Speaker 1: What is going on? Clovers fans, Welcome to season three,
episode thirty two of Clips and Dip. I am Chuck
Mockler joined by Adam Osen will Updyke mysteriously not here.
I hope he's okay.
Speaker 2: Maybe we'll get some practice footage from him.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, he's up on the vents and into it,
trying to get real footage. We are here today to
talk about the Kawhi Leonard returning rumors that have been
started completely by Bill Simmons and Patrick Beverley. The team
hasn't really done anything. There was a video of Kawhi
shooting around pregame that we're gonna show y'all that looked
actually like it was taken by someone in the heating
events at into it. We're gonna talk about what happened
against the Wolves, mostly bad things, and then a little
bit of talk about the game on Sunday against the
team that really does seem to have our number in
the Houston Rockets. But before we get into that, the
people are wondering, Adam, how the hell are you?
Speaker 2: I'm good. All is well on my side. Got three
days off here, Clippers only playing the three games the
next thirteen days it is hard to believe we.
Speaker 1: Got full leisure. Adam. Right now, you're gonna be in
a Hawaiian shirt with a beach background at the next show.
Speaker 2: Tommy Bahama, Adam.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh man, Okay, so let's let's just get right
into it. No pun intended. The Kawhi bobblehead date was
announced yesterday and it's going to be December sixteenth against
the Utah Jazz. I was excited to see this. I
guess it was cool. The bibblehead itself is very fun.
It's Kawhi on a shelf noted, not Clippers insider at
any time, at any time. I want to make that clear.
Bill's Simmons said that his Clippers guy and Adam you
can correct me if I'm wrong on that, But I
don't think Bill Simmons has ever been a Clippers news yeah, Fuller.
Speaker 2: Well, he's a Clippers fan. He comes to some games,
he's not as big of a fan. That's his West
Coast team. His real team is the Boston Celtics. I
don't think he's had as good of a track record
with things or has been on it, like maybe Skip
Bayless has in the past, where people you know in
hindsight said, Hey, actually Skip was right about something.
Speaker 1: I don't think anyone said that about Bill Simmons and
the Clippers.
Speaker 2: No, I can't recall a time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, his Clippers guy, these are Bill Simmons words told
him that Kawhi would be back before Christmas. The other
piece of evidence that we have for people to judge themselves,
because we're just presenting information and then of course we're
gonna talk about how we feel about it, but right
now this is just uh kind of us presenting it.
There was a video taken. We're gonna screen share because
we have that ability on this podcast. There was a
there was a video taken. I'm gonna do my best
at zoom in here of Kawhi basically kind of doing
what we saw him doing that other time we saw
him pre game shooting when he was recovering from injury
in Golden State. This came out like I think yesterday,
it was before the game. People were excited. I was
a little surprised I didn't get more attraction. But it's
the first like actual basketball that we've seen Kawhi Leonard play,
So all those things have added up into the I
would say minor frenzy people. Clippers fans have been on
this this rodeo before, so it's not like we're exactly
popping bottles and things like that. How are we feel
he also hasn't practiced yet? Well, I think that's a
very important detail. Some people are not if they're missing,
but should consider Adam. Now that I've spoken for almost
three uninterrupted minutes, I apologize for that. How where we at?
Speaker 2: Well, you bring up the biggest and most important point there,
He hasn't practiced and checking the box of doing five
on five stuff in practice, I think is the last thing.
And from that video, I would still say he's a
ways off. Is it feasible that he plays in December? Yeah,
I think that's possible. It depends what else has he
done that we haven't seen, because I don't know if
most people even would have thought he was doing a
movement like he just did on that three pointer. By
the way, was being.
Speaker 1: Talked about anything right like we've only seen Like yeah, no,
you're right, Like the way it's been discussed is like
strengthening his kneeback. So in your head, if you're a
Clippers fan, you go too. So he's like having trouble
sitting down like that. What does that mean?
Speaker 2: I wonder if they've been trying to undersell and over
deliver here. And Kauai actually has been doing more stuff
behind the scenes.
Speaker 1: For the first time in the two and three era history.
Speaker 2: But nobody ever knows what he's up to or what
his training actually is. We get reports from players who
have trained with him and talk about how intense it is.
But he had been talking about this summer right around
the time of the setback, right after Temosa, that he
was doing his usual training regiment during the summer, and
then the Clippers were like, Okay, we got to slow
this thing down. I think there's a real possibility that
they are being so overly cautious that it has led
us all to believe that he's just not progressing as
fast in his recovery from the knee as they had
wanted him to. But maybe it's not that. Maybe it's
as simple as we're not going to play him till
we know he's one hundred or one hundred and fifty
percent healthy, and we're already the twenty five percent of
the way through the season. So when he comes back
and he's still gonna miss back to back, so I'm
sure that means at most he's playing thirty five forty
games somewhere in there, and that's just their plan to
have them for the playoffs. It's all about the playoffs.
They're all in with Kawhi and actually having him being
able to finish a playoff series. So therefore they have
held him back so much with just an abundance of caution.
