Where does
that come from? To react to? Galaxy Cat TV is a much better
fit and has an actual skill set that will work for the Clippers right now,
which is playing defense and playing some of the better on ball perimeter defense
in the league. That's what Chris Brough Dunn brings from fifteen to twenty minutes
per night, and his three point shooting has been a little bit better over
the last two years too. Okay, Chris Dunn fought Jabari Smith Jr.
He threw a couple punches in an NBA game. Oh yeah, I forgot
about that, which come on, dog in him? Check get check the
X rays, Yeah, check the x rays, buddy? All right,
coming up we're talking a bunch of stuff that was revealed from the Into It
Dome. There's a very large video board. Terrence Man was there along with
Steve Bomber and Jillian Zucker and then I believe we all three have dips today,
which is a fantastic bounce back from last time we did this. So
if you're listening on audio, thank you. We're gonna do an ad break
and then we're talking Into It stuff in dips and three two one. Welcome
back in I'm Madame Osland. You're tuned in to Clips and Dip. It's
episode six of season three. We got Chuck Mockler, will Updyke this weekend,
probably have some lives for you after the Clippers playoff run and hopefully run
to a Summer League championship. Hey, if you're gonna be there, you
might as well win. I'll take Summer League Champ over Bubble League Champ any
day. Okay, I don't go sign on that, but go for it,
man, all right, co sign on this our friends. Kelly Johnson
was there today Into It Dome as they unveiled the Halo board, which has
a lot more abilities than meets the eye. Apparently here Chuck, it's not
just sixty degrees dual sided. Here's the Halo board showing Terrence Man. This
thing is insane. If you're if you're listening to us, just picture a
big video board is what we're talking about. If you're watching, thank you
for watching. Yeah, there's gonna be a bunch of stats on here.
It's pretty crazy. I hope there's some fun animations. So yeah, the
the Halo board is all that is advertised, and what was advertised was a
big old video board. Terrence Man's getting traded anytime soon. No, he
was at this event, which is pretty cool. There also there's gonna be
a Balmer cam on parts of the Halo board where for the the Balmer heads
they can just watch his reactions to stuff Walmer picture and picture yeah, which
we've all wanted that. And then uh, there's T shirt cannons underneath the
Halo board that are seat accurate, is what was told. So they have
a homing system like the Red Shell and Mariocart. So you're in seat Willson
seat, you know, court side obviously at the wall, those T shirt
cannons can just fire it right into you will. How excited are you for
these the T shirt cannons. I don't like this approach. That's taking away
jobs. Let let the Clipper Spirit shoot the damn cannons. Okay, okay,
bring the hot dog cannon back. I don't want robots. I don't
need your AI. Steve Baumer, get out of here. How are we
gonna see Kelsey Plumb hurl a T shirt? You want into it? What
do you want block chain? Hot dog? Next? Yeah, like counterpoint.
These T shirt cannons can now reach any seat, So any any where
you sit, you can win a T shirt. Now that wasn't the case
with call No. That's because it's called making the most noise, and that's
how you get a T shirt. That's good too. They could walk up
higher and throw T shirts to people in the upper deck. That's not like
that technology, Kelsey Plumb and get Kelsey Plumber. That's what I'm saying.
I like this. I like this take that the T shirt cannon is taking
jobs. I'm on board with this take. What will what are robots gonna
take? We can't even throw T shirts anymore. We can't even throw T
shirts anymore. You got Browny James taking some guy's job in the NBA,
and shouldn't the T shirt kids. I'm kidding. They're taking movies off physical
media. They're not letting humans throw T shirts at basketball games anymore. There's
noise meters, so if you're the loudest fan, you get deals at the
team store. That's freaking awesome. The incentive to be as loud as possible
and then a new arena is really cool to me. Yeah, I'm on
board with that. There's nothing that could be a better fan experience than just
if you're the loudest, you win. So I don't know what are people
going to bring in like their own They're not gonna they're not gonna do anything
like that, right, They're not gonna bring in their own artificial salad or
something like that. I don't think. We haven't had brought my beat's pill
with me to the game. We've requested a bunch of detail about Into It
security and we have gotten no information back yet. So when we get that
information, we'll let everybody know. And it was revealed that the Clippers first
regular season home game is going to be October twenty third, not Into It
domb, So I'm gonna send my press cordounce request right now. Same.
I'm excited. Who would you guys want to see as the first opponent at
into it? Don't who someone who were gonna beat the shit out of I
don't care the Blazers, right will? Am I wrong on this? I
just want to see a win, dude? Yeah, Blazers if you if
you say Lakers, it's like within if they win the first game and you'll
never get the end of that. We should play what I wish we could
play like an FCS team like high Sharks are coming baby? Yeah? Like
can we? I hope? I don't know. Who do you want to
see him play out of it? It's gotta be someone seventy six ers.
What's the other team the Australian eighty six ers or something like that. Uh?
Yeah, I would go somebody in the West. Uh the Portland Trailblazers
who they opened up with last season. They beat the brakes off of them.
Yeah, that's that's probably not the worst way to go. It's it's
slim pickens in the Western Conference. To find a team that's really far down
there. The Spurs, I don't know, man, they got Wemby.
