Speaker 1: Welcome into a Clippers Talk Live. I'm Adam Osland. We
Speaker 1: are on a Wednesday now. Been in a bit of
Speaker 1: a whirlwind recently with this team in some of the
Speaker 1: news coming out. Also got to work for Fred Rogan
Speaker 1: later today, so that's been on my mind, just trying
Speaker 1: to get through it. Appreciate you guys for checking out
Speaker 1: the Clippers Talk YouTube. Hopefully you saw the Ralph Lawler interview.
Speaker 1: It's just part one. But if you need a little
Speaker 1: bit of a distraction and you want to reflect a
Speaker 1: little bit on past eras of Clippers basketball, that is
Speaker 1: something you can do and just be with the goat
Speaker 1: Ralph Lahler. It's a great time. It's about forty seven minutes.
Speaker 1: I highly encourage you to check out that video. Join
Speaker 1: the show today.
Speaker 2: Though.
Speaker 1: Is our friend from the Athletic. It's La Murray at
Speaker 1: Lo Murray The U is where you find him on x.
Speaker 1: He just wrote the article for The Athletic called Clippers
Speaker 1: on Kawhi Leonard Watch again, team navigates star bulky knee
Speaker 1: before the season. Law how are we doing?
Speaker 3: I feel good? I got my sleep, I got my pancakes.
Speaker 3: Uh yeah, we good?
Speaker 1: Hey, best way to start the day, even though I mean,
Speaker 1: is that still a thing? I don't even I rarely
Speaker 1: eat breakfast nowadays. I gotta be honest with you. I'll
Speaker 1: hit up a protein bar from Greek yogurt. That's about it.
Speaker 1: But I miss it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I can't. I can't do that.
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm not even a morning person and I'm
Speaker 3: gonna make sure that I break a fast dude.
Speaker 2: So okay, okay.
Speaker 1: So I want to get right into the meat of
Speaker 1: some of the issues because I know the fans have
Speaker 1: a lot of questions. I want to get to them.
Speaker 1: And if you guys have some, put them in the
Speaker 1: chat here. We'll ask lab Murray. There was a press
Speaker 1: conference yesterday with not just coach lou but Lawrence Frank
Speaker 1: giving an update on Kawhi Leonard kp J starting jobs.
Speaker 1: We'll talk about all of it. I want to start
Speaker 1: with Kawhi Leonard though here as that was about fifteen
Speaker 1: minutes of the conversation and you ask some great questions
Speaker 1: with Lawrence Frank and then afterwards had the scoop on
Speaker 1: the procedure being done that I don't think a lot
Speaker 1: of people are surprised about. But you and Shamserania of
Speaker 1: The Athletic wrote that news that that a procedure was
Speaker 1: done on Kawhi back in May. So I think the
Speaker 1: main point of confusion right now, law from the fan
Speaker 1: base from what I've seen, and I'm looking for a
Speaker 1: little bit of clarification on is so the procedure happens
Speaker 1: in May, he reports to Team USA late June early July,
Speaker 1: and the Clippers were obviously behind him playing in Team
Speaker 1: USA during the Olympics, and then he is sent home.
Speaker 1: Right now we find out that, well he's not back
Speaker 1: to one hundred percent yet from the procedure. I guess
Speaker 1: the swelling isn't all the way down. It's almost gone
Speaker 1: quote unquote from Lawrence Frank He said that yesterday it's
Speaker 1: significantly down, but not all the way down. So there's
Speaker 1: a little bit of confusion where you know, there was
Speaker 1: a time where sounded like he was going to play
Speaker 1: for Team USA, but now he's not available to participate
Speaker 1: in everything during training camp, including drills. He'll be doing
Speaker 1: strengthening for that right knee. Is there anything you can
Speaker 1: sort through there and just point us in the right
Speaker 1: direction of exactly what's going on the best of your
Speaker 1: knowledge with Kawhi.
Speaker 3: Well, it sounds like there has not been a setback,
Speaker 3: and that's the important thing for me. Like we saw
Speaker 3: obviously how July went down about Kawhi being there wanting
Speaker 3: to play, mentioning himself when he was in Las Vegas
Speaker 3: that he's his knee is at a point where it's
Speaker 3: allowing him to play basketball and that he quote wanted
Speaker 3: to help it stay that way, right, And so I
Speaker 3: thought we heard a lot of that echo yesterday. We
Speaker 3: know what Lawrence Frank was saying when Kawhi withdrew from
Speaker 3: the team, or more accurately, the team USA made the
Speaker 3: decision to withdraw Kawhi and have Derek White be on
Speaker 3: the roster, and it's that they were more comfortable with
Speaker 3: the player that they were going to go to the
Speaker 3: Olympics with that was Derek. But also it wasn't something
Speaker 3: that Kawhi wanted to do. Like Kawhi was preparing to
Speaker 3: play basketball this summer, and the Clippers were prepared to
Speaker 3: have Kawhi play basketball this summer. Toronto lose there as
Speaker 3: a coach, Lawrence Frank said he was there at the
Speaker 3: first two practices. He reiterated again yesterday that he wished
Speaker 3: that Kawhi got a longer runway to play.
Speaker 2: In the Olympics.
Speaker 3: Like, we're talking about a guy who got a chance
Speaker 3: to win a gold medal taken from him, basically, but
Speaker 3: you can understand why USA was like, we need to
Speaker 3: get someone here who is not as risky, if you will,
Speaker 3: of a potential reoccurrence of this thing.
