Speaker 1: Lolco've been to Clippers Talk a live edition, just the
Speaker 1: third we have done so far. I'm out of Moslin.
Speaker 1: If you missed yesterday's show, we had Paul's cheron that
Speaker 1: was not live. That was an intimate podcast with a
Speaker 1: comedium that is a Clippers fan that y'all should learn
Speaker 1: more about because he is one of the best of
Speaker 1: the best speaking of today in this live everyone is
Speaker 1: fortunate to have La Murray on, uh, including myself, because
Speaker 1: we haven't connected in some time now during the off season.
Speaker 1: I think he came on with us once on Clips
Speaker 1: and Dip. But now I got this YouTube channel going
Speaker 1: at Clippers Talk is where you could find it at
Speaker 1: La Murray. The NU is where you find him on x.
Speaker 1: He covers the Clippers for the athletic He is well.
Speaker 1: He is an unbiased, objective, impartial member of the media.
Speaker 1: He does a service to Clippers fans because of his
Speaker 1: great coverage. You are more plugs did and more informed
Speaker 1: with this team clipornation. I know everybody loves La Murray
Speaker 1: a lot of my friend, good catch.
Speaker 2: Up, appreciate the kind words, thank you, and uh yeah,
Speaker 2: I've been seeing your your little pot thing. I thought
Speaker 2: that John went straight out of Super Mario World too,
Speaker 2: with the cutouts and whatnot, so.
Speaker 1: We're not as hard as Super Mario World.
Speaker 2: To come on, y'all. Y'all's closed. Is that a lo
Speaker 2: O Eric production?
Speaker 1: It is hashtag w t F l O l Eric.
Speaker 2: You gotta shout out my guy, my guy Eric. I
Speaker 2: recently had a change the avatar because it's a new year,
Speaker 2: but shout out to him. Shout out to him. Man,
Speaker 2: he gifted me for a year, so I gotta shout
Speaker 2: him out. I know his see I know his work
Speaker 2: when I see it. But I was like, if it's
Speaker 2: not that, it's something out of this is definitely something
Speaker 2: out of Yoshi's Island for sure.
Speaker 1: With a little baby, asked Mario that starts crying all
Speaker 1: the time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I hate that game for real.
Speaker 1: Lobry is with us here. It's a Clippers Talk Live.
Speaker 1: I'm out of Mosland. Why alive because we both want
Speaker 1: to watch the game tonight too, So we gotta get
Speaker 1: this out of the way now. I don't want to
Speaker 1: have to worry about uploading it later on. It's on
Speaker 1: the YouTube side at Clippers Talk is where you find it.
Speaker 2: Love that game tonight is going to be a celebration
Speaker 2: for some.
Speaker 1: So celebration for some Chiefs and Ravens. We'll see what
Speaker 1: King Henry can do, all right. Not talking about King
Speaker 1: James here on Clippers Talk. But there are a lot
Speaker 1: of subjects I want to get into. Because you've been
Speaker 1: doing a series. Let people know where they can find it.
Speaker 1: Talking about the fourteen teams that didn't make the playoffs
Speaker 1: last season.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well not just those teams, but the teams that
Speaker 2: sixteen teams that made the playoffs as well. So I
Speaker 2: called it the Epitome Game Series. It's something that I
Speaker 2: did last summer as well. But last summer was the
Speaker 2: first time I was like, you know what, I'm watching
Speaker 2: all these games in the offseason. Let me do some
Speaker 2: video breakdowns. Mainly because I learned how to use iMovie efficiently,
Speaker 2: so I was like, you know what, let me use it.
Speaker 2: You know, shout out to the New York Times for
Speaker 2: that one. And so last year I gave myself thirty
Speaker 2: days to do it, and that was that was reasonable.
Speaker 2: My life was a little bit more hectic going into
Speaker 2: August twenty twenty four, so I didn't get around to
Speaker 2: You might have heard about that building opening up in Englewood,
Speaker 2: So you know, I was a little busy the first
Speaker 2: half of August, but it was August seventeenth, I was like,
Speaker 2: all right, if I start today on this project and
Speaker 2: do two today, then I can get this done before
Speaker 2: September first. And so doing doing these video breakdowns, I
Speaker 2: watched entire an entire game for every team, and I
Speaker 2: would basically break down what I thought was like the
Speaker 2: gain that showed their biggest extreme as far as their
Speaker 2: strength or their weakness if they were a team that
Speaker 2: missed the playoffs, and and you know I had I
Speaker 2: had a good time doing it, Like you can't tell
Speaker 2: me I don't watch your damn team. So I've watched
Speaker 2: every single team at least once, and a lot of
Speaker 2: those games were not fun to watch. I watched the
Speaker 2: Blazers get smacked by sixty points. So like it was
Speaker 2: a project I wanted to do, especially after doing it
Speaker 2: last year, I was like, yeah, let me, let me,
Speaker 2: let me do it again, because not only does it
Speaker 2: refresh me at the deadest time of the year as
Speaker 2: far as games go, Like we're in the midpoint of
Speaker 2: it's been a while since the playoffs, but it'll be
Speaker 2: a little while before the season starts going, So August
Speaker 2: is that time where it's like, let me remind myself
Speaker 2: what basketball looks like in the regular season. And so
Speaker 2: not only do you have that refresher, but also naturally
Speaker 2: you're going to look at that and preview this upcoming season.
Speaker 2: So you know, it's a It was a service to
Speaker 2: me because newsflash, a lot of the work I do
Speaker 2: for anyone else that's got to start with me. Do
Speaker 2: I want to do this? Is am I engaged with it?
Speaker 2: Do I have a sense of purpose here? And then
Speaker 2: obviously if I do this, I want people to see it.
Speaker 2: So shout out to anybody who is like, yeah, I
Speaker 2: want to watch one hundred minutes of what Law's got
Speaker 2: to say about thirty NBA teams. It goes by quick
Speaker 2: if you break it down like that.
Speaker 1: And where can people find it? One more time?
Speaker 2: Law, Yeah, it's on my YouTube, It's on my Instagram.
Speaker 2: I'm putting them up daily on my Instagram. Now they're
Speaker 2: on my little used TikTok. So if you can find
Speaker 2: my social you can probably find where these are at.
Speaker 2: And if you can't, then I ain't that hard to find.
Speaker 1: I saw it on Instagram earlier today, and it reminded
Speaker 1: me of something that we'll be keeping track of all
Speaker 1: season long, and maybe we can start with this. But
Speaker 1: teams that you believe that are going to be close
Speaker 1: on the standings in the Western Conference to the Clippers
Speaker 1: who those teams are based upon, you know, the outlook
Speaker 1: of this season. A lot of people have said law
Speaker 1: that they believe sixth is aspirational. Basically for the Clippers,
Speaker 1: staying out of the playing is the goal right now.
Speaker 1: But if you're saying they're going to be around that area,
Speaker 1: that means six through ten somewhere in there. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of teams in the mix. We know how close
Speaker 1: the standings were last season. Do you believe I know
Speaker 1: we say this every year with the Western Conference, but
Speaker 1: to me, this might be peak Western Conference Gauntlet because
Speaker 1: of the young teams that are on the rise. Wemby
Speaker 1: with the Spurs now as CP three, the Houston Rockets
Speaker 1: could be right there fighting for position with the Clippers.
Speaker 1: Do you believe this is going to be one of
Speaker 1: the most competitive years in league history in the Western Conference?
Speaker 2: Sure, Let's league history.
Speaker 1: Is modern history.
Speaker 2: We got a lot of we got a lot of
Speaker 2: years to stack up, and I know a lot of
Speaker 2: y'all not really trying to look at I mean, look,
Speaker 2: I remember when the Western Conference was garbage in the eighties.
Speaker 2: Lakers fans don't really like talking about you know, they
Speaker 2: don't really talk about that. But like good reason, they
Speaker 2: actually won the Chips. It'll be another thing if you
Speaker 2: come out of the West all the time and you
Speaker 2: can't get it done. They got it done. But like
Speaker 2: I thought that was the case last year. I don't
Speaker 2: really see anything that new, to be honest with you.
Speaker 2: I mean, I know Clippers fans are going to probably
Speaker 2: see it a different way because, you know, they had
Speaker 2: a different kind of team last year, like an end
Speaker 2: stage team with some high star power, you know, a
Speaker 2: level of desperation that comes with the contract status of
Speaker 2: the guys that they had. Like that's not the case anymore.
Speaker 2: We're in a different kind of era as far as
Speaker 2: discussing where the Clippers are at. But the Western Conference
Speaker 2: was like that last year, Like Becase was different last
Speaker 2: year compared to the year before.
Speaker 1: No, no doubt, it's always tough. I just see it
Speaker 1: as well. Memphis was out of the picture last year.
Speaker 1: We expected them to be back. How many teams are
Speaker 1: actually getting significantly worse. Most would point to the Clippers
Speaker 1: as being that team because they lost Paul George of
Speaker 1: a team that's going to take a real step back
Speaker 1: when there's all these other teams that could get better.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean the Clippers is the only team in
Speaker 2: the entire league East or West that lost an All Star,
Speaker 2: you know, So there's that part of it. No other Yeah,
Speaker 2: another team has to deal with that. But then again,
Speaker 2: the Clippers are also they look a lot more like
Speaker 2: the team that they were for years before James Harden
Speaker 2: got there, before Russ got there, as far as a
Speaker 2: team built around two stars. So I think a lot
Speaker 2: of people are going to react more to what the
Speaker 2: Clippers lost than to who the Clippers have mostly been
Speaker 2: under Toronto Loo anyway, it's just astet of P's. It's
Speaker 2: James Harden, you know, when you look at teams like Memphis,
Speaker 2: just like, on one hand, you get job back, but
Speaker 2: on the other hand, Joe's not coming back to the
Speaker 2: same team that he left when Memphis was the two
Speaker 2: seed in twenty twenty three, and in I think believe
Speaker 2: they were the two seed also in twenty twenty two
Speaker 2: as well. If the two, or I believe they were two.
Speaker 1: They were up there. I'm thinking of the year they
Speaker 1: lost the Lakers in the first round.
Speaker 2: They're just the Lakers. They were two for sure. Yeah,
Speaker 2: the year before. I'm trying to remember quickly who had
Speaker 2: home court advantage between the Warriors and the Grizzlies in
Speaker 2: that semi finals, and like the reality is like a
Speaker 2: lot of people are going to react to that Grizzlies
Speaker 2: team and it's like, yeah, like that that Grizzly team
Speaker 2: had home court advantage, like they were fifty six and
Speaker 2: twenty six. The Warriors were fifty three and twenty nine
Speaker 2: wound up winning the championship as a three. So like
Speaker 2: the Grizzlies are a team where it's like, how much
Speaker 2: better are they going to be? It's like, on one hand, yes,
Speaker 2: John coming back changes a lot, Like they were literally
Speaker 2: the worst offense in basketball last year. They were terrible
Speaker 2: to watch play basketball, like from the jump, and Joh
Speaker 2: changes a lot. On the other hand, that team is
Speaker 2: not as good as those teams that were two seeds
Speaker 2: number one and number two. The thing with Jah is
Speaker 2: Joh don't stay healthy either. Like John didn't just play
Speaker 2: nine games because he was suspended for twenty five of them.
Speaker 2: Joh had a shoulder injury that took him out for
Speaker 2: the rest of the year. Joe rarely stays on the
Speaker 2: floor for you know, John's probably going you can pencil
Speaker 2: Joh in and probably miss twenty games. So that's the
Speaker 2: thing with these teams. It's like, on one hand, yes,
Speaker 2: on paper, the competition is going to be crazy, but
Speaker 2: what separate teams every year? Player availability? And yes, if
Speaker 2: you're the Clippers, you're probably a little bit concerned about that.
Speaker 2: If you're a team like Memphis, if you're a team
Speaker 2: like Golden State, if you're a team like the Los
Speaker 2: Angeles Lakers, you should also be concerned about that. Some
Speaker 2: of the teams that might take a jump, they gotta
Speaker 2: take massive jumps, like the Spurs have to take a
Speaker 2: massive jump to be quote unquote competitive like they were.
Speaker 2: Of course, they looked better in the second half of
Speaker 2: last year because they started the year damn near five
Speaker 2: and thirty. Like, if you're going from an F to
Speaker 2: a C minus, you're gonna look like an improved team.
Speaker 1: All yeah, but what just happens if they actually play
Speaker 1: wemby real minutes like it it's they're not I think
Speaker 1: as far from being a playing team as some people
Speaker 1: might believe.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, that play in Battle is going to be
Speaker 2: what's crazy? You know, I think all these teams in
Speaker 2: the West have real flaws, Like like Denver's not going
Speaker 2: to be as good as they were last year. I
Speaker 2: think Phoenix has a reason to be better, but no
Speaker 2: one is going to be scared of Phoenix if it
Speaker 2: gets to a playoff situation. Like I think Phoenix actually
Speaker 2: like they hired the right coach if they wanted to
Speaker 2: get their regular season stuff together, Like Bud goes to
Speaker 2: teams and makes them better in the regular season, but
Speaker 2: you knows, I.
Speaker 1: Don't think they playing seventy five games this year.
Speaker 2: Well that's the thing. It's like Budd is coaching three
Speaker 2: guys who, yeah, KD I expect will miss some time.
Speaker 2: Book is a guy who doesn't always still on the floor.
Speaker 2: But Brad can't be as bad as he was last year.
Speaker 2: I think they're gonna just be in a better state
Speaker 2: when they got their guys actually available to play. And
Speaker 2: you know, even even teams like Dallas, how good do
Speaker 2: you think Dallas is going to be? Like I expect
Speaker 2: them to be really good, But at the same time,
Speaker 2: they're the typical team where given a short run, bacon
Speaker 2: hurt you. Given a long season, they're more likely to
Speaker 2: run in some real bumps and stuff because of the
Speaker 2: guys that are that are on their team, like Klay
Speaker 2: Thompson is all of a sudden their third most important player,
Speaker 2: and that that's a little scary. So the competition in
Speaker 2: the West is more like every night is just going
Speaker 2: to be something. But the teams that are going to
Speaker 2: be at the top of the West, they have real flaws.
Speaker 2: And the teams that are already at the bottom, it
Speaker 2: don't take much for them to be like, Yo, we
Speaker 2: were talking some game and we ain't really about that life.
Speaker 2: The Clippers, I feel like, are literally dead smack in
Speaker 2: the middle of that. They are the most bubble of
Speaker 2: the bubble teams. There's like, if.
Speaker 1: Kawhi plays sixty games, right, that's a sing it's playing enough.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think he will, like I think he
Speaker 2: had some bad timing and bad fortune with where his
Speaker 2: knee was at.
Speaker 1: Can we talk about that. I want to ask you
Speaker 1: about that because like I'm not trying to be an alarmist,
Speaker 1: but I have real concerns when it sounds like a
Speaker 1: right knee that had been under the knife multiple times
Speaker 1: prior was swollen and they couldn't get it over under
Speaker 1: control for almost two months. We don't even know when
Speaker 1: the swelling really subsides. You just kind of have to
Speaker 1: go off of the timeline of when he showed up
Speaker 1: for camp or Team USA, right, and that's almost three
Speaker 1: months so when and he said, then, you know, two
Speaker 1: weeks beforehand he had a turning point. It's like that
Speaker 1: to me is really worrisome. Is that am I being
Speaker 1: a little bit too caution cautionary there?
Speaker 2: I don't think he can be too cautious with Kawhi,
Speaker 2: Like it's just because Kawhi Leonard finishing a playoff series,
Speaker 2: whether his team wins the damn playoff series or not,
Speaker 2: would be an event that we have not seen since
Speaker 2: the twenty twenty one quarterfinals against the Dallas Mavericks. So
Speaker 2: you know, I think you have to reasonably expect Kuhi
Speaker 2: to miss time. I think there has to be a
Speaker 2: maintenance plan for Kawhi to you know, get through the season.
