Speaker 1: Testing, testing, one, two three. I believe we have a
Speaker 1: Clippers Talk live going on just now. Welcome in. I'm
Speaker 1: Adam Ausland. Yeah, I got one of the new hats on.
Speaker 1: It's beautiful because it's got the little rope here because
Speaker 1: sailboat or clipper ship and there's rope. Yeah, it's cool,
Speaker 1: it's attached to the hat. I love it. This is
Speaker 1: not an emergency live and impromptu live. I wasn't planning
Speaker 1: on doing this, almost at a meltdown a second ago,
Speaker 1: trying to get Google to work for me. But I
Speaker 1: said yesterday the show with Justin Russo was going to
Speaker 1: be the last Clippers Talk show of the week and
Speaker 1: if anybody can let me know, ooh, j Bo's eighty
Speaker 1: four already does. Thank you. Jay bos He says we're
Speaker 1: live and he can hear me, and we're good to go.
Speaker 1: So something popped up a little bit earlier today, and
Speaker 1: just to give you a little bit of the rundown
Speaker 1: of the show and why I'm doing this well, I
Speaker 1: had a comment on the YouTube side earlier. It was
Speaker 1: under the Justin Russo show from yesterday at fly by
Speaker 1: Night is where you find Justin Russo and he is
Speaker 1: someone that I look up to when it comes to
Speaker 1: and look to guidance with his reporting. He's fabulous at it.
Speaker 1: You need to be a part of his substack or
Speaker 1: whatever Patreon, I don't know, but it's a subscription based
Speaker 1: thing and it's more than worth it because he gives
Speaker 1: out amazing information. I thought that would be the last
Speaker 1: show of the week. I thought for sure that would
Speaker 1: be it. But I got a comment in that show
Speaker 1: that I saw earlier today that kind of puts some
Speaker 1: wind in my sales a little bit. As I started
Speaker 1: this YouTube channel well just about I don't know, a
Speaker 1: month and a half ago, and it was a very
Speaker 1: nice comment that got me excited and inspired and maybe
Speaker 1: want to do a show tonight. It said it was
Speaker 1: from the dang Aliko or DeAngelo whatever. It's one of
Speaker 1: the last comments in there from three hours ago. It says, Adam,
Speaker 1: thank you for finally bringing us Clippers fans the radio
Speaker 1: show we've always dreamed of having. I don't ever listen
Speaker 1: to AM five to seventy anymore now. Some of that
Speaker 1: at the end, there was a bit of a slight.
Speaker 1: I worked for AM five to seventy and I told him, well,
Speaker 1: I at least hope you listen when Clippers games are
Speaker 1: on there and Petro some money and Rogan and Rod
Speaker 1: and you have been working for they're my guys. It's
Speaker 1: the Dodger Station. But it made me think about how
Speaker 1: if I was doing a Clipper show today and it
Speaker 1: was during the off season for AM five to seventy,
Speaker 1: what type of show would that be, what we talk about,
Speaker 1: what would be the subject at hand. It's the off season.
Speaker 1: There isn't as much to discuss right now. Well, something
Speaker 1: occurred earlier today. I'm going to share this screen with
Speaker 1: you all right here, right now because I want to
Speaker 1: put a topic to rest. But also it was a
Speaker 1: good jumping off point for just talking about the status
Speaker 1: of Kawhi Leonard and my true thoughts about how I
Speaker 1: feel going into this season given his track record and
Speaker 1: how injury prone he has been. And I haven't really
Speaker 1: done an episode on that yet. I have not necessarily
Speaker 1: hinted around it. I've touched upon it in pretty much
Speaker 1: every single episode I have done so far on Clippers
Speaker 1: Talk in these off season editions now on the YouTube side,
Speaker 1: and by the way, yes, the Ralph Lawler interview is
Speaker 1: coming very soon. Here. I promise Part one. It was
Speaker 1: about an hour and a half long interview. Gonna split
Speaker 1: it into two parts. I was up in ben Organ
Speaker 1: last weekend and I'm proud of the interview and was
Speaker 1: just proud to get to hang out with our friend
Speaker 1: Ralph Lawler again and had been too long and to
Speaker 1: catch up. And I think you guys are really going
Speaker 1: to enjoy this, and it's also going to get you
Speaker 1: a little bit more excited for this season. And it's
Speaker 1: just a good time to reflect. And Ralph has been
Speaker 1: what gone for five years now since he was the
Speaker 1: voice of the Clippers, and I know for many of
Speaker 1: you he is forever voice of the Clippers, but he
Speaker 1: stepped down at the end of the twenty eighteen twenty
Speaker 1: nineteen season. We're lucky to have Brian Seaman. Now I'm
Speaker 1: lucky to have Carlo Jimenez on the radio side. He'll
Speaker 1: be coming on with me on Monday, coming on in
Speaker 1: this show in just a little bit. Here is my
Speaker 1: voice cracks like it's pre pubescent. Zach Morrison saved by
Speaker 1: the bell because I just woke up from a nap. Honestly,
Speaker 1: we're gonna have hopefully Chuck Mockler will be here. We
Speaker 1: will have Grant Bona from the Sporting Tribune. But I
Speaker 1: wanted to do this in a different sort of way
Speaker 1: here where I started things off with an opening monologue
Speaker 1: as I would if this was an A five to
Speaker 1: seventies show, because I go back to that comment I
Speaker 1: got on the YouTube side a little bit earlier today
Speaker 1: speaking of woke up to this as I'm sharing my
Speaker 1: screen with you and what's up William Blast. But this
Speaker 1: guy who follows me on x and follows many Clipper
Speaker 1: fans reporters and is a part of Clipernation, it looks
Speaker 1: like LT sent me something that obviously I couldn't read
Speaker 1: it first had to translate it. He translated in the tweet, saying,
Speaker 1: this is something from something called China Weebo, which I
Speaker 1: guess I had to look this up. Is a micro
Speaker 1: blogging website, so I don't know if it's their version
Speaker 1: of Twitter, a social media website in China. He translated
Speaker 1: it as this quote, there might be some bad news,
Speaker 1: so let me give you a heads up. We'll have
Speaker 1: to wait and see what happens during the Clippers media day.
Speaker 1: He claims this is coming from Kawhi, Chinese agent Obviously,
Speaker 1: players go over to China during the offseason. Typically James
Speaker 1: Harden has been there frequently, and they have a large
Speaker 1: market there. And I didn't know what to make of
Speaker 1: this at all. And I said, uh, what underneath it?
Speaker 1: He said, China fans were talking about this, and she's
Speaker 1: Kawhai's Chinese agent, allegedly. I said, what is the point
Speaker 1: of this? He said, China fans are now guessing whether
Speaker 1: Kawhi is heard or not based upon this cryptic and
Speaker 1: vague social media post. I said, Cool, I was not
Speaker 1: in the mood when this came out earlier today. Obviously,
Speaker 1: LT responded, given that she is Leonard's Chinese agent, it's
Speaker 1: natural to make such a guess. First of all, I'm
Speaker 1: assuming that's even true. For the sake of argument, we
Speaker 1: will assume that I said, I'm not into the fear porn.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna enjoy my day since either way, there's no
Speaker 1: nothing I can do. Even if there was something to this,
Speaker 1: LT said, still appreciate your reply, man, have a nice day. Cool.
Speaker 1: This is not somebody that's out there trolling, to my knowledge,
Speaker 1: or trying to raise alarm bells or say the sky
Speaker 1: is falling. He's following up on something that he saw
Speaker 1: and he won input on it. No issue with that whatsoever.
Speaker 1: Whether or not this is accurate, who can know at
Speaker 1: this point, because La Murray of the Athletic did react
Speaker 1: to this, which makes me think it got even more traffic.
Speaker 1: And I'm trying to quote him accurately here. I just
Speaker 1: want to make sure I get this right from La
Speaker 1: Murray and he said this, and I will share the
Speaker 1: screen so you know, I'm giving you the facts here
Speaker 1: and not just making anything up, La Murray said. Source
Speaker 1: close to Kawai says Kawhi is fine also at seventy
Speaker 1: six and mostly cloudy in La today. Check back next week.
Speaker 1: And that put a lot of people's fears aside. It
Speaker 1: did for me too, Why because I trust La Murray,
Speaker 1: I trust our local reporters for the Clippers. I trust
Speaker 1: that that's the information we have to this point, and
Speaker 1: that's all we can go off of. And considering I've
Speaker 1: never gotten a tweet from that Chinese website before, and
Speaker 1: I never knew about his Chinese agent, I just don't
Speaker 1: want to put too much credence into it. It's not
Speaker 1: that I go into the season or go into any
Speaker 1: day feeling totally secure when it comes to Kawai's health
Speaker 1: given what has happened over the last four seasons. Hi
Speaker 1: Todd Tate says, good evening, Adam all the way from
Speaker 1: Spring Texas. Appreciate everybody getting in here. It's not that
Speaker 1: I haven't told you a million times before on this show,
Speaker 1: in pretty much every episode this offseason, that I have
Speaker 1: real concerns about Kawhi Leonard I do. I just don't
Speaker 1: know if this is it all truly related or if
Speaker 1: it's a real report, and until it's substantiated by a
Speaker 1: real Clippers reporter and somebody that there was my alarm
Speaker 1: to wake up from that map actually has a connection
Speaker 1: and credibility to the Clippers, to Kawhi, I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: put too much into it. Oh, Tomara Zarli's backup, says
Speaker 1: Hi Adam, longtime listener, big fan Tomarya. If the real
Speaker 1: te mayor wants to hit me up and send me
Speaker 1: a text and wants to jump on as well, in
Speaker 1: a little bit here we can have a panel, we
Speaker 1: can have a discussion. Already know Grant Mona is gonna
Speaker 1: be on. He already responded, and here he's watching right now.
Speaker 1: I just want to lay this out in a certain
Speaker 1: format where a block, Yeah, I'm gonna ranch a little bit,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have an opening monologue, and the I'm gonna
Speaker 1: have guests on, just like if it was a real
Speaker 1: radio show. Right now, other people are saying this messed
Speaker 1: up their day, They're about to crash out, they were panicking,
Speaker 1: I feel, and I don't think this is what the
Speaker 1: initial tweeter was saying, or it wasn't his aim at
Speaker 1: least to get people riled up in a panic. He
Speaker 1: seemed genuine that he was looking for understanding about this
Speaker 1: message on a China social media site that may or
Speaker 1: may not be from Kawhi's Chinese agent over there. Some though,
Speaker 1: will use this to aggregate, We'll use this to gain
Speaker 1: more of a following. I'm now using this this is
Speaker 1: a topic to talk about tonight, when and when I
Speaker 1: wasn't going to do a show to begin with, just
Speaker 1: because it does offer a springboard into a conversation about
Speaker 1: Kawhi Leonard and how I feel overall about his health
Speaker 1: and how I feel the Clippers should manage it this
Speaker 1: upcoming season, because there's a lot to this subject matter
Speaker 1: and I haven't touched upon it in a real focused,
Speaker 1: narrow focused way, laser focused way. So far this summer.
Speaker 1: We have media Day coming up, by the way, in
Speaker 1: ten days Monday, September thirtieth, So very soon we're going
Speaker 1: to find out a lot about this team, roles, expectations
Speaker 1: from coach lou when the players up there on the podium.
Speaker 1: I'll be there and into a dome for media Day.
Speaker 1: I want to start with this though, because I have
Speaker 1: been preaching this all summer long and before that. If
Speaker 1: you guys follow me, you know that I never bought
Speaker 1: into the narrative of oh Kawhi's fine, going back to
Speaker 1: March and April when he originally missed that first game.
Speaker 1: After the game in Charlotte, He's out against the Sacramento Kings,
Speaker 1: and everybody got concerned because I think it started off
Speaker 1: being labeled soreness in his right knee. I waited a
Speaker 1: few games. He still wasn't back. Then I saw the
Speaker 1: Clippers were taking on the Denver Nuggets. There were standings, ramifications,
Speaker 1: there was a lot on the line in that game,
Speaker 1: and he still wasn't back, and people were still trying
Speaker 1: to tell me that no, they're just saving him for
Speaker 1: the playoffs. He played sixty eight games, most he had
Speaker 1: played since the I want to say twenty sixteen twenty
Speaker 1: seventeen season with San Antonio, and therefore they had a
Speaker 1: strong enough CD and they were just going to make
Speaker 1: sure that he was okay for a long playoff run.