Speaker 1: And things are going well. It's the other part I
think that is making this or has made this easier
for Clippers fans myself included. Right, it's not like the
Clippers are floundering. We've we've been sold that bill of
goods in the preseason about defense and it's here and
that's that makes all of us pretty excited and why
we're in this situation we're in. Yeah, I before Christmas
is the thing that hangs up with me because that's
in twenty days and I don't know the practice windows
for They're already tired. They're gonna be taken some days off.
It's not like they're practicing every day up until those games.
But yeah, you mentioned the part about being you know,
one hundred percent that he because they don't want him
to go back out obviously was that's never wanted, but
that's been specifically reiterated by Lawrence Frank and ty Lou
about like, once he's back, we're going into this with
no expectation that he will be taking another break.
Speaker 2: You wonder if just they saw the doctor recommendation or
the training staff recommendation and they said, Okay, you're saying
this long, we're gonna double that.
Speaker 1: Let's yeah, let's let's add another hole. Let's add another
one hundred percent right on top of that. I don't
know if Kawi might have pushed back on that. Maybe
if that was the case.
Speaker 2: I think he has, though, because the way he's been talking,
and I talked with Lot Murray about this earlier, but
there was that preseason game in San Diego where coach
Lou used the words even if it pisses him off
when it comes to holding Kawhi back and himself, I
think there's a real chance that Kawhi has felt like
he's much closer than the team has felt like he
should be already back by this point.
Speaker 1: I like that idea. I think that's a good call
because the guys always want to play.
Speaker 2: And Kawhi doesn't do much else. He's not on social media.
Speaker 1: He goes to certain establishments. We know that he does
enjoy a night club of sorts. Sometimes he doesn't.
Speaker 2: He's a basketball junkie.
Speaker 1: He's got a hoverboard. He's got at least on moverboard.
Speaker 2: He's a real hooper and he wants to play. This
is why he trains so hard during the offseason to
get to actually play in games.
Speaker 1: So with all of these pieces, and I think we can,
I'm gonna go ahead and rank these pieces of which
I have the most stock in of making me if
I were to think that Kawhi Leonard was coming before Christmas,
which I'm still like, I think I'm fifty to fifty
just because we've heard all the costs though right oh agreed,
not a bad place to be. They've wanted to be
overly cautious. He hasn't practiced yet. Things are going well,
which I think in their head maybe buys them, you know,
some more of that time to add on top to
kind of piss KOI off, as he said a little
bit in terms of holding him out, because I think
that it does play a factor a little bit. It
has to. It's not like if this team was two
and whatever that they'd be like just chill, like, there's
no draft picks. We have to try and win a championship.
We're not gonna don't think we're finishing better than the Rockets.
No disrespect to how well the Clippers have played.
Speaker 2: They're playing great, and yet the Houston Rockets seem like
they're shooting to the moon right now.
Speaker 1: Yes, I'm putting the Bill Simmons thing dead last strictly
for the fact that the man has never broken anything
about the Clippers. I think he only watches the Clippers
for schadenfreud. And that's the very dead last for me.
The Bobblehead thing and I'm wearing my tinfoil hat from
the Lockdown Clipper days. Did you watch the bobblehead promo
for that is a promo that if he does not
play on that night. The way that that promo is,
I'm just like, people are gonna be so fucking pissed.
It's Kawai scanning is I'm not saying there, I'm not
saying this is like dots gonna extect. But it's a
big swing for the social media team to have Kawai
scanning his face. Go returning back to the into It
Dome doing all that stuff is all I'm saying.
Speaker 2: His bobblehead first, bobblehead. But it's his bobblehead doing all
that though.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, not actually quiet, Yeah, that would be I'd
be like, oh, they're setting themselves up for the worst
failure in the world. I'm probably at like forty sixty
on it on him coming back before Christmas.
Speaker 2: What's interesting is because the game.
Speaker 1: Too, as you mentioned, I was like, I don't know
he was doing all that.
Speaker 2: I guess that game though, on the sixteenth, just got
scheduled two days ago.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true, right after the Clippers lost or game.
Speaker 2: Yeah, right after the n season tournament game was over
and they won big over the Portland Trail Blazers, but
it didn't matter. Their chances of making the knockout round
were over back when okay, see select the Utah Jazz.
So they had a choice, right, Could they not have
done it that night? Could they have pushed it back
even further? Is that possible?
Speaker 1: I would think so, right, because they were TVD for
so long.
Speaker 2: How many games do they play at home in December?
Because obviously it's a Santa clause themed Bobbleheads, so you
have to have it.
Speaker 1: Near I thought it was Elf on the Shelf themed.
It was a Santa clause.
Speaker 2: No, I think you're right.
Speaker 1: I just us know.
Speaker 2: It's always clause with a K for Kawhi Leonard. It
has been this for a while.
Speaker 1: So you're asking their how many home games in December?
Speaker 2: Yeah, what's nearest to Christmas because they do have some
time off around there.
Speaker 1: December twenty seventh, that's the Warriors game. Yeah, and that's
past Christmas and what's before writings literally the Jazz game.
Speaker 2: So that's all they got they got, so absolutely yeah,
it doesn't mean anything. It doesn't mean anything.
Speaker 1: They would go Jazz Clippers Monday the sixteenth, or on
the road the nineteenth, or on the road the twenty first,
the twenty third, Because I was.