Speaker 2: Like that's just what it is. And so there aren't
Speaker 2: a crazy number of five and sevens. I know, people
Speaker 2: are I reacted to the fact that they have sixteen
Speaker 2: sets of back to backs and if Kawhi misses games
Speaker 2: on those back to backs, then you're just gonna have
Speaker 2: to be ready for that. But I do feel like
Speaker 2: if Kawhi, the most important thing for right now is
Speaker 2: that Kawhi is going to be ready for camp. Like
Speaker 2: when I last saw him in Vegas in July, he
Speaker 2: was feeling, he was feeling good, he was feeling like
Speaker 2: he was in good spirits, like he could have did
Speaker 2: the Team USA thing, Like he wasn't in distress or
Speaker 2: anything like that. He was ready to work. We've seen
Speaker 2: him be in San Diego working at USC working with
Speaker 2: Eric Musselman, Like I think, you know, you have to
Speaker 2: let basketball players play basketball. And I do think the
Speaker 2: Clippers are going to do things differently to kind of
Speaker 2: adjust for the fact that they don't want his knee
Speaker 2: to get worn down at a terrible time. And I
Speaker 2: think that reasonably that probably means Kawhi is a shoe
Speaker 2: in the mist fifteen to twenty games. The hope is
Speaker 2: that that's all you have to do is just manage,
Speaker 2: you know, stuff and hope that he doesn't have an
Speaker 2: occurrence where something random pops up. What you don't want
Speaker 2: is any Joe Ingles incidents or any time where he
Speaker 2: falls on the dude and springs an ankles. Seriously, you
Speaker 2: want to just avoid the freak stuff from happening. And
Speaker 2: if Kawhi is out there, the team's going to be
Speaker 2: good because that's what Kawhi does. He raises the floor
Speaker 2: and he raises the ceiling. Not every star does that,
Speaker 2: and James is a similar way. Like I think people
Speaker 2: react to James in the playoffs and James having fallouts
Speaker 2: with the teams that he's been on. What people will
Speaker 2: gloss over because James is the kind of player that
Speaker 2: you move go posts for is the fact that James
Speaker 2: is a guy who is a league average at worst
Speaker 2: offense every single year. So the Clippers are going to
Speaker 2: need offensive contributors this year. Well, at the very least,
Speaker 2: it's good that you have James Harden as part of
Speaker 2: the solution, the figuring that stuff out, not just getting
Speaker 2: himself more opportunities to do what he does well, so
Speaker 2: as putting the ball to the basket, but he's going to
Speaker 2: work with ben guys who are new to the team
Speaker 2: to get them up to speed, to do things that
Speaker 2: a lot of those guys are trying to get paid
Speaker 2: or in position to get paid, they haven't done before.
Speaker 2: And that is a floor raising thing. And we're talking
Speaker 2: about regular season at him right, We're not talking about
Speaker 2: what they might do in the playoffs. So those guys
Speaker 2: getting a reasonable amount of games out of those guys,
Speaker 2: both individually and as a combo, is going to be
Speaker 2: a good place for where the Clippers are going into
Speaker 2: the season.
Speaker 1: My biggest concern is just is it over with that
Speaker 1: one issue of the swelling or is this something you
Speaker 1: have to manage all the way through where it.
Speaker 2: Can manage it. I think you're gonna have to just
Speaker 2: manage it. We're gonna We're probably gonna hear from Kawhi
Speaker 2: about if he's learned anything, if there's something about his
Speaker 2: body that he feels good about that he feels concerned about.
Speaker 2: And I think the team is probably spooked.
Speaker 1: You know, I think Tmusa was spooked law I think
Speaker 1: what he said, we know they were no, but particularly
Speaker 1: by the language Kawhi used of right now it's in
Speaker 1: a neutral state. I think that set up a red
Speaker 1: flag for them where you could say Kawhi felt good
Speaker 1: enough to go. I think the reason they sent him
Speaker 1: home was maybe because they just weren't sure if he
Speaker 1: was able to sustain that level of play or they'd
Speaker 1: be a setback at some point during the campaign and
Speaker 1: they didn't want to have to deal with that. That's
Speaker 1: my guest. I didn't like it. Of course, I want
Speaker 1: Kawhi to be playing, and if he says he's ready
Speaker 1: to go, you know, he's such a legacy player and
Speaker 1: one of the greatest players of his generation. I think
Speaker 1: he should have had that opportunity. But I think that's why.
Speaker 2: I mean, look, man, they got an up close look
Speaker 2: at him. They had Derek White on speed all and
Speaker 2: they felt better with because to me, it wasn't just
Speaker 2: Kawhi that they had to consider as far as get
Speaker 2: Derek White on the team. The fact is they had
Speaker 2: other guys that weren't playing, weren't practicing, weren't going to
Speaker 2: be ready to play in the exhibitions, or we're going
Speaker 2: to be limited in the exhibitions. And it was like,
Speaker 2: do we make a decision now or do we risk
Speaker 2: you know, Katie not getting his calf right or Joelle
Speaker 2: not being ready to go. And I felt like Kawhi
Speaker 2: was always going to be the guy who was whether
Speaker 2: Kawhi looked great or Kawhi didn't look greater. Really it
Speaker 2: was a matter of, you know, Kawhi is not going
Speaker 2: to be a flashy dude. Okayhi is just going to
Speaker 2: show up and go through the emotions. It was t
Speaker 2: USA basically to me, this is my read on it,
Speaker 2: and this is I feel like Kawhi's reading as well.
Speaker 2: I feel like it was like, we have this zude
Speaker 2: Derek White, who we know is healthy and going to
Speaker 2: be ready to play. Do we feel better about him
Speaker 2: being with us or do we feel better about risking
Speaker 2: whether it was Kawhi or somebody else being shorthanded for
Speaker 2: a port or the a portion of the Olympics. And
Speaker 2: I just feel like they took a I and Derek,
Speaker 2: who was more of a short thing than Kawhi was. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and he.
Speaker 1: Played well too.
Speaker 2: By the way he played well played he played a
Speaker 2: role that you know they that team needed, Like it's
Speaker 2: not like they replaced Kawhi with Jalen Brown. You know,
Speaker 2: they didn't replace Kawhi with another Kawhi, a assimilate of
Speaker 2: that player. They were like, we want a sure thing
Speaker 2: we want a guy who's here, Like, if anything, look
Speaker 2: at Kevin Durant replacing Kawhi, Like KD wasn't the one
Speaker 2: playing in Vegas, and then KD got because he had
Speaker 2: the points record. What are you gonna do? You wanna
Speaker 2: send KAD home when Kawhi is out there feeling his
Speaker 2: way out? Nah, Like you're gonna get Derek White in there,
Speaker 2: and you're gonna hope, all right if KD is there,
Speaker 2: at least you know KD got a level to get
Speaker 2: to and kt got to that level. So it worked
Speaker 2: out for USA. It was definitely a more eventful Olympics.
Speaker 2: I feel like than any Olympics that I've ever experienced
Speaker 2: since two thousand and four.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Clippers Talk. It's a Clippers Talk Live edition.
Speaker 1: I'm outa Maslim. We got Lot Murray of the Athletic here,
Speaker 1: having talked with Lawn sometime, a lot to catch up on.
Speaker 1: I know you guys have a lot of questions too.
Speaker 1: Here's Miles Johnson. Since it's topical we're talking Kawhi, but
Speaker 1: also we mentioned James Harden a little bit, and this
Speaker 1: is the new duo. Now it is pretty damn clear
Speaker 1: twenty one Blackjack, whatever you want to say for their
Speaker 1: jersey numbers. The two one three era is over. It's Kawhi,
Speaker 1: it's James Harden, and Miles Johnson wants to know this
Speaker 1: from law the points rebounds assist expectations for Kawhi and
Speaker 1: James Harden this year.
Speaker 2: Mole sound like he's trying to do a get a
Speaker 2: fantasy draft together. Like individual numbers are a little like
Speaker 2: it's a little tough to project for me because I'm like,
Speaker 2: I mean, look, what do you really expect. I think
Speaker 2: it's more important to have guys play play games than
Speaker 2: it is to expect them to hit certain numbers. Like
Speaker 2: I think sometimes guys numbers go up and that's a
Speaker 2: bad thing.
Speaker 1: You know, efficiency goes down, but the overall numbers.
Speaker 2: Go up or your team just ain't good enough, so
Speaker 2: you needed you need those players to do more. For instance,
Speaker 2: like you know, like Ajia Wilson right now, like Ajie
Speaker 2: Wilson's going is, her numbers are crazy good right now,
Speaker 2: but her team ain't running the league like it was,
Speaker 2: you know, in the years where her numbers were not
Speaker 2: needed to be as high as they are and right
Speaker 2: now for instance, So yeah, I think, yeah, Kawhi needs
Speaker 2: to hit twenty five game. I think James needs to
Speaker 2: hit twenty a game. I don't think either one of
Speaker 2: those guys hit those numbers last year. As far as points, rebounds,
Speaker 2: like Kawhi's rebounding has declined over time, but I think
Speaker 2: that I think seven the game is probably a good
Speaker 2: a good number. The thing with kaw Kawhi is a
Speaker 2: pretty good contested rebounder. That's something that there are some
Speaker 2: guys who grab a ton of rebounds, but like Jason
Speaker 2: Tatum for instance, Jason Tatum is an outstanding rebounder from
Speaker 2: a I just got rebounds perspective, But Jason gets a
Speaker 2: lot of uncontested, cheap rebounds, okay, you know, and.
Speaker 1: Then the Russell Westbrook boards.
Speaker 2: I'm Tatum gets a lot of uncontested rebounds. And then
Speaker 2: if you flip it, a guy like Aaron Gordon, like
Speaker 2: Aaron Gordon gets doesn't have as many counting number rebounds,
Speaker 2: But if you look at the kind of rebounds Aaron
Speaker 2: Gordon gets for an outstanding rebounding team, and the Nuggets
Speaker 2: like Aaron Gordon gets the toughest rebounds in the league.
Speaker 2: Like so if you look at it. From that perspective,
Speaker 2: Kawhi is a really good, like contested rebounder, but there's
Speaker 2: gonna be more of those that he's gonna have to
Speaker 2: get because instead of Paul George, you're playing with Derek
Speaker 2: Jones Junior more often, and Derek is not going to
Speaker 2: be around the perimeter as much. It's going to be
Speaker 2: a cascading effect. So there's going to be more rebounds
Speaker 2: that Kawhi is going to have to, you know, pry
Speaker 2: his hands on to secure possessions sort of. Clippers. I
Speaker 2: think the Clippers are going to be a pretty bad
Speaker 2: rebounding team this year, but you know there's a side
Speaker 2: effect to that. I do expect them to be more
Speaker 2: aggressive as well, trying to force some turnovers. James is
Speaker 2: a guy who last year he have five rebounds a game.
Speaker 2: I think that that guy is a really good rebound
Speaker 2: for reguard, like I think he can get back up
Speaker 2: to six next year. We're talking about rebounds like dimes
Speaker 2: per game. James slipped to eight point five last year,
Speaker 2: and the thing with you know, James Harden going eight
Speaker 2: point five, he was still close to top five in
Speaker 2: the league. In a sistber game and look at all
Speaker 2: the mouths that the Clippers offense had to feed. Again,
Speaker 2: you don't have PG, you don't have Russ you got,
Speaker 2: you don't have as many playmakers. James averaging tennisist per
Speaker 2: game is a thing that is a real possibility. Like
Speaker 2: he's got he's going to have guys, he's gonna have
Speaker 2: to create the balls want to be in his hands.
Speaker 2: I think you know, he led the league and assists
Speaker 2: his last year in Philly, Like, it's a pretty good expectation.
Speaker 2: Like ten tennisis per game is a pretty good number
Speaker 2: for James and possibly reach like he can average twenty
Speaker 2: and ten next year. Kawhi Kawhi has never been a huge,
Speaker 2: you know, playmaker, So I mean where he was last
Speaker 2: year is probably about where he'll be next next year.
Speaker 2: I think for a sists per game is probably what
Speaker 2: you can expect for Kawhi. And yeah, I think that
Speaker 2: covers points, rebounds, and assists. But good luck on you
Speaker 2: old fantasy draft bro Like, I don't know why you
Speaker 2: would draft any Clippers for your fantasy team, but if
Speaker 2: you need to. If there's one Clipper I'm drafting for fantasy,
Speaker 2: it's James Harden because I trust his health more than
Speaker 2: Kawhi's I trust defect. The ball is going to be
Speaker 2: in his hands all the time. Like Toronto Lu learned
Speaker 2: in November of twenty twenty three that what you're not
Speaker 2: going to do with James Harden is tell him to
Speaker 2: get ready to catch and shoot from three. You're gonna
Speaker 2: get the ball in his hands to get the most
Speaker 2: out of James, and Tlu leaned into James more than
Speaker 2: he's leaned into any guard he's ever had. Like and
Speaker 2: now you got less, guys. James Harden is going to
Speaker 2: put up crazy numbers. I'm not sure how efficient he
Speaker 2: will be. I don't feel great about his efficiency, but
Speaker 2: he's his counting stats. His volume is going to be
Speaker 2: spectacular going in the next season.
Speaker 1: J m I thirteen twenty four said Harden will be
Speaker 1: at twenty ten and six on forty four thirty eight
Speaker 1: eighty seven shooting splits. That is optimistic, I'd say, but
Speaker 1: it's not totally crazy. How many more shots do you
Speaker 1: think he ends up taking per game? Because he was
Speaker 1: only at a let been with the Clippers last season.
Speaker 1: Law I was talking with somebody in like maybe fifteen
Speaker 1: to seventeen. They were saying seventeen to twenty. I think
Speaker 1: that's just far too many. Where do you have, Matt?
Speaker 2: I mean, I just don't think there's there's areas on
Speaker 2: the floor. James doesn't hit and just doesn't get to
Speaker 2: fifteen shots per game is a good baseline for me. So,
Speaker 2: I mean, you have to look at it like this,
Speaker 2: where are your shots coming from? We already established James
Speaker 2: ain't really about that catch and shoot life, and so
Speaker 2: you need other guys to set you up to shoot
Speaker 2: that shot. Their ball will get out of his hands
Speaker 2: and get back in his hands on occasion, and he is.
Speaker 2: It's not like he's a bad catching shoot guy. It's
Speaker 2: just that you know, the ball has to be out
Speaker 2: of your hands and back in your hands somehow. You
Speaker 2: have to play with other guys who make plays. So
Speaker 2: for the most part, we're talking what James is outstanding at,
Speaker 2: and that is the pull up three, that sidestep three. Like,
Speaker 2: we're gonna see that a lot. That dude's going to
Speaker 2: be launching them three is a lot. Like The concern
Speaker 2: is can he embrace the floater we saw in game four?
Speaker 2: I wrote a whole story on float school, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean. But he wasn't the floatgoat in Game
Speaker 2: five though? So like because James is the type of
Speaker 2: player where if that thing is working and he knows
Speaker 2: he needs to hit it, he'll hit it. But James
Speaker 2: is also the kind of player where he'll get discouraged,
Speaker 2: you know, so it's like, oh, I got my ship blocked, like,
Speaker 2: and then he won't he won't go back to it.
Speaker 1: You know, he'll feel like he can Minnesota.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And and it's like that's where it's like, Okay,
Speaker 2: James is good at reading the game, and I think
Speaker 2: James is leaned into his ability to create for others
Speaker 2: at a high, high level. Like again, how many tennis
Speaker 2: seasons does he have? Like he's one of the very
Speaker 2: best passers the game has ever seen in that regard.
Speaker 2: But the dude has to score. And it's easy, I
Speaker 2: think for him to get the pull up three off,
Speaker 2: because all you need to do is dribble, dribble, dribble,
Speaker 2: create some space and get that thing off. Will he
Speaker 2: hit the mid range more often? Will he embrace the
Speaker 2: floater more often? How can he get to the rim?
Speaker 2: Because when you're older, any player who has bursts to
Speaker 2: consistently get to the rim as a special player. James
Speaker 2: used to be that guy. Does James consistently get to
Speaker 2: the rim at this age of his career, And if
Speaker 2: you see it early, I don't care. You got to
Speaker 2: see it over the course of the dog days of the season.