Speaker 1: And that's all. It was load management, getting Kawai as
Speaker 1: fresh as possible for the playoffs. I wish that's what
Speaker 1: it was. I never bought it, and it wasn't that. Obviously,
Speaker 1: now we all know. There was a lot of wishful thinking,
Speaker 1: I think from Clipper nation. I understand it. But when
Speaker 1: he misses a game as consequential as that game was
Speaker 1: against the Denver Nuggets, the Clippers won't it. Anyways, I
Speaker 1: knew something was up. I knew it was more than
Speaker 1: just managing Kawai's body and resting. To Marrizzari says, to
Speaker 1: be fair, that's the message they were delivering. I didn't
Speaker 1: get that. I didn't see that. I just saw he
Speaker 1: continued to show up on the injury report. So if
Speaker 1: you can cite something for me, tell Mayor and I
Speaker 1: can bring it up here. I never heard a Clipper
Speaker 1: or spokesman say we're just resting him for the playoffs.
Speaker 1: I didn't pick up on that. When did that happen?
Speaker 1: How did I miss this? Again? Tell Mary, if you
Speaker 1: want to come on, I can shoot you the link here.
Speaker 1: Grandmother was coming on hopefully, Chuck Mockler now whether or
Speaker 1: not we knew the significance of it, because eventually it
Speaker 1: went from soreness to swelling, That's when I started to
Speaker 1: become concerned. Then we had the reports, and this was
Speaker 1: a lot of speculation that Kawhi's going to go in
Speaker 1: game one, and it was more wishful thinking, He's good,
Speaker 1: He's going in game one. I think actually La Murray
Speaker 1: had that, and then as the evidence changed, he changed
Speaker 1: his mind. New information came to light. He wasn't going
Speaker 1: in game one. Once he missed Game one with that
Speaker 1: swelling in his right knee, people started to take it seriously.
Speaker 1: The one thing I kept stressing the entire time, if
Speaker 1: you listen to me, was I'm not worried about Kawhi
Speaker 1: giving it a shot to play in this series. I
Speaker 1: know he wants to play. I know he wanted to play,
Speaker 1: and maybe did play that Game two against Phoenix on
Speaker 1: a torm meniscus and there have been other times where
Speaker 1: Kawhi wants to play and the medical staff prudently. So
Speaker 1: I think you gotta protect players from themselves. They were
Speaker 1: the ones holding him back. Players want to play. Kawhi
Speaker 1: is a dog. He wants to play. He is a
Speaker 1: tough dude, and nobody is more frustrated than he Clipper
Speaker 1: Nation because he's been going through this. If you read
Speaker 1: that article earlier this summer with some quotes coming out
Speaker 1: from Team USA before he was sent home, talking about
Speaker 1: his journey and how being injury prone is unfortunately part
Speaker 1: of his NBA story. He also tried to look for
Speaker 1: the silver lining, saying, you know, there's players who have
Speaker 1: had it worse than me. There have been players who
Speaker 1: have been through injuries and have never been the same Kawhi.
Speaker 1: You could at least say, and I have been saying
Speaker 1: for years, is up until this point, so far he
Speaker 1: has always come back stronger and stronger and better and
Speaker 1: more efficient offensively. Til Marrizzarli did send me this tweet,
Speaker 1: he asked coach Lou going back to April twenty fourth,
Speaker 1: so this is already, but Kawhi had the April eleventh.
Speaker 1: Excuse me, you're twenty twenty four, quiet already missed a
Speaker 1: bunch of time. Till Mayor izzarrely asked coach Low, is
Speaker 1: there any concern Kawhis Leonard his absence could bleed into
Speaker 1: the playoffs at all? No, not as of right now.
Speaker 1: You know, it's how do you want to interpret that?
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people were skeptical then, not
Speaker 1: as of right now, because apparently they thought they could
Speaker 1: get a handle on the swelling because they dealt with
Speaker 1: that before with players or with Kawhi Leonard, and it
Speaker 1: eventually subsided. I don't know, but I don't think it
Speaker 1: was a clear direct message. I will say my guy,
Speaker 1: Till Mayor, as most teams are not, people think this
Speaker 1: is unique to Kawhi Leonard when it comes to not
Speaker 1: being as forthright with information. Ask Laker fans how they
Speaker 1: have felt in the past with Anthony Davis. Most organizations
Speaker 1: with their superstars are any player, you're not getting everything.
Speaker 1: That's the way it is. It's not going to be
Speaker 1: a crystal clear message. Partly because well, as it turns out,
Speaker 1: doctors in this case were perplexed by what was going
Speaker 1: on with Kawhi Leonard because what we found out the
Speaker 1: swelling wasn't going down. And in going back to what
Speaker 1: I said initially, it's not so much about whether or
Speaker 1: not Kawhi Leonard plays in the series. He did, and
Speaker 1: he played in Game two. The question I had was
Speaker 1: how does he respond after playing a five on five game,
Speaker 1: after playing an NBA game and not just practicing. He
Speaker 1: didn't respond well. It was my concern the entire time
Speaker 1: because while he looked okay in Game two, Game three
Speaker 1: wasn't even close to looking like himself, and I thought
Speaker 1: he probably should have been pulled after the first stint,
Speaker 1: just because his basketball powers weren't there. He obviously wasn't healthy.
Speaker 1: And then postgames talked about it and said, yea, it
Speaker 1: didn't respond the way we wanted it to. After Game two.
Speaker 1: Some people that are just coming into the chat here
Speaker 1: are wondering what is happening and what context. It's simply
Speaker 1: from a report that hasn't been verified from China on
Speaker 1: a social media platform earlier today regarding Kawhi Leonard that
Speaker 1: has everybody in a panic and it hasn't been substantiated.
Speaker 1: We have no idea the validity to this. I'm simply
Speaker 1: reviewing Kawhi's injury history now. And giving you my thoughts
Speaker 1: on this season and how the Clippers should manage him
Speaker 1: and what to expect moving fowar baby, because here's the thing.
Speaker 1: There's two things, and I talked about it with Om
Speaker 1: Young Masuk on Monday that have me concerned. Kawhi said
Speaker 1: when he first showed up for Team USA that he
Speaker 1: I don't have the exact quote, but it was something
Speaker 1: of a turning point. Two weeks before showing up for
Speaker 1: training camp for Team USA, he had a turning point,
Speaker 1: meaning it had been almost three months before that turning point.
Speaker 1: So my question was always, well, how long was the
Speaker 1: swelling going on? Nobody's going to have an answer for that.
Speaker 1: We know it was at least a month from his
Speaker 1: last game in the regular season to that entire series
Speaker 1: against Dallas. That's about a month and a half spent time.
Speaker 1: And when I hear something like that and they couldn't
Speaker 1: get it under control, I worry about it. Everybody does.
Speaker 1: It's Kauwhi. It's his right knee, it's the acl me,
Speaker 1: it's the moniscus knee, it's the tendinopathy in his right leg.
Speaker 1: It's all is stemmed from that. So not a doctor
Speaker 1: not going to pretend to be. But when I hear that,
Speaker 1: they couldn't get it under control for a while. And
Speaker 1: it's Kawhi, and now he has missed or missed sections
Speaker 1: or most of the last four years in the playoffs
Speaker 1: and hasn't been able to stay healthy. You're going to
Speaker 1: have a higher level of concern. It is completely fair. Yes,
Speaker 1: you miss something, Rewind, I can't go over it just
Speaker 1: because you showed up, Donnie out of your element or
Speaker 1: NBA talks here. I can't start the show over my
Speaker 1: friend going into this season now. And by all accounts
Speaker 1: before we heard this rumor earlier today which does not
Speaker 1: have quite the weight of I don't know, Coach Lou
Speaker 1: saying he'll be ready for training camp and Mobaba saying
Speaker 1: he'd been working out with Kawhi in San Diego and
Speaker 1: the workouts were rigorous. We learned that from Kelly Johnson.
Speaker 1: She taught to him opening night into it. Though for
Speaker 1: the Bruno Mars concert, Kawhi wasn't there, but Mobamba was,
Speaker 1: and that's a guy I guess Kawhi has been a
Speaker 1: fan of for a while. They finally brought him over.
Speaker 1: I learned from Joseph Rya Award that that's somebody the
Speaker 1: Clippers were looking to bring in for a time now,
Speaker 1: and I think it's because Kauhi is a fan of Mobamba,
Speaker 1: so that's a cool connection. But the fact that they
Speaker 1: were working out and its sounded like tough workout. So Kawhi,
Speaker 1: we're hoping is healthy and ready to go, and there's
Speaker 1: nothing more to this report. I'm gonna lean on the
Speaker 1: side of Lotmori, of Tomayr of far Brought Senshari, of
Speaker 1: Joey Lynn, of Andrew Grive hoping he's back on the
Speaker 1: beat this year, and people like Adrian Motrowski, Okay, we
Speaker 1: can't lean on him anymore, Chris Haynes and Shamshrania. If
Speaker 1: it's not coming from them, I'm not that worried about
Speaker 1: it yet. I'm just not. I'm worried in general when
Speaker 1: it comes to Kawhi's health. I don't think he should
Speaker 1: be playing back to backs this year. I'm open to
Speaker 1: a lot of suggestions guys when it comes to Kawhi,
Speaker 1: because they've pretty much tried everything, and even after playing
Speaker 1: the most games he had played in almost a ten
Speaker 1: year period, he wasn't able to go yes when it
Speaker 1: mattered most. Nobody's more frustrated than him, as frustrated as
Speaker 1: you are. Kawhi is a bad mother effort, and we
Speaker 1: know what he's capable of when he's healthy in the playoffs,
Speaker 1: even if he's limping around like he was at times
Speaker 1: with the Toronto Raptors in twenty nineteen, we know what
Speaker 1: he can do. We're desperate to have a full playoff
Speaker 1: run with Kawhi Leonard and he wants desperately to give
Speaker 1: it to cliber Nation. Believe me on that. I just
Speaker 1: the talk from Stephen A. Smith and the false narratives
Speaker 1: that have been out there have obscured reality a little
Speaker 1: bit when it comes to Kawhi and who he is
Speaker 1: and what his passions are. Guys, he loves basketball. This
Speaker 1: is what he loves to do. You talk about Kawhi
Speaker 1: being monotone or robotic, or he's not on social media.
Speaker 1: Maybe he's a boy guy because of that. Well, his
Speaker 1: love and his hobby seems to be basketball. So that's
Speaker 1: what he's going to give you, not all these other
Speaker 1: ancillary things. I just want him to be healthy to
Speaker 1: do that. There's sixteen back to backs. He can't play
Speaker 1: one side of those. I don't think less something changes,
Speaker 1: But I don't know why do you risk it at
Speaker 1: this point if anybody should be getting a pass for
Speaker 1: being quote unquote load managed because they've tried not to
Speaker 1: and it hasn't worked. They've tried too and it hasn't worked.
Speaker 1: But we know if he's not playing, there's less of
Speaker 1: a chance of being injured. So if he needs to
Speaker 1: rest one half of the back to back good. I
Speaker 1: don't want to hear anything from Steven A. Smith. I
Speaker 1: don't want to hear anything from people chirping about I
Speaker 1: don't know if they're going to try to call him
Speaker 1: street clothes like they do Anthony Davis, which I don't like.
Speaker 1: It's warranted. When it comes to Kawhi Leonard, it is.
Speaker 1: It's completely fair. How could you not understand him missing
Speaker 1: a game here and there with what has occurred the
Speaker 1: last four years. His body hasn't been able to hold off.
Speaker 1: He has tried, Jennifer, he is trying. See Jim McCollum
Speaker 1: would say he wants to play. They're gonna have to
Speaker 1: save them from himself. It's not his decision ultimately. If
Speaker 1: it was, he probably would have kept playing in that
Speaker 1: series against Dallas and looked like a fraction of himself,
Speaker 1: which I didn't want to see. And I'm glad they
Speaker 1: made the right decision of shutting him down. He was
Speaker 1: ineffective and it looked downright dangerous when he was hanging
Speaker 1: from the rim and afraid to drop to the hardwood
Speaker 1: because of the impact on his right knee. I just
Speaker 1: don't want to hear any more of this nastiness out
Speaker 1: there that Kawhi doesn't want to play or that he
Speaker 1: doesn't care. It's not true. His body is limited him.
Speaker 1: It has betrayed him. Kawhi's nie may not want to
Speaker 1: play at times, but Kawhi does. That's the truth. And yeah,
Speaker 1: if you're not concerned about his health, look the game
Speaker 1: he left against Minnesota with backspasms. Nobody knew for a while.