Speaker 2: Going to say if they had a game at home
on the twenty third or the twenty fourth or the
twenty second, and they could have chose that game instead
right before Christmas. Yeah, but that's not the case. They're
just picking the last game right before Christmas at home
for a Christmas theme.
Speaker 1: Bobblehead, knowing how these things go, he's going to come
back the twenty seventh, and I can say I told
you he wasn't coming back before Christmas.
Speaker 2: The thing is not even Kawai could know right now
when he's coming back, right.
Speaker 1: It's also just it's December fifth, like like it's not
like it's like the middle of like even the middle
of November. Like, Yeah, there's not a lot of time
before Christmas.
Speaker 2: There's no way they can have a plan set date
for when Kawi is coming because tomorrow he could do
an exercise and his knee doesn't like it, and therefore
it's gone and they move the date back further. I
think it's that simple right now, during this load up
ramp up, during this progression.
Speaker 1: But some of us have winter madness, so we're trying
to connect these dots.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I can understand why.
Speaker 1: Oh, and that's the other thing, like it makes sense
for some There's been times in the past where it's like,
why are we getting excited this one? There is some
smoke to it, right, Like there's a little bit of
smoke to it.
Speaker 2: Oh, I heard about the workout earlier yesterday. I was
gonna say anything, but now the video is out that
of course everybody knows, and and the Clipper Spirit are
right there, so this was going to get out. They knew, like,
there's plenty of people there. It's not like it was
completely closed off or as much as you try to
contain something like that. And I'm not saying the Clipper
Spirit stops snitching or something like that, like it's just we.
Speaker 1: Are pro Clipper Spirit.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's far too many people there for nobody to
find out about this, right right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, It's not like when remember when Doc He's to
have those closed pregame run throughs where you go into
Staples and they'd have all their and hung up, like
what are they doing? Like, oh, working on defensive concepts?
You're like, well, the games in an hour.
Speaker 2: I did. I did see some black curtains there yesterday
when I first got there around four thirty.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I just want to separate you from the public.
They can't have you out there. The masses would go crazy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, doing cause a riot or anything like that. It's
like the end of the movie Perfume.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So I'm encouraged. I am that.
Speaker 1: I think encouraged is the perfect spot to be at.
I'm encouraged. That's exactly why I'm like, great, cool, he's
doing more than I thought he was, which I guess
in my head was walking around. I didn't really think
he was anything other than that. And I don't mean
that in the mean way. But like, we don't have
any information.
Speaker 2: That little crossover step back three left wing, nothing but
net looks like Kawhi and me. Now again, he's got
to go through some real practices. And once we hear
about that, who knows what's been happening? What else has
been happening behind the scenes, because nobody probably would have
expected that yesterday, so other stuff could be happening. But
until we hear from La Murray and the Good Clippers
Beat writers that Kawhi is practicing today, I can't say
he's that close. That's the obvious tell of how close
he's getting. When is he showing up for practice? And
then does he practice two days in a row. Should
they have that much time? I mean they might, they
might over this little stretch which does tie in.
Speaker 1: This schedule helps which we haven't really talked about right
like that they don't They have actual rest coming up,
which is good. It's not like Kawhi has been doing
anything other than resting. But there's time to get real
practices and these the team isn't practice, Like I don't
know how many people know that, but like it's the
team isn't if there's one day off in between games,
the team isn't doing a full practice in between them,
you know what I mean, Like they're not running hard
in between those games. Like this has been a brutal schedule.
Speaker 2: Isn't it possible that maybe the plan was all along
the front office, the training staff, the doctors. They looked
at the schedule and said, oh, they don't have two
consecutive days off once in November. Yeah, that's probably not
a good time to bring back Ohaia. It's not going
to happen then, because it goes back to you saying
they want to be able to bring him back and
him having being able to stay back or to play
as many games as possible. This could be that landing spot.
The next couple of weeks they had to see where
the makeup games were scheduled for the n season tournament.
They got that. Now, I don't know, it's not nothing
to me, you know, it's not nothing. There does seem
to be a lot of dots that could be connected here.
Speaker 1: Well, there's always dots. I want to make that very clear.
There's always dots that can be connected during winter d
whatever it is, madness.
Speaker 2: What do we have up here with the yellow and
the purple stuff that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, the confetti, Yeah, we can connect all Yeah,
there might be a message in there. Another with the
rest factor two is say, you know, Kawhi comes back
and the team is the team will be rested theoretically
as much as they probably will be all season after
this December month because of how little games are playing,
which is the best time to bring him back. So
it's all like, hey, Kawhi, come back. Everyone's tired. We
need you to be back to like full on number
one option, like make every he's going he is going
to make things easier. But it's different with that being
the overt man. We really need this right now, ask
to make things easier.
Speaker 2: Yeah, ten and fourteen, they're fourteen and ten exactly makes
a difference.
Speaker 1: And they're playing well well except we'll talk about what
happened last night. But and the thing, that thing that
was making me laugh is that tyler U now has
like three days of just hanging out before the pregame
presser while all this Kawhi madness festers with people or
Lawrence Frank calls a press conference tomorrow or Saturday, and
we get information from that, which would probably not be
good information.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I would not like an impromptu, unscheduled Laurence Frank.