Speaker 2: And that's that's.
Speaker 1: Kind of the confusion for me. He was good to
Speaker 1: play for Team USA, but he's not fully ready to
Speaker 1: participate in training camp four months later after surgery.
Speaker 3: So here's the difference between Team USA and July and
Speaker 3: what we're about to get into here. How many games
Speaker 3: you play in USA to try and win a gold medal?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 1: How many games do you have to play?
Speaker 2: How many games we talking about? How many games.
Speaker 1: Between the exhibition and the knockout round? I don't even know?
Speaker 1: Is it ten games? Seven games?
Speaker 2: Basically? Right? How many games?
Speaker 3: The NBA season eighty two? Still eighty two games? And
Speaker 3: so I think it comes down to this. It sounds
Speaker 3: like Hawhi, if we want to take Lawrence at his word,
Speaker 3: is ready to play. He wants to participate in training camp.
Speaker 3: Feels like if he needed to play a basketball game,
Speaker 3: he could do it, and now we need to talk
Speaker 3: about management, a management plan and that knee.
Speaker 2: It sounds like has.
Speaker 3: Actually made some progress from the time he had surgery
Speaker 3: to the July the Olympics, and from July to now
Speaker 3: he is.
Speaker 2: Not one hundred percent.
Speaker 3: I don't know what the hell one hundred percent is
Speaker 3: supposed to be for Kawhi Leonard. Like I don't I
Speaker 3: personally don't think such a thing exists.
Speaker 2: You know what I mean?
Speaker 3: Like normal NBA players say that nobody's one hundred percent
Speaker 3: by time the playoffs hit, So like, what does that
Speaker 3: mean for Kawhi Leonard? So that multi part phase that
Speaker 3: the team is talking about that Kawhi has to hit
Speaker 3: certain bars to get to all right, Like, I'm gonna
Speaker 3: let them have that one. I'm not going to really
Speaker 3: get into what is supposed to be one hundred percent
Speaker 3: for Kawhi, But I just feel like this is their
Speaker 3: management plan. Like he probably could go through training camp
Speaker 3: buses ass like he did last year in training camp, right,
Speaker 3: because that whole team was on another level for Camp
Speaker 3: Russ and you know, be ready to open the buildings
Speaker 3: start the season. And to be honest with you, we
Speaker 3: saw that shit from two years ago, like when they
Speaker 3: went to Las Vegas for training camp, and that training
Speaker 3: camp was to be polite about it, not serious, like,
Speaker 3: but they went to Vegas or camp, Kawhi was coming
Speaker 3: back from his injury. Paul had a pretty bad year
Speaker 3: as far as availability. He was going to be healthy.
Speaker 3: They had the team that went forty two and forty
Speaker 3: with those guys missing either most or all of the season.
Speaker 3: And you know, Kawhi played what the first two games, right,
Speaker 3: first two out of three games, and then he goes
Speaker 3: to Oklahoma City, his knee flares up and you don't
Speaker 3: have him for three and a half weeks. That's what
Speaker 3: happened two years ago. I feel like the Cliffers are
Speaker 3: trying to avoid that shit this year. Get him to
Speaker 3: a place where, oh shit, he's progressed, He's gotten the
Speaker 3: swelling down, and maybe they see a path where in
Speaker 3: a short term that swelling could be a thing where
Speaker 3: it's not there anymore. And then when he does debut,
Speaker 3: whether it's in the preseason, whether it's four weeks from
Speaker 3: today in the regular season, when the Sun's visit for
Speaker 3: the opener, we are all hoping that six weeks from today,
Speaker 3: when Paul George and the seventy six ers come, Kauhi
Speaker 3: will be right. But I think their priority is get
Speaker 3: him to debut so that when he does debut, this
Speaker 3: doesn't recur again. If you want to believe that there's
Speaker 3: no such thing that Kawhi is always going to have
Speaker 3: this issue, That's kind of what I wrote today, like
Speaker 3: who am I to whom am I to say that
Speaker 3: that's not going to be, you know, a factor. But
Speaker 3: I think that's where the Clippers are at right now.
Speaker 3: They just feel like he could do camp. How about
Speaker 3: they manage him so that he can just be ready
Speaker 3: to debut and stay on the floor when he's ready
Speaker 3: to be on the floor.
Speaker 1: Here listening to Clippers talk, I'm Ada MAZLM. We got
Speaker 1: La Murray on Law and Adam Ay in the morning
Speaker 1: going on right now. Rama Street says they're just being cautious. Adam,
Speaker 1: you should relax, guys, we're talking about Kawhi Leonard. I
Speaker 1: have questions to ask. I'm trying to do my part
Speaker 1: here because I know a lot of Clipper Nation was
Speaker 1: frustrated with some of the comments coming out yesterday, just
Speaker 1: the lack of clarity and understanding exactly what's going on.
Speaker 1: But I think Laws put it into good perspective here
Speaker 1: with you know there's ten games or so you'd have
Speaker 1: to play with Team USA. We're talking about getting ready
Speaker 1: for a season where there's eighty two games and then playoffs.
Speaker 1: And even though we know it's likely he's not going
Speaker 1: to be playing back to backs, that's still sixty six
Speaker 1: games and then hopefully you have them for the playoffs.