Speaker 2: I thought, James last year, here's how the season win.
Speaker 2: He needed some time to get acclimated and to get
Speaker 2: into playing game shape. I thought he actually came to
Speaker 2: the Clippers in good shape physically, but as far as
Speaker 2: being a basketball player and playing games, he needed a
Speaker 2: good ten games to get to the point where he
Speaker 2: was comfortable playing games. And then he got to that
Speaker 2: point and the Clippers offense took off, and then you
Speaker 2: saw in February that there was a little bit of
Speaker 2: a Okay, we've been playing hard for two months, now,
Speaker 2: let's see some regression. And then he finally missed games
Speaker 2: in March. Right, So it's sustainability. How can James be effective? Efficient?
Speaker 2: And that third part sustainable and what does that look like?
Speaker 2: A sorry his shot diet and that's and I have
Speaker 2: concerns about that part from an efficiency standpoint, but I
Speaker 2: think those three's are going to get them, and I
Speaker 2: think he knows he has to hit the paint more often,
Speaker 2: and he's going to get you know, I think you're
Speaker 2: going to see a lot more paint James Harden than
Speaker 2: you did last year.
Speaker 1: That answer kind of ties into a good question from
Speaker 1: Grant Mona from the Sporting Tribute and talking about his
Speaker 1: raine concern with fatigue. Will he be able to sustain
Speaker 1: it while being asked to score more at the age
Speaker 1: of thirty five. He just had a birthday a week
Speaker 1: or so ago, and I have concerns about that. I
Speaker 1: think you have to manage James Harden to some extent
Speaker 1: to the season. Having to do that with your other
Speaker 1: best player in Kawhi Leonard while trying to stay out
Speaker 1: of the play in that seems very difficult. That's a
Speaker 1: difficult balance.
Speaker 2: I think it was a balance that they had to
Speaker 2: do with Paul George as well. Like the thing with
Speaker 2: Paul is you saw it last year. You know why
Speaker 2: Paul was able to play as many games as he did,
Speaker 2: It's because they took responsibility away from Paul. Like on
Speaker 2: both ends of the floor, they didn't have Paul chasing
Speaker 2: around the smallest guards. They let Terrence man get his
Speaker 2: get his head beat in. With that responsibility which I'm
Speaker 2: sure Terrence is appreciated the fact that they have two
Speaker 2: guys to handle that instead of Terrence. You know, Derek
Speaker 2: is going to do that to start games, and Chris
Speaker 2: Dunn is going to be asked to do that in relief.
Speaker 2: On the other end of the floor, Paul wasn't running
Speaker 2: as many ISOs, as many pick and rolls. His off
Speaker 2: ball was enhanced, and Paul had to kind of accept that.
Speaker 2: But you know that James Harden allowed out for Paul
Speaker 2: to be healthy efficient, not because Paul and Pete and
Speaker 2: James clicked together. You know, I think Paul played better
Speaker 2: when Russe was on the floor, But at the same time,
Speaker 2: Paul didn't have to take the beat down that on
Speaker 2: ball guys have to take, and I think that helps
Speaker 2: Paul get through the season. You know, Paul had a
Speaker 2: little rough patch in there physically at the end of
Speaker 2: January and throughout February.
Speaker 1: But points per game, Yeah, it was bad.
Speaker 2: But but but but you know, like Paul was able
Speaker 2: to be healthier last year than he was able to
Speaker 2: stay healthy in the previous two years, right, And obviously
Speaker 2: a lot of that also comes with not having your
Speaker 2: arm smashed by Yusef Nurkics and not having your knee
Speaker 2: smashed by Lugan Stewart. Like, again, there's some luck involved
Speaker 2: in that as well. So sustaining James Harden, I think
Speaker 2: he's very stubborn. I think he wants to play all
Speaker 2: the games and all the minutes that he can. They
Speaker 2: literally had to pry him to the bench in March
Speaker 2: because if it was up to James, he wouldn't have
Speaker 2: missed even the games that he did miss Like that's
Speaker 2: how James is wired. James is more durable than Kawhi
Speaker 2: and Paul George are, and at the same time, there
Speaker 2: are things that James can't do that other guys can do.
Speaker 2: So the key to sustaining James, especially if the key
Speaker 2: is getting James to do the most, I think Terrence
Speaker 2: is gonna have a lot to do with it. If
Speaker 2: you're gonna want James to be able to get a
Speaker 2: little bit easier buckets over the course of games, you
Speaker 2: need to put the ball in Terrence Man's hands a
Speaker 2: lot more. And Terrence has to show that he can
Speaker 2: make things happen as a playmaker. That is something that
Speaker 2: people probably aren't talking about as much, but I believe
Speaker 2: that if Terrence and I believe Terrence is the better
Speaker 2: option to start so that Norm can do what we
Speaker 2: know he's capable of, and that is cook entire second
Speaker 2: units by himself, like me and me and Norm. Norm
Speaker 2: doesn't like to hear it, but me and me and
Speaker 2: Norm like used to talk all the time about, hey,
Speaker 2: you have more points than the entire other team's reserves combined.
Speaker 2: Like we didn't have as many of those games last
Speaker 2: year because Norm's scoring output wasn't as required. It will
Speaker 2: absolutely be required this year. But we know what Norm
Speaker 2: doesn't do. Normans. Norm's on the court to get buckets.
Speaker 2: Norm's not on the court to send Zoo bots wrap
Speaker 2: around passes like Terrence can do that stuff, though, and
Speaker 2: Terrence has to be able to do more on the
Speaker 2: ball because the entire offense just needs somebody. You're not
Speaker 2: gonna ask Derrick Jillones you're gonna do that Zoo, I'm
Speaker 2: sure if you're gonna want to talk about Zoo on here,
Speaker 2: Like Zuo is a proficient post player, but what Zoo
Speaker 2: is not is a guy who's going to be a
Speaker 2: guy who you play through. You know, we see that
Speaker 2: if Zoo's allowed to post jus up and match them
Speaker 2: and score. He can be incredible. If a team says,
Speaker 2: screw that, we're gonna beat the hell out of Zoo,
Speaker 2: double team him, take him out the game, Zuo's probably
Speaker 2: not hurting you as much like Zoo's not a proficient passer.
Speaker 2: He's not a guy who if you put two on
Speaker 2: Zoo and Zoo's catch areas aren't expansive. Zuo is a
Speaker 2: low block guy, a role guy. He's not a guy
Speaker 2: who's setting up, spacing the floor, picking him pop in,
Speaker 2: doing any of that stuff. So Terrence is the guy
Speaker 2: who has the versatility to do more. Has shown us
Speaker 2: he can do more, but has to actually do more.
Speaker 2: And Terrence will be highly motivated to do those things
Speaker 2: because he's the one who's next in line for a
Speaker 2: new deal, whether there comes from the Clippers or some
Speaker 2: other team.
Speaker 1: And to me, the other reason you got to start
Speaker 1: him next to James Harden is you can't have Norman
Speaker 1: Powell and James Harden as you're starting backcourt. Defensively, it's
Speaker 1: just gonna get cooked from the outset. I don't care
Speaker 1: who's behind them. It just leads to all sorts of problems.
Speaker 1: You mentioned Terrence Man the contract extensions Zoo gets paid.
Speaker 1: All quiet on the Terrence Man front right now, unless
Speaker 1: you've heard something behind the scenes. Do you think he
Speaker 1: goes into this season betting on himself that he can
Speaker 1: get more money after having a big year.
Speaker 2: He has every reason too, Like if there's one guy
Speaker 2: who has no reason to trust that his role is
Speaker 2: going to be the same from day one to eighty two,
Speaker 2: Game one, the game eighty two Sarence Man, Like we've
Speaker 2: seen it every single season of his career, So he
Speaker 2: can win the starting job, but how well will he
Speaker 2: play in that role? And plus I think the Clipper
Speaker 2: should feel that way too, Like I know the Clippers
Speaker 2: are gonna say, yeah, we want Terrence back, because what
Speaker 2: else are they going to say? Like, of course you
Speaker 2: want Terrence on your team, playing well, playing for you,
Speaker 2: take a deal that fits you as an organization. Terrence
Speaker 2: changed representation last year. Okay, so Terrence is read by
Speaker 2: the same people that play pgs repp by. I just
Speaker 2: think that's a relevant thing. Like it's not everything, but
Speaker 2: I don't think it's nothing. Uh. Terrence Man was asked
Speaker 2: before last season when he was extension knowledgeable. Hey, so
Speaker 2: what's the chances And Terrence shook his headings like nothing's
Speaker 2: happening there. That was last year. The last time Terrence
Speaker 2: sign an extension wasn't until we were coming home from
Speaker 2: the Ontario game back in twenty twenty one. That was October.
Speaker 2: So if the same timeframe matches up, and again that's
Speaker 2: extension was like, you're still under your original deal for
Speaker 2: that year. The year after then your extension kicks in.
Speaker 2: It was a two year extension and that didn't kick
Speaker 2: in until twenty twenty three, a year ago. Okay, so
Speaker 2: like and again that was the previous representation for Terrence.
Speaker 2: But it's like, you know, Terrence took a deal way
Speaker 2: earlier than most people would extend for that was after
Speaker 2: his second year in the NBA. And again as a
Speaker 2: forty eighth pick, you're looking at that, it's like lock
Speaker 2: it in. Terrence has no reason to give the Clippers
Speaker 2: any favors. Now, if I'm Terrence Man, unless you get
Speaker 2: an overpayer or something like that, I feel like, play
Speaker 2: this out. See what the team does, See what the
Speaker 2: trade deadline looks like, See what your role is, See
Speaker 2: how much more money you can make being that ye're
Speaker 2: not sharing the floor with for future haul famers. It
Speaker 2: took Terrence until last year to win a starting job
Speaker 2: and then he gets hurt and then he comes back
Speaker 2: and James Harden's on the team. Like that was an
Speaker 2: adjustment and that was his most stable you know again
Speaker 2: October to April roll of his entire career to this point,
Speaker 2: Like Terrence is every reason to be like, let's see
Speaker 2: how this goes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and needs to start fast from the outside. He
Speaker 1: had the ankle injury in training camp or the very
Speaker 1: end right before the season started that I think hurt him,
Speaker 1: but he turned the four.
Speaker 2: He like, look, we all saw how good Terrence was
Speaker 2: starting in January shooting the basketball, and Terrence is going
Speaker 2: to be the first one to tell you, hey, look
Speaker 2: I start seasons slow shooting it. He he can't do
Speaker 2: that this year, Like this team is every team again.
Speaker 2: We just got finished talking about the West. I clearly
Speaker 2: remember last year's West. At the onset, everyone knew how
Speaker 2: competitive the West was going to be. There was the
Speaker 2: outside pressures of the ND season torn the TV contracts
Speaker 2: being up, the player participation policy and all of those
Speaker 2: things that it was like even from upstairs, you know,
Speaker 2: the message was we need the best players to play
Speaker 2: right and how that was going to affect competition in
Speaker 2: the league overall, people are gonna forget how last year started.
Speaker 2: Last year was incredible from a competitionandpoint, and the damn
Speaker 2: Clippers were three and seven at them, they were three
Speaker 2: and seven, okay, and they had to put the pedal
Speaker 2: to the metal, like even they win a few games.
Speaker 2: Seelu tells me, minutes, we're not gonna send anybody, so
Speaker 2: what there's a five and seven coming up. Minutes are
Speaker 2: going to be dictated by winning games, and so yours urgency.
Speaker 2: At least every team in the league has some level
Speaker 2: of optimism going into these media days at the end
Speaker 2: of the month. That optimism is going to go straight
Speaker 2: to hell by December when reality sets in, and the
Speaker 2: reality will be mean different things for different teams. For
Speaker 2: the Clippers, it means if Toronto Lo decides to start
Speaker 2: Terrence and Derek Jones together, then those dudes better improve
Speaker 2: the defense significantly and those guys have to make the
Speaker 2: very most of their offensive opportunities. It's a very easy
Speaker 2: job for Derek Jones year. It will be very difficult
Speaker 2: for Terrence. Man, It's not impossible for Terrence, but he
Speaker 2: can't come into the season passing up shots, missing shots
Speaker 2: from the corner, not knowing how he can get increased
Speaker 2: volume with the players that he's playing with. That can't
Speaker 2: happen because then the Clippers will sit there at three
Speaker 2: and seven again and they won't have a magic pill, Like,
Speaker 2: what are you gonna do? Start Norm? Like they could
Speaker 2: do that, but that would I believe that decreases the
Speaker 2: ceiling of your team. Yes, yes, like we all know
Speaker 2: the role that Norm is best at. Like I think
Speaker 2: they want us to start Norm. Two years ago, wh
Speaker 2: Kawhi was dealing with his recovery, his comeback season, and
Speaker 2: after like a week, Tilu was like, you know what,
Speaker 2: I don't think I can do that. And there were
Speaker 2: a lot of moments that t Lou had over the
Speaker 2: course of that season, you know, for example, not having
Speaker 2: a competent backup center. You know, there are a lot
Speaker 2: of things we learned that the team didn't really look
Speaker 2: at going into the season as being a potential issue.
Speaker 1: It's funny when Terrence turned the corner in twenty twenty four,
Speaker 1: I remember there was a quote from Paul George that
Speaker 1: got into his head maybe a little bit in a
Speaker 1: good way, and this was good leadership. You could say
Speaker 1: he made a joke like twenty twenty four, we're shooting
Speaker 1: the shit out of the ball, and Terrence just kind
Speaker 1: of cleared the mechanism, got a blank slate and shot
Speaker 1: forty four percent in twenty twenty four and then forty
Speaker 1: five percent in the series against Dallas, granted on low volume.
Speaker 1: So hopefully he's got that confidence coming into the start
Speaker 1: of this season, because I do think it's his offense
Speaker 1: that's going to keep him on the court to start
Speaker 1: things off, because I'm not worried about his defense, but
Speaker 1: he's got to do something the offense.
Speaker 2: That thing. I am worried about his defense, Like, really,
Speaker 2: I don't think Terrence had a good year defensively last year,
Speaker 2: and a lot of it is because because he was
Speaker 2: in a role that the team needed him to be in,
Speaker 2: but was really just not something that played to Terrence's strengths.
Speaker 2: Like Terrence is better guarding up, and what that means
Speaker 2: is if you have Terrence guarding bigger bodies, physical guys,
Speaker 2: guys where Terrence can be able to put contact on
Speaker 2: guys and be physical, that's where Terrence is at his
Speaker 2: most effective. Get let Terrence guard Luka Doncic's not Kyrie irvings, right,
Speaker 2: And there's a lot more Kyrie irvings, And there's a
Speaker 2: lot more Kyrie irvings in the NBA than there are
Speaker 2: Luka Doncic's. Now you have a guy in Dereck Jones
Speaker 2: Junior who he can chase those dudes around point of attack, Okay,
Speaker 2: and he can do it for twenty five minutes a game.
Speaker 2: That allows Terrence to guard your top wing if you will,
Speaker 2: your guy that isn't starting plays but is going to
Speaker 2: get the ball in the half court run some ISO's
Speaker 2: that kind of thing. Having Terrence play against those guys
Speaker 2: more often instead of being in the back court trying
Speaker 2: to be a spider is a lot more effective for him.
Speaker 2: But he needs to he needs to show that he
Speaker 2: can be more of a playmaker. You know how many
Speaker 2: steals in blocks Terrence Man had in the Ploseason series
Speaker 2: in that six game series, Uh?
Speaker 1: Under ten?
Speaker 2: As many as you and I bro Oh, come on,
Speaker 2: Terrence played one hundred and eighty seven minutes in the playoffs,
Speaker 2: didn't have a single steal, didn't have a single block,
Speaker 2: And yes, he did a great Jolbum. He'll shot.
Speaker 1: He shot twenty from three that kept him in that series.
Speaker 2: Exactly. I'm not talking about Terrence's ability to defend in
Speaker 2: the playoffs. I'm talking about Terrence's overall Like what is
Speaker 2: he giving you off the ball as a defensive playmaker,
Speaker 2: as someone who's doing stuff, And so I think Terrence,
Speaker 2: you want the defense that Terrence gave you in the
Speaker 2: playoffs because you want to put him in those matchups
Speaker 2: more often. Now, even that has an area of improvement.