Speaker 1: I get it. There's murkiness, and it's not just Kawhi,
Speaker 1: who's the only player that you have to deal with
Speaker 1: this with. Trust me, it's not. But I know cliper
Speaker 1: Nation and how you felt at times like it's just
Speaker 1: been torture because guys have been so snake bitten and
Speaker 1: the Clippers history, but let alone the last five years
Speaker 1: now in the two to three era that we're now
Speaker 1: moving on from because Paul George is in Philly. Kahi
Speaker 1: is one of my favorite players ever. He was one
Speaker 1: of my favorites before the Clippers. Believe me, I want
Speaker 1: to see him out there too. He wants to be
Speaker 1: out there if he can, he will be. If he's healthy,
Speaker 1: he will be in all reports from the Clippers so far,
Speaker 1: or that he is healthy and will be for trading
Speaker 1: camp period, regardless of some social media website that has
Speaker 1: not been confirmed. Okay, the website's confirmed, but the report
Speaker 1: has not been. So let's not give into fear porn
Speaker 1: because people are almost more comfortable sometimes panicking or feeling
Speaker 1: like they should or I don't know, some people want drama.
Speaker 1: Let's not do it. If something more comes out of this, Okay,
Speaker 1: until then, no wait to hear from the people with credibility.
Speaker 1: That's what this show is about tonight, and also talking
Speaker 1: about Kawhi Leonard and maybe what's to come, because I
Speaker 1: have said before when it comes to expectations of this
Speaker 1: upcoming season, well, I don't know. Let me know if
Speaker 1: Kawhi plays ten straight games before we talk about championship
Speaker 1: expectations and where the Clippers can end up. I want
Speaker 1: to see where his hell's at the sky is not
Speaker 1: falling Dabo's eighty four. I think he's mocking me. There's
Speaker 1: no Chicken little here. I don't feel any differently than
Speaker 1: I did earlier today before I saw that report that
Speaker 1: I normally have felt out about Kawhi. I'm always in
Speaker 1: this middle where I'm like, yes, it's concerning. I have
Speaker 1: my doubts. How much are you going to be able
Speaker 1: to play? It's one thing to do all this training.
Speaker 1: It's another to play in an NBA game, and then
Speaker 1: how many can you play in consecutively? JM jm I
Speaker 1: thirteen twenty four says, I think fans have PTSD because
Speaker 1: of the two one three era. It's like you can't
Speaker 1: trust no one. But people be apping. Well, I'm guessing
Speaker 1: this is not going to be the last time we
Speaker 1: get what could be a false report just to get attention,
Speaker 1: just to get eyeballs your way, maybe more followers social
Speaker 1: media cloud, I don't know, and I want to cut
Speaker 1: it off at the knee is now. I don't want
Speaker 1: people to fall for every social media post that's out there.
Speaker 1: And I'm not even saying, look, I don't no I
Speaker 1: can't verify this. I'm just saying. La Murray says, no,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go with that over this. Clippers haven't say anything.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go with that over this, and now I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go with Grant Mona joining us here on Clippers
Speaker 1: Talk Live. Chuck Malker might be in a little bit. Hell,
Speaker 1: I send out a link to Tillmara Zarli since he
Speaker 1: was in the chat. Till Mary, we could use some
Speaker 1: of your great reporting as always, But Grant Mona is
Speaker 1: from the Sporting Tribune. If you didn't know, he has
Speaker 1: the great graphic there. He's at Gmona forty eight. Now
Speaker 1: on is that on X Instagram everywhere? Oh, Grant, my guy,
Speaker 1: I can't hear you. See Now, this is an issue
Speaker 1: when it comes to bringing somebody in before. I've already
Speaker 1: screened him before pre show. Well, Grant troubleshoes here and
Speaker 1: I got you already. Grant, hear you, but now you
Speaker 1: can't hear me. I hear you. Grant, You're good. I
Speaker 1: can hear you. You can't and now I can't hear you.
Speaker 1: So Grants having technical difficulties. We'll try to work on
Speaker 1: this in the backgrounds here Look, do you trust law Murray.
Speaker 1: It's the law as Clipper Chaos three says Lawler's law.
Speaker 1: Trust law Murray. I mean, it's not just first to
Speaker 1: one hundred anymore. NBA talk says we're feeding into it. Well, look,
Speaker 1: I'm trying to make it very clear my objective and
Speaker 1: my mission tonight because I know more of this stuff
Speaker 1: is going to keep happening with Kawhi, and I don't
Speaker 1: want you to be on edge every second of the
Speaker 1: day looking at people who may just be try to
Speaker 1: get attention on social media. That's what I'm worried about.
Speaker 1: This is one of the first in a bit to
Speaker 1: bring up something like this. So yeah, other people saying
Speaker 1: end of September, we need anything NBA to talk about.
Speaker 1: I don't need just anything. Trust me. I wasn't doing
Speaker 1: a show tonight. Grandma, you got me now, don't hear you?
Speaker 1: You hear me, but I don't hear you. My friend,
Speaker 1: as Petros would say, this is called spiraling radio death
Speaker 1: and now it's ptasting. I hear you now, and he
Speaker 1: here's me. I don't hear him. Hear him. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: it's it's not working, my friend. Unfortunately, I'll keep you
Speaker 1: on the background. Maybe we can figure it out. I
Speaker 1: just don't want to keep having troubleshoot this, and now
Speaker 1: I'm learning of some of the drawbacks if not just
Speaker 1: doing this the traditional way. Look, I don't want anyone here,
Speaker 1: and I understand we're drawing more attention to it, or
Speaker 1: you could be thinking that, well, there's already attention on it.
Speaker 1: I saw who I was trending earlier. So how about
Speaker 1: we nip it in the bud. There's already a spotlight.
Speaker 1: This is how I would encourage you to operate. Look
Speaker 1: to the local reporters, look to Sham's, look at Chris Haynes.
Speaker 1: If they have something, then by all means it's valid,
Speaker 1: there's validity to it. If they don't, and I'm sure
Speaker 1: people are getting at them to wait in on this.
Speaker 1: Take it with a grain of salt. Grantmona one more time.
Speaker 1: If it doesn't work this time, you damn it. Grant
Speaker 1: you hear me, the love of God, I don't hear him.
Speaker 1: If other people hear them, well that still wouldn't help me.
Speaker 2: Out testing testing. Can you hear me now?
Speaker 1: Now? I do?
Speaker 2: Do you hear any fact? Look at I always got
Speaker 2: the Backups, Adam, Sorry about that.
Speaker 1: Two books the lyrics, one for Action, one for Backup
Speaker 1: like sa Machine is from three to eleven. All right,
Speaker 1: Grandma is joining us from the Sporting Tribune. Thanks for
Speaker 1: working through that, and thank you everybody listening for putting
Speaker 1: up with the technical difficulties. So grant you've heard some
Speaker 1: of my rant here. Yep, do you understand where I'm
Speaker 1: coming from tonight? I wasn't gonna do, but I felt
Speaker 1: it warranted speaking on just because so many people are
Speaker 1: latching onto this report that nobody can verify yet. I'm
Speaker 1: not even gonna go as far to say it's untrue.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say there's no way to know that it
Speaker 1: is yet, because nobody with credibility has said it is.
Speaker 1: That's my position. What say you?
Speaker 2: Yeah, listen, I think every time, Adam, And first of all,
Speaker 2: thanks for having me on and putting up with all
Speaker 2: my difficulties. First of all, when I came on, like
Speaker 2: what was it two weeks ago, three weeks so maybe
Speaker 2: a month ago, it looked like I recorded with a
Speaker 2: potato But now I'm back with good camera quality. But
Speaker 2: of course the mic didn't work. But anyways, back to
Speaker 2: the question.
Speaker 1: You have the Ralph Lawler Mike, so this is actually
Speaker 1: this was a blessing in disguise.
Speaker 2: I love this, Yes, Sir, I always gotta have backups everyone.
Speaker 2: But anyways, back to the original question, I think every
Speaker 2: time we have anything about Kawhi Leonard's health at this point,
Speaker 2: anytime we hear any little bit of information about his
Speaker 2: knee or his quad or what's going on with his
Speaker 2: procedures or you know. Obviously we had the Olympic thing
Speaker 2: in training camp for the Olympics where we had one
Speaker 2: report from the Clippers saying that hey, we wanted him
Speaker 2: to be out there, and then Grant Hill of Team
Speaker 2: USA it was like, well he didn't look that great,
Speaker 2: so you had that. So every time we get news
Speaker 2: like this, Adam and I know this is coming from
Speaker 2: a Chinese source where we had to translate it and
Speaker 2: then get it from somebody that we couldn't really be
Speaker 2: credible with. You know, every time we have something like this,
Speaker 2: anything with Kawhi, our intent is go up. But you know,
Speaker 2: I think what in these situations, as.
Speaker 1: We too a motive from these places to begin with,
Speaker 1: because they know that's how we're going to react. I'm
Speaker 1: not saying that's what this is. But I know more
Speaker 1: of this is going to keep.
Speaker 2: Happening exactly, and you know, the closer that we get
Speaker 2: to media Day, the closer that we get towards the season,
Speaker 2: Everyone's going to be asking this, how's Kawhi's ne Is
Speaker 2: he going to be ready for the for the training camp?
Speaker 2: Because remember and you brought on Ohm who did that
Speaker 2: wonderful piece about JVG and Tylu and he said, hey,
Speaker 2: from all accounts, it looks like Kawhi is going to
Speaker 2: be ready for training camp. He looks like he's ready
Speaker 2: to go. So that's straight from the coach's mouth. Now,
Speaker 2: obviously I know Tomayer was in here and he went
Speaker 2: around the reports and the sources from way back in
Speaker 2: April where he said, well, he should be good to
Speaker 2: go by the playoffs, and obviously that wasn't the case.
Speaker 2: So I think, Adam, anytime these come around Clipper fans,
Speaker 2: they get scared, they get kind of anxious because of
Speaker 2: all the injuries that Kawhi has had and all of
Speaker 2: the kind of concerns I think we all have going
Speaker 2: into the season. Now, I think when healthy Kawhi Leonard
Speaker 2: is still one of the best players in the league,
Speaker 2: and he showed that last year, right, he played the
Speaker 2: most games he's played since twenty sixteen twenty seventeen with
Speaker 2: the Spurs, and obviously that kind of derailed his playoffs
Speaker 2: in Round one last year. But he played a lot
Speaker 2: last year. So I think that coming into this year,
Speaker 2: there's going to be more riding on Kawhi Leonard, There's
Speaker 2: going to be more riding on James Harden because of
Speaker 2: the departure of Paul George. So I think that when
Speaker 2: you hear something like this, if you're a Clipper fan,
Speaker 2: obviously all of your intent is go up because you're like, oh, no,
Speaker 2: this is our guy. This is the guy that's supposed
Speaker 2: to at least get us to a five to eight seed,
Speaker 2: which is where I believe that this team will finish.
Speaker 2: So if he's out, now what So I think that
Speaker 2: it's just built up. And you've mentioned this, you know
Speaker 2: today on the Live is like, you know, I think
Speaker 2: they've gone through a lot Clipper fans to where any
Speaker 2: little piece of rumor or source or any from anybody
Speaker 2: it will get them a little bit anxious. So I
Speaker 2: think we have to take these with a grain of salt.
Speaker 2: Most times, and I love to hear things from law
Speaker 2: until Mayor and Joey Lynn and all of our great
Speaker 2: reporters that do credentialed work for us, because yeah, yes
Speaker 2: I am, thank you for all the love. I will
Speaker 2: be at media day as well, everyone, so I'll look
Speaker 2: forward to seeing you guys over there. But again, you know,
Speaker 2: I think that when we get these types of updates,
Speaker 2: this late into the off season, this close to training camp,
Speaker 2: I think all of our antennas raised just a little
Speaker 2: bit more. But again, law Murray said that he's fine.
Speaker 2: I trust law sources, I trust what all these guys
Speaker 2: have to say.
Speaker 1: So and look, I have real concerns about Kawai staying
Speaker 1: healthy and being able to play multiple games in a
Speaker 1: row right now. And it has nothing to do with
Speaker 1: whatever this report was earlier today from China. It has
Speaker 1: to do with swelling in his knee that they couldn't
Speaker 1: get under control and information we already knew that was verified.