Speaker 1: So it's just a completely different I guess work tool
Speaker 1: that would be expected on Kawhi Leonard. And so I
Speaker 1: think that's an interesting and good clarification law on that
Speaker 1: it sounds like. And this is something I kind of
Speaker 1: worried about back in April. It's just tricky to bandage
Speaker 1: inflammation code. It was Lawrence Frank who said yesterday it's tricky,
Speaker 1: and they're trying to figure out ways to do it.
Speaker 1: But they're also kind of learning as this goes along,
Speaker 1: and they have all the doctors you could ever want
Speaker 1: to be at Kawai's side for this and figure out
Speaker 1: the best ways. But maybe they are just being so
Speaker 1: overly cautious as you kind of alluded to there with
Speaker 1: maybe Kauai could be doing more in training camp but
Speaker 1: why push things at all when right now the knee
Speaker 1: is in a good place where the swelling is almost gone,
Speaker 1: and it's not like a guy who's thirty three and
Speaker 1: has been in the league for sometimes really needs a
Speaker 1: ton of reps out there. So why do not you
Speaker 1: strengthen the knee? Does that make sense?
Speaker 2: I mean that's part of it.
Speaker 3: Like, again, the team and you know Kawhi, they're kindred
Speaker 3: spirits in this. We already we know the history of both,
Speaker 3: so we we obviously know that whatever they say pales
Speaker 3: in comparison to what they do and what actually happens. Okay,
Speaker 3: so when Kawhi gets on the floor is when everyone
Speaker 3: should take the hook to take them off the hook.
Speaker 3: And then Kawhi actually playing an extended stretch of games
Speaker 3: without something coming up, that's when you can quoe unquote relax.
Speaker 3: But in the grand scheme of things, Yeah, like Kawi
Speaker 3: knows what he's doing. I think him being around getting
Speaker 3: mental reps, focusing on strengthening his knee, whatever the heck
Speaker 3: that dude needs to do so that when he actually debuts, Like,
Speaker 3: look at it from from this perspective, what you don't
Speaker 3: want to hear is he had a setback in October,
Speaker 3: and you know what, the setback can come, whether he's
Speaker 3: playing or not. Like again, this injury has dominated the
Speaker 3: conversation with Kawhi for six months, the greater part of
Speaker 3: six months. You're not going to really believe anything until
Speaker 3: he actually gets on the damn floor. I do think
Speaker 3: you got to look at it from the whole team's perspective.
Speaker 3: They're not going to play eighty two games with Kawhi
Speaker 3: Leonard this season. If they play seventy, then that would
Speaker 3: be more than last year. Like sixty five is the
Speaker 3: award cut off. We'll see exactly how that goes, especially
Speaker 3: if he doesn't play in back to back shich I'm
Speaker 3: not sure how they'll handle that yet. The team doesn't
Speaker 3: want to share how they'll handle that yet. That's a
Speaker 3: bridge that we'll have to have to cross when we
Speaker 3: get there. I obviously know that it's tough when you're
Speaker 3: entering a season and you're talking about a player who
Speaker 3: has to be handled with kids gloves from a physical perspective,
Speaker 3: But I do think and I don't want to keep
Speaker 3: going with rose colored glasses and silver linings. I'm just
Speaker 3: being real here. You're going to play games without Kawhi Leonard.
Speaker 3: The team in needs to focus on are how they're
Speaker 3: going to play without Kawhi. Maybe their training camp is
Speaker 3: understanding that James Harden will be there and that all
Speaker 3: those dudes are going to have to play their ass
Speaker 3: off and play smart and play with a significantly decreased
Speaker 3: margin of error to.
Speaker 2: Be competitive and win games.
Speaker 3: And they're going to be focusing on that from the
Speaker 3: day one, starting training camp next week, and hey, Kawhi
Speaker 3: is going to be there, He's just not going to
Speaker 3: be in everything that the team is going to be doing.
Speaker 3: And maybe that's how they start the season knowing that
Speaker 3: if we got to play with Kawhi, they got to
Speaker 3: play way better without Kawhi than they did, especially two
Speaker 3: years ago.
Speaker 1: Now I'm not expecting an answer on this, but I'll
Speaker 1: do my due diligence at least and ask this question
Speaker 1: for Stratos, who's wondering what the procedure was. Was a
Speaker 1: nice scope was to clean up I do think it's
Speaker 1: decent deduction by him if he was thinking about playing
Speaker 1: in the Olympics almost a month a month and a
Speaker 1: half after whenever the procedure happened in May, it couldn't
Speaker 1: have been anything too significant, and that is something Lawrence
Speaker 1: Frank talked about that press conference regarding Team USA. If
Speaker 1: it was something significant, they would have reported it then.
Speaker 1: So do you have any clarity on what type of
Speaker 1: procedure if it was just clean up.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a cleanup, one of those things where do
Speaker 3: you get it done in May? And like I said,
Speaker 3: by the end of June he was he was back
Speaker 3: doing basketball activities to basically give Team.
Speaker 2: USA officials some level of.
Speaker 3: Calm, like that he could be in training camp when
Speaker 3: the entire team got together in Vegas in July. So
Speaker 3: you know, we're not it's not like this was ACL
Speaker 3: surgery or anything like that, which we know we've been
Speaker 3: through that part already.
Speaker 2: Like there are people I remember back in twenty twenty one.
Speaker 3: People thought, oh, it's only a partial AC out there,
Speaker 3: like that was going to help anything Like.
Speaker 1: The same surgery.