Speaker 2: That's why I said the defense. This is what I'm
Speaker 2: worried about with Terrence, because even if he's in more
Speaker 2: advantageous situation defensively from a matchup standpoint and who he's guarding,
Speaker 2: you got to do more in that role. You got
Speaker 2: to be able to, you know, come up with some turnovers.
Speaker 2: This team has to force more turnovers, and I thought
Speaker 2: they did a good job of that last year. But
Speaker 2: you don't have Paul George, who's one of the best
Speaker 2: guys in the league at getting steals. You don't have
Speaker 2: Russell Westbrook, who I thought was really good for him.
Speaker 2: You do have Chris Dunn, and the more Chris Dunn plays,
Speaker 2: the more likely you are to force turnovers. But then
Speaker 2: Derek Jones, you're not a guy who forces a lot
Speaker 2: of turnovers, and you're not going to really ask him
Speaker 2: to do that as much as a point of attack
Speaker 2: guy like it would be nice, but Derek is going
Speaker 2: to focus on preventing guys from getting comfortable shots. Terrence
Speaker 2: is comfortable that role too. Someone else has to force
Speaker 2: some turnovers, though, and if it's not going to be Derek,
Speaker 2: it's got to be Terrence. And what you can't have
Speaker 2: is you can't have Terrence going damn near two hundred
Speaker 2: minutes in between steals and blocks.
Speaker 1: Well, especially as you mentioned earlier, and I agree, if
Speaker 1: you're not a great rebounding team and you're getting the
Speaker 1: to miss, you have to close out possessions.
Speaker 2: Here and got to close out possessions.
Speaker 1: And when that possession battle, which is the InVogue thing
Speaker 1: to say now in the NBA, it's not just the
Speaker 1: NFL anymore so a Visa Zoobos does get paid. What
Speaker 1: did you think of the deal? Fair market value? Is
Speaker 1: Big Zoo gonna give him that big return on investment?
Speaker 2: I think so? I think is a great deal for him.
Speaker 2: We already know he's severely outplayed his contract as far
Speaker 2: as going into this season, like to think that there
Speaker 2: is more than thirty centers in the league that are
Speaker 2: going to make more next year than Zoo. It's like, well,
Speaker 2: Zuo's outplayed the contract extension that he signed already and
Speaker 2: he's going into I don't know if I want to
Speaker 2: call I mean, he's in his prime, Like he's got
Speaker 2: several years left in his twenties, and that's going to
Speaker 2: be huge. He's playing with James Harden, who he did
Speaker 2: not have a training camp with last year, and you
Speaker 2: saw once James got up to speed how much better
Speaker 2: Zoo was. Right, Zuo is going to have a really
Speaker 2: good season next year. We'll see if James is still
Speaker 2: on the team the year after. But like we saw,
Speaker 2: like Zuo has rarely gotten to play with the kind
Speaker 2: of point guard that enhances what Zu does, and now
Speaker 2: he's got James Harden. It's it's a that's a big deal.
Speaker 2: So again, we know what Zuo's good at. Maybe you know,
Speaker 2: some other people don't know what Zuo's good at, And
Speaker 2: I gotta maybe write more explicit stuff about that. Zu
Speaker 2: can help me. Zu can help me with that, Like
Speaker 2: ZU can't give me one big game and then the
Speaker 2: next game miss all of its loaders. Okay, so there's that.
Speaker 1: How about giving him some consistent minutes. How about he
Speaker 1: doesn't play twenty six minutes les he did the year I.
Speaker 2: Don't think I think that's That's the thing though with Zuo,
Speaker 2: Like we saw Zoo without a competent backup play a
Speaker 2: ton of minutes and Zoo get worn out by that.
Speaker 2: I think that, yeah, like that's I think Zoo. I mean,
Speaker 2: Zoo will be the one to tell you. Getting Mason
Speaker 2: Plumley was huge because it didn't overextend him. Like, I
Speaker 2: don't think Zoo is a thirty thirty five minute player
Speaker 2: at all. I think Zoo is a twenty five to
Speaker 2: thirty minute player. And because what you're asking Zoo to
Speaker 2: do requires Zoo to actually be able to do it
Speaker 2: for four quarters. If Zoo's gonna get more touches, well
Speaker 2: he's still going to have to be able to do
Speaker 2: what he does on the other end of the floor
Speaker 2: at a high level. And I think he can do it.
Speaker 2: But production isn't just how many minutes you're playing, how
Speaker 2: many touches you're getting. It's like who you're playing against
Speaker 2: and can you be effective against a number of different teams,
Speaker 2: like the teams that are going like the OKAC Thunder. Now,
Speaker 2: the OKC Thunder did Zoo a favor by signing Isaiah
Speaker 2: Hart and sign I will tell you that. But last
Speaker 2: year you couldn't. You couldn't really, like it was hard
Speaker 2: for Zoo to play against Okay, see with hit Holmgren
Speaker 2: just running circles around him, Like, that's a tough matchup
Speaker 2: for Zoo. There's a lot of matchups that are a
Speaker 2: little tough for Zoo than others. So you know, there
Speaker 2: there are teams where Zoo's like, yeah, he can play
Speaker 2: over thirty in this game, like Toronto Lou. I think
Speaker 2: he played Zoo forty minutes in one game last year,
Speaker 2: and t Lou made a scene like Zoo had had
Speaker 2: to do a bit, you know what I'm saying. It's like, Yo,
Speaker 2: we had as to play a lot of minutes. We ain't.
Speaker 2: We ain't really going to do that, But I'm glad
Speaker 2: he was able to handle it. It was you guys need.
Speaker 1: To get the conditioning up a little bit. I I
Speaker 1: agree with that. I just don't see how they can.
Speaker 1: I don't see six seed if zu bots isn't averaging
Speaker 1: thirty minutes per game, Like, I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't think expect I don't think you can. I
Speaker 2: don't think you you can expect him to do that.
Speaker 2: He's a guy who wears down if he plays a
Speaker 2: ton of minutes like that.
Speaker 1: So at twenty seven, like, what, what's wearing him down
Speaker 1: so much?
Speaker 2: Workload? Man, center, dude, bigger.
Speaker 1: Body, save he hardly touches the ball at the time.
Speaker 2: He's going to touch the ball more man, and when
Speaker 2: he's on the floor, he's going to be a guy
Speaker 2: who touches the ball. I think more this season upcoming
Speaker 2: than any other year in his career. And again, I think.
Speaker 1: The most important player on the team because that's where
Speaker 1: I got him.
Speaker 2: Uh yeah, I think that's a reasonable thing to say.
Speaker 2: Really you really want to say that guy should be Terrence.
Speaker 2: But Terrence is a wildcard, whereas Zoo's less of a wildcard.
Speaker 2: Zoo's more of a constant. Zu is like and I
Speaker 2: think the other thing they watched for that's caat Calf.
Speaker 2: I really hope doesn't prop up next year because that's
Speaker 2: something that's been an issue three years in a row.
Speaker 2: It might not show up in the games played because
Speaker 2: Zoo's really good at missing the right games. But it
Speaker 2: has been a thing where three years in a row,
Speaker 2: I've seen this dude either missignificant time, be on a
Speaker 2: cart heading out of the arena during All Star break.
Speaker 2: You know, I want Zoo. Zuo's gonna gonna get a
Speaker 2: chance to eat and to show that those numbers aren't
Speaker 2: just quote unquote efficiency numbers. I like volume. Zuo's going
Speaker 2: to get the ball more. Zuo's going to be James
Speaker 2: Harden's target on pick and rolls. The Clippers were not
Speaker 2: a heavy pick and roll team last year. I think
Speaker 2: they're going to run more picking rolls this year. They
Speaker 2: just need more guys to diversify their offense, and Zoo's
Speaker 2: going to be the guy. Zoo has to show that
Speaker 2: I'd like in again, it's year nine for him. I'd
Speaker 2: like to see an expanded skill set for Zoo. As
Speaker 2: great as he is in the post. Like, I'd like
Speaker 2: to see Zoo like show the coaching staff that he
Speaker 2: can comfortably hit a shot outside the paint, that he
Speaker 2: can confidently hit the double teams, that if he puts
Speaker 2: the ball on the floor he can draw more fouls.
Speaker 2: He's so great in the post without being a guy
Speaker 2: who draws siles out a high rate. Well, let's draw
Speaker 2: some fouls this year, Zoo like. So there's things where
Speaker 2: Zuo is going to get the greatest opportunity to showcase
Speaker 2: his offensive game than in any of his previous eight
Speaker 2: MB eight seasons, and a lot of it's going to
Speaker 2: be on Zoo to show that all that stuff that
Speaker 2: you have let us kind of you've hinted at, this
Speaker 2: is the time to show it.
Speaker 1: So if I say over under twenty nine minutes, are
Speaker 1: you going under?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm going under. Ooh, I sound like I sound
Speaker 2: like you just set me up to sound like Rick
Speaker 2: James on Charlie Murphy's True Hollywood Stories. But yeah, I'm
Speaker 2: going I'm going under if.
Speaker 1: I'm going over, because I just think it's necessary. He
Speaker 1: played thirty two minutes per game against Dallas in that series.
Speaker 1: He was detonating. He was their second best player behind
Speaker 1: James Harden.
Speaker 2: For me, you're talking about a playoff series though your
Speaker 2: playoff seron. I understand, but every game, like the end
Speaker 2: of your season, you got four months the rest if
Speaker 2: you don't win it.
Speaker 1: I just said he was productive. Those were taxing minutes
Speaker 1: and he did it, Like I don't. I just don't
Speaker 1: see a path for them to stay afloat if it
Speaker 1: beats a Zoo bots isn't dramatically more utilized this season.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, well the other party would two. And
Speaker 2: I know, like we refer to Zoo and his rim
Speaker 2: protection how great it was, Like I think, I don't
Speaker 2: think Zoo was great and defensively in the playoffs last year.
Speaker 2: I feel like the Clippers protecting the paint, protecting the
Speaker 2: rim in the playoffs was It was a disappointment. I
Speaker 2: don't put that all on Zoo, But look at what
Speaker 2: Zu did in the regular season, where I can reasonably
Speaker 2: say he was the best rim protector in the NBA
Speaker 2: among starting centers, and then look at what them rim
Speaker 2: protection numbers and what the output was in the playoffs.
Speaker 2: It wasn't nearly as good. So that's what I mean.
Speaker 2: I think you want Zu to do more in the
Speaker 2: minutes that he's on the floor. But Mobamba better be
Speaker 2: ready to play, Kobe Brown better be ready to play
Speaker 2: whatever small lineups that Toronto Lou figures that he's going
Speaker 2: to come up with. Because it's twenty twenty four in
Speaker 2: the NBA. You will have lineups out there that doesn't
Speaker 2: have a traditional center. They're gonna have to be effective.
Speaker 2: So that's where I'm looking at. Averaging thirty minutes, Adam
Speaker 2: means for every game you're playing twenty five, you're playing
Speaker 2: thirty five. That's what that means. For every game where
Speaker 2: Zoo's like, oh man, they only got twenty minutes, foul, trouble, ineffective,
Speaker 2: nicked up, whatever, it means that you're doubling that with
Speaker 2: a forty minute game.
Speaker 1: Well, well, look he played. He averaged twenty eight two
Speaker 1: years ago. I think you can average thirty now at
Speaker 1: the age of twenty seven. Like, if he's without Paul George,
Speaker 1: I think it's possible. I think it's very possible, and
Speaker 1: I agree possible.
Speaker 2: I just don't think it's likely.
Speaker 1: Okay, I they didn't lose that series to me, though
Speaker 1: defensively they lost it on the offensive end.
Speaker 2: No, they lost it. They lost it because the bottom
Speaker 2: line is this. Look at all the points that were
Speaker 2: scored by Luca, Kyrie, Paul and James, and then look
Speaker 2: at the points that are scored by every other Maverick,
Speaker 2: every other clip. I'm not looking at this right now,
Speaker 2: this is a feel thing. Y'all watching this, and y'all
Speaker 2: want to break out, y'all calculators, y'all can get back
Speaker 2: to me and Adam, but I'm pretty sure you're gonna
Speaker 2: look and be like this. That That's how even the
Speaker 2: series was. It came down to one one team stars
Speaker 2: shot the ball and the other teams didn't. Like that's
Speaker 2: really that decided the series. Like Luca kept coming as
Speaker 2: inefficient as he was, Kyrie was like, man, I'm glad
Speaker 2: I got that first quarter out the way. It's time
Speaker 2: to get buckets, you know, because Kyrie, you need to
Speaker 2: do a damn thing in the first quarter in the series.
Speaker 1: And Paul George said, I'm good with taking fifteen point.
Speaker 2: Paul just Paul had games where he just didn't have
Speaker 2: you know, he cook himself out mentally in that series,
Speaker 2: Like he had foul trouble. We knew he was playing
Speaker 2: through it as far as trying to navigate the game
Speaker 2: on both ends of the floor. He put it together
Speaker 2: in that in game four, he was like, I get
Speaker 2: the circumstances. I'm coming out no matter what. And even
Speaker 2: in that game, the third quarter Paul ran out of
Speaker 2: buckets and next thing. You know, the Clippers are trailing
Speaker 2: after being up by more than thirty, but what was it?
Speaker 1: Crazy three?
Speaker 2: One?
Speaker 1: Crazy three?
Speaker 2: And that was the difference in that game, and that
Speaker 2: hard voters like when those guys were able to figure
Speaker 2: out what was happening and they started the series like that.
Speaker 2: They played Game four like ef it were just going.
Speaker 2: They were good. I feel like they relaxed going in
Speaker 2: the game five and they wind up losing by thirty
Speaker 2: and that was your season. So yeah, what do you
Speaker 2: want to talk about, dam.
Speaker 1: Jay am I one three, two four? Ask this? I'm
Speaker 1: not asking this. He said, how did you feel about
Speaker 1: pg's comments after he left? And what do you think
Speaker 1: you will do in Philly law recent comments from his father,
Speaker 1: the B team comment contract comments being offered sixty million
Speaker 1: when we know it actually means one hundred and ten million,
Speaker 1: but he presented is they were only giving him sixty million.
Speaker 1: All that.
Speaker 2: I mean, I wrote about it, you know, like I
Speaker 2: knew how everything was going down that last week in
Speaker 2: the June, and I knew how Paul was. I knew
Speaker 2: how Paul's feeling, how Paul's family is feeling, how the
Speaker 2: Clippers were feeling. Right, we knew. We just knew what
Speaker 2: the feeling was, and so everything that has come out
Speaker 2: of it, Like, I'm not reacting as much to it
Speaker 2: because it's not a surprise to me. Like I knew
Speaker 2: what the feelings were going. We were in Hawaii and
Speaker 2: people were asking about Paul in his contract, and Paul
Speaker 2: was looking around, like what do you want me to say?
Speaker 2: You know, like we just I just feel like I
Speaker 2: spent the whole damn year with those dudes in getting
Speaker 2: a feel for stuff. So I don't really have as
Speaker 2: much of a visceral reaction to the fallout as I
Speaker 2: feel like a lot of people who might have gotten
Speaker 2: comfortable with the idea that, you know, Paul was at
Speaker 2: least going to take the high road on a lot
Speaker 2: of stuff. Like I think Paul's mentally preparing himself for
Speaker 2: a rude awakening when he gets back here on November
Speaker 2: sixth or whatever the date is. But I think that's
Speaker 2: where Paul's at his most comfortable. I think that's how
Speaker 2: he treated Indiana. You know, Oklahoma City did him the
Speaker 2: biggest favor of all. They paid him and then they
Speaker 2: said him where he wanted to go. So and Okay,
Speaker 2: see obviously has no hard feelings because they got Shay
Speaker 2: and they got draft picks for you know, forever.