Speaker 1: That's what it has to do with. It goes back
Speaker 1: to what I said originally, I'm not worried about him
Speaker 1: being out there and trying to play, how does his
Speaker 1: body respond afterwards? That's what happened from Game two to
Speaker 1: Game three, it didn't respond well. And so what concerns
Speaker 1: me most is can he just overheat now with that
Speaker 1: right knee after just too much wear and tear over
Speaker 1: the years and being the age of thirty three, and
Speaker 1: there's this threshold he can't go beyond minutes wise or
Speaker 1: games wise, intensity wise, because as opposed to the last
Speaker 1: two injuries, the ACL tear we saw it with Joe Ingle,
Speaker 1: the meniscus. Nobody knows the play exactly. There are a
Speaker 1: few plays floating out there that they speculate and they
Speaker 1: think it could be this or that. It was an
Speaker 1: actual tweak of the knee. It was something within tendons,
Speaker 1: ligament's bone muscle that moved in an unnatural way. This
Speaker 1: seems to be just overuse, just getting to a point
Speaker 1: where his body was saying no moss, and then it
Speaker 1: started to swell. Swelling is an inflammation is usually a
Speaker 1: sign of something's going on in there. What is it
Speaker 1: That's That's what makes it even more indefinite or murky
Speaker 1: or an enigma with his injury history, because could it
Speaker 1: just swell up and there was no actual tweak this time,
Speaker 1: It's just because his body is saying, hey, I've reached
Speaker 1: my limit for this game or this week or this month.
Speaker 1: That's my concern, and I have no idea moving forward
Speaker 1: if that's going to be the case or if Because
Speaker 1: Lawrence Frank was asked about this at the press conference
Speaker 1: talking about TMSA, Kawhi had a procedure or not, we
Speaker 1: don't know. Lawrence Frank was parsing his words rightfully, so
Speaker 1: being prudent with it. It is not you know, any
Speaker 1: team's prerogative to let you in behind the scenes completely.
Speaker 1: It's not just something that happens with Kawhi Leonard. So
Speaker 1: what he said something to the effect of if it
Speaker 1: was something significant, we would have to report it, meaning
Speaker 1: if he went under the knife and it was something significant,
Speaker 1: we'd have to report it. Therefore, if he did have
Speaker 1: a procedure, it wasn't significant enough to where they would
Speaker 1: have to disclose. So we still don't know if that
Speaker 1: happened or not, or if the swelling just subsided over
Speaker 1: time and he got back to what Kawai called at
Speaker 1: TMOSA a neutral state with his knee, which I do
Speaker 1: think might have set off red flags with Tmusa because
Speaker 1: he said it, well, if you're in a neutral state, now,
Speaker 1: are you anticipating that it could change at some point?
Speaker 1: It kind of begs that question, right, So that's where
Speaker 1: I'm coming from. It has nothing to do with this
Speaker 1: report earlier today. My concern is rooted in the last
Speaker 1: injury being difficult for them to seemingly ascertain what the
Speaker 1: treatment method should be to get the swelling down, because
Speaker 1: they weren't able to by the time the playoffs arrived,
Speaker 1: which I think was around two and a half weeks
Speaker 1: after he initially was out, and they couldn't get it
Speaker 1: down during the playoff series obviously, and then he says
Speaker 1: two weeks before training camp at TSA there was a
Speaker 1: turning point. Well, that was like two and a half
Speaker 1: months after the season ended, almost so was it swollen
Speaker 1: that whole time? Nobody knows, Grant, and I think that
Speaker 1: stuff is fair to be concerned about, because there is
Speaker 1: you know, while there's a lack of knowledge, there is
Speaker 1: a timeline. At least you could say, well, if you're
Speaker 1: saying there's a turning point two weeks BEFOREOSA started and
Speaker 1: his knee was swollen from this amount of time, you
Speaker 1: could start to piece together a little bit. I don't know,
Speaker 1: that's I don't know how what level of concern you
Speaker 1: have because of this most recent injury. I'd love for
Speaker 1: you to fill in on this.
Speaker 2: Well, Adam, I think that you know, as we progressed
Speaker 2: through the offseason, you know those first that first month
Speaker 2: or two, Uh, it was kind of like, Okay, we
Speaker 2: just figured that the inflammation is going to go down
Speaker 2: by Team USA. You know, we just figure that, hey,
Speaker 2: he's going to be ready for Team USA, because inflammation
Speaker 2: is always the thing that you can manage. It's something
Speaker 2: that you can get down. But we didn't see that
Speaker 2: after he I mean, I don't know if he got
Speaker 2: hurt in the Hornets game, but after that Hornets game
Speaker 2: where they announced that he had inflammation and they came
Speaker 2: back home, we didn't see him until Game one of
Speaker 2: the playoffs, or excuse me, game two of the playoffs,
Speaker 2: and obviously, like you mentioned, in game three, he just
Speaker 2: did not look right. He was hanging on the rim
Speaker 2: for dear life because he didn't want to come down
Speaker 2: and hurt himself. So, you know, I think that throughout
Speaker 2: the course of this offseason, we were all wondering, Hey,
Speaker 2: what is the status of this guy. Does he need
Speaker 2: a procedure, does Kawhi need to have a cleanup done
Speaker 2: because inflammation a lot of I mean, I've read a
Speaker 2: lot of stuff about, you know, from doctors regarding knees
Speaker 2: and tendons and quads because of what has happened.
Speaker 1: This is what has happened to us. We're all trying
Speaker 1: to broad science our way through it.
Speaker 2: So you know, and I've gone on our live streams
Speaker 2: and I've said, I feel like a doctor right now
Speaker 2: because I'm diagnosing all these and I'm getting them right
Speaker 2: as soon as they happen. But you know, I think
Speaker 2: that after Team USA there was concern because you know,
Speaker 2: from all accounts, Kawhi walked in with the NIE sleeve
Speaker 2: and the suitcase and everyone was like, oh my god,
Speaker 2: why is he wearing a NIE sleeve? And it's like
Speaker 2: that's just as soon as he strolled into the hotel.
Speaker 1: But he's not wearing a lot in sweat. So nobody
Speaker 1: knew if there was a brace on or anything like that,
Speaker 1: and we should it should be a little bit heartening, uh,
Speaker 1: when you go off of the fact that Lawrence Frank
Speaker 1: said he looked good, other players said he looked good,
Speaker 1: Steve Curse said he looked good. At one point, it's
Speaker 1: weird that he was sent home after all of this,
Speaker 1: but it sure seemed like Kawhi was feeling good and
Speaker 1: felt like he could play. That's exactly, you know. That
Speaker 1: is of note to mention that part of this.
Speaker 2: And also I think that you know, a lot of
Speaker 2: people had their fun. And I don't know if this
Speaker 2: is true, but I don't know if you remember at him,
Speaker 2: but he went on a trip to Costa Rica and
Speaker 2: everyone's like, did he go there to get blood plate
Speaker 2: treatment or something like that, like Kobe went to Germany
Speaker 2: to get And I was like, Okay, we are taking
Speaker 2: this a little bit too far now, But that's the
Speaker 2: kind of things that you see. And I remember this
Speaker 2: speculation back when Kawhi came back from his ACL injury,
Speaker 2: right because he had that ankle sprain early in that
Speaker 2: year in twenty twenty two, twenty twenty three, after he
Speaker 2: came back from the ACL injury, and everyone was wondering,
Speaker 2: oh is he at practice? Is he gonna are you
Speaker 2: gonna see him at practice? I remember people were hounding
Speaker 2: Tomer in the comments like can you get a video
Speaker 2: of Kawhi? Can you get anything from Kawhi? This is
Speaker 2: what we're talking about. I don't know if this looks
Speaker 2: like a guy that went there to get a blood
Speaker 2: platement transfer or knee treatment, but.
Speaker 1: I think he looks like a guy that's living his
Speaker 1: best life. He looks amazing. He looks like a damn model,
Speaker 1: is what he looks like.
Speaker 2: Maybe you should just that hair this season. Maybe it
Speaker 2: brings some good juju. And there's a lot of people
Speaker 2: in here that are saying, well, maybe you should wear
Speaker 2: a knee brace, or maybe you should do something like
Speaker 2: wear that Tim Duncan brace that he used to wear
Speaker 2: on his right leg. And I'm I'm just thinking to myself, like, Okay,
Speaker 2: that may help with like side to side, but it
Speaker 2: is all structural from like being like impact. It's not
Speaker 2: really from getting hit. The only one that it was
Speaker 2: was from the Joe Ingles injury with the acl or
Speaker 2: he got bumped and he kind of tweaked his knee.
Speaker 2: Everything else from that, like the meniscus was just like
Speaker 2: probably wear and tear. Then the inflammation was probably wear
Speaker 2: and tear. So at this point, Adam, there should be
Speaker 2: some concern. But you know, judging off what Tyleru said,
Speaker 2: and I know that a lot of people don't like
Speaker 2: to take what TYLERU said into account a lot, just
Speaker 2: because there's been mixed, you know, feelings about what Tyler
Speaker 2: says and what the team actually does. But I take
Speaker 2: what he says into account a lot. And he said
Speaker 2: that he will be ready for training camp. There was
Speaker 2: a picture of him with the USC Trojan's head coach
Speaker 2: Eric Mussel where he said, hey, you know, it was
Speaker 2: great to have Kawhi at the at the arena or
Speaker 2: at the gym. He looked great. Can't wait to watch
Speaker 2: him this season. And you know that's obviously another good sign.
Speaker 2: And that was after Team USA. So you know, I
Speaker 2: have a little bit of optimism for Kawhi, I really do.
Speaker 2: They are going to load manage him. Let's not get
Speaker 2: that wrong. He is going to be load managed this year,
Speaker 2: and I think rightfully so. But again, you know, I
Speaker 2: think his health is what will get the Clippers to
Speaker 2: that middle of the pack in the West. If he's
Speaker 2: not healthy and you're relying a James Harden led offense
Speaker 2: with you know, I think great role players, but him
Speaker 2: as the main scoring option. You know that that's a
Speaker 2: concern for the Clippers, and it's a concern for Clipper fans,
Speaker 2: so I could see why people are a little bit
Speaker 2: on edge.
Speaker 1: Look, it's four straight years of Kauwhi either not being
Speaker 1: able to start a playoff run or finish a playoff run,
Speaker 1: So I completely get where Clipper dation is coming from.
Speaker 1: I'm there with you. My point in doing this show
Speaker 1: today is review where he's been and what the best
Speaker 1: plan of action could be moving forward for how to
Speaker 1: handle Kawhi this upcoming season. After it seems like they've
Speaker 1: exhausted every avenue of what they should do with his knee,
Speaker 1: we talk about a brace. It's like, yeah, I'm sure
Speaker 1: they've thought of it. We've talked about it. Like how
Speaker 1: limiting would that be? And then would you be getting
Speaker 1: the best version of Kawhi Leonard Like, there's so much
Speaker 1: that goes into this, and he has his own team adoptors,
Speaker 1: and the Clippers have an extensive medical team, Like there
Speaker 1: is so many layers to this and just to reset
Speaker 1: it all started with a tweet earlier today that has
Speaker 1: gotten a ton of traction and Hackawai trending, probably for
Speaker 1: the wrong reasons, from this guy LT who picks something
Speaker 1: up from China weebow, which is a social media website,
Speaker 1: a mini blog website that he used to translate this
Speaker 1: as quote, there might be some bad news, so let
Speaker 1: me give you a heads up. We'll have to wait
Speaker 1: and see what happens during the Clippers media day. And
Speaker 1: allegedly it was coming from Kawai's agent in China. That
Speaker 1: has not been confirmed. It has not been verified, and
Speaker 1: La Murray came forward and actually kind of calmed everyone's
Speaker 1: nerves and cooler heads started to prevail after he put
Speaker 1: out a tweet a little while afterwards, because I guess
Speaker 1: he felt like, well, there's so much talk out there
Speaker 1: that maybe I should, La Murray said. Sources close to
Speaker 1: Kawai says Kawhi is fine also at seventy six and
Speaker 1: mostly cloudy in La today, so it's good news overall.
Speaker 1: But I know this is going to keep happening, and
Speaker 1: I just want to address it now and get it
Speaker 1: out of the way. The people you should be looking
Speaker 1: to Grant Mona, La Murray, Tomarra, Azari far about Essen Shari,
Speaker 1: Joey Lynn, Chris Haynes, Shamshrania. These are people with authority
Speaker 1: on the subject. When they say something, I'll be more concerned.
Speaker 1: And again I don't know that it's a fake account.