Speaker 3: It's the same surgery, same timeline, you know, like you
Speaker 3: gotta repair that ligament. So we're not talking about a
Speaker 3: ligament that needed to be repaired. We're not talking about
Speaker 3: even in twenty twenty three when he tore his miniscus
Speaker 3: and you know he needed to repair that and was
Speaker 3: ready for training camp. And that's surgery again for a
Speaker 3: more serious injury. Probably that took later. He didn't get
Speaker 3: that clean up until later in that off season. So again,
Speaker 3: it's the tough part about this is it's a recurring
Speaker 3: thing with his knee.
Speaker 2: His right knee.
Speaker 3: Qua's right knee has ruined his previous four NBA seasons. Okay,
Speaker 3: it's just if a guy suffers a sprain ankle every
Speaker 3: year Steph Curry for example, Right, I don't care how
Speaker 3: many years Steph play. Is Like after Steph had his
Speaker 3: third year ruined by the ankles, every year, you're you
Speaker 3: have in the back of your mind that dude you
Speaker 3: got to protect his ankles. Like Marcus Smart runs up
Speaker 3: on Curry's ankles two years ago in a regular season
Speaker 3: game and Steve Kurr lost his shit. I mean a
Speaker 3: lot of that came from fear because you see your
Speaker 3: whole season flashing before you. So that's gonna be what
Speaker 3: it is with Kawhi's the unfortunately, like Kawhi's like, they're
Speaker 3: trying to make it so that they do with their
Speaker 3: part so that when he plays, he's playing then the
Speaker 3: games that matter and that he has the best chance
Speaker 3: of this not coming up, knowing that it might come
Speaker 3: up again.
Speaker 1: I think part of the reason people talk about a
Speaker 1: lack of transparency with Kawhi the Clippers health stuff, Well,
Speaker 1: to me, law some of it is just what Lawrence
Speaker 1: Frank talked about yesterday when I don't know if you
Speaker 1: asked him or somebody asked him about playing in game
Speaker 1: one of the regular season, is like that, I don't
Speaker 1: have to see. Yeah, you asked him that, and basically
Speaker 1: he said, we have to see how he responds to
Speaker 1: the treatment, to the exercises, to the strength train of
Speaker 1: the knee. How can you project something like that until
Speaker 1: you actually see how his knee responds. So I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't know what people are asking for. Sometimes there
Speaker 1: is no crystal ball for this stuff. Kawhi doesn't know
Speaker 1: how his knee is going to respond, so how can
Speaker 1: the Clippers know how his knees going to respond? Is
Speaker 1: that fair?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it's definitely fair. It's it's tough, man, Like.
Speaker 3: The toughest part about it is, again we're dealing with
Speaker 3: a player who's chronically injured.
Speaker 2: Like that's just what it is.
Speaker 3: You know, you can't really get comfortable with this team, like, well,
Speaker 3: they could have told us nothing, which is close to
Speaker 3: what we get sometimes and like you're still going to
Speaker 3: be Like, man, I wonder if Kawhi is going to
Speaker 3: be all right going into camp, Like you know, I
Speaker 3: feel like they're basically saying, hey, look, Kawhi probably could
Speaker 3: have played, could have done everything next week, that's not
Speaker 3: the goal. They have different goals, Like we knew things
Speaker 3: were going to be weird this season as soon as
Speaker 3: they were eliminated in the playoffs. I think own ask
Speaker 3: T Lou the night of Game six in Dallas about,
Speaker 3: you know, just managing Kawhi, like what are they going
Speaker 3: to do? And T Lou jokes, I'm going back to
Speaker 3: low management, and you know, like he's laughing.
Speaker 2: But how can they blame them?
Speaker 1: How could I blame them?
Speaker 2: Exactly, Like you know, this is the low management.
Speaker 3: Like I think that it would infuriate people on the
Speaker 3: other side of the coin if Kawhi.
Speaker 2: Because he's stubborn and wants to play. And I've seen
Speaker 2: that again.
Speaker 3: I was in Memphis when that dude played the first
Speaker 3: half of a front end of a back to back
Speaker 3: and no one when the team knew he wasn't going
Speaker 3: to play in the second half of the game, right,
Speaker 3: and then they go to New Orleans the next day.
Speaker 3: Kawhi kills it because he's strong enough to play in
Speaker 3: the back to back.
Speaker 2: But the Clippers got they lose anyway.
Speaker 3: That was literally April of twenty twenty three, and so
Speaker 3: it's the same shit. It's like, dude, if you let
Speaker 3: Kawhi do what he wants to do, runs rogue does
Speaker 3: everything in camp, something gets messed up, y'all gonna be
Speaker 3: upset about that shit too.
Speaker 1: So you gotta protect players from themselves.
Speaker 2: Players want to play exactly.
Speaker 3: And like, like I said, I asked my question for
Speaker 3: a reason because I don't care about training camp and
Speaker 3: the preseason when it comes to Kawhi at this point, like, okay, cool,
Speaker 3: he's not doing whatever. Y'all holding him back, y'all restrict
Speaker 3: to them. Tell me when he's fighting, and they couldn't.
Speaker 3: We're not they're not committing to that, which again, it's
Speaker 3: not putting pressure on Kawhi. It's not putting pressure on
Speaker 3: the organization to say, hey, we said this and this
Speaker 3: turned out. I look, I've been doing this for a
Speaker 3: long time. I get the coach speak, the front office speak,
Speaker 3: the group speak.