Speaker 1: So like this part out. I know it's live, but
Speaker 1: I'm cutting this out.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like so so like that, Paul. I think Paul's
Speaker 2: comfortable being being, you know, the bad guy. I think
Speaker 2: the more you talk about it, the more comfortable you'll
Speaker 2: be when you got to actually face the music. And
Speaker 2: that's great because he's going to my city. He's going
Speaker 2: to Philadelphia, and you know, Philadelphia is the type of
Speaker 2: city they don't if you get paid a bunch of
Speaker 2: money and ain't, they ain't gonna celebrate you for long.
Speaker 2: They want you to produce immediately. He's going He ain't
Speaker 2: going to Indiana. Okay, see the Clipper's version of Los Angeles.
Speaker 2: Like no shape, it's just reality. Like you're going to
Speaker 2: a place in Philadelphia where if you have an zero
Speaker 2: for ten game, if you have a quiet game and
Speaker 2: a big spot, you will be booed. And they don't
Speaker 2: need to wait to the playoffs to do it. You
Speaker 2: will be booed on Halloween. If you underperform with a
Speaker 2: big price tag, you can't do that in Philly. Like
Speaker 2: Philadelphia is passionate but they're passionate in a way of
Speaker 2: you underperform, and we will let you know right away.
Speaker 2: The worst thing you can get from Philadelphia is apathy
Speaker 2: and not caring and not showing up. But yes, the
Speaker 2: next level above that is play poorly in front of
Speaker 2: those people and see what happens. And I think Paul
Speaker 2: understands that. So I think that Paul's going to be
Speaker 2: great in Philly because he's got guys that are going
Speaker 2: to put Paul in the positions that are most comfortable
Speaker 2: for him on both ends of the floor, especially offensively. Defensively,
Speaker 2: I've got concerns, but I don't think Nick Nurse teams
Speaker 2: rebound anyway. So I think that's going to be great
Speaker 2: for what the Philadelphia seventy six ers do offensively. The
Speaker 2: meal ticket is Joel. Joel gonna walk his butt to
Speaker 2: the elbow and he gonna do what Joelle does, especially
Speaker 2: in the regular season. Tyresse is going to play fast.
Speaker 2: He's going to play like Russell Westbrook plays, and that's
Speaker 2: going to be great for Paul because Paul doesn't have
Speaker 2: to worry about the extra ball handling duties. But Tyree
Speaker 2: is going to get the ball to Paul. And when
Speaker 2: Paul has it going, he's gonna cook. And when Paul
Speaker 2: doesn't have it going, you got Tyresse, you got Joel,
Speaker 2: you got some other guys who can handle the ball,
Speaker 2: who can shoot the ball. I think it's a great
Speaker 2: situation for Paul from a basketball standpoint. The other stuff,
Speaker 2: I think Paul's gonna have to adjust to and get
Speaker 2: used to, not just being back in the East, but
Speaker 2: being in cold Weather City, being in big city, being
Speaker 2: in big market, that Philadelphia media. I'm telling you, I
Speaker 2: grew up there. It ain't sweet like it's going to
Speaker 2: be different. But as far as his and everything, like again,
Speaker 2: I knew where this was headed or possibly headed, and
Speaker 2: I knew the playoffs were going to be the big variable.
Speaker 2: If Kawhi was healthy and playing and doing what Kawhi
Speaker 2: basically was able to do all season. Maybe we're having
Speaker 2: different conversations. Maybe the Clippers get out of that first
Speaker 2: round series and look at the West. The West was
Speaker 2: not as good, not as airtight as you thought it was.
Speaker 1: They had the past, they had the pass fifth.
Speaker 2: Seed made it to the finals, Adam Yea and not
Speaker 2: just any fifty, but the fifty that was then a
Speaker 2: seed in the middle of March. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: But the West as competitive as was, it's also competitive
Speaker 2: in a way where your very best teams are vulnerable,
Speaker 2: and they will be vulnerable from the beginning of the
Speaker 2: season to the middle of the season, to the end
Speaker 2: of the season. Wherehere he got the playoff standings set
Speaker 2: in stone, and then when the playoffs actually start, they
Speaker 2: will be vulnerable the whole way through.
Speaker 1: I think it was another missed opportunity. I think they
Speaker 1: get out of that series with Dallas.
Speaker 2: And an arrow full of them, and then.
Speaker 1: They had nobody went back to back in the five
Speaker 1: years in the two to three era in the NBA,
Speaker 1: they had a great opportunity if Kawhi could ever stay healthy.
Speaker 2: I do want to act bet there were five different
Speaker 2: Western Conference champions.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what I'm saying, Like nobody, nobody was that dominant.
Speaker 1: There was no super team with the Golden State Warriors anymore.
Speaker 1: It was right for the picking and the Slippers couldn't
Speaker 1: take advantage of it.
Speaker 2: I don't think anyone even went back to back appearances
Speaker 2: in the conference finals. Like you get teams that make
Speaker 2: the conference finals one year and missed the playoffs the net.
Speaker 2: That's what happened to the Clippers. Yeah, you know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Like, Denver didn't make it this year.
Speaker 2: Denver didn't make it back to the conference finals.
Speaker 1: The State Warriors didn't make it back.
Speaker 2: The Lakers are like the conference finals. Let's running back.
Speaker 2: The only thing they ran back was a seventh seed.
Speaker 2: Bro Yeah, and the Chanzy was an accomplishment for that
Speaker 2: team last year.
Speaker 1: Phoenix didn't make it back in twenty two because Dallas
Speaker 1: blow them out in the second round in games. So yeah,
Speaker 1: nobody made it back. Uh.
Speaker 2: That's the West. The West to me isn't Oh, look
Speaker 2: at how good these teams are. The West is yo.
Speaker 2: It don't take much for your season to go to shit. Like,
Speaker 2: that's the West. It's what's your weakness and how how
Speaker 2: likely is that weakness going to be exploited? Nothing. Every
Speaker 2: team in the West has a major concern right up
Speaker 2: to the OKAC thunder.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree with you. Uh. I want to ask
Speaker 1: you this specifically about Paul George. I said this the
Speaker 1: other day. I believe he was always gonna take the
Speaker 1: two hundred million and always knew it was going to
Speaker 1: be out there. He would have taken it from the
Speaker 1: Clippers had they offered it, they weren't going to. Maybe
Speaker 1: if they get out of the first round, something's different.
Speaker 1: If he bawled out and they got he got him
Speaker 1: out of the first round, maybe they have to give
Speaker 1: it to him. But do you believe the stuff he
Speaker 1: said in this podcast regarding you know you felt disrespected
Speaker 1: because Kawhi was offered this. He said, just give me
Speaker 1: what Kawhi got. But then two seconds later he said,
Speaker 1: then they offered me the one fifty. And I was like,
Speaker 1: all right, we're in the ballpark. It's like, wait, you
Speaker 1: just said give you what Kawhi got. They offered it,
Speaker 1: you didn't take it. You wanted more money or you
Speaker 1: wanted to know trade clause. Do you think it was
Speaker 1: always about the money and he was always gonna end
Speaker 1: up in Philly because they telegraphed this. We saw they
Speaker 1: didn't make a move of the trade deadline. We saw
Speaker 1: they were going to keep that max slot open. To me,
Speaker 1: the writing was on the wall.
Speaker 2: I could have swore when the Sixers played in LA
Speaker 2: against the Clippers that there were we won Paul Chance
Speaker 2: when the because that game was embarrassing for the Clippers.
Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure the arena was filled with with with
Speaker 2: that stuff. I could have been wrong, but I'm pretty
Speaker 2: sure that's what I heard. Like even Sixers fans, they
Speaker 2: know what it was. But I feel like all the
Speaker 2: negotiation game stuff to fall out from it, to talk
Speaker 2: from it. I mean, you know, look at the contract
Speaker 2: James Harden signed. James Harden signed the contract that probably
Speaker 2: was offered to Paul at some point. I don't think
Speaker 2: that's ironic. Now, look, Paul has to me, Paul has
Speaker 2: the right to feel disrespected, because the reality is, Paul
Speaker 2: has never saved money on a contract. Any contract that
Speaker 2: he's ever signed has been the one that he was
Speaker 2: slotted for or the one that like he's never like.
Speaker 2: His previous contract was an extension that was signed after
Speaker 2: the bubble. What happened in the bubble, Paul played really
Speaker 2: you know, even Paul knows, like Paul played the kind
Speaker 2: of basketball that really concerns you in the bubble. And
Speaker 2: then he signed the deal that he extended for and
Speaker 2: Kawhi matched that deal this season after after Kawhi towards ACL.
Speaker 2: So like Paul has always been driven to make the
Speaker 2: most that he can when he can, and I think
Speaker 2: Paul did that. I think the difference is there might
Speaker 2: have been a chance to re sign with the Clippers
Speaker 2: if it just made sense. And because Kawhi got hurt,
Speaker 2: because the team flamed out, because it's James, because Russ
Speaker 2: went from the guy who was running training camp to
Speaker 2: the guy who basically was, you know, kind of phased
Speaker 2: out over as the year went on, and obviously Paul
Speaker 2: had a big voice in supporting Russ, and that's what
Speaker 2: wound up happening with Russ. I just feel like all
Speaker 2: the things that could have went into, you know, the
Speaker 2: off season with things being compatible with the Clippers and
Speaker 2: Paul didn't work out.
Speaker 1: So he said disrespected, though I feel like he.
Speaker 2: Does, but that was no. I don't feel like he
Speaker 2: was disrespected. But I am an empathetic person, and I
Speaker 2: understand how a player is going to look at his
Speaker 2: value in his situation versus everybody else, and how they're
Speaker 2: going to look at it if you're everybody else, take
Speaker 2: it if you're a the Clippers. I don't think it's
Speaker 2: a mistake that the Clippers pointed out exactly when Paul
Speaker 2: was an All Star and when he wasn't exactly when
Speaker 2: Paul was good in the playoffs and what he comes
Speaker 2: to the playoffs versus the four years. I don't think
Speaker 2: that that is, you know, I think the Clippers are
Speaker 2: looking at like, listen, Paul was great, but y'all have
Speaker 2: to understand this is a business and Paul, you know,
Speaker 2: Paul understands this a business too. That's why Paul is
Speaker 2: playing for the contract that he's playing for at a
Speaker 2: place that if you also listen to what Paul has
Speaker 2: been saying over the past few months, it's clear that
Speaker 2: Paul wanted to stay as close to la as possible.
Speaker 2: He wanted to have the comfort of being here with
Speaker 2: the price that he knew he could command. He wasn't
Speaker 2: going to get that from the Clippers. He really orally
Speaker 2: wanted that from the Clippers. Well, it's not like you're
Speaker 2: getting that from the Lakers. Not that you'd want to
Speaker 2: play there. He would have wanted to play in Golden State.
Speaker 2: I think he was very clear about, you know, please
Speaker 2: send me to Golden State. But to go to Golden
Speaker 2: State requires the Golden State Warriors getting to dump the
Speaker 2: remains of a team that didn't even survived the playing
Speaker 2: tournament on to the Clippers, Like that doesn't improve the
Speaker 2: Clippers in the short term, and it really don't improve
Speaker 2: them in the long term because of some of those salaries.
Speaker 2: So Paul, a guy who would have preferred to stay
Speaker 2: as close to the West Coast as possible, winds up
Speaker 2: taking the money out of place that geographically, you know,
Speaker 2: that's not where I don't think he would have wanted
Speaker 2: to go there. But it is a great money situation.
Speaker 2: It's a great basketball situation. Yeah, So the other stuff,
Speaker 2: you'll be like, all right, we'll figure it out.
Speaker 1: He kind of gets your cake and get it eat
Speaker 1: it too. It's not like he's going to a bad team.
Speaker 1: You can make the argument he's going to a better
Speaker 1: team in some ways, or at least a little bit
Speaker 1: healthier of her team.
Speaker 2: In a lot of ways. He's going to the same
Speaker 2: team he's going.
Speaker 1: He's got a young guy in Maxie.
Speaker 2: That's like, here's the thing with Tyresse, though Tyresse and
Speaker 2: I love Tyrese as a as a player, as a
Speaker 2: I especially love him as a person like that dude
Speaker 2: is like that dude's a great a great dude, a
Speaker 2: great vibes dude. He's a legitimately good person, a hard worker.
Speaker 2: He's earned the contract that he got, you know, but
Speaker 2: he plays a position that is a dime a dozen
Speaker 2: in the NBA.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, but forty in a playoff game like he
Speaker 1: just did.
Speaker 2: Okay, But if you put the ball in a lot
Speaker 2: of dudes' hands in this league, they're going to be
Speaker 2: able to do something like that. That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: What he does is we used to talk about centers
Speaker 2: as the most replaceable players in the league, and you
Speaker 2: know what, Zoo's contract kind of speaks to that. There
Speaker 2: isn't a whole lot of difference between the guy who
Speaker 2: is number ten versus a guy who's number twenty and
Speaker 2: start as centers, You're asking a lot of centers to
Speaker 2: do a lot of the same shit. Screen, protect the rim, rebound,
Speaker 2: be mean, that's it. You ain't asking a whole lot.
Speaker 2: There's not a lot of variants in that position. We're
Speaker 2: getting to that point with the point guard position, where
Speaker 2: if you're a small guard, we're just asking dudes to run,
Speaker 2: pick and rolls, hit some pull up, hit your shots.
Speaker 2: Don't be a complete liability. On the other end of
Speaker 2: the floor, Tyres does that a little bit more consistently
Speaker 2: and better than a lot of other guards. That's why
Speaker 2: he's doing the contract that he's on. That's why he
Speaker 2: is an All Star. But let me be real about it,
Speaker 2: there's a whole lot of dudes like that. You know
Speaker 2: why Jamal Murray's never been an All Star. It ain't
Speaker 2: just because he plays with nicolea. Jokicch It's because Jamal
Speaker 2: Murray does a lot of stuff that a lot of
Speaker 2: the dudes who wind up being All Stars wind up
Speaker 2: doing okay. And so for every time you get Jamal
Speaker 2: Murray running dudes crazy in the playoffs, you get what
Speaker 2: you saw from Jamal Murray in this past postseason where
Speaker 2: he just kind of flamed out against the Timberwlves at
Speaker 2: the end, Like there's so much there's so many of
Speaker 2: these small guards that do a lot of the same things,
Speaker 2: and so what do the Clippers have. The Clippers are
Speaker 2: actually an anti small guard team. They realize that. They're like,
Speaker 2: if we're gonna have a guard that needs the ball
Speaker 2: in your hands all the time, you want that guard
Speaker 2: to be, you know, either great size or great skill.
Speaker 2: And with James Harden, you got a big guard, so
Speaker 2: that actually helps you defensively, because hiding James Harden is
Speaker 2: different than hiding tre Young. Okay, that's just what it is.
Speaker 1: Is post good. Well again he guards up on the post.
Speaker 2: He's all right, you know, I'll give justin.
Speaker 1: The stript club, the stript club exactly.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm talking about. Like, not every small
Speaker 2: guard's doing that. Are you hiding James Harden? Are you?
Speaker 2: Does Cee Lou go out of his way to say
Speaker 2: in every other press conference, oh, James isn't. We're not
Speaker 2: asking him to be a stopper, like we heard that
Speaker 2: a dozen times probably last season. But what does James
Speaker 2: give you as a high guy defensively? He gives you rebounds,
Speaker 2: He gives you an opportunity to force turnovers, and he
Speaker 2: gives you an opportunity where guys try and post them
Speaker 2: up and they turn and their post game is inadequate,
Speaker 2: the balls on the ground. Like, there aren't a lot
Speaker 2: of small guards who do that on a consistent basis.
Speaker 2: So even as a liability defensively, James is a guy
Speaker 2: that gives you a little bit more than some of
Speaker 2: these other weak ass guards out here. So there are
Speaker 2: a lot of guards who do great ship, but at
Speaker 2: the end of the day. There's a reason the Philadelphia
Speaker 2: seventy six ers were like, let's get Paul georgan pay
Speaker 2: him two hundred Let's get Paul George and pay him
Speaker 2: max money in his age thirty seven season. You know,
Speaker 2: because Tyree Maxy and Joel Embiid ain't enough. You need
Speaker 2: Paul George to be able to give you a little
Speaker 2: bit more. You need him to give you a year
Speaker 2: or two more of all star production. Because having a
Speaker 2: small guard and even one of the most dominant bigs
Speaker 2: in the league that ain't that ain't enough. You You
Speaker 2: need something more to, you know, rise above what the
Speaker 2: other teams in the East can present to you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and they see though I don't know, man, that
Speaker 1: was hope he doesn't hear.