Speaker 1: I don't think that will happen. I want to I
don't think that will happen like that, But that is
the way that we do get information from this team.
Speaker 2: The next big shooter drop is Kawhi practice with squad
today and did a limited practice. That's what's gonna be
first off, guys, Yeah, he's not gonna fully participate, hopefully
more than knockout.
Speaker 1: I think knockout with an NBA team at practice would
get incredibly intense.
Speaker 2: For what it's worth, those guys are gonna miss very much, though.
Speaker 1: The good people are gonna begin when they do.
Speaker 2: That guy's getting knocked out immediately by the next person.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're probably well they're probably going from half court
or something insane.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're right.
Speaker 1: Well, some of the guys on the team maybe should
do that, just should do it from free throw.
Speaker 2: But Zoo has been struggling there.
Speaker 1: But yeah, encouraging, I think encouraging is the right word.
The next thing that people should look out for is
the practice update, which I don't know if they're practicing today.
Speaker 2: I think to Saturday.
Speaker 1: I didn't see any updates from any of our fabulous
beat riders. As you mentioned.
Speaker 2: I thought Law mentioned a practice on Saturday.
Speaker 1: Maybe a walk through on Friday. Then, because it's kind
of a lot of days off, They've earned it, man,
they don't spend it like that. I'm not saying they need.
Speaker 2: They had twenty one games in a thirty six day stretch,
which was the most condensed of any team that was
since I think October thirtieth.
Speaker 1: And we have seventeen games in March.
Speaker 2: We do, but that's old hat. We had that last year.
Speaker 1: There's nothing I'm still freaked out by. All right, let
us know. I didn't promote any of the handles before
we started. So if you're with us and you found us,
you probably know where we're at. But if you just
popped in, you can find the show at YouTube dot com, plash,
at Clippers podcast, or anywhere you get your pods. We
thank you for hanging out. Sorry there was no live
after the game last night, but we're gonna go ahead
and talk about the Clippers back to back.
Speaker 2: And I was gonna ask if you guys wanted to
come on after that?
Speaker 1: Uh I no, I mean I would have, but I
only had negative things. You're you're happy I didn't just
bomb into your stream. Just we got some audio ads
coming up, no video ads, so our faces will still
be here. I'm so if you're watching, if you're listening
on audio, there's gonna be some ads that we're talking
the Clippers back to back coming up, or the what
happened with the Clippers back to back coming up? In
three two?
Speaker 2: What welcome back in it's clips and dip I'm mean
am ozl in season three, episode thirty two. Still to come,
we'll preview the Rockets game coming up on Sunday. Remember
they only have three games in the next thirteen days,
and they have time to regroup and maybe find their
sea legs again. After what happened last night in a
beating against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Start contrast to what happened
in Minnesota losing by one, I'm missing that game right
about now after what happened last night. As upset as
I was for the clock management at the end, I'm like,
h last night's game was over about midway through the
first quarter. It was that bad. James Harden started zero
of seven, Jordan Miller started one for five and missed
a lot of his patented floaters, and yeah, go two shots.
Minnesota's defense was really good. It looks like they found themselves.
They figured it out. They won three games in a row,
all against LA teams. But after Anthony Edwards called them
out for being soft, you can see the difference in
this team. They're getting up for games now. They have
the personnel. They were the number one defense all of
last season by a mile. They shouldn't be that bad
just because they lost Kyl Anthony Town. So I'm not
that shocked about what happened last night because Minnesota already
had their come to Jesus moment or whatever. They already
had their gut check during the season, and the Clippers
three games and four nights it was Minnesota and only
played one game the last four days.
Speaker 1: No Norm Terrence. We're gonna talk about the Terrence injury,
which I think is kind of weirdly, getting swept on
the rug a little bit like they just didn't have
If you're going against a good defense and your down
Norm Powell and Harden's not hitting shots. There's not a
lot of other guys on the roster who can fill
in even close to what we would need against against
that team. And we kind of said in the game
preview when it was all three of us, we were like,
let's see, you know, don't don't lose any of your
good will if this back to back doesn't go as
we wanted to, and they very much did not. But
there were some good stuff. Jordan Miller's first game, he
was scoring, Trenton Flowers had some energy like I don't know,
Norman Hard Christie and Trenton.
Speaker 2: Yeah, both of them with dunks to start their NBA careers.
Speaker 1: Trenton's was crazy. Trenton's was like, oh, he's gonna hit
his head on the rim.
Speaker 2: He was the best part of that game. Yeah, he
had the highest bird at the combine.
Speaker 1: Really, what damn? I mean it was? It was on
display in that first bucket.
Speaker 2: I think it was forty two or forty three inches.
And this is real, like electronics stuff and.
Speaker 1: Real thought a guy hold stick.
Speaker 2: It's different. It's not like, yeah, the bo Jackson ran
a three nine to forty. He ran a forty two
inch or he jumped. Uh, he had a forty two
inch vertical.
Speaker 1: Wow, that's uh, that is impressive. Is that higher lower
than yours?