You could go off. They got CB three. Do you want him to
open up into it, though it feels like a no win. I don't
know. You're dodging a lot of land mines here, Detroit want Henderson land
mine is the one you want to land on. Yeah, we'll all three
be there. The twenty third should be a good time. And now the
most important part of the elisode. Sure dips, we've had god Will Speaking
of dips, we all three have dips? Correct? All right? Oh
no, I don't know if Adam does. Will had zin last time we
did a standalone episode which no one commented on, which I thought was fast.
It did. You can't bring into a barbecue, You can't. I
might do something. Yeah, you can. You can bring into a baby
shower. You bring into whatever you want. Adam, what dip do you
have? What chip do you have? Would you bring it to a barbecue?
All right? I have I thought a dip that I thought wouldn't be
so good because I knew it's not good for me and I was kind of
helping it wouldn't be so addicting that I try to eat the whole damn thing.
Not how it works? Yeah, I uh, I messed up and
done? Did it? I got a what I thought would be pretty bad
a Freedo le jalapeno and cheese caso dip, and it's actually pretty solid.
Turns out it is hard to get a caso dip. That's that bad.
I mean, I got pretty addicted to eating almost the entire thing. Also
thanks to my let's see terra real vegetable chips, sweet potato sea salt chips
very good too. Coming on to chip options, what'd you bring into a
barbecue? Oh yeah, oh yeah, Okay, I may not tell him
it's Freedo lay. I could be like, this is my home rumerty halpino
cheese dip. Guys, trick it out. You're an old man fifty years
well home remedies old, I mean passed down for generations like that shirt.
There you go, all right, Well, what dip and what chip are
you eating? I got a signature select to zeke and and just some some
broccoli florets. It's delightful. It's delightful. No, it's a good,
good dip. I enjoy. It's a zeke. This one isn't especially cucumbery,
but it's got a lot of deal, which I think is you know,
if you're not going to go super cucumber and go heavy on the deal.
I'm digging it low carb, I think instead of like I just had
these broccoli frets. But I think that this would be really good with I
mean, I guess, Peta, if you eat bread or some cucumber slices,
I think that really tasty to balance out the cucumber from the Yeah,
would you take this to a barbecue? Uh? Yeah, well, I
think I kind of make a better to zek than this personally. But yeah,
if I if I didn't have the time, then sure you're running late.
You had a meeting before the barbecue. Yeah, of course. I
went with a classic that has made an appearance. I went with the Trader
Joe's Buffalo style chicken dip. Everyone's been raving about the Buffalo dip. It's
fantastic. I am eating it with salt and pepper. Uh chips, I
can't remember what brand they are, but this is great. I would bring
it to a barbecue, and if it was it was on a random day,
it would be a perfect storm of all of us bringing this dip.
I feel like because it's been mentioned multiple times, so I think we're three
for three on dips today. For the barbecue. Whatever barbecue we're going to
is crushing it, so way to go, us Adam doing it with his
finger, which is quasi disturbing. We're arms low calorie, low calorie option
right here, and I hope so all right we so, Adam, you're
gonna be doing some Uncle Auslin Summer League Freaks Only Lives. Yeah, if
you guys I watched the game, well come on, I'll send out the
link. But I'm guessing they're gonna be one of the four teams. It
would take, you know, just an absurd of domino effects and somebody to
win by like forty for them not to be one of the top four teams.
And that's how it works right now in the Summer League. The top
four teams they go on into a tournament. Two games are played for the
eventual winner. I guess everybody else they are twenty six has to play a
fifth game. So Clippers have been elite elite in the Summer League. Well
there we go. Uncle Austin's Freaks Only Summer League Live will be here for
you on the weekend, maybe Will and I'll show up some combination of us.
We're gonna be back next week. Will where can these wonderful listeners find
us or maybe even leave their thoughts on the podcast itself? Yeah, totally
so. You can find us over on YouTube dot com slash at Clippers podcast
probably the best way to find us. Then let us know your thoughts.
You can comment obviously on every single video. If you're more of an audio
person, We're available wherever you get your audio podcast. We're on Amazon Music
or on Spotify. We're on Pandora, We're on Google Podcasts. We're on
Apple podcasts. Listen over on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. You can share your
thoughts over there. We'd really appreciate it. But no matter how you consume
this show, we appreciate you. We really do. And before we get
out of here, Adam, we need one positive thing before sending these Clippers
fans into their weekends. The uh dry powder Clippers era is underway. They
are staying ready, keeping the powder dry for big opportunities while being competitive.
Now, which I'd say that's the best of both worlds. If they're able
to juggle those two things, and I know one of them takes priority over
the other, which is holding on to that flexibility. Not always easy to
maintain. A really competitive ball club while keeping flexibility. But it looks like
on paper right now, this Clippers team is going to be significantly better defensively,
and if they have Kawhi Leonard and James Harden for enough of the games,
they're gonna be okay on offense still too, So I like what we've
seen so far with them bouncing back after losing Paul George. There we go
from the positive man himself. We will be with y'all next week. Adam
will be with you later at some point, and as always, let's go Clips.