Speaker 2: Whatever you want to call it.
Speaker 3: I think what y'all all care about is when is
Speaker 3: that dude playing and how long and what shape and
Speaker 3: what condition is he in to sustain himself over the
Speaker 3: course of the regular season because you had to play
Speaker 3: regular season games that you can get to the playoffs.
Speaker 3: I think that's I think we can understand and agree
Speaker 3: to that.
Speaker 1: Adam, Yeah, you can't just wait till March to play
Speaker 1: Kawhi because you won't make the playoffs if he doesn't
Speaker 1: play before that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So like that's my concern.
Speaker 3: The needle that moves everybody since we're talking about this
Speaker 3: is when will Kawhi letter play? Answer that question for
Speaker 3: me and then we can go forward.
Speaker 1: That's kind of what I said yesterday on the podcast.
Speaker 1: Somebody said, what's the Clippers ceiling in the standings this year?
Speaker 1: And I'm like, I don't know. Tell me how many
Speaker 1: games you got Kawhi playing, and I'll spit out a
Speaker 1: number of wins for you maybe. But since we don't
Speaker 1: know that, we can't know a lot of where this
Speaker 1: Clippers team is going to be at when it comes
Speaker 1: to a brutal Western Conference, which Lawrence Frank also talked
Speaker 1: about yesterday. I know somebody here said hard and Ball
Speaker 1: to win fifty five games than Kawhi ball for the playoffs.
Speaker 1: Harden is not winning fifty five games without Kawhi Leonard.
Speaker 1: Even with them, guys, they won fifty one last season
Speaker 1: with Paul George out there and going on a twenty
Speaker 1: six and five run. That's not happening. Like, you better
Speaker 1: hope for forty five wins right now, and Kawhi can
Speaker 1: play close to sixty games and James Harden can give
Speaker 1: you sixty five plus. Let's be somewhat realistic about this.
Speaker 1: Even Lawrence Frank was saying, you know, I got the Internet,
Speaker 1: I got the WWW. I have I've seen the Vegas
Speaker 1: odds for our team. He's not putting a cap on
Speaker 1: what they can do, but they also know what people
Speaker 1: are saying about them here. So I think we've exhausted
Speaker 1: the subject with Kawhi Leonard and there's not much else
Speaker 1: we can really dig into or know. But I appreciate
Speaker 1: all your reporting on kind of a murky, mysterious thing
Speaker 1: for a few years now. It's just the way it is.
Speaker 1: It's more this way with Kawhi, but It's not that
Speaker 1: different to me with some other players in the NBA.
Speaker 1: I know Lakers fans have felt like this with Anthony
Speaker 1: Davis for some time. Teams are never going to give
Speaker 1: you everything. That is the way it is, that is
Speaker 1: between them and the players. Confidentiality stuff. It's not that simple.
Speaker 1: But we did get something, a real nugget yesterday from
Speaker 1: coach Lou talking about starting positions with an s plural
Speaker 1: being open when it comes to training camp competition. It
Speaker 1: sounds like law. Correct me if I'm wrong, But it's
Speaker 1: not just Paul George's position that's gonna be up for
Speaker 1: grabs when it comes to competition and guys trying to
Speaker 1: win that slot, but also Terrence Man is not guaranteed
Speaker 1: to have that number two spot right next to James
Speaker 1: Hollard in the starting backcourd.
Speaker 3: I mean sure, I wrote that in July, so well,
Speaker 3: you're no, absolutely not like no one should be surprised
Speaker 3: by that.
Speaker 2: I felt like in July that.
Speaker 3: You could lock in Harden Kawhi and if ship, you
Speaker 3: might as well open up three because if Kawhi is
Speaker 3: not ready.
Speaker 2: To start the season, then someone's.
Speaker 3: Got to start in his place, right and Harden and
Speaker 3: Zoo are locked in, and obviously when Kawhi is healthy,
Speaker 3: he's locked in. I felt like those other two spots
Speaker 3: are are are open because it's a matter of fit,
Speaker 3: who fits with who who fits the best. I think
Speaker 3: ideally you want Terrence and Dereck Jones to be those
Speaker 3: other two starters. For Derek, it just requires him just
Speaker 3: getting it with with TLU and and what he wants
Speaker 3: to do.
Speaker 2: He has an easy job.
Speaker 3: I think all Derek Junis has to do is show
Speaker 3: that he's the guy that they saw enough time to
Speaker 3: give him the deal that he got. So I think
Speaker 3: that one's pretty simple. I think the spot that's most
Speaker 3: up for grabs is Terrence's spot, and that to me
Speaker 3: makes sense. You're losing offense in Paul George more than
Speaker 3: you're losing his defense because of what Paul was in
Speaker 3: position to do last year. So for me and I
Speaker 3: think we talked about this before, if Terrence scales up
Speaker 3: the way that I think he can, that the front
Speaker 3: office clearly thinks he can, and that TLU knows Terrence
Speaker 3: is capable of, then that gives the Clippers the best
Speaker 3: chance of doing what they've been doing the past couple
Speaker 3: of years, which is have enough defense in the starting
Speaker 3: lineup and let Norm cook when he gets into games,
Speaker 3: cook those second units like he's capable of doing. But
Speaker 3: it's a competition, it's training camp. No one should be
Speaker 3: handed anything. That includes Derek Jones Jr. That includes Terrence Man,
Speaker 3: a guy who's trying to get a new content. Well
Speaker 3: I'm not sure if he's trying to get a new contract,
Speaker 3: but the Clippers sound like there, you want to give
Speaker 3: it to him, you know. So Norm has made his
Speaker 3: bones the last two years, especially two years ago, about
Speaker 3: wanting to be a starter. Well it's like Anthony Edwards
Speaker 3: talking about how they ain't no Kobe on Team USA,
Speaker 3: like ain't no Paul George. So Norm is not going
Speaker 3: to be as content to come off the bench looking
Speaker 3: at who's on this team now then he might have
Speaker 3: been last year when there were three future Hall of
Speaker 3: Famers that it started lineup with a fourth on the way.