Speaker 2: That because we talk about guards. It's a guard dominated league.
Speaker 2: But you know why as a guard dominated league, because
Speaker 2: the rules put it in position to let guards run
Speaker 2: wild in the league. Like that's why the guards have
Speaker 2: numbers now in twenty twenty three, twenty twenty four that
Speaker 2: you weren't seeing at the turn of the twenty first century.
Speaker 2: Like we literally change the rules in the NBA to
Speaker 2: let guards do ship that they weren't doing in the nineties.
Speaker 2: That's that's real.
Speaker 1: I think some of that is two all time drafts
Speaker 1: and the level of skill is incredible. Some of it's
Speaker 1: the rules. They're taking advantage of it in the playoffs
Speaker 1: though I see hand checking all the time.
Speaker 2: Still, how many guards are are leading their teams further
Speaker 2: than you expect them to. Even Steph Curry needs a
Speaker 2: lot of help, of course, but he needs how many bigs?
Speaker 1: How many bigs. There's a couple of very unique bigs
Speaker 1: in this league still that can do it all.
Speaker 2: But there's not a ton That's why you don't see
Speaker 2: any of these gms. You don't hear Lawrence Frank ever
Speaker 2: saying you can never have enough bigs, you can never
Speaker 2: have it's wings, it's a wing.
Speaker 1: I'm with it. My point was Max is a buck
Speaker 1: as opposed to playing next to Kawhi and James Harden
Speaker 1: who just turned thirty five, Like that is an advantage
Speaker 1: that they do have.
Speaker 2: And I think Paul saw that. You know, Paul's gonna
Speaker 2: look at Joel. Paul's gonna look at Joel like a
Speaker 2: lot of like the Stephen A Smith troll faction is
Speaker 2: going to look at Kawhi, Like, you know, if you're
Speaker 2: gonna blame Kawhi for not being there at the end, well,
Speaker 2: what's Joel's biggest issue? And this is coming from someone
Speaker 2: who actually likes Joel, like I know people like to
Speaker 2: you know, people don't like Joel. I like Joelle, like,
Speaker 2: I'm always gonna like Joe too. But Joel indeed is
Speaker 2: one of the least reliable players in the postseason, you know,
Speaker 2: even when he's on the floor. So if you're gonna
Speaker 2: put that on Kawhi because Kawhi can't get through the
Speaker 2: playoff series, well, getting Joel to play through a playoff series,
Speaker 2: even win multiple playoff series, we haven't seen that yet.
Speaker 2: So that's Paul's got to look at it like this,
Speaker 2: Joel is your new Kawhi. Okay, he's big, maybe he's
Speaker 2: more durable, but he's also a guy who still has
Speaker 2: a lot to prove even as an MVP. Tyressee is
Speaker 2: your new Russell Westbrook. Tyrese is younger and able to
Speaker 2: play the kind of style of basketball that you wanted
Speaker 2: to play. James does not fit either one of those.
Speaker 2: And James, obviously, you know, people were thinking last year
Speaker 2: that James and Paul were going to commiserate over Darryl Moury. Well,
Speaker 2: now Joel and Paul are going to commiserate over the
Speaker 2: James Harden experience. But you know what, I bet you
Speaker 2: James is going to feel empowered by that, and I
Speaker 2: bet you, going into this next year, Paul doesn't have
Speaker 2: to worry about having to fit in with James, but
Speaker 2: he is. That's his new situation. It's like, I know
Speaker 2: Paul loved playing with Kawhi, loved playing with Russ. I
Speaker 2: don't know if he'd say the same about playing with James,
Speaker 2: not on a personal level, just on a play style level,
Speaker 2: Like the ball was out of his hands. The last
Speaker 2: time Paul George complained about the ball being out of
Speaker 2: his hands, it was Doc Rivers team, and Doc Rivers
Speaker 2: obviously wound up up getting replaced by t Lou. It's
Speaker 2: the same situation. That's who he's looking at playing with.
Speaker 1: And then he got the ball back in his hands.
Speaker 1: They didn't like being picked up ninety four feet. I
Speaker 1: I wish Russ could have shot like Tyrese MAXI for
Speaker 1: the Clippers, will tell you that much right now, All right,
Speaker 1: a few more here? Is it possible this is from
Speaker 1: Betsy c. The Clippers just didn't want to help Golden State.
Speaker 1: If they're gonna lose PG anyways, it makes more sense
Speaker 1: to lose them to Philly instead of a conference opponent.
Speaker 1: Law they weren't given Kaminga. I mean, if they gave
Speaker 1: the right package, I think they would have sent Paul
Speaker 1: Georgia Golden State.
Speaker 2: You don't you don't know. Look, Golden State would love
Speaker 2: to trade Jonathan Kaminga like and I think, yes, why.
Speaker 1: If they would love he just the second half at
Speaker 1: least Steve Kerr gave in the second half of the season,
Speaker 1: so I think they're starting to.
Speaker 2: Believe in him. I think. I think the Warriors were
Speaker 2: a playing team the entire year and didn't survive to
Speaker 2: play in tournament. That's what I saw. The Warriors are
Speaker 2: very strange. They put together basketball team because of the
Speaker 2: mistakes that they have made even while winning a championship.
Speaker 2: Mind you, So every report.
Speaker 1: Is they won't give out Kaminga in a trade. Same
Speaker 1: thing for marketing.
Speaker 2: Look man, Jonathan Kaminga is contract extension eligible before the
Speaker 2: start of the season because he was drafted in the
Speaker 2: first round UH in twenty twenty one. Right the Warriors
Speaker 2: have the decision to make on him. Do you pay
Speaker 2: him now, do you trade him at some point, or
Speaker 2: do you put him the isaacacro zone and be like,
Speaker 2: you're restricted, will pay you then immediately, or you're restricted
Speaker 2: and we're just going to play this thing out. Johnathan
Speaker 2: k Minga is a tough player because, like he's a
Speaker 2: power forward. Okay, he's not a comfortable shooter. He's not
Speaker 2: a bad shooter, but he's not a comfortable shooter. He's
Speaker 2: a little bit too much like Andrew Wiggins. But he
Speaker 2: also shares the same team as Draymond Green. If the
Speaker 2: Warriors want to defend at a high level, they put
Speaker 2: Draymond at power for it and start someone like Trace
Speaker 2: Jackson Davis. You know why the Worriors can't do that,
Speaker 2: it's because their offense would be terrible because there's not
Speaker 2: enough guys who can shoot, and that includes Jonathan Kaminga. Again,
Speaker 2: I'm not saying Cominga can't shoot. I'm saying Jonathan Kaminga
Speaker 2: is is a bucket getter more than he is a
Speaker 2: guy who is comfortable standing in the corner waiting for
Speaker 2: his shots to come. Yeah, okay, so you have a
Speaker 2: dilemma there, how do you get the most out of
Speaker 2: Jonathan Kaminga individually as a player, which they had to
Speaker 2: lean into more because you know, Draymond suspended, Clay's having
Speaker 2: his issues. Like it's like, okay, you need someone to
Speaker 2: help help out and score points, but how do you
Speaker 2: do that in the context of what kind of team
Speaker 2: you have. I think the Warriors would love a team
Speaker 2: to take that issue off their hands, and they haven't
Speaker 2: found the team to do that yet.
Speaker 1: With I don't know if they. We're gonna see.
Speaker 2: Plenty of the Warriors. By the way, in October, we're
Speaker 2: gonna be with them in camp. We're gonna see the
Speaker 2: first preseason game against them the first weekend of the season.
Speaker 2: It's gonna be a nasty back to back. I don't
Speaker 2: know how that's how that happened, but it's gonna be
Speaker 2: Denver on a Saturday afternoon and then Golden State on
Speaker 2: a Sunday evening. Like first weekend of the season. We're
Speaker 2: gonna see plenty of the Warriors. We're gonna see plenty
Speaker 2: of the dynamic between those teams and what their adjustments are.
Speaker 2: We're gonna see teams look at Paul George leaving the
Speaker 2: Clippers as like, we don't want to talk about the
Speaker 2: Clippers anymore, and Klay Thompson leave the Warriors and you know,
Speaker 2: make the Warriors great again, talk like we we know
Speaker 2: how the sausages made. We know that one team made
Speaker 2: the playoffs and has like nine national TV games the
Speaker 2: entire season, whereas the Warriors damn near lead the entire
Speaker 2: NBA in national TV games. And again they didn't even
Speaker 2: earn a seven game series last year. So like, anything
Speaker 2: you hear about Jonathan Kuminga's value coming from coming from
Speaker 2: that team needs to be Actually, you need to see
Speaker 2: it before you believe it. That's all I'm saying now, No,
Speaker 2: the Clippers should not have been excited about getting Jonathan Kuminga.
Speaker 2: We've seen Jonathan Kaminga play basketball. He's a talented player individually.
Speaker 2: If you're trying to get the best out of your
Speaker 2: team circumstances, how the heck do you fit that player
Speaker 2: into what you're trying to build. That's the concern with
Speaker 2: with with with cominga.
Speaker 1: Sure, he's twenty one. It's twenty one, Like it's it's
Speaker 1: a lot of talent and unrealized potential so far, but
Speaker 1: I think that is enough for teams to come calling.
Speaker 1: At least uh.
Speaker 2: Team didn't happen. Do you pay him? Do you pay
Speaker 2: him now? Do you pay him later? What's his value? Yeah,
Speaker 2: same thing with Brandon Ingram in New Orleans, Like that's restricted.
Speaker 1: I'd let him play it out and if I have
Speaker 1: to match, I have to match. That's what I would do.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a you know, for for some teams, if
Speaker 2: they feel good about that, then they'll they'll they'll do it.
Speaker 2: And maybe they might feel good about that in the
Speaker 2: middle of the season in February, if you look at
Speaker 2: the Warriors and the standings and the Warriors are like,
Speaker 2: we gotta do something, maybe that maybe that's what happens.
Speaker 2: You know, look at Brandon Ingram, different situation, but a
Speaker 2: similar kind of player. It's like Brandon Ingram as a
Speaker 2: talent in a vacuum. It's like, oh my god, it's
Speaker 2: a it's a wing who can put the ball in
Speaker 2: the basket. He can run pick and rolls like, he
Speaker 2: can make plays. Of course you'd want that guy on
Speaker 2: the team. Okay, cool, what's his value from one year
Speaker 2: to your team? And what are you paying that dude?
Speaker 2: And that you get carried.
Speaker 1: Please? Can he take more threes? Please?
Speaker 2: And again, unlike and unlike Jonathan Kaminga who you mentioned,
Speaker 2: is twenty one and has years of upside to figure
Speaker 2: out the holes of his game. BI is who he
Speaker 2: is and who he probably is going to be, and
Speaker 2: like he's you know, he's coming in a place where
Speaker 2: we saw BI team USA pre that that was incredibly
Speaker 2: disappointed by anybody with a reasonable basketball opinion his experience there.
Speaker 2: You saw BI in the playoffs. You didn't have zion.
Speaker 2: You are going up against the one seed. You mentioned
Speaker 2: yourself after you eliminated the Kings, that that Oklahoma City
Speaker 2: thunder team ended your season in the playing turn of
Speaker 2: the year before next thing, you know, Willie Green is
Speaker 2: benching b I to spark his team like that, and
Speaker 2: so it's like, what are you doing with that player
Speaker 2: in the short term and the long term? I think
Speaker 2: with every player in the NBA, there's a reasonable level
Speaker 2: of talent where you don't want to disrespect these guys.
Speaker 2: They're all talented, they're all good, they all provide some
Speaker 2: level of value. But you're building a team. It's a
Speaker 2: team game. It's not hey, let's have that guy on
Speaker 2: our team, or let's get the most out of this
Speaker 2: guy from an individual level, despite my guy's playing fantasy
Speaker 2: basketball and preparing for their drafts. It's what does your
Speaker 2: team look like in this short term and what are
Speaker 2: you doing from a team building standpoint. That's why the
Speaker 2: Clippers are complicated because they're like, we're so used to
Speaker 2: teams saying trade this guy, you're gonna get value for him,
Speaker 2: because that's what makes sense in the short term, because
Speaker 2: none of these people give a damn about what happens
Speaker 2: in the long term. With these teams. We love to
Speaker 2: talk about the light years of the Golden State Warriors
Speaker 2: and not thinking about, oh shoot, Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson
Speaker 2: might not be back next year. We're going to be
Speaker 2: the worst team in the NBA for a year. No
Speaker 2: one talks about that, So I got to bring that up.
Speaker 1: Adam, Hey, it's fair. Lakeb's a big listener here on
Speaker 1: Clippers talk too, so he's gonna hear this. Miles Johnson
Speaker 1: has a good question, how aggressive, if at all, do
Speaker 1: you think the Clippers will be if they exceed expectations?
Speaker 1: Law This is interesting if they did get off to
Speaker 1: a hot start, if they are in the hunt, you know,
Speaker 1: as a top five seed in the Western Conference around
Speaker 1: the trade deadline. Do they try to make a move,
Speaker 1: Do they try to get back into serious contention.
Speaker 2: Because we was the guy they go after.
Speaker 1: I obviously it could materialize differently, basically all other teams
Speaker 1: are doing. There could be teams that are sellers all
Speaker 1: of a sudden. But the Lavignon name's been out there,
Speaker 1: b I's been out there, as you mentioned, Jeremy Grant's
Speaker 1: been out there.
Speaker 2: Well, y'all know me. I think a lot of people
Speaker 2: who've asked me questions about guys, I'm more likely to
Speaker 2: not be nice about it. Betsy c can tell you
Speaker 2: all that. So like, I'm not at the I'm not
Speaker 2: really trying to have that conversation right now. I'm a
Speaker 2: I'm a defer to that conversation about individuals. But as
Speaker 2: far as the principle of what you're asking, we've seen
Speaker 2: it every year. The Clippers were dead in the warter
Speaker 2: when Paul George swore the ligament in his elbow in
Speaker 2: Christmas and had that daunting January of twenty twenty two
Speaker 2: ahead of them, while Covid was dripping through the whole league,
Speaker 2: minds you. Okay, I saw Winn and Gabriel and and
Speaker 2: this dude, James Ennis played for one team on a Tuesday,
Speaker 2: and by Saturday they were playing for the damn Clippers
Speaker 2: in Brooklyn.
Speaker 1: Okay, and that Brooklyn victory was legendary though.
Speaker 2: Exactly that's real ones. No, So like that team had
Speaker 2: no business staying in the in the middle of the
Speaker 2: Western Conference. The Clippers were all ready to be like, yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, look at our roster. We're not We're not.
Speaker 2: Like they had an eight game road trip that was
Speaker 2: going to take them from MLKD basically through the last
Speaker 2: day of January. They split that road trip, I believe,
Speaker 2: and so you look overall and they were like come home.
Speaker 2: They had this emotional game winner against the Lakers. You know,
Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure that was the Reggie Jackson skipping game.
Speaker 2: You know, that dude was like Austin Reeves, I got
Speaker 2: a bucket and so like Aaron Bledze never played another
Speaker 2: NBA game in his career, okay, like never again. Justice Winsbrow,
Speaker 2: I thought Justin Winslow was like, oh, there's no way
Speaker 2: they break this team up. Justin Winslow had them all
Speaker 2: on a boat in Miami, that dude wound up playing
Speaker 2: getting included in the trade, like Keon Johnson got included
Speaker 2: in that trade. Somebody's son got included in that trade
Speaker 2: that brought Norman Powell and Robert Covington to DLA Clippers.