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to discount it. I just can't verify it,
Speaker 1: nor could we verify even if it's a real account,
Speaker 1: whether or not it's true. With how private Kawhi is,
Speaker 1: I know it's an agent, Why would they put something
Speaker 1: out there like that. You know, it kind of flies
Speaker 1: in the face of how Kauwai operates. You have to
Speaker 1: think about that part of it. Why would we be
Speaker 1: We'd be getting breaking news from China, from his Asian
Speaker 1: in China, if there was an issue, what would be
Speaker 1: the point of that. So, yeah, we're trying to go
Speaker 1: for straight facts here or chaos and sort through the
Speaker 1: piles of misinformation on social media. Again, I'm not saying
Speaker 1: this is what I am saying is I'm going to
Speaker 1: trust la Murray and his report over this. If things change,
Speaker 1: if more information comes out, if the evidence changes, then
Speaker 1: my opinion can change. It's as simple as that. But
Speaker 1: right now, I'm not putting a ton into it. I'm
Speaker 1: just not Do I have plenty of concern about Kawhi
Speaker 1: heading into this season, Yes, but this doesn't factor into that.
Speaker 1: I already had these concerns with the swelling that had
Speaker 1: been going on, and how much that right knee can
Speaker 1: take before swell it swells back up. I just that's
Speaker 1: that's my fear that high level basketball can lead to
Speaker 1: more swelling in that reconstructed right knee, and I think
Speaker 1: they need a little manage him to avoid that and
Speaker 1: do everything you can to avoid that. And if you
Speaker 1: guys have any solutions, because I thought this was ludicrous.
Speaker 1: Just a year ago, I would have said, come on, guys,
Speaker 1: you can't only play him in March and just wait
Speaker 1: for the playoffs to start and then implement Kawhi Leonard
Speaker 1: back onto the team because he's been so injury prone.
Speaker 1: You know what, at this point, Grant, I'll take any guesses.
Speaker 1: I'll take anything, because it has been four straight years
Speaker 1: of this. The problem is if he doesn't play during
Speaker 1: the regular season and you say just wait till the
Speaker 1: playoffs and then activate Kawhi Leonard, well they won't be
Speaker 1: making the playoffs. You're going to need him in the
Speaker 1: regular season because he has one of the highest winning percentages,
Speaker 1: if not the highest winning percentage in regular season basketball
Speaker 1: in the history of the game. I know he had
Speaker 1: it for quite some time. Like they're not gonna be
Speaker 1: able to get by in the West if you just
Speaker 1: wait till March to start playing him, That's not gonna work.
Speaker 2: And I think people have to realize the Clippers have
Speaker 2: tried everything. They've tried. The load managing part, they did that.
Speaker 2: I mean, it wasn't to the extent that they did
Speaker 2: it when he was coming back from his ACL injury
Speaker 2: in his first year with the Clippers, but they still
Speaker 2: load managed him in that first year that he came
Speaker 2: to the Clippers, and they've tried it last year where hey,
Speaker 2: let's see if maybe more wear and tear can help
Speaker 2: him outlast these injuries and see if that helps him
Speaker 2: going into the playoffs, and he got to that sixty
Speaker 2: seven game mark and then everything went downhill. So I
Speaker 2: think Clipper fans have to realize, like they've tried almost
Speaker 2: everything they can from a health standpoint in terms of
Speaker 2: let's play him more, let's play him less, let's play
Speaker 2: him maybe middle of the road, and then let's not
Speaker 2: do that. So you know, at this point there should
Speaker 2: be concern. There really should, But their season and the
Speaker 2: way they play this season will ride on how Kawhi
Speaker 2: plays and how he feels and if he'll play in
Speaker 2: the back to backs, if any how many games he plays,
Speaker 2: if he will be at that All NBA level that
Speaker 2: he was last year, because he played sixty seven games
Speaker 2: and guys, he's still won second team All NBA. That's
Speaker 2: how good he is when he's healthy. But obviously that
Speaker 2: sixty seven games and playing the back to backs and
Speaker 2: not worrying about taking any rest that hurt him in
Speaker 2: the long run. So you know, at this point, you
Speaker 2: know people should be concerned. They should, and this season
Speaker 2: more than ever because last year you had the three
Speaker 2: stars of Russell Westbrook, James Harden, and Paul George. If
Speaker 2: Kawhi was out. This year, the scoring is going to
Speaker 2: remain on Kawhi, It's going to remain on James Harden,
Speaker 2: and then I think Vitza Zuba is going to have
Speaker 2: to be the third scoring option for the team. But
Speaker 2: he's going to have to carry the scoring volume, which
Speaker 2: means the ball's going to be in his hands more,
Speaker 2: which means that he's going to have to be out
Speaker 2: there more, which means there's more strain on his knees,
Speaker 2: which means the inflammation, like you mentioned Adam could kick
Speaker 2: up again.
Speaker 1: So you know, I hope not, but it seems like
Speaker 1: we both ability at this point right Like to act
Speaker 1: like that can't happen when we just saw it happen,
Speaker 1: when it's been four years of this would be disingenuous.
Speaker 1: I can't put a happy face on everything, Clippers fans,
Speaker 1: I can't spin everything, and I don't want to. I
Speaker 1: want to give you the gods honest truth about the situation,
Speaker 1: so you're prepared for everything. I think that's where Grant.
Speaker 1: I know that's where Grant's coming from as well. I
Speaker 1: can't just say Kawhi is fine. Everyone is talking about
Speaker 1: this is sad Clippers versus Pacers in the NBA Finals
Speaker 1: for the title in four Clippers when it six. I
Speaker 1: can't stay say stuff like that. I just I can't
Speaker 1: because I need to see him play ten games straight. First,
Speaker 1: play ten games straight. Then let's talk about Kawhi his
Speaker 1: health in what this Clippers ceiling is. Because in the playoffs,
Speaker 1: why you don't have back to backs a seven game series?
Speaker 1: If it goes seven? Can he play seven games straight
Speaker 1: right now? I don't know that. Melvin Powell, I'm glad
Speaker 1: you're staying positive, man, and I'm glad you're saying, Hey,
Speaker 1: Kawhi Leonard will be in the MVP race this season,
Speaker 1: and Chris Dunn is going to become an NBA All
Speaker 1: Defensive Team member selection along with Derek Jones Jr. I'm
Speaker 1: glad you're making all these predictions that seem overly optimistic.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to be overly realistic. If anything, Kawhi went
Speaker 1: through a stretch last season where he set the all
Speaker 1: time efficiency record over a thirty game span where he
Speaker 1: was putting up god tier numbers. I want to say
Speaker 1: it was fifty seven to fifty one, ninety splits or
Speaker 1: something like that, where Adrian war Jurowski had to take
Speaker 1: note of it at one point and put out the
Speaker 1: tweet after I've been talking about it for damn near
Speaker 1: two months and saying hashtag Kawhi or Claw for MVP.
Speaker 1: And guess what, They still didn't have him top five
Speaker 1: in MVP voting. They still didn't have him top five
Speaker 1: on Bovada when it came to MVP odds. So to
Speaker 1: say he's gonna be the MVP year or being the race,
Speaker 1: it's like, do you guys understand what he did last season?
Speaker 1: And they still were not giving him the love and respect.
Speaker 1: At one point more people started to talk about it.
Speaker 1: But I just I'm gonna be honest and keep it
Speaker 1: real about the Kawhi Leonard situation. Let me know when
Speaker 1: he plays ten straight games, let me know. Because there's
Speaker 1: two back to backs coming up in the first two
Speaker 1: weeks of the season. Four of their first six games
Speaker 1: are back to backs. I don't think he's gonna be
Speaker 1: playing in back to backs. I don't think he should
Speaker 1: be playing in back to backs. But eventually, if the
Speaker 1: Clippers are going to make a run, he has to
Speaker 1: be able to sustain this high level of play game
Speaker 1: to game and be available game to game, and that
Speaker 1: just hasn't been the case unfortunately. As much as he
Speaker 1: wanted to play last year. And I think and Om
Speaker 1: said this on Monday on the show Ome Youong Masouk
Speaker 1: that Kawhi didn't want to load manage, that Kawhi wanted
Speaker 1: to play every game last season. Well, I don't know
Speaker 1: if they're gonna let him even if he wants to,
Speaker 1: because I don't know how you could when his body
Speaker 1: has continued to break down at a certain point. I wonder, Grant,
Speaker 1: if there's something to what the Toronto Raptors did that season,
Speaker 1: because I know he's had multiple injuries since then, so
Speaker 1: it changes the equation. But they came into the year
Speaker 1: saying this is the limit. Right off top, He's not
Speaker 1: playing more than this amount of games. In fact, I
Speaker 1: want to pull out the exact amount because it was
Speaker 1: sixty eight last season. It was sixty in Toronto, and
Speaker 1: I believe Grant correct me if I'm wrong. They were
Speaker 1: transparent immediately saying this is the amount that he's able
Speaker 1: to play during the regular season in Toronto.
Speaker 2: It was true. And coming coming into that season in
Speaker 2: Toronto that was after his quad injury, and people were saying, oh,
Speaker 2: how bad is the quad injury, because there's a lot
Speaker 2: of questions about that. Obviously it ended up working out
Speaker 2: pretty well. But if we remember, late into that twenty
Speaker 2: nineteen run that they had, Kawhi was hobbling around on
Speaker 2: that knee. I remember he dunked on Giannis and it
Speaker 2: was like, oh my god, can he even walk?
Speaker 1: So with the left hand off the little scoop under
Speaker 1: Kyle Lowry.
Speaker 2: I love that. I love that twenty nineteen Raptors team.
Speaker 2: But that's another conversation. But you know, late into that run,
Speaker 2: it was like can Kawhi finish out the year because
Speaker 2: it looked like his quad was acting up again, and
Speaker 2: that was coming off of a quad injury. This is
Speaker 2: coming off of multiple knee injuries with meniscus and ACL
Speaker 2: and actual tendons and cartilage. So I feel like if
Speaker 2: you straight up announce that media day, or if you
Speaker 2: announce early into this training camp that hey, this is
Speaker 2: our plan for Kawhi, this is what we're gonna do,
Speaker 2: and Raptors fans didn't care. They were like, listen, any
Speaker 2: bit of Kawhi that we get is an upgrade of
Speaker 2: what we had last year. So they were okay with it.
Speaker 2: They were like, listen, we know that he's a playoff performer.
Speaker 2: We know that if he's healthy going to the playoffs
Speaker 2: that he will be good. And he was good and
Speaker 2: he led him to their first championship. So I think
Speaker 2: that them, you know, the Clippers coming out this year,
Speaker 2: whoever it is, coming out this year and saying listen,
Speaker 2: we know the injury history. We've accepted the injury history.
Speaker 2: It's okay to know that he's you know, he's not
Speaker 2: the same guy that he was in his early twenties
Speaker 2: when he played for San Antonio. We know that he's had.
Speaker 1: I'll want to speak upon that because I'm of the
Speaker 1: opinion grant that even though he has had these injuries
Speaker 1: and acl meniscus, the tendonopathy and people keep saying he
Speaker 1: has a degenerative right knee, nobody's ever come out and
Speaker 1: actually said that from the clipperside or from his trainers
Speaker 1: at any of his stops. And maybe you can argue,
Speaker 1: well why would they, But you are doing a lot
Speaker 1: of bros Science there. You're kind of just you're putting
Speaker 1: puzzle pieces together. I'm not gonna say that. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: say what has been articulated and what has been labeled
Speaker 1: these injuries for Kawhi. But I'll say this every time
Speaker 1: to me, he has come back, he's gotten more efficient
Speaker 1: on the offensive end, and he's become a better player.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying it's because of the injuries, but the
Speaker 1: guy works on his craft so much that he just
Speaker 1: gets better and better regardless of the obstacles that have
Speaker 1: been thrown at him with setbacks due to injuries. I
Speaker 1: know he doesn't have the octopus level defense possession to
Speaker 1: possession that he used to have, but when he needs
Speaker 1: to ramp up and wants to It's still there. That
Speaker 1: is what that's astounding to me, because here's the thing.
Speaker 1: Kawhi is a left legged leaper. It's his right leg
Speaker 1: that has gone through all this. He can still get up.
Speaker 1: That's not a problem for him. So while the injuries
Speaker 1: have compounded and they have been consistent over the last
Speaker 1: four or five years, he continues to evolve. And I
Speaker 1: would say offensively, what we saw in those thirty games
Speaker 1: when he was putting up those efficiency numbers, that is
Speaker 1: the best version of Kawhi Leonard in the regular season
Speaker 1: we ever saw. And that's coming off an acl meniscus.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so people like don't understand that Kawhi probably had
Speaker 2: one of his most efficient and best offensive years that
Speaker 2: we've ever seen. His three ball went up, he started
Speaker 2: shooting a three ball more, and he started making it more.