Speaker 2: Harden wasn't even on the team. Yet.
Speaker 3: There's just so much more touches and so much more
Speaker 3: shots that open up, and Norm is going to look
Speaker 3: everything I've seen from Norman this summer, that dude looks great.
Speaker 3: So Norman is going to give Terrence Man a real
Speaker 3: run for his money. Terrence Man should give Darry Jones
Speaker 3: Junior a real run for his money, because maybe you
Speaker 3: start Norman Terrence together. I don't see that happening. Because
Speaker 3: the team made a virile point about point of attack defense.
Speaker 3: I think Chris Dunn might be in the competition because
Speaker 3: what Lawrence mentioned yesterday is that he's seen Chris Dunn
Speaker 3: play games this month and not only be the point
Speaker 3: of attack guy, an on ball guy because he's a
Speaker 3: point guard, but also play plenty off the ball and
Speaker 3: succeed off of that.
Speaker 2: And guess what, that's a great fit next.
Speaker 3: To James Harden because James is going to be on
Speaker 3: ball a lot, and Chris Dunn is one of those
Speaker 3: point guards who, yeah, he's a combo guard. He can
Speaker 3: play the one or he could play the two. So
Speaker 3: you should consider Chris Dunn as a part of the competition.
Speaker 3: A mere coffee. I know y'all want to disrespect the mirror,
Speaker 3: but a mere coffee was a starter two years ago,
Speaker 3: not two years ago, three seasons ago. Now, when Paul
Speaker 3: George suffered his elbow injury, I would consider him to
Speaker 3: be in the mix of Kawhi Leonard has to miss
Speaker 3: real games. Niko Batoum. I know no one wants to see,
Speaker 3: including probably Nico. Nico probably doesn't want to start games,
Speaker 3: but I would consider him a part of the battle.
Speaker 3: I would consider Kobe Brown a part of the battle
Speaker 3: because Kobe Brown, unlike Nico and like PJ. Tucker, unlike
Speaker 3: a mirror. To a certain extent, Kobe Brown is comfortable,
Speaker 3: more comfortable with the ball in his hands than he
Speaker 3: is with the ball not in his hands. If you
Speaker 3: look at his Missouri tape. One of the most intriguing
Speaker 3: things about Kobe Brown is that dude can run either
Speaker 3: end of a pick and roll. He can play in
Speaker 3: the post, he can play spaced out. He can play
Speaker 3: facing the basket and driving, putting the ball on the floor,
Speaker 3: making plays. We've seen two summer leads with Kobe Brown.
Speaker 3: We know that he plays better when the ball is
Speaker 3: in his hands. More like if you're missing Kawhi Leonard,
Speaker 3: who literally is the first option on this team. If not,
Speaker 3: he's not going to beat the primary playmaker or the
Speaker 3: guy wh leaves the team in touches. But I've always
Speaker 3: been saying Kobe Brown needs to touch the basketball. So
Speaker 3: he's to me in the mix to potentially replace Kawhi
Speaker 3: Kawhi Smiths time, it's gonna that's like what eight guys like,
Speaker 3: that's a lot of competition for what's really two and
Speaker 3: a half spots because again Kawhi status.
Speaker 1: Let me bring up a guy you didn't bring up
Speaker 1: that Coach Lou brought up and had quite the confidence in.
Speaker 1: I thought this was interesting. I don't know if you've
Speaker 1: wrote about this. In July Law talking about KPJ. Quote,
Speaker 1: Coach Lou said for him for us to have success,
Speaker 1: he's gonna have to be a big part of that.
Speaker 1: Said he's gonna coach them hard, talked about how talented
Speaker 1: he is. I mean, how much in the mix is KPJ.
Speaker 1: And do you know anything yet about the NBA's investigation
Speaker 1: regarding his off the court issues.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that investigation is still open, and that means that
Speaker 3: we don't know what's going to happen with Kevin yet.
Speaker 3: And I know I've had a talk often ever since
Speaker 3: Kevin got signed about two things. One Kevin Porter Junior's
Speaker 3: transgressions from the past that led him to not play
Speaker 3: in the league last year. That's been the number one
Speaker 3: topic of conversation for me, and I don't want to
Speaker 3: lose track of at like you know, I mean, Kevin
Speaker 3: and I got a chance to catch up the end
Speaker 3: of August.
Speaker 2: So, like we all know what it is like.
Speaker 3: We needed to be able, especially as men, to be
Speaker 3: able to talk about things and hold certain things accountable.
Speaker 3: And so that is going to be my number one thing,
Speaker 3: not to harp on it or to pick on them.
Speaker 3: I think that's like y'all need to not be ignorant
Speaker 3: about stuff like this, Like we need to just be accountable.