Speaker 2: Uh? You know it's about four times. But I think.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that game against the Blazers, Norman Harden
were great in that one, and then Norman didn't play,
Which how long that management is gonna go? Do you
think that was just a professional decision to give him
some rest.
Speaker 2: I think there was like, yeah, he just played last night,
second game back from the hamstring. We could give him
four days off if we just don't play him in
this one before the game against Houston, which is a
big game. I think that's what it was. It was strategic,
it was smart. It's a hamstring. They're tricky, tough to manage,
and they very much need him. That's another It's it's
just the same philosophy. When we get guys back, we
want them to stay back. Not everybody's been able to
do that so far this season. The NBA has had
a tough time with that. Paul George, I wonder if
people were saying he came back too early from the
initial bone bruise when he hyper extended his left knee.
Then he had another one. I don't know. Yeah, caution please.
Speaker 1: Which is what they are doing, which is awesome. Some
bad things that happened, Terrence breaking a finger and needing surgery.
He's going to be reevaluated in three weeks. This is
not the biggest loss obviously, but this is a loss
that I think because of his bad start, people are
maybe not giving enough credit to how much this might
affect the rotation.
Speaker 2: It could be more impactful than like.
Speaker 1: A lunch, you know what I mean. But it's like
it just feels like with the starts, like he's a
plus defender. He was getting his stride off the bench
with a mirror.
Speaker 2: Kind of yeah, we needed but that I.
Speaker 1: Mean, the start was bad. We needed any positives and
any positives in a row for Terrence. Man, it was like, oh, hey,
this has been better than what has been happening.
Speaker 2: The Denver game was his best game. He won them
that game. He had the offensive rebound in that three
pointer and a mere coffee been went out after banging
knees and he stepped up and he was looking good.
Speaker 1: Right, Like he's one of those guys who it's like
a mir goes out Terrence can step up do his thing, Like, Yeah,
I don't know.
Speaker 2: It's a bigger loss if somebody else gets hurt.
Speaker 1: Basically, well said yeah, Terrence Man. Yeah, but three weeks
without Terrence, I mean it's more Jordan Miller time. But
I don't feel great about it.
Speaker 2: If Kawhi is back on the sixteenth, I feel better
about it.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, I'll feel better about a lot of things.
Of Kawi's back on the sixteenth, I'll forget about the
cracks of my apartment walls of kawis back on the sixteen.
Speaker 2: I just Jordan's been getting extra run too because KPJ
has been out. There's probably a good chance he's back
on Sunday against his former team.
Speaker 1: That's to day, right, m hm. Basically just kind of yeah.
Speaker 2: Left ankle tweak. This solidifies Jordan Miller as being heavily
used in the rotation for a significant amount of time
where he can really show what he can do. I
think it's a big deal. You never want to see
a guy get injured, but when that happens, somebody else
has to step up and is Jordan Miller's time is
a big opportunity for him, and he can create that
situation he's been talking about now where they can't afford
to keep him out even when they are fully healthy.
This is the type of stretch that can do that
for him if he performs at a high level.
Speaker 1: I talked about this a little bit after on the
stream after the Blazers game. His offense was on full
display in that game. He was doing his thing. We
saw that all bench line up and what the Blazers
were doing defensively to Jordan Miller, which was go straight
at him every single time with pretty good results for
the Portland Trailblazers.
Speaker 2: They had at least three buckets on him that I
counted where where they went by him. But I still
I don't think the defense is bad. I don't.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying. That's normal rookie right, Like he wasn't.
He didn't come into this to the league as he's
going to be a stud, you know what I mean.
Like that's not like that was one of his things.
But we're gonna see him look like a rookie a
bit on the defensive end. It's just how much can
he make adjustments in mid game? You know what I mean? Like,
is he's obviously coachable because Tyler trust him. Excuse me.
That's what I'm looking for. The offense, it's that is
going to grow and keep going and I feel really
good about it. The defense is where we should watch
to see how he's improving, which I think he will,
but that is going to be if he's not getting
as much time as some people want him to. Just
just watch him on the defensive end. And again, not
a knock on him, he's a young guy in this league.
Speaker 2: Yeah. My point is he's just never had the reputation
of being a bad defender at any level.
Speaker 1: Totally.
Speaker 2: It's not his bugaboo or he's not a sieve on defense.
It's just now is the NBA and you're going to
be tested more on that level. Yeah, on that's end
of the court, I should.
Speaker 1: Say deliberately too, like that's we think the other part
has got to be weird when you're a rookie and
they're saying, go at at, go at you, right, like
you're hearing people yell at you like oh shit, Okay.
Speaker 2: Russ Let yelled that at Luca one time.
Speaker 1: To go at him exactly. Luca not a rookie, not
a rookie, but no I like. I like your point,
Like it's like it's just the NBA now, you know,
like you just gotta and the coaches obviously believe that
he is able to do that because he is getting
more time. I thought he.
Speaker 2: Brought up a really cool point saying it can't just
be about me reacting to plays. It has to be
about me predicting what's coming based upon basically watching tape,
studying and knowing what they're running out there, and that
will come with experience. That's what helps those things down.