Speaker 2: His efficiency was insane across the board. And I know
Speaker 2: you mentioned the WOJE tweet that he put out there
Speaker 2: that listed all of the numbers that he had. And
Speaker 2: this isn't just a two week stretch. This isn't just
Speaker 2: you know, oh, he had a great five game stretch.
Speaker 2: Kawhi was unbelievable for like over a month. I mean,
Speaker 2: look at these stats here. I mean it's not just
Speaker 2: the points per game, It's not just you know, the
Speaker 2: fact that he was moving well, the efficiency at which
Speaker 2: he was getting to his spots, the efficiency of which
Speaker 2: he was shooting, it was unbelievable. So when you see it,
Speaker 2: whenever you see first player to average all time, that
Speaker 2: means that he's probably still in his prime, which you know,
Speaker 2: people have to understand when they think of Kawhi. You know,
Speaker 2: I feel like the general consensus when people think about
Speaker 2: Kawhi right now is, oh, he's not the same as
Speaker 2: he used to be. Yes, maybe defensively, like you said,
Speaker 2: he maybe he's lost a little bit of that step.
Speaker 2: But we saw him make a chase down block on
Speaker 2: Shay Gil just Alexander against the Thunder this past year.
Speaker 2: We saw him lock in many times and get just
Speaker 2: rip away steals. I remember the one against Portland in
Speaker 2: Portland where he was on a fast break and went
Speaker 2: up and under and had an and one. So he
Speaker 2: still has that burst as well. I think it's that's
Speaker 2: what makes it so frustrating for Clipper fans and for
Speaker 2: people that love the game, is that when this guy
Speaker 2: is healthy He's still a top five player in the NBA.
Speaker 2: He's still a top five performer in the NBA. And
Speaker 2: it's just, you know, the fact that his health keeps
Speaker 2: letting him down. But this notion that Kawhi Leonard is
Speaker 2: not the same player that he was in Toronto, everyone's like, well,
Speaker 2: imagine if the Clippers got Toronto Kawhi Leonard. It's say,
Speaker 2: hold on a minute.
Speaker 1: He was better than twenty twenty one during their playoff
Speaker 1: run before he went down. Then, like we talk about
Speaker 1: these numbers, and this is the stretch we're talking about
Speaker 1: from last season. Over a thirty game stretch, Kawhi was
Speaker 1: getting twenty six points per game while shooting fifty seven
Speaker 1: percent from the floor, fifty one percent from three, ninety
Speaker 1: two percent from the free throw line. He was the
Speaker 1: first player to average at least twenty five points and
Speaker 1: a fifty five to fifty to ninety shooting split, which
Speaker 1: was actually above that over any thirty game span in
Speaker 1: NBA history. Guys, do not tell me Toronto Raptors Kawhi
Speaker 1: was better than this. He wasn't. He was healthier. You
Speaker 1: can of course make that argument, he wasn't better than
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one Kawhi which had another all time run
Speaker 1: and make it twenty twenty one in the first round,
Speaker 1: and the numbers he was putting up, they were shack numbers.
Speaker 1: I've never seen anything like Kawhi Leonard at his peak, honestly, Grant,
Speaker 1: I say this all the time. I think he is
Speaker 1: a top ten playoff performer ever, Like he is like
Speaker 1: ever in the history of the game. Maybe top five,
Speaker 1: don't I don't know if I can find I don't
Speaker 1: think I can find nine guys ahead of him. Like
Speaker 1: look at this against the Dallas Mavericks in that first
Speaker 1: round series in twenty twenty one. So he's out there
Speaker 1: putting up Shack level efficiency thirty points per game on
Speaker 1: sixty percent shooting while taking on average his shots from
Speaker 1: almost ten feet further back. That is insane. Like we
Speaker 1: haven't seen any his mid range. It might even be better.
Speaker 1: People don't want to hear this, like efficiency wise that
Speaker 1: MJ's was. Hey mine, I'm just it's historic what Kawhi
Speaker 1: has done into the playoffs and who he's been as
Speaker 1: a player when he is healthy. Can we get him healthy?
Speaker 1: And we got some questions coming in here, Grant, So
Speaker 1: let's get to him sure, Jonathan Ings says, what is
Speaker 1: also the plan for Harden to make sure he doesn't
Speaker 1: get overextended like last season when we saw a dip
Speaker 1: in his play host All Star Break. What do you
Speaker 1: think about that, Garret, I.
Speaker 2: Don't know if there is a plan right now. We
Speaker 2: have to kind of see what's going on with how
Speaker 2: they use the offense this year. Because if we remember
Speaker 2: Adham last year when they had Russell Westbrook going into
Speaker 2: camp and they had him throughout camp because James Harden
Speaker 2: wasn't traded yet. Their thing was, we want to run
Speaker 2: and gun, we want to push the pace. We want
Speaker 2: to utilize Russell Westbrook's strengths, which is running down the
Speaker 2: floor and in transition, and that's what they can aided
Speaker 2: their offense around. They wanted to run, they wanted to
Speaker 2: sprint down the floor. Now it's a completely different thing
Speaker 2: coming into training camp. I think training camp is gonna
Speaker 2: be excellent to have James Harden around and have that
Speaker 2: full off season with the guys, so his scoring volume
Speaker 2: will go up, his usage will go up. People forget
Speaker 2: like James Harden's usage last year was actually pretty high
Speaker 2: as well. It's just that you know, we kind of
Speaker 2: look around that because he had Paul George and Kawhi
Speaker 2: and they do a lot of ISO actions. But James
Speaker 2: Harden was used a lot last year. His scoring volume
Speaker 2: is going to go up, which means his legs are
Speaker 2: gonna get tired. And you've mentioned this on many shows
Speaker 2: with all of your guests, is that there was a
Speaker 2: point in the season last year where his legs were tired.
Speaker 2: He slowed down a step and you saw the kind
Speaker 2: of decline from his scoring. Obviously, he's always going to
Speaker 2: be a great ball handler. He's always going to be
Speaker 2: a guy that gets people in their spots. But this
Speaker 2: year it's gonna have to be I don't know what
Speaker 2: his points per game are gonna be. Maybe twenty three
Speaker 2: to twenty five is probably what we all hope that
Speaker 2: it can be. He's not gonna get back to that
Speaker 2: Houston Harden forty points per game, thirty five points per game.
Speaker 2: Let's let's not think that way. But there is a
Speaker 2: real concern on my end about the overuse of Harden,
Speaker 2: or maybe if he's going to have the ball a
Speaker 2: lot more, if he's gonna have to initiate a lot
Speaker 2: more offense. You know what is he going to look
Speaker 2: like in February. What's he gonna look like in March
Speaker 2: when we're probably Adam gonna be fighting for a six,
Speaker 2: seven to eight seed, hopefully five seed. That's where we're
Speaker 2: gonna need him the most, I feel like, you know,
Speaker 2: aside from the playoffs. So there is concern about that.
Speaker 2: That's been one of my thoughts that I think about
Speaker 2: all the time because the Clippers are always on my mind, Adam,
Speaker 2: is that when Harden has the ball more and when
Speaker 2: he's gonna be asked to do more on the offensive end,
Speaker 2: you know, what is that gonna look like in February
Speaker 2: and March when you know, maybe his legs do slow
Speaker 2: down and you don't have that backup of a Paul
Speaker 2: George and a Kawhi just doing their thing. That's that's
Speaker 2: one of my concerns. It's true. So we're gonna have
Speaker 2: to see. The main just is we're gonna have to
Speaker 2: see what they run in training camp.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and how many minutes he's playing compared to last
Speaker 1: season where he was only at thirty four minutes, which
Speaker 1: I think was a low for him since he became
Speaker 1: a number one, number two option type guy. Going back
Speaker 1: to his first season with the Houston Rockets. JM Won
Speaker 1: thirteen twenty four says top five is wild. When I
Speaker 1: made that statement about Kawhi being an all time playoff
Speaker 1: performer and maybe a top five playoff performer, it's not
Speaker 1: bro Now. To his credit, he listed names. K D
Speaker 1: is not a better playoff performer than Kawhi Leonard because
Speaker 1: he hid behind the muscles of the seventy three win
Speaker 1: Golden State Warriors and got two finals MVPs while being
Speaker 1: on a stack team that had no chance of losing.
Speaker 1: That does not make him a better playoff performer than
Speaker 1: to me at all. In fact, just watched the first
Speaker 1: two games against Kawhi Leonard last season when he had
Speaker 1: a better team on his side in Phoenix, and Kawhi
Speaker 1: was dogging him and destroying him and ripping the ball
Speaker 1: away from him and out playing him. Katie's not He's
Speaker 1: not a better all time playoff performer than Kawhi or
Speaker 1: a lot of guys. That's just not the truth. Curry.
Speaker 1: I don't know if i'd say Curry is either now
Speaker 1: since what he did in twenty twenty two against Boston
Speaker 1: without KAD that gives him a bump and I think
Speaker 1: I could make the argument Steph Curry, and I've been
Speaker 1: saying this for a few years, basically since he won
Speaker 1: that last championship. I think he is a top five
Speaker 1: player of all time. But I don't know if I
Speaker 1: can necessarily say he's a playoff riser to the degree
Speaker 1: that Kawhi is, because Curry's actually taken a ton of
Speaker 1: flack over the years for not stepping up and having
Speaker 1: better numbers in the playoffs. Kawhi, my lord, his last
Speaker 1: sixty playoff games, I believe he's just about at fifty
Speaker 1: forty ninety splits on thirty points per game his last
Speaker 1: sixty playoff games. That's insane. J Hey, sure you can
Speaker 1: say that, although his efficiency in his second three PET
Speaker 1: you'd be surprised. It's pretty low. Different game, hard to
Speaker 1: compare Kareem Uh maybe different game now we're talking all time. Hakem. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's top five, but Kawai can find can find his
Speaker 1: way into this list when it comes to top five
Speaker 1: playoff performers. Trust me, if you just look at efficiency
Speaker 1: and the way he's been able to carry teams and
Speaker 1: how reliable he's been in as a number one option,
Speaker 1: the undisputed number one option. I'm sorry, but Kawhi is otherworldly.
Speaker 1: I don't think I don't think it's a stretch or
Speaker 1: crazy to say he's a top five all time playoff performer. Yeah,
Speaker 1: somebody else is agreeing Curry isn't either.
Speaker 2: There were real concerns about Curry. I mean, if we
Speaker 2: remember Game seven of twenty sixteen, he was horrible efficient.
Speaker 1: One for five in the fourth quarter. I believe he
Speaker 1: got locked up by Kevin Love. He had behind the
Speaker 1: back pass that goes out of bounds looking for Klay
Speaker 1: Thompson the near side corner. Like Curry has a lot
Speaker 1: of worse at big moments, he does exactly twenty twenty
Speaker 1: two helps him out. And I do think he's a
Speaker 1: top five player ever. But we're talking playoff per former ever, right.
Speaker 2: And and Adam, I think that you know, when we
Speaker 2: talk about Kawhi, it's always about the health. But when
Speaker 2: he is healthy in the playoffs, there's never been like
Speaker 2: a game. I mean, I'm sure there is. I'm not
Speaker 2: going to go through all of Kawhi Leonard's playoff games,
Speaker 2: but you know, it's never a question of if he
Speaker 2: can do it, it's always is he going to be
Speaker 2: available with Kawhi Leonard, right, so every game, I mean,
Speaker 2: look at what he did. People keep forgetting about this.
Speaker 2: In twenty twenty one Round one, there would have been
Speaker 2: no Western Conference Finals run if it wasn't for Kawhi
Speaker 2: Leonard saving them in game seven. In Game six, Game six,
Speaker 2: he scored forty five points, right, So, like, this is
Speaker 2: a guy that when the when your back is against
Speaker 2: the wall in Game six, they're down in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 2: This is maybe could have been the end of the
Speaker 2: two one three era because there are a lot of
Speaker 2: questions going into that season, you know, after they blewed
Speaker 2: in the bubble and he goes for forty five in
Speaker 2: a hostile environment where there was a full crowd in
Speaker 2: Dallas and puts them to bed, and then in game
Speaker 2: seven back at home, he puts them to bed again.
Speaker 2: So you know, and I think people forget the Utah
Speaker 2: series before he got hurt too, because people just think that,
Speaker 2: you know, it was just the first round for Kawhi
Speaker 2: and that was it. In those first four games, what
Speaker 2: he was doing, I mean him and Paul George were
Speaker 2: going like thirty plus a night each.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the last two games together in that series, Game
Speaker 1: three and four for the first time as a tandem.