Speaker 3: So that's number one. And because of number one, everything
Speaker 3: that he has from a talent standpoint is going to
Speaker 3: be curved by their consequences of what has already happened. Yes,
Speaker 3: he got a twenty million a year deal from Houston,
Speaker 3: and a year later Houston traded him so that someone
Speaker 3: else could wave him because they weren't they didn't even
Speaker 3: want to see the legal play out the way the way.
Speaker 2: That it wound up playing out, and.
Speaker 3: So the consequences and so the consequences are Yes, I know,
Speaker 3: Kevin is is literally the kind of on ball talent
Speaker 3: as far as what he is capable of from a
Speaker 3: load perspective, that James Hardin is. Literally that's exactly how
Speaker 3: Houston used him. We ain't got to talk about the
Speaker 3: ineffectiveness of that offense, but from a touchstandpoint, from a
Speaker 3: can you run all these picking rolls? These ISOs, Kevin
Speaker 3: is literally a dollar store version of James Harden. Now,
Speaker 3: when is that guy going to be able to play
Speaker 3: with his teammates outside of a training camp setting, outside
Speaker 3: of a pickup basketball setting. If we saw Josh Primo
Speaker 3: get signed by the Clippers literally the friday before training
Speaker 3: camp began last year, the NBA did decided they were
Speaker 3: going to suspend Primo for four games. And what that
Speaker 3: four game suspension did was not only did it eliminate
Speaker 3: Primo from playing the first week of the NBA season
Speaker 3: last year, but it also took Primo out of all
Speaker 3: of the preseason games as well. And so any NBA
Speaker 3: suspension that gets handed down to Kevin, not only does
Speaker 3: that potentially take him out of the first week of
Speaker 3: the season, but it also means he's ineligible to even
Speaker 3: be in the building for preseason games when you're talking
Speaker 3: about competition for minutes and you have established guys already.
Speaker 3: We again just talked about a whole bunch of dudes
Speaker 3: that either were on a team last year or played
Speaker 3: significant NBA minutes last year. Not that Kevin got any
Speaker 3: of that last year. Right, We're talking about a team
Speaker 3: that wants to win, already has guys, already has stars,
Speaker 3: and already has guys that they brought into a higher
Speaker 3: commitment than Kevin. So Kevin's going to get a chance,
Speaker 3: especially if Kawhi's you know, not right, Especially if James
Speaker 3: isn't right, Kevin's going to get a real chance.
Speaker 2: T Louz looking forward to coaching him.
Speaker 3: That guy has a real ability to get his and
Speaker 3: he has experienced making place for others, and he has
Speaker 3: size at the guard position. I just question when that
Speaker 3: opportunity will come for Kevin. I can tell you it
Speaker 3: will come, but to begin the season week one.
Speaker 1: If he gets suspended, then he's behind it.
Speaker 2: If he's not eligible to play, what are we talking about?
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, And then other guys are
Speaker 1: establishing roles already, and then he has to get past
Speaker 1: them somehow while being implemented as the season has already started.
Speaker 1: That's just not easy to do. But obviously coach lou
Speaker 1: is a fan of his game and was to coach
Speaker 1: him and that is exciting. Quickly, before we get out
Speaker 1: of here, law the identity of this team, We've talked
Speaker 1: about it a lot during the summer, but we knew
Speaker 1: that they were leaning into defense immediately when they brought
Speaker 1: in Derek Jones Junior, right after they were about to
Speaker 1: lose Paul George, or at least when they released that
Speaker 1: statement saying they were no longer negotiating with him. They
Speaker 1: tipped their hand or they showed their hand right then,
Speaker 1: and then Chris Dunn and then Niko Batoom is back.
Speaker 1: Are you buying in because coach Lou said, Oh, We're
Speaker 1: gonna have an identity this year. Because I've asked the
Speaker 1: last couple of years, what's their identity? What is it?
Speaker 1: It seems like they know that it's been kind of obscure,
Speaker 1: it's been vague, and now they need to have something
Speaker 1: more defined. Is it going to develop this time into
Speaker 1: that defense of mentality?
Speaker 3: I feel like they had a damn identity these last
Speaker 3: couple of years, or an ISO heavy team, which I
Speaker 3: asked about, Yes it is.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 3: I was like, tlu y'all were dead last and passes
Speaker 3: for a game yard dead last they and TLU said, yep,
Speaker 3: they're They've been talking about that part of things.
Speaker 1: Right, more dancing the ball, playing faster.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like all the things that you have to do
Speaker 3: to compensate for the fact that, unlike last year especially,
Speaker 3: you don't have talent margin to fall off of. When
Speaker 3: you have offensive talent, you can be lax with the
Speaker 3: other shit getting back on defense, second chance points and turnovers,
Speaker 3: just possession battle in general, like the defense in general.
Speaker 3: Like they basically could be league average in those categories
Speaker 3: because their offense was so overpowering.
Speaker 2: They don't have that this year, bro.
Speaker 3: Like, So, yes, they have the coaching, they have the personnel,
Speaker 3: and guess what, they have significantly diminished star power.
Speaker 2: They're going to be better defensively because they had to be.
Speaker 2: I go back to two years ago or three seasons ago.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, I gotta remember it's twenty twenty four and
Speaker 3: we're already into this next season, coming.
Speaker 1: Up to year two season.
Speaker 3: Listen, that season, the Clippers were one of the least
Speaker 3: talented teams in basketball. I saw it with my own eyes.