For guys. I think they're seeing it more, they're reading it,
and therefore they can start to adjust without just oh
a guy's taking me left now I have to move
this way and just react to it instantly. It's like
this is where he goes, this is what they're running
right now, and that this is how I can adjust
and be in the correct position. He's so smart. I
can't believe the interviews with him that we've got. He
just headed. I love the guy. Yeah, he gets it.
And as long as his offense, I think it's gonna
be tough, given how he's looked offensively so far, for
his defense to be so bad that it negates his offense.
I just think there's such a slim chance of that happening, because,
first of all, I don't think he's that bad of
a defender. I think he's capable. And secondly, because offensively
outside last night, he's not missing many of those shots.
Speaker 1: And the other thing that he is which might have changed,
but the last time he looked at it. Fourth on
the team and free throw attempts per game in the
most non real minutes that you can possibly have and
still be fourth on a team in free throw attempts
per game for a team that needs easy buckets like
he has the nose for it. He's aggressive. That no
look passing through to Terrence I think is one of
my favorite highlights of his because he's confident. That's not
a play you make if you're like, WHOA, I hope
I'm playing okay, and then you throw a no look
pat Like. It's the confidence that I really like.
Speaker 2: And that's part of his repertoire. He's not just a
black hole on offense where he scores and he's efficient
with it, but he can't do much else within that.
He can find other guys like he did there with
Terrence Man. That's what I think makes him impressive. He
can help you in multiple ways on the offensive ends.
So I think he's going to be serviceable enough on
defense that his offense will still keep him being a
positive and keep him getting minutes out there.
Speaker 1: Yes, one person who seems to become the rotation bones
Island and as a skeleton keyholder yourself at him. I
know this hurts you, but we're trading him in PJ
for like a drafting stash or something like it's the time,
the time is up. It feels like.
Speaker 2: Coach Liu, you said you trust Jordan Miller. Who do
you not trust?
Speaker 1: You get? So that must mean that you have a
list of some kind who's at the bottom of that list.
It was just, you know, it's weird to see just
it just kind of sucks.
Speaker 2: It does, And I guess the attitude issues in Denver
have lingered over. They've they've come with him because it's
not between him and his teammates here. That's what's different.
He had something going on with Jamal Murray and Denver.
He has no issue with his teammates. He's cheering guys on,
he's doing everything there. It's just between him and the
coaching staff.
Speaker 1: It looks like I just man, I just think, like
you know, when you see someone saying insane things and
you're like, wow, that seems pretty.
Speaker 2: You see it in the chat all the time, and.
Speaker 1: You're like, wow, that seems pretty crazy. And then there's
one guy who's like, whoa, I actually think this guy
might be right. That's PJ Tucker and Bones Highland is
what I think happened where it's like, why did you
hit your wagon to the way that PJ Tucker was
acting in the locker room that one season he both
got sent home.
Speaker 2: He's like, PJ was such a bad VET for one,
not willing to help and be a good VET and
just chill on the bench and point out some things
here and there with his knowledge of the game. But
then he also apparently actively hurt another guy's attitude. I'm
not going to say Bones, you know, isn't responsible at all,
but no, it's like he followed the wrong guy. That
was bad leadership, PJ. That was not what we needed.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so that was rough, and then twenty one turnoverss
Minnesota also rough. Burn the tape, just burn the.
Speaker 2: Tape, and coach lou said postgame, like Mike Malone they
will be flushing this.
Speaker 1: This isn't what are they gonna revisit here?
Speaker 2: There's nothing to learn from that game, honestly, nothing outside
of Trent and Flowers and hey look pretty good. Nothing.
Speaker 1: Free chicken was nice.
Speaker 2: That was nice. They missed seven straight free throws going
against the into a dome wall.
Speaker 1: Which they chose.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well they it's still one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, you know, they won the war, but they
lost that one very very not that important battle in
the context of that war. All right, we're gonna go
ahead and flush that game and never talk about it again.
We are going to talk about the upcoming game on
Sunday against the Rockets. Hey, that should be a fun time.
We got some more audio ads coming up and then
Rockets talk in three two one. All right, we are back.
Welcome to Clips and Dip. Thank you for listening to us.
If you'd like to watch us and watch us at
YouTube dot complish at Clippers podcast. You can find this
podcast anywhere you get your regular old podcasts. It's Clippers
versus the Rockets on Sunday at six pm. Clippers are
zero and two versus the Rockets. This year, it's not
been pretty really, They just the last time we played
out there were some things that went against us that
I don't think will happen again. Right, Derek Jones Junior
and Zoo were two of fourteen. Yeah, last time we
played them, the Clippers lost points in the paint, second
chance points, and fast break points. Let's hope we just
let's hope we win one of those. But what gets
me about this Rockets team is that, uh, they have
two guys on the bench that just kind of destroy
our second unit, which is I'm and Thompson and Eason what.
Speaker 2: Did they call themselves?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I thought I saw it on Twitter
and I was like, that's pretty cool. I guess I
love it. But that is what worries me in this game,
especially Terrence Man, we're just a little thinner. You talk
about Jordan Miller being put in the defensive spotlight again
against a team with two guys on the bench who
can really score.
Speaker 2: They're the terrors wins. Apparently they watch tape together at
times and look up the analytics of like how they're doing.