Speaker 1: They both went for thirty and back to back games
Speaker 1: and then Kawhi there's his ACL. But he just had
Speaker 1: the dunk on Derek Favors, maybe the best dunk of
Speaker 1: his career in that game four before he tars the ACL.
Speaker 2: So so the question with Kawhi, like there's a lot
Speaker 2: of questions with all the guys that we listed, like, oh,
Speaker 2: can Katie do it? Can he get over that hump?
Speaker 2: Can you know, Lebron get over that hump? Or earlier
Speaker 2: in his career. With Kawhi, it's never been could he
Speaker 2: do it? Honestly, there are doubts about him. In twenty
Speaker 2: fourteen when he won the championship with the Spurs, nobody
Speaker 2: thought Kawhi would win Finals MVP in that series, and
Speaker 2: he did it because he was available and he was
Speaker 2: unbelievable on the defensive end and guarded Lebron but also
Speaker 2: offensively too. That was kind of the ascension of Kawhi Leonards. So,
Speaker 2: you know, I think that we kind of misconstrue this
Speaker 2: when we think about Kawhi Leonard, like, oh, can he
Speaker 2: do it? He has done it in every facet of
Speaker 2: the game in the playoffs, it's just a question of
Speaker 2: is he going to be there. So, you know, I
Speaker 2: think people get kind of convoluted with a lot of
Speaker 2: these things. When they think about him, it's like, oh, well,
Speaker 2: we didn't even know that he was playing in Round
Speaker 2: two of twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1: He did play in that.
Speaker 2: Series, guys. He was a big part of that Western
Speaker 2: Conference Finals run. He was a I mean, look at
Speaker 2: him in Game one and two in twenty twenty three,
Speaker 2: right before he don't I guess he heard his meniscus.
Speaker 2: I don't know if it was a tear whatever. He
Speaker 2: was sensational and like you mentioned, Adam outplayed the guy
Speaker 2: you guys just listed in this list in Kevin Durant.
Speaker 2: So I think everyone remembers that rip that he had
Speaker 2: and the finish on the fast break in that series. So,
Speaker 2: you know, I think that that's what the team should
Speaker 2: be focused on. That's what fans should be focused on.
Speaker 2: If you see him load managing this year, don't say
Speaker 2: we didn't warn you. Don't say that you didn't expect it,
Speaker 2: because in twenty twenty one he was load managed. And look,
Speaker 2: I know he got hurt in round two, but he
Speaker 2: got to round two. That was more than he did
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty three. That's more than he did in
Speaker 2: twenty twenty four. So don't there will be load managing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and don't say I didn't warn you when it
Speaker 1: comes to the swelling in his right knee and whether
Speaker 1: or not that could be something that you know, unfortunately
Speaker 1: arises during the regular season. Again, I don't know, No
Speaker 1: one does. Kawhi doesn't know how his body's going to respond.
Speaker 1: It is amazing to me how much speculation and reckless,
Speaker 1: rampant speculation there can be regarding Kawhi, the trading staff,
Speaker 1: that could organization. There's people on here saying, oh, they
Speaker 1: know exactly what's going on with Kawhi Leonard, and it's like, dude,
Speaker 1: he doesn't know. He doesn't know how he's going to respond,
Speaker 1: how his body's going to respond. After some of these games,
Speaker 1: after he played against Dallas, nobody had any idea. So
Speaker 1: that's why when you criticize the organization for being vague
Speaker 1: with reporting it, part of it is built in. Nobody
Speaker 1: can know because it's just it's it comes down to
Speaker 1: how his body responds. Often that is the case. My guy,
Speaker 1: Melvin Powell Junior, by the way, is on something else.
Speaker 1: I know it's Friday night, but he said Kawhi and
Speaker 1: Harden are going to be on their last dance. Michael
Speaker 1: Jordan's type of time this season, it's winning time. This
Speaker 1: season is the end of both their primes. Seriously, though,
Speaker 1: I'm sure Melvin Powell Junior said the same thing last
Speaker 1: season as many people did. I talked about that last season.
Speaker 1: It felt like the last dance for the two and
Speaker 1: three era. Before the season started, we said that and
Speaker 1: it still ended up being the same way. He's also
Speaker 1: saying they're going to be a better defensive team than
Speaker 1: the Timberwolves of healthy. It's like the Timberwolves were the
Speaker 1: number one defense last season and it wasn't close. They're
Speaker 1: not going to be better than them. I hope they
Speaker 1: can be. What they need to be is a top
Speaker 1: eight defensive team. To me, Grant, that's it. Top eight.
Speaker 1: If you're already saying Kalli is not playing back to backs,
Speaker 1: that means sixteen games are cut off immediately for him.
Speaker 1: So missing one of your best defensive players heading into
Speaker 1: the season for at least sixteen games, it's going to
Speaker 1: be hard to be a top five defense. Let alone
Speaker 1: the number one overall defense. Your thoughts on that.
Speaker 2: Listen the Clippers, all of the things that they've done
Speaker 2: at them, and people have to realize this have been
Speaker 2: towards defense. They hired JVG. He's a very good defensive
Speaker 2: minded coach. I mean back when he coached in the
Speaker 2: early two thousands, they brought in guys like Niko Batoum,
Speaker 2: Chris Dunn, they brought in Derek Jones. Those are all
Speaker 2: defensive minded guys. That doesn't mean that they're automatically going
Speaker 2: to be a top five defensive team. My thing with them, Adam,
Speaker 2: if they could be a top ten defensive team and
Speaker 2: just middle of the pack on the offensive end, because
Speaker 2: I think that their offense is going to take a
Speaker 2: hit with the loss of Paul George. There's a lot
Speaker 2: of people probably in these comments that are thinking something else.
Speaker 2: But if you can be top ten defensively, which is
Speaker 2: something And I don't have the exact defensive ratings for
Speaker 2: the entire two to three era, but it was never
Speaker 2: an elite defense for whatever reason. I mean, they always
Speaker 2: had the personnel I felt like, but it was never
Speaker 2: a top five defensive team. Now you could say that
Speaker 2: in that twenty six and five run that they had
Speaker 2: this past year. That's when they were a number one,
Speaker 2: number two defense, Like, they were insane defensively, but obviously
Speaker 2: that didn't last, and towards the last part of the
Speaker 2: season they kind of fell back towards the sixteen through
Speaker 2: eighteen range. They really took a dive defensively, and that's
Speaker 2: probably why they honed in and focus don getting defensive
Speaker 2: minded players. But this I think that if they are
Speaker 2: a top eight defensive team like you mentioned, and I
Speaker 2: really believe they can with the personnel that they brought in,
Speaker 2: if they are a top eight defensive rated team and
Speaker 2: they're just fifteenth on offense, hopefully listen, I know that
Speaker 2: we all think that they should be a top ten
Speaker 2: offensive team, but if they are even twelfth through fifteenth
Speaker 2: with that top ten defensive rating, I think that's a
Speaker 2: recipe for a five to eight seed. Now we're gonna
Speaker 2: have to see how the West plays out, because there's
Speaker 2: a lot of good teams in the West. There are
Speaker 2: teams that are gonna get gonna get better, Like I
Speaker 2: think Memphis is gonna be better, So you're gonna be
Speaker 2: fighting against more teams, I feel like. But we say
Speaker 2: this every year. We say it every year, Oh the
Speaker 2: West got so much better. Oh the West is so
Speaker 2: much better this year. But in twenty twenty three, like
Speaker 2: it was basically just the Nuggets and then everyone else
Speaker 2: everyone had a down year. So I think I don't
Speaker 2: think we can make these points right now. We kind
Speaker 2: of just have to wait it out and see how
Speaker 2: the season starts. I know we're getting way ahead of ourselves,
Speaker 2: but if they are top ten defensively, if they are
Speaker 2: middle of the pack or maybe a little bit above
Speaker 2: middle of the pack offensively, that is the recipe for
Speaker 2: successes here. I'm not saying they're going to be a
Speaker 2: top four seed. I'm not saying they're going to be
Speaker 2: one of the contenders in the West. But I think
Speaker 2: that those two ratings put together can bode well for
Speaker 2: them and that could be a great season for the Clippers.
Speaker 1: No, I completely agree with you been saying. Be a
Speaker 1: top eight defense in a top thirteen offense, and you're good.
Speaker 1: Your net rating will be good enough to be in
Speaker 1: contention for being somewhere between six and eight in the West,
Speaker 1: and it's going to be so close because if you
Speaker 1: look at records, it's interesting the Sacramento Kings lost two
Speaker 1: more games than they did the year before this past
Speaker 1: season twenty three to twenty four season, and they went
Speaker 1: from being the three seed to the ninth seed by
Speaker 1: losing two more games. It's going to be crazy and
Speaker 1: teams are going to be climbing all over each other
Speaker 1: for positioning. Sinner Jr. Says, think about it. Lawrence Frank
Speaker 1: was saying how Kawhi was ready and they wanted him
Speaker 1: to play. They want teams to want to trade him.
Speaker 1: I think you will be traded before the All Star freak. Guys,
Speaker 1: there's no conspiracy here of Lawrence Frank saying this to
Speaker 1: pump up his trade value. Good lord, do a little
Speaker 1: bit of critical thinking here. I think Lawrence Frank was,
Speaker 1: as he said, very disappointed by the fact they sent
Speaker 1: him home because Kawhi wanted to play for Team USA
Speaker 1: and wanted to win a gold medal and he's their
Speaker 1: franchise player. So you back those guys up, and they
Speaker 1: have a great relationship with Kawhi Leonard and I've come
Speaker 1: to the conclusion and this could change, but currently where
Speaker 1: I'm at with Kawhi Leonard and having a sell off
Speaker 1: or moving on at some point from him. Also in
Speaker 1: this era, he represents and symbolizes them becoming a destination
Speaker 1: franchise for the first time in this organization's history. Grant,
Speaker 1: I think it would be very difficult to take a
Speaker 1: lot or a serious godfatherlike offer from somebody, which is
Speaker 1: not going to happen right now because of his injury history.
Speaker 1: So the chance of him being traded is so slim
Speaker 1: because one the Clippers, I don't think want to trade him.
Speaker 1: They want to see this thing through with Kawhi Leonard
Speaker 1: and make sure he's treated as the superstar he is
Speaker 1: for picking the Clippers and coming here, because that's so meaningful.
Speaker 1: It hasn't happened since Bill Walton, and even that was
Speaker 1: kind of a trade back in the day, and that
Speaker 1: was with San Diego. Like this is more than just
Speaker 1: what he means on the court. It's transformative to the
Speaker 1: franchise to know that you finally have become a destination
Speaker 1: where free agents will come your way, even free agents
Speaker 1: that just want a finals MVP will choose you out
Speaker 1: of all teams and choose you over the team that
Speaker 1: was across the hole in their former arena. By the way,
Speaker 1: I don't know what your feelings are on that.
Speaker 2: People always say, Adam that you know, why did they
Speaker 2: sign him to extend? You know, if they signed him
Speaker 2: to this extension, they're just gonna Blake Griffin him. That's
Speaker 2: what people are saying. They say, oh, well, look at
Speaker 2: what we did with Blake Griffin. Those are two completely
Speaker 2: different scenarios and two completely different players. I love Blake Griffin.
Speaker 2: I think he's one of the greatest Clippers of all time.
Speaker 2: I think that he should have his jersey retired here
Speaker 2: soon at the end of a dome. They signed Blake
Speaker 2: Griffin early in the you know, they signed the extension
Speaker 2: of the offseason. They traded him early in the season.
Speaker 2: The Clippers aren't going to do that. No team is
Speaker 2: going to take his contract either, because we have people
Speaker 2: forget we have this new CBA where teams really can't
Speaker 2: take back that much salary unless you match it going back. So,
Speaker 2: you know, I think there's this notion that they can
Speaker 2: just trade him away and get everything back, and you know,
Speaker 2: you can get a twenty nineteen or twenty twenty Paul
Speaker 2: George like offer. That's not coming for a thirty four,
Speaker 2: thirty three year old Kawhi Leonard that's just not so,
Speaker 2: you know, they they made the decision to extend him
Speaker 2: for a reason. He like we just mentioned, he is
Speaker 2: a known playoff performer. He puts people in the seats,
Speaker 2: and I know that that's not really an issue for
Speaker 2: Clippernation because Clipper Nation has sold out a lot of
Speaker 2: games over the past decade plus. But he is one
Speaker 2: of the key cogs of why the Clippers are one
Speaker 2: of these franchises that people want to come to. Now
Speaker 2: he is one of the reasons why. And it's Paul
Speaker 2: George as well that that tandem right there. But it's
Speaker 2: a reason why they could get players like James Harden.