Speaker 3: I was at eighty one at eighty two games. The
Speaker 3: one game that I didn't go to in the arena
Speaker 3: they played in Toronto, and I was in a hotel
Speaker 3: in Brooklyn, not getting COVID like T Lou was. So
Speaker 3: I saw every damn game up close and saw how
Speaker 3: stress they were when they had to make comebacks, when
Speaker 3: they were getting when the starting lineup was getting completely smacked.
Speaker 2: Okay, jokers out here saying Terrence Man hasn't improved yet.
Speaker 3: Terrence Man plays every damn game and is running one
Speaker 3: of the best second units in the league.
Speaker 2: That year.
Speaker 3: I digress like this team will be better defensively because
Speaker 3: they have to be teams defend their ass off when
Speaker 3: they know it's the difference between winning and losing. A
Speaker 3: lot of times, the Clippers defense last year wasn't the
Speaker 3: difference between winning and losing. It was just a difference
Speaker 3: between whether they blow you out or not. It's different
Speaker 3: this year, so you know. And the Clippers always talked
Speaker 3: about how they liked their half court defense, but they
Speaker 3: gave up too many second chance opportunities and they got
Speaker 3: smoked in transition. No matter which guards were playing last year.
Speaker 3: Now they have different they have different personnel, they have
Speaker 3: different urgencies, different priorities. I still don't think they're going
Speaker 3: to be a good rebounding team. But the fact that
Speaker 3: Lawrence and t Lou we're so adamant about how everyone
Speaker 3: needs to be better on the glass tells you that
Speaker 3: if guys don't rebound, they're going to sit on the bench.
Speaker 3: And I can't wait to see how that actually gets
Speaker 3: implemented this season.
Speaker 1: You've made an interesting point there. You're right, it's not
Speaker 1: that they didn't have an identity, yet I've poorly phrased
Speaker 1: that is that how often do they enforce their identity
Speaker 1: on a night to night basis. That's the inconsistency part
Speaker 1: of this team I feel like we've seen over the
Speaker 1: past couple of seasons. But I hope that's gonna change
Speaker 1: because defense travels in the NBA as well as football,
Speaker 1: and if they got that every night, you got a
Speaker 1: chance to win ball games. And that team from the
Speaker 1: twenty one to twenty two season did have a sense
Speaker 1: of urgency because they knew they had to play hard
Speaker 1: every night. And I think we are going to see
Speaker 1: that this year. They ain't gonna be seventeenth defensively this year.
Speaker 1: They got to be at least top ten. I think
Speaker 1: they need to be top eight if they want to
Speaker 1: be in the top six in playoff ceding in the
Speaker 1: Western Conference quickly low Since I I think I asked
Speaker 1: this earlier in the show or off the air, somebody
Speaker 1: asked me about sealing with this team. Are you feeling
Speaker 1: any different about it? Or is it still just come
Speaker 1: down to Well, like I said, tell me how many
Speaker 1: games Kawhi is playing? If I tell you he's playing
Speaker 1: fifty plus games and James Harden's at sixty five plus,
Speaker 1: where do you think this team can land o?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 2: Man, shit? How many?
Speaker 3: How many games Lebron playing this year? How many games
Speaker 3: John Morant playing this year? How many games Zion Wimson
Speaker 3: playing this year?
Speaker 1: So, yeah, it's two things.
Speaker 2: Things are not entirely new to me.
Speaker 3: It's new that we know that he's not going to
Speaker 3: be a full participant in training camp. But if you
Speaker 3: were concerned about Kawhi before, your fears are validated. If
Speaker 3: you if you were comfortable with Kawhi, you got to
Speaker 3: remind him not to be comfortable. If you thought Kawhi
Speaker 3: was playing eighty games this year, you will fool. So
Speaker 3: you know, got your license. We'll see Monday, when Kawhi
Speaker 3: actually speaks.
Speaker 1: We will be there at Media Day Monday into it Dome.
Speaker 1: He is the great law Murray again, follow him on
Speaker 1: x at La Murray and you and if you aren't
Speaker 1: subscribed to The Athletic, if you aren't reading him there,
Speaker 1: then don't even watch my videos. Don't because you're not
Speaker 1: gonna understand everything I'm talking about. Because I often quote
Speaker 1: La Murray, I am talking about things he's reporting on.
Speaker 1: I'm stealing some of his analysis. You hear how good
Speaker 1: he is here. The first thing I wants you to
Speaker 1: do after you're done with this show is go to
Speaker 1: The Athletic and read his new article Clippers on Kawhi Leonard.
Speaker 1: Watch again on Kawhi Leonard, Watch again, Team Navigates stars
Speaker 1: Bulky Knee before the season. Read and support our local
Speaker 1: media and that includes La Murray of the Athletic. Wow,
Speaker 1: thanks for doing this today. A little early show. I
Speaker 1: feel like it's later in the day now. Just threw
Speaker 1: everything off for me. So uh the breakfast, Uh maybe
Speaker 1: I need to eat some Sorry, mind myself what time
Speaker 1: it is?
Speaker 2: So man, you get yourself some French toasts and have
Speaker 2: fun with Fred Rogan.
Speaker 1: All right, French toast for Niko buttomb Let's gol. Thanks
Speaker 1: for doing this all right, take care. This has been
Speaker 1: another edition of Clippers Talk for lat Murray. I'm Adam Oslin.
Speaker 1: We'll talk to you next time.