Speaker 2: And why did they make that trade? Because they looked
Speaker 2: at their team survived that January, even with Paul George
Speaker 2: contemplating season ending surgery, even with Kawhi Leonard doing nothing
Speaker 2: more than jumping over a damn box and getting it
Speaker 2: reported on national TV, and they were like, this team
Speaker 2: has a chance, this team has a chance. Let's go
Speaker 2: get Norm Powell just so Norm pal can break a
Speaker 2: bone in his foot a weekend later. So like, we
Speaker 2: know that that front office and I know the CBA
Speaker 2: is different, We know that circumstances are different. But the
Speaker 2: whole point of not paying Paul George and not going
Speaker 2: to make a stupid trade with a division rival just
Speaker 2: to say you got something for Paul George was to
Speaker 2: maintain in some level of flexibility in case you do
Speaker 2: want to make a trade, in case you do exceed expectations,
Speaker 2: and then you can make some lose if they make sense. So, yes,
Speaker 2: the Clippers have a track record of doing stuff rather
Speaker 2: than a track record of not doing stuff. That's how
Speaker 2: James Harden winds up on your damn team, even when
Speaker 2: you have a whole training camp that might as well
Speaker 2: have been called We're not training for James Harden. So
Speaker 2: you know, yes, answer your question.
Speaker 1: Expect that there's a great answer for Lobbry. A couple
Speaker 1: more burning questions here, a lot. We still got a
Speaker 1: little bit of time before the game.
Speaker 2: But you see Taylor Swift yet?
Speaker 1: No, I see she drawn up players right now. I
Speaker 1: hear she's offensive coordinator.
Speaker 2: They might might might be. Man, they gotta lose some
Speaker 2: games this year. Man, I'm tired of I'm tired of
Speaker 2: talking about Taylor's Taylor Swift and the Chiefs.
Speaker 1: The Swifties are tough. Frankie Boy nine wants to ask,
Speaker 1: do you guys think Kevin Porter Junior will be used
Speaker 1: a lot this season? He was a beast in Houston.
Speaker 1: Now he's being investigated by the NBA. Correct, he could
Speaker 1: still be suspended BEFO for the season, even stars.
Speaker 2: I would expect there to be league disciplined. I don't
Speaker 2: think the league will not discipline him that. I think
Speaker 2: there will be disciplined and because of that, I think
Speaker 2: the toughest suspension for any player, for any team, for
Speaker 2: any coaching staff to deal with is one where you're
Speaker 2: starting the season suspended. Patrick Beverley is in Israel and
Speaker 2: everyone's going to point out that, you know, Pat Bev
Speaker 2: himself that he could have signed a deal and everything.
Speaker 2: I think a huge barrier to signing a deal for
Speaker 2: a player like that is when you know that he's
Speaker 2: facing a four game suspension on site. So and all
Speaker 2: Pat bever did was throw the damn bal to some
Speaker 2: ignorant stands in Indiana. Apologies if they actually weren't ignorant
Speaker 2: and they were saying nice things to Pat Bev, I
Speaker 2: just doubt that was the case. So I think that
Speaker 2: the tough thing, you know, and again Pat's a veteran,
Speaker 2: he's played is he played his beast basketball. I think,
Speaker 2: you know, go and do your thing. But I think
Speaker 2: a factor in him going to the overseas wasn't just
Speaker 2: the money or the fact that he's been in the league.
Speaker 2: I think he got suspended. Man. So, like, like, what
Speaker 2: team is like going crazy over adding a player that
Speaker 2: they are going into the season trying to establish something
Speaker 2: and they can't even have that guy ready to play.
Speaker 2: So you know, it's different than an injury. So with
Speaker 2: Kevin Porter, a guy who not only might be suspended
Speaker 2: to start the year, but didn't play in the NBA
Speaker 2: for a year. I don't care what level of basketball
Speaker 2: you played, not playing on that level is still going
Speaker 2: to put you in a position where there's an adjustment period,
Speaker 2: an acclimation period to play in high level basketball again.
Speaker 2: And so to begin the year, I don't think he'll
Speaker 2: be in the rotation now. He's talented enough and the
Speaker 2: Clippers aren't talented enough to where that has a likelihood
Speaker 2: of changing over the course of the you know, over
Speaker 2: the course of November going into December. But when I've
Speaker 2: put my initial rotations together, Kevin's been excluded in that.
Speaker 2: I actually I got to see Kevin last week, so,
Speaker 2: you know, and we had a good conversation about about basketball,
Speaker 2: about life stuff.
Speaker 1: And think it's good spot right now.
Speaker 2: I think I think he is you know, I think
Speaker 2: him being on the Clippers is an indication that the
Speaker 2: team thinks that they have the right people to support him.
Speaker 2: I think basketball, again, we look at basketball from the
Speaker 2: lens of stats, highlights, numbers, money, fame, even and it's
Speaker 2: easy to just get roped into those things. But it's
Speaker 2: like it's a workplace. It's you're going to work, You're
Speaker 2: going to be with a team. You're going to be
Speaker 2: with these dudes every single day for like six months straight.
Speaker 2: Like you you can't bring a player like Kevin Porter
Speaker 2: on the team, be like figure it the fuck out.
Speaker 2: Like everyone in the league knows Kevin Porter's, you know,
Speaker 2: dealt with some things, and Kevin Porter's putting himself in
Speaker 2: situations that are unacceptable. So you have to have that
Speaker 2: player be in a position where you can support him
Speaker 2: so that beyond the basketball, you can make sure that
Speaker 2: he doesn't do stuff that puts him in a bad place.
Speaker 2: And so I think the Clippers have the I think
Speaker 2: Kevin knows that. I think Kevin knows the responsibility that
Speaker 2: is ahead of him. I think he knows that there's
Speaker 2: a lot more scrutiny that's going to come his way
Speaker 2: between now and the end of this calendar year on
Speaker 2: and off the floor, and so he's got to adjust
Speaker 2: toy off the floor stuff before you can get to
Speaker 2: be on the floor stuff. So I get everyone looking
Speaker 2: at Kevin Porter and what he's done in the league.
Speaker 2: He put fifty on Drew's head three years ago. He's
Speaker 2: been a starting point guard. He earned a big contract
Speaker 2: from the Rockets. I get all that. I have respect
Speaker 2: for that. I also know that Kevin Porter Junior, him
Speaker 2: being on the basketball port goes beyond the basketball. Everyone
Speaker 2: knows that he's on a zero tolerance situation right now,
Speaker 2: Like that's a pressure that a reasonable citizen is like, Oh,
Speaker 2: that's easy, I'll just behave not everyone's like that, So
Speaker 2: we'll see where it goes. So I get people want
Speaker 2: to talk about basketball player Kevin Porter. I feel like
Speaker 2: we're some steps away from basketball player Kevin Porter.
Speaker 1: Anything else you can divulge from that conversation with him.
Speaker 2: I mean, he's healthy, he's playing basketball. You know, this
Speaker 2: isn't a player who you know. It's like, it's different
Speaker 2: than Kai Jones, for instance. Right, Like, my whole thing
Speaker 2: if I got to see Kay this summer was can
Speaker 2: Kai actually be on the floor. You know, Kai didn't
Speaker 2: get a chance to play in summer League. Why because
Speaker 2: he messes damn ankle up. You know, prior to Summer League,
Speaker 2: Kai didn't play at all. Once the Clipper signed him.
Speaker 2: There was no time to do that. Kai Jones went
Speaker 2: and signed a ten day contract with the Philadelphia seventy
Speaker 2: six Ers, And it's crazy that there is a seventy
Speaker 2: six Ers Clippers pipeline. He's in it. But like this,
Speaker 2: you know, he was under that deal. His deal expired
Speaker 2: right around the time the Sixers came to LA and
Speaker 2: I knew I was going to ask people about Kai.
Speaker 2: The reality was Kai signed a ten year deal, played
Speaker 2: a couple games in the g mess his hamstring up.
Speaker 2: So Kai signed a deal with the Clippers and was
Speaker 2: and it was like he was never going to put
Speaker 2: a uniform on. They just wanted to get him in
Speaker 2: the system. That's another part of me talking about how basketball.
Speaker 2: You see all these highlights, you see all these oh
Speaker 2: he was drafted in the first round, and it's like,
Speaker 2: you gotta get a dude to be able to simply
Speaker 2: be professional, you know, get relationships built so that you
Speaker 2: know what works and what doesn't work as part of
Speaker 2: a treatment plan, a preparation plan so that eventually he
Speaker 2: can get on the floor. So I had to spend,
Speaker 2: Like I was telling dudes this time last year, when
Speaker 2: Kyle was tripping, I was like yo, Ky ain't contributing
Speaker 2: to nobody playing basketball this year. Kyle got some things
Speaker 2: he got to deal with and the Hornets knew that,
Speaker 2: and the Hornets were like, we can't even have you
Speaker 2: in training camp. And the Hornets let him go, and
Speaker 2: the NBA PA they stepped up. They put him in
Speaker 2: position to where he can get the help that he needed.
Speaker 2: And then he had to go to AMERICAUP play for Bahamas,
Speaker 2: and then the Sixers were like, okay, you're ready to play,
Speaker 2: let's put you in our get. Unfortunately, from there he
Speaker 2: had the injury issues. He heard his hand string, he
Speaker 2: hurts his foot ankle before a summer league, so he
Speaker 2: missed a ton of time there. Fortunately now Kai is healthy.
Speaker 2: So like it's the same thing with Kevin Porter. It's
Speaker 2: like basketball is complicated and it's easy for us to
Speaker 2: get excited about, you know, guys playing basketball, putting up numbers,
Speaker 2: the things that we like basketball for. But when you
Speaker 2: were around the team, you realize it's so much more
Speaker 2: that goes into getting guys minutes than the actual basketball.
Speaker 1: There's a couple other complicated situations. Maybe I don't know
Speaker 1: how you defined it, but are bones highling and PJ
Speaker 1: Tuck are gonna be on the team. Are they going
Speaker 1: to be in training camp with the Clippers?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean Bones, I saw Bones. I think it
Speaker 2: was last week, and I think here's and in respect
Speaker 2: of both of those guys, I love this conversation, by
Speaker 2: the way, So shout out to you and shout out
Speaker 2: to Taylor Swift for not rocking the state so far.
Speaker 1: You're killing it. I've been texting in the message part here,
Speaker 1: I'm like, great stuff from law while you're saying all.
Speaker 2: This, Yeah, like like, okay, look at bones situation. He
Speaker 2: comes into last year and I'm the backup point guard
Speaker 2: to Russell Westbrook. He killed last summer. I thought he
Speaker 2: did a great job working out. We know Bones is
Speaker 2: the kind of player where it's like Bones like the hoop,
Speaker 2: So we saw Bones hooping. Kawhi says in training camp. Yeah,
Speaker 2: we have two point guards this year, so I don't
Speaker 2: have to do that shit. You know, you got Russ's
Speaker 2: your QB one and Bones is your QB two. And
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, in the middle of the year,
Speaker 2: not the middle of the year, but it's in season,
Speaker 2: you have this trade with James and at first tlu
Speaker 2: Is trying to make it work for everybody. That doesn't
Speaker 2: just mean starting all of Russ, James, PG, and Kawhi.
Speaker 2: It also means continue to play norm off the bench,
Speaker 2: continue to play Bones off the bench. Oh, Terrence is
Speaker 2: going to come back in the middle of the road
Speaker 2: trip in New York. We're gonna introduce Terrence and he's
Speaker 2: going to play, And I'm just foxing on Bones right now.
Speaker 2: Eventually it gets to the point where it's like there's
Speaker 2: too many small guards in the rotation, so we need
Speaker 2: to consolidate that right away. And then it got to
Speaker 2: the point where it's like, we need to put Russell
Speaker 2: Westbrook in the second unit so that James we don't
Speaker 2: need to like bully James into being James Harden. That's
Speaker 2: what needed to happen. Like, it's not that Rusted anything
Speaker 2: wrong to have to go to the second unit. It's
Speaker 2: that James was not performing like the player that the
Speaker 2: front off is traded for, and the only way to
Speaker 2: fix that was to stop pretending like James Harden was
Speaker 2: a shooting guard. So like like they wanted to have
Speaker 2: Russell continue to be the point guard because that's the
Speaker 2: team that they had training camp for. And that's and
Speaker 2: as a coaching staff, you don't go into a year saying, oh,
Speaker 2: the front office is going to do this, so we're
Speaker 2: going to prepare for that. No, as a coaching staff,
Speaker 2: you're like, the front office could fire our ass, so
Speaker 2: we need to get done with what we have now.
Speaker 1: So side note, did the front office ever want Russell
Speaker 1: Westbrook or did they just have to try to make
Speaker 1: that work?
Speaker 2: They had to try to make it work, But I
Speaker 2: also think they wanted him on the team, Like last year,
Speaker 2: even when.
Speaker 1: Lawrence Frank was like talking about the type of point
Speaker 1: guard they were looking for the trade deadline and Rust
Speaker 1: didn't check any of those boxes.
Speaker 2: I always, George, I always told people the thing with
Speaker 2: the Clippers front office is that, yes, they have their
Speaker 2: idea of what kind of players they want. However, unlike
Speaker 2: a lot of teams, they actually keep a pretty good
Speaker 2: dialogue with the stakeholders on the team. They don't work
Speaker 2: in a silo. So, yes, the front office they have
Speaker 2: their preferences the players. We see it every draft. We
Speaker 2: see it with the players that they do bring in
Speaker 2: all of that. But the difference between them and a
Speaker 2: lot of front offices is even if there's some conflict
Speaker 2: or some disagreements, they keep the door open. The door
Speaker 2: was open for Paul, for Kawhi, for Tilu to go
Speaker 2: to Lawrence and be like, I saw what you did.
Speaker 2: We need Russ and guess what. Russ exceeded everyone's expectations,
Speaker 2: Like Russell Westbrook came in and you saw it when
Speaker 2: they didn't have Kawhi and Paul to finish the Sun
Speaker 2: series and Russ took off and was doing things that
Speaker 2: we hadn't seen Russ do in a while. You know why,
Speaker 2: going back to that Tyrese Snaxy point, tyre Snasey drops
Speaker 2: forty in a playoff game with the balls in his
Speaker 2: hands because tyres is really good. Well, it turns out
Speaker 2: if you give Russell Westbrook the ball and let him
Speaker 2: do Russell Westbrook stuff, you're probably going to get some
Speaker 2: volume out of it.
Speaker 1: He had a good series. He also had a game
Speaker 1: one where he went three of nineteen. He had the
Speaker 1: block on Booker. Overall, it was probably.
Speaker 2: They won, and they won that game they did. I
Speaker 2: do different players in that.
Speaker 1: I think it's ten years a little bit mixed. Though
Speaker 1: as a Clipper, I would I would not define it
Speaker 1: as a success Honestly.
Speaker 2: I think I think Russ would tell you the same thing.
Speaker 2: It's it's definitely mixed because and again I swear, you know,
Speaker 2: getting staying with the bones point, Rusk is going to
Speaker 2: the season like I'm going to be this team's leader.
Speaker 2: I'm going to have the ball in my hands and
Speaker 2: my job is to get the Stars the ball in
Speaker 2: the spots they need to be getting in. And I
Speaker 2: think the Tilu is going to, you know, be fine
Speaker 2: with that happening. Now, just be fine. He built the
Speaker 2: whole training camp out of getting the most out of
Speaker 2: putting Russell's position to succeed, and that was going to happen.
Speaker 2: And what Blue team up is that, you know, they
Speaker 2: try to maintain as much as that as possible. When
Speaker 2: you lose six games in a row, it forces your hand.
Speaker 2: It means that Russ has to go to the second unit,
Speaker 2: not because Russell was playing poorly, but because you need
Speaker 2: James to play like James Harden and the only way
Speaker 2: that was going to happen at the balls in James hands.
Speaker 2: It means that you're gonna have a second unit where okay,
Speaker 2: Russ is going to be in the second unit, but
Speaker 2: that also meant that Bones was not going to see
Speaker 2: the light of a day as long as the following
Speaker 2: four guys were healthy. James Harden, Russell Westbrook, Norman Powell,
Speaker 2: Terrence Man and guess what, for the most part, all
Speaker 2: four of those guys, they pretty much didn't miss any
Speaker 2: time Bones. I don't think Bones handled that particular adversity well.