They've put a lot of pride and yeah.
Speaker 1: That's cool, and again that's what terrifies me about them.
They really like being really good off the bench together.
How are you feeling about this one? I put this
in the breakdown. I don't know if it's wrong to
say this matchup feels bleak as hell just from what
we saw last game. But like this is just a
good Rockets team. We're gonna put up a fight.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're good. They're offense, though, is middle of the pack.
There's just sixteenth on the offensive end. There is an
area where if the Clippers defense is fully focused, they
could slow them down as much as the Rockets are
slowing down the Clippers offense. Maybe because the Clippers offense
had been better until the game last night. They were
eleventh over the last ten games, when they were eight
and two heading into that game last night before they
got beat up something good by the minnesot Timberwolves. So
I asked coach Lou I got the first question in
yesterday about the offensive rating and why it has changed.
And first, first.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you need to say that next time you get
first see if they kicked you out.
Speaker 2: I asked him about being eleventh the last ten games offensively,
and he credited them turning the ball over less and
getting up more three pointers, which they had a couple
of stellar games from the outside where they had just
shot what made eighteen threes against Denver and then nineteen
against Portland, so they made thirty seven threes and back
to back games where they were doing it a high volume.
Two Yes, I think they ended up shooting forty eight
percent or something like that from distance in those two games.
I do worry that sometimes when they win, is it
as simple as just they hit their threes tonight. But
I think there's something too. Coach who always talks about
when they get up a lot of threes, it's a
sign that they're moving the ball really well. Guys are
touching it, they're playing hot potatoes, so therefore you're getting
better look from the outside. So you're not just putting
them up to get them up to try to get
to some arbitrary number we have to take forty two
threes a nine or anything like that. They're doing it
within the flow of the offense. When the offense is flowing,
they tend to get a ton more threes because drive kickswing.
So they're gonna have to be great in that area.
Against Houston, I don't know if they were in either game.
That first game where they almost came back with the
bench moob. Yeah, that was kind of interesting. It got
dicey there. I think they got to within four, maybe
with a three minutes left or something like that, after
they were a down big early. But it does just
feel like a bad matchup and their youth and just
physicality out there with the Houston Rockets really causes problems
for the Clipper because they just disrupt a lot of
what they're doing with James Harden and they have so
many guys they can throw at him, and then you
slow down or cut off the head of the snake.
Speaker 1: Well then Norm had a bad game last time too.
They kind of stifled Norman, but he also shot poorly.
Speaker 2: They got into his airspace pretty well. Hopefully he's back.
I would expect him to be, and I'm sure he'll
play better. But it's it's not just a bad matchup
with the Clippers right now. They are because they have
turned in from one of the better teams of the
NBA and we're still kind of wrapping our heads around that.
Oh Houston's like a top good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's it. Yeah, I'm not. Yeah, they are
just a very good team in general. And we did
the episode like midway through November, if you want to
listen to the postgame episode after that last Rockets game,
we talked about it. It's just the Clippers kryptonite. Like it's
it's just a very athletic team that prides itself on defense,
and if they're playing well, well, the Clippers offense is
already it is what it is. It's just very difficult
to overcome that. And we gotta assume normal be back.
Like you were saying norms should be back. We're gonna
need KPJ's legs, like someone to initiate the offense on
the second unit, because again, the Rockets bench defense is
very good.
Speaker 2: I think a case has been made by the void
of not having KPJ the last few games of maybe
how valuable he is, because it's just not easy without
him to just initiate offense.
Speaker 1: Was that even against the Blazers, which was a blowout,
kind of starting in the fourth late third, there are
some times with that all bench lineup where it was like, guys,
you have dribbled a basketball and passed it to other
people before. Like I understand we're not all true point guards,
but there was some like Keystone Cops action by some
of those lineups with like how to in terms of
how they were initiating the offense.
Speaker 2: Especially against a team that is able to switch. And
Portland's pretty good with that for a team, as you know,
they're not great, but Houston's really good with that. You're
trying to get this screen, cool, We're just gonna switch
it and throw a pretty good defender at you another one.
It's not gonna be easy against them. But yeah, maybe
maybe I should say that while they're a very good
team overall, Uh, there's specifically a thorn in the side
against a team like the Clippers, which is the way
they match up against them totally.
Speaker 1: And uh, it doesn't seem like we're gonna get that
first round pick.
Speaker 2: No it doesn't. It is still you know, or twenty
five percent of the way. It's not totally out of
reach because things are that close in the standings right now.
But let's see the Clippers are. There are two games
back of them, so it's not that crazy that. Okay,
we've seen teams get off the hot starts before. I
just I'd like this Houston team heading into this year.
I like, I think they have a very good head coach.
I think They got a lot of good young talent
and they just had to figure out where guy fit.