Speaker 2: It's the reason why James Harden wanted to resign. It's
Speaker 2: one of the big reasons why Russell Westbrook chose to
Speaker 2: come here, is because there's that welcoming kind of attitude.
Speaker 2: But it's also like, hey, if Kawhi and Paul George
Speaker 2: want to stay here and they want to sign multiple
Speaker 2: contracts here, then I do too. So you know, it
Speaker 2: just goes to show like this this organization, this front office,
Speaker 2: especially with the looming Lakers kind of presence. Now it's
Speaker 2: down the freeway. They have to keep a competitive team
Speaker 2: around and Steve Balmer on multiple occasions as said, I
Speaker 2: am not into the rebuilding business. I am not into that.
Speaker 2: I will retool, which is I feel like what they
Speaker 2: did this year, but I will never rebuild. And trading
Speaker 2: away Kawhi would signal a rebuild. They're not doing that,
Speaker 2: and he is still Adam, We've talked this whole time
Speaker 2: about how good Kawhi is in the playoffs. I know
Speaker 2: that he's been injured, but the upside of him, if
Speaker 2: he is healthy, that is what they're leaning on, and
Speaker 2: that's what they should lean on because Paul George and
Speaker 2: a lot of people have been, oh my goodness, Adam
Speaker 2: on my social media about me talking about Paul George.
Speaker 2: They have been on me about saying that he didn't
Speaker 2: deserve that Max contract. The thing that we know about
Speaker 2: Kawhi that we didn't know about Paul George is that
Speaker 2: in the postseason, when the calendar turns to April and
Speaker 2: May and June, we know that Kawhi Leonard can get
Speaker 2: it done. We know that he can beat the teams
Speaker 2: in the West that will face that they will face.
Speaker 2: We didn't know that about Paul George. And in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty one, he had a great run, but after that
Speaker 2: he was injured. In twenty two, got the COVID in
Speaker 2: the play in in twenty twenty three, he was hurt,
Speaker 2: didn't even get to see him, and this passed off season.
Speaker 2: This past postseason, he was nineteen points per game on
Speaker 2: forty one percent shooting. So when you have a guy
Speaker 2: like Kawhi Leonard, sure the injuries are there, but when
Speaker 2: he is healthy, you know what you're gonna get, and
Speaker 2: that's what the front office is banking on. They're not
Speaker 2: going to trade him. I mean, it's just kind of
Speaker 2: an idiotic statement by a lot of people in my opinion,
Speaker 2: because the front office knows that the upside is there,
Speaker 2: and with Paul George they did not. And if you
Speaker 2: want to compete in Los Angeles, if you want to
Speaker 2: be a championship team in Los Angeles and in the NBA,
Speaker 2: you're gonna have to keep Kawhi Leonard around. Guys, You're
Speaker 2: gonna have to keep guys like James Harden around. So,
Speaker 2: I don't know, people kind of get a little bit
Speaker 2: too trigger happy. I feel like Adam when we're talking
Speaker 2: about these things, because they feel like, hey, the team's
Speaker 2: just gonna accept any deal. You know, Hey, give me
Speaker 2: all your first round picks and some good players in return.
Speaker 2: It's not how it works in the new CBA. That's
Speaker 2: just not how it works.
Speaker 1: Yeah, if you're saying we need to trade Kawhi because
Speaker 1: he's too injury prone, do you think other franchises don't
Speaker 1: realize that and they don't know that he's injury prone.
Speaker 1: It takes two to tangle a little bit. And I'll
Speaker 1: go back to what Lawrence Frank said, because I think
Speaker 1: there's great hope in this and you put that beautifully
Speaker 1: grant as we close things out here. But anybody can
Speaker 1: get injured, like we've seen injuries defined playoff runs over
Speaker 1: the last five years greatly. Unfortunately, it's not just Kawhi.
Speaker 1: Look over the past couple of years, Giannis has been
Speaker 1: injury prone, Asn't layed, Joe El Embiid has been injury prone.
Speaker 1: It is survival of the fittest or the healthiest, and
Speaker 1: it's a war of attrition. But there are very few
Speaker 1: players well, anybody can get injured. There are very few
Speaker 1: players that win healthy are a top five player in
Speaker 1: the league like Kawhi. Leonard is in a stone cold
Speaker 1: killer in the playoffs the way he is, and I
Speaker 1: think most people, maybe outside of Jokic, would take Kawhi
Speaker 1: as I don't know, the first or second best playoff
Speaker 1: performer if healthy in a seven game series today, just
Speaker 1: because of his reputation and what we've seen over the years.
Speaker 1: So I hope he's going to be able to be healthy. Guys,
Speaker 1: I hope the swelling isn't a recurring issue, a reoccurring issue.
Speaker 1: I do have my concerns over that. I'm not putting
Speaker 1: anything into what occurred later today with that report that
Speaker 1: had Kawhi Leonard trending. Now, if things change, if somebody
Speaker 1: verifies it, if somebody reputable does, like Grant, like Lot Murray,
Speaker 1: like Tomarazarali who was on here earlier loved to man,
Speaker 1: that will change how I feel about the situation. Until then, though,
Speaker 1: I'm not any more concerned about Kawhi than I was yesterday.
Speaker 1: That's my position. We're all hoping for better health and
Speaker 1: better luck for this Clippers team because it's just been
Speaker 1: unbelievably bad luck. Because Brian Seeman would say, you know,
Speaker 1: if they just had bad luck and not miserable luck,
Speaker 1: not terrible unspeakable luck. This team would probably have won
Speaker 1: a championship by now, but it has been to the
Speaker 1: extreme when it came to the bad luck department in
Speaker 1: the two and three era. Sadly, I want everybody to
Speaker 1: be hopeful coming into this season, but also realistic when
Speaker 1: it comes to the expectations for this team right now,
Speaker 1: the way the roster's constructed, and KAUWHI just let me
Speaker 1: know what he can play seven to ten games in
Speaker 1: a row, then I'll start saying, oh, okay, here we go.
Speaker 1: Championships back on the menu, boys, because even without Paul
Speaker 1: George Grant, if you can get into a seven game series,
Speaker 1: I don't care what seed they are, and Kawhi is healthy.
Speaker 1: Nobody wants to see that Clippers team with a healthy
Speaker 1: Kawhi and James Harden because someone made a good point
Speaker 1: yesterday on the pot with Justin Rousseau. You know the
Speaker 1: Dallas Mavericks. They were constructed in a very similar fashion
Speaker 1: to the way this Clippers team is now. Two ISO
Speaker 1: heavy players as your stars, with a lot of wings
Speaker 1: and defenders around them, and they got to the NBA Finals,
Speaker 1: losing in five to the Boston Celtics. But they made
Speaker 1: that run. The Clippers aren't that far off from how
Speaker 1: Dallas was built. Really, that's the truth. And I think
Speaker 1: they would have beat Dallas obviously in the first round
Speaker 1: if they had a healthy Kawhi Leonard. Plus they brought
Speaker 1: in a Dallas defender in Derek Jones Junior. Well, the
Speaker 1: parallels they're pretty uh, they're pretty accurate right now. I
Speaker 1: would say that's not a bad comp I don't know,
Speaker 1: you think, you know, is it a long shot or
Speaker 1: overly optimistic that if they just have a healthy team,
Speaker 1: even with the way the roster is now, they could
Speaker 1: still make a run without Paul George in your.
Speaker 2: Mind, Adam, every year we go through the playoffs and
Speaker 2: we always think which teams are going to be there.
Speaker 2: You know, we always thought that it would be the
Speaker 2: Nets and the Lakers in twenty twenty one because they
Speaker 2: got Russell Westbrook. We always thought that it would be,
Speaker 2: you know, the Celtics and the Nuggets because those are
Speaker 2: the two best teams last year. And there's always a
Speaker 2: team that nobody sees coming that makes a run. The
Speaker 2: Heat played the Nuggets last not this past year, but
Speaker 2: last year. Nobody saw the Heat getting to the finals.
Speaker 2: I don't think a lot of people saw them the
Speaker 2: Dallas Mavericks getting to the finals either. And what seed
Speaker 2: were they, Adham? They were the five I've seed. So
Speaker 2: there are always teams and I've made this point a lot.
Speaker 2: There are always teams in the past three four years
Speaker 2: that made a run to the finals in twenty twenty one.
Speaker 2: Did we ever think that it would be Bucks Suns?
Speaker 2: And maybe some people did, but we never thought that
Speaker 2: we would see Bucks Hawks in the Eastern Conference Finals,
Speaker 2: but it just ended up playing out that way. So
Speaker 2: I think, Adam that if everything lines up, and like
Speaker 2: you mentioned, if they get into the playoffs with the
Speaker 2: defensive pieces that they've added, with a good role players
Speaker 2: that they have, Norm Powell being one of the guys
Speaker 2: that is kind of underrated in my opinion and should
Speaker 2: have been in heavier consideration for six Man of the
Speaker 2: Year last year. All of that combined with James Harden
Speaker 2: and Kawhi Leonard, who in my opinion are still superstars.
Speaker 2: Some people don't like to consider James Harden a superstar anymore,
Speaker 2: he still can be and he still is in my opinion.
Speaker 2: You get that combination with the coaching of Tylo and
Speaker 2: JVG and the fact that even at the trade dead
Speaker 2: this year, Adam, maybe they make a move if they're
Speaker 2: in a spot to do so to improve the team.
Speaker 2: And that's obviously if everything goes according to plan. Yes
Speaker 2: they can make a run. Yes they can. They are
Speaker 2: like you mentioned, I never even made that connection. That's
Speaker 2: actually a great observation by you, because yes, they.
Speaker 1: Do us to have you player from a listener, my friend, honest.
Speaker 2: And Adam, people were already comparing Luca to James Harden
Speaker 2: in the first place anyways, so it could happen. You
Speaker 2: just stole the guy that locked up Paul George in
Speaker 2: the first round as well, So it's not out of
Speaker 2: the question. We're just trying to be as realistic as
Speaker 2: possible everyone. That's all it is.
Speaker 1: Grant Mona with a calm, en soothing outlook on this
Speaker 1: Clipper season and what could happen, bringing a little bit
Speaker 1: of hope and just to close things out and put
Speaker 1: a button on this issue as people are jumping in here.
Speaker 1: Late fk Retro said just joining so was the QUI STUFBS? Well,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to say it was BS. I don't
Speaker 1: know because I can't verify what I do know is
Speaker 1: he followed up with Sala Murray kind of saying it
Speaker 1: was nothing. La Murray talked to some people and said
Speaker 1: he's fine. So until that changes, I'm going with that
Speaker 1: over a report from a social media site on China
Speaker 1: that people think could be Kawhai's agent. That's where I
Speaker 1: stand on the issue. If things change, believe me, we'll
Speaker 1: have another live here for you on Clippers Talk if
Speaker 1: that is the case. But I love everybody for being here,
Speaker 1: putting up with the technical issues, putting up with me.
Speaker 1: This has been a lot of fun. Grant, that ain't
Speaker 1: your fault. Believe me, it's the stream. It ain't you,
Speaker 1: my friend, Grant Mona. Where can they find you and
Speaker 1: where can they look forward to seeing more of you
Speaker 1: throughout this Clipper season.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So I'll be covering the Clippers for the Sporting
Speaker 2: Tribune this year. I'll be at media Day, I'll be
Speaker 2: at all the games this year. You can follow me
Speaker 2: at Gmona forty eight on X I'm very active on there,
Speaker 2: commenting on a lot of the trolls on Adam's page
Speaker 2: as well. If you want to find me in my
Speaker 2: video content, it's at money Mo Media on YouTube and
Speaker 2: money Moo Media TV on TikTok and I post there
Speaker 2: frequently as well. So Adam, we're getting close. Man, We're
Speaker 2: very close to the season, so we appreciate all the
Speaker 2: support as well. Guys, So thanks for having me on, Adam,
Speaker 2: I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Thanks to Grant Mona, my friends, I appreciate you. See
Speaker 1: you at Media Day on the thirtieth, just a little
Speaker 1: over a week away for Grant Mota. I'm Adam Oslim's.
Speaker 1: This has been another edition of Clippers Talk Live. Everyone,
Speaker 1: have a safe Friday night and try not to fall
Speaker 1: for too much of the social media panic. Look to
Speaker 1: your local beat writers and reporters and those who are
Speaker 1: plugged in. We'll talk to you next time.