And they're starting to put those pieces together. And the
way they brought in a couple of vets last season
with Fred van Vliet and with Dylan Brooks, the pieces
match up. Things are lining up for them now. It
makes sense. Alprin Cheoon is, you know, having a moment
right now or a leap in his development. So I
just there's no reason really to think they could slow
down a little bit. But there's no reason to think
that they're going to drop out of being a top
six seed in the Western Conference by what I've seen
so far this season.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and there's some other weird And with that pick specifically,
wouldn't we have to finish in the lottery range anyway,
which I don't know if the Clippers will do. Wait,
what do you mean, like if if we were to
keep our first round pick like a lottery pick, specifically,
we would have had to finished in the lottery range
and better than the Rockets, which I don't see either
team doing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the Rockets is top ten protected. I forget. We
went over at that one day with Justin Russ. But
there is a chance that even if they did finish
ahead of them but slightly, then it comes down to
pink punk balls and while they have an increased chance
of not having the better pick that okay se would take. Yeah,
it's not a foregone conclusion. So we'll see the Clippers
should be playing to win games, and regardless if it's
chasing down the rockets and trying to hold on to
that pick or not.
Speaker 1: All right, now we come to the most important part
of the show. Will is not here for this. We
are doing the Clippers Player of the Game picks, and
because they only have one game, we only have to
pick a player of the game for one game. We've
been having to go across three games. We did two
the other day. If you're new to the show, we
cannot pick Avita Zubats, James Hardner, Norm Pal to be
player of the game because those three people will just
rotate between Adam, Will and I what they're gonna do.
Will's not here, Adam, Who do you think Wills would
pick for his Player of the game?
Speaker 2: Keivin Will's pick up? Let's see who would he like?
Who would Will like? Uh? I'll go with Nico Batum
for Will.
Speaker 1: Ooh, Okay, Nico's had I still I'm so pissed off
about the whistle against Nico Batum, which continues to be happening.
But Nico has not had twelve versus walls on the
twenty ninth, but he's not the defense defenses there. I
like that pick. We're gonna need him to be good.
Speaker 2: I got your back, will I gave you Nico, Adam,
who are you picking? I'll go Mobamba. I'll go Mobama
with my pick.
Speaker 1: Shut up. Mobamba had a really one, really good shift
against the Blazers that I highlighted in my post game stream.
That was it was chaos, it was complete. He was
ripping the ball away from guys. He hit a three.
I liked the Bamba pick Mamba.
Speaker 2: I liked his energy. He just looks like he's moving
well out there. Whatever was going on with his knee swelling,
they certainly got that under control, because yeah, I think
he had like three steals or two steals and three
blocks in that third quarter stretch where they open things
up against Portland, and yeah, and yeah, you can stress
the floor a little bit. I like to see him
hit him in a little bit of a higher frequency
right now. But it's still the numbers are low. Okay,
here in a row, all of a sudden, he's probably
at like thirty six percent, you know.
Speaker 1: Right, Okay, so you're at Mobamba will put Picnico, But
Tom damn. I have a lot of people to choose
fro him. I picked Jordan Miller to be good over
the last two games, and one of those I was
correct about. Let's see, we're gonna need you know, who's
gonna have a bounce back game off the bench that
we're gonna really need. I'm assuming Norm is playing, which
is why I said off the bench a mere coffee.
Let's killed it against the Blazers, not so much against
the Timberwolves.
Speaker 2: Who did outside shed flowers.
Speaker 1: Very true. So I'm going to miror coffee. He's gonna
hit a couple of threes. He's gonna hit time. He's
probably gonna hit a fast break bucket. When the Clippers
either you know, maybe the lead's only four, they bump
it up to six, I feels more comfortable, or they're
down like something like that. I love the timely buckets
from a mirror. I think he's gonna come up big
in the sense that a mirror comes up.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I like that. That's a good call. A mirror
has been. I don't know how many threes he missed
last game, but going into that I think he was
shooting forty four percent going into that game last night
from three. Yeah, mere coffee. And it's not totally out
of the realm that he shoots over forty two percent
from three this season. Yeah, I'm not gonna bet on it,
but he shot thirty eight percent from three last season.
He had one year on really low volume where he
shot forty one percent from three. He's a good shooter
and he's only gotten better.
Speaker 1: One of the better contracts in the league.
Speaker 2: Yeah, god, was almost traded.
Speaker 1: Yeah God, that man happy that didn't go down. All Right,
That about wraps it up. We're gonna be coming at you,
probably alive after the Rockets game. I will be getting
a Christmas tree on Sunday, so we'll see what time
that happens, hopefully before the Rockets game. For sure, a
full episode on Monday with Anybody, with Everybody. If any
actual Kawhi news drops, I'm sure we will have you
covered on Clippers Talk and on Clips and Dip. We'll
make sure to go live for all that jazz. We
really need reviews. They help us on the iTunes, they
help us on Spotify, all those places. If you'd like
to subscribe to our channel, feel free. We're not gonna
stop you. YouTube dot comup slush at Clippers Podcast. It's
a really fun time. We do appreciate you and Adam
one positive thing to send these Clippers fans out on
heading into this weekend.
Speaker 2: As much as things are still murky and unclear and
substantiated with Kawhi, the rumors that are out there are
at least positive and not his publicist in China is
saying something vague and cryptic that could end up being bad.
All the rs are towards the positive way this time.
I will sign up for that.
Speaker 1: Encouragement. That's what that's what we're here for. We are
encouraged by this Kaui news. Thank you to him for
hanging out. We will talk to you later. And his