Speaker 2: And he checked out. I thought he checked out behind
Speaker 2: the scenes, and I thought that as.
Speaker 1: What it looked like behind the scenes with him, Well,
Speaker 1: how did he portray checking out?
Speaker 2: I just feel like, you know, you kind of saw
Speaker 2: in the garbage Time games. I think you saw when
Speaker 2: their games were in January that he didn't even get
Speaker 2: on the floor even with the margin in hand. Like,
Speaker 2: I just feel like it was being known behind the
Speaker 2: scenes that Bones would have preferred a different situation. He
Speaker 2: wanted to be traded. And guess what, he wasn't at
Speaker 2: home exactly. It was because those guys weren't traded. And
Speaker 2: those guys, again, behind the scenes, they weren't really they
Speaker 2: were happy. They were disgruntled. I think that's an objective
Speaker 2: way to put it.
Speaker 1: So they're still on the team.
Speaker 2: Well, that's the thing. If you're dealing with that. In
Speaker 2: the season, that's going to create conflict and that's going
Speaker 2: to increase your chances of people not being on the
Speaker 2: same page. That's where frustration comes in. But in the
Speaker 2: off season, when things calm down, when you can see
Speaker 2: your family, when you can do the things that you
Speaker 2: need to do, when you can hoop in whatever league
Speaker 2: that you hooping in, when you got some fresh air,
Speaker 2: when you took a vacation, you know, you can have
Speaker 2: some conversations, you can settle down, and you can have
Speaker 2: a better sense of where your expectations are. And that
Speaker 2: released to PJ Tucker too, because PJ Tucker, while all
Speaker 2: this shit was going down with James Harden, PJ was thinking,
Speaker 2: Nick Nurse is going to start me, you know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying, And he did. PJ was in training camp,
Speaker 2: PJ was participating every day. PJ started the first week
Speaker 2: of the season for the Philadelphia Sydney Sixers, and that
Speaker 2: whole time, Pj's like, man, that shit going on with James,
Speaker 2: that's crazy. Well, PJ got roped into the trade and
Speaker 2: PJ PJ didn't want to be traded to the LA
Speaker 2: And then.
Speaker 1: I don't think they wanted to have to trade for
Speaker 1: him either, right, it goes well, no.
Speaker 2: It was like, look, this is the deal that we had,
Speaker 2: Like for instance, they didn't want Nico Batum and the deal,
Speaker 2: but that's that's who they needed to trade to make
Speaker 2: the deal work. You know. Now, next thing you know,
Speaker 2: Nico Beatum is back here. You know.
Speaker 1: So PJ complained to you because I know he complained
Speaker 1: to multiple outlets that he wanted a bigger role. He
Speaker 1: didn't sign up for this. Did he talk to you
Speaker 1: about it?
Speaker 2: I don't want to look at it as him complaining
Speaker 2: to me, like I don't want to put a I
Speaker 2: don't I don't want.
Speaker 1: To be the expressed frustration.
Speaker 2: I mean, I think he explained yes is a short answer,
Speaker 2: But I think the frustration is not something that that's
Speaker 2: not like I look at him, be like, PJ, are
Speaker 2: you frustrated? Like he's a basketball player, want to play, Yeah,
Speaker 2: you're gonna be frustrated like and so he wanted to
Speaker 2: be traded. Well, guess what, no team's gonna trade for
Speaker 2: his contract, especially not for just his contract, right, and
Speaker 2: so he had to get through the season. And I
Speaker 2: think that the reality is this, I wouldn't have been
Speaker 2: surprised if the Clippers were like, you are so untenable
Speaker 2: to be here that we need to stretch and wave you.
Speaker 2: But I don't think we're dealing with that. I think
Speaker 2: now we're dealing with a situation where all those people
Speaker 2: mad that the Clippers let Eric Gordon go because they
Speaker 2: knew that there's a possibility that, you know, they could
Speaker 2: have the flexibility with their roster to bring someone else in,
Speaker 2: and the someone else being James Harden. Well, now you're
Speaker 2: gonna keep PJ. Tucker around more than likely because unless
Speaker 2: the team is like, we really need PJ. Tucker between
Speaker 2: now and the end of October, you're more than likely
Speaker 2: gonna be like, well, PJ, you're gonna compete, and more
Speaker 2: than likely other guys are probably gonna play above you.
Speaker 2: Like I expect Nigo between Kobe Brown to play more
Speaker 2: than PJ. Tucker reasonably speaking, But you know, I think
Speaker 2: he's going to get his Jordan Miller, I guess. But
Speaker 2: Jordan's Jordan's biggest concern is can he do the stuff
Speaker 2: that he's done on respectably lower levels on a level
Speaker 2: where he's competing with you know, let's just the name
Speaker 2: is Amir Coffee, Like Amir is my second string small forward.
Speaker 2: Going into the year, there's five guys hunting for Amir
Speaker 2: Coffee's job, and a Mere Coffee. This greatest land leg
Speaker 2: that he has a stand on is the fact that
Speaker 2: he's done it in games that matter the most for
Speaker 2: the Clippers, you know, regular season games. These other dudes
Speaker 2: might have higher ceilings and they might have longer roads
Speaker 2: to get to where a mir is. But Amir's a
Speaker 2: pretty good incumbent, a pretty good guy to say, you
Speaker 2: want his job, go and beat that guy out. And
Speaker 2: so I think Jordan might get a fair shot to
Speaker 2: beat that guy out. But that guy it's his job
Speaker 2: until someone takes it from him, right, Yeah, PJ. Tucker,
Speaker 2: it was his job until someone took it from him. Well,
Speaker 2: Kobe Brown took that job. But guess who wound up
Speaker 2: getting an opportunity and staying with it. Amir Coffee. Mere
Speaker 2: Coffee was nowhere close to the rotation again last year,
Speaker 2: and even with PJ. Tucker falling out the rotation, Amir
Speaker 2: Coffee wasn't a consideration to play. But Amir got his
Speaker 2: opportunity when Paul missed his first game and a Mirror
Speaker 2: played so well that when it came down to someone's
Speaker 2: not going to be in a rotation between a mirror
Speaker 2: and Kobe. Well, Kobe looked like a guy who needed
Speaker 2: to be in the G League and a guy who
Speaker 2: needed some more seasoning, a guy who wasn't quite ready
Speaker 2: yet to play at that level. And there's a Mirror
Speaker 2: who is literally a five year NBA veteran, and I
Speaker 2: was a guy a mir Yeah, And it's like it
Speaker 2: made it easy on the coaching staff. It's like, well,
Speaker 2: Amr is ready to play in Kobe's and PJ. We're
Speaker 2: trying to trade PJ and we're gonna keep PJ on
Speaker 2: ice and Amir is playing. Next thing, you know, Amir
Speaker 2: is a rotation player for a team literally winning twenty
Speaker 2: six out of thirty one games, and then started playoff
Speaker 2: games for a while, started playoff games, and you know
Speaker 2: what had happened to Amir in the playoffs is as
Speaker 2: simple as Amir just wasn't getting He just didn't make
Speaker 2: the most of his opportunities, and there weren't a lot
Speaker 2: of opportunities to make the most of. It was a
Speaker 2: role that there's a reason Derek Jones Junior is on
Speaker 2: this team. It's not like you lose PG and it's like, hey,
Speaker 2: mere Coffee's ready to start. It's like, oh, we're gonna
Speaker 2: lose p We need a guy. We're getting Dereck Jones
Speaker 2: Junior right away. Derek Jones Junon is gonna start. Like
Speaker 2: he's of all the guys the Clippers brought in that
Speaker 2: was new to the team, he's the one who got
Speaker 2: the biggest commitment from a financial and a year standpoint
Speaker 2: like that, Dude's going to be playing and starting and
Speaker 2: fulfilling a role where the Clippers are hoping Derek leads
Speaker 2: a team in something very specific next year. So but yeah,
Speaker 2: if you talk about Bones, you're talking about PJ. The
Speaker 2: vibes were shitty as far as those guys go last year,
Speaker 2: but I think the off season allows for guys to
Speaker 2: be in a different place and to be in a
Speaker 2: different situation. I still think those guys would prefer to
Speaker 2: move on. But again, Bones is what Adam say it
Speaker 2: with me a small guard and those guys are a
Speaker 2: dime a dozen. There's no team falling over backwards to
Speaker 2: acquire a player like that. Like the Minnesota Timber was
Speaker 2: a great example. Minnesota needed another guard. Tim Connolly drafted
Speaker 2: Bones when Tim was in his last year with Denver,
Speaker 2: there was an admiration there. Minnesota wound up trading for
Speaker 2: Monte Morrison instead. Okay, and not even Monte got a
Speaker 2: lot of burn with Minnesota. Monte had a very uneven season.
Speaker 1: Well move initially, but he didn't play much.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he didn't play much. Like Monte had a rough season,
Speaker 2: and a big reason is because he was hurt going
Speaker 2: into the years. As soon as he got healthy, he
Speaker 2: was eligible to be traded. He just never really got
Speaker 2: a swooting. Now he's in Phoenix. But what did Minnesota do.
Speaker 2: Minnesota looked at they're depleted assets, and we're like, hmm,
Speaker 2: we would like to have a guard. And Tim Connolly's like,
Speaker 2: you know, I like bone silent. Let's get blue blood
Speaker 2: conference bone siland. And that's who Rob Dillingham is, same size,
Speaker 2: same GM, drafting that kind of player for his for
Speaker 2: his Northwest Division team to fulfill a similar kind of
Speaker 2: role for that Minnesota Timberwolves team.
Speaker 1: And so like, they're not MAXI, they're not MAXI, they're.
Speaker 2: Not MAXI, they're not bone siland. Like so if you
Speaker 2: want bones siland, you gotta really want bones silent, because
Speaker 2: again that dude is eligible for an extension. Obviously that's
Speaker 2: unlikely for obvious reasons. But then it's like if anything
Speaker 2: with bones, Hiland is going to get a guy who
Speaker 2: is eligible for restricted free agency next year, Like so
Speaker 2: you know, we'll see what happens. When it comes to PJ.
Speaker 2: It's like, PJ has a tradable contract. Any team that's
Speaker 2: horrible next by February, excuse me, Like, let's get PJ Tucker.
Speaker 2: We can buy out the last year of his deal,
Speaker 2: and PJ will go and play for whoever wants to
Speaker 2: play with after that, and that is going to be
Speaker 2: a key factor in the Clippers team building. Maybe there's
Speaker 2: not a team in October that makes sense for PJ Tucker.
Speaker 2: We see what the roster spots look like. But in February,
Speaker 2: after some of these teams been punched in the damn mouth,
Speaker 2: they're like, yeah, we'll take on whoever's contract to make
Speaker 2: some moves, get some assets out of it, and say
Speaker 2: that we have an open contract spot going into the
Speaker 2: next offseason. That is how you have to look at it.
Speaker 2: I think PJ is gonna I haven't talked to PJ,
Speaker 2: I haven't seen PJ, but I think PJ is going
Speaker 2: to be in a better place going into training camp
Speaker 2: than perhaps he was, you know, going into last year's
Speaker 2: trade deadline. Bones. I'm pretty sure Bones would like to
Speaker 2: be on a team where he's not staring at the
Speaker 2: third string point guard role. But I don't think there's
Speaker 2: any chairs left looking at the state of the small
Speaker 2: guard position in the NBA where it's like, what is
Speaker 2: a team that obviously, now again, injuries might change something.
Speaker 2: There might be a team with a biblical you know,
Speaker 2: you know, basically you're Memphis Grizzlies of last year, a
Speaker 2: biblical tie of good guys who you just run out
Speaker 2: of guys like I feel like this happens to the
Speaker 2: Cleveland Cavaliers every year and then then all of a
Speaker 2: sudden you're like, oh my god, we have nobody who
Speaker 2: can dribble the basketball.
Speaker 1: Or what happens if Kevin Porter Junior gets suspended? Like
Speaker 1: does then Bones become more valuable to the Clippers somehow.
Speaker 2: I don't think I think that's already built in. I
Speaker 2: don't think that, Like, like, I don't even look at
Speaker 2: Kevin Porter Junior as a point guard right now, you
Speaker 2: know what I mean? Like, I look at you want
Speaker 2: to go depth chart, point guard James hard and Chris
Speaker 2: Don Bones Island shooting guard, Terrence Man, Norman Powell, Kevin Porter,
Speaker 2: Junior small Ford, Dare Jones, Junior, Amirka, and Cam Christy,
Speaker 2: who won't even be around the Clippers. He's going to
Speaker 2: be playing a ton of games in San Diego, which
Speaker 2: is not even in San Diego. It's ocean side power
Speaker 2: forward Kawhi Leonard, Nicholas Patoom and pretty much want more
Speaker 2: likely Kobe Brown and center. It's if it's a Zoobots
Speaker 2: Mobamba and insert insert player here, Like I'm for now
Speaker 2: saying Kobe Brown's your third string center, but Kobe's going
Speaker 2: to play a lot And obviously I think Kai Jones
Speaker 2: has the lead on a two aay contract spot. He's
Speaker 2: on an exhibit ten right now. There's two two way
Speaker 2: contracts on the Clippers, Jordan Miller, who is going into
Speaker 2: his second year on that contract, and Trenton Flowers, an
Speaker 2: undrafted rookie who is already on a two way. He's
Speaker 2: got a long way to go in every single regard,
Speaker 2: but it's a good sign for him that he's already
Speaker 2: on that contract. Kai is there's an open two way
Speaker 2: contract spot. I would consider kai Jones the front runner
Speaker 2: for that spot. I think everyone wants to see kai
Speaker 2: Jones get that get that spot, get that contract if
Speaker 2: the Clippers can't complete any trades before the beginning of
Speaker 2: the regular season, and I think that is your expectation.
Speaker 2: I think you have fifteen contract spots already accounted for
Speaker 2: to two eight contract spots already accounted for, and Kai's
Speaker 2: the front run runner over guys like Elijah Harkless or
Speaker 2: you know, ray J. Dennis or anybody like that.
Speaker 1: Harkless just got what that invite earlier today. I love
Speaker 1: his defense. I know the chance of him as saw that.
Speaker 2: People saw that. But like I told people in late June,
Speaker 2: like I mean, and this ain't on Keith, but like
Speaker 2: people like see tell them, tell them, I mean again,
Speaker 2: it's not on Keith. You know, I'm sure Keith got Keith.
Speaker 2: Keith got great sources, Keith got people who talk to him.
Speaker 2: I'm just saying, if you are. You know, I said
Speaker 2: the same thing in late July that you know, the
Speaker 2: Clippers were bringing Elijah in on an E ten, like
Speaker 2: we're talking six weeks ago. So if someone saw it
Speaker 2: because Keith got way more followers than me, then I
Speaker 2: understand that. But I'm just telling y'all like that was
Speaker 2: a that was a deal that was already done six
Speaker 2: weeks ago, so I'm glad you saw it today, But
Speaker 2: like that was a that was a contract that's not
Speaker 2: new today. Like we know the Elijah was going to
Speaker 2: be with the Clippers in camp like more than a
Speaker 2: month ago.
Speaker 1: I just needed some news today to make things interesting.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: I gave it a retweet. But at the Law Murray
Speaker 1: and you is where I go for my source when
Speaker 1: it comes to Clippers news and information and great analysis
Speaker 1: as well, even dime droppers on the chat. Now, as
Speaker 1: we've been up for almost damn near two hours here
Speaker 1: with law Murray on the live stream, well I don't
Speaker 1: I don't want to take any more of your time.
Speaker 1: We gotta get ready for the game. Maybe you're getting
Speaker 1: some pre games snacks in. I don't know where it is.
Speaker 1: Football's coming in a half hour.
Speaker 2: Dude, I'm gonna do. I'm gonna be doing basketball work
Speaker 2: during the football game. Because the funny, the great thing
Speaker 2: about football and why it is our American pastime is
Speaker 2: that over a three and a half hour time there's
Speaker 2: only like ten to fifteen minutes of actual game being played,
Speaker 2: and therefore I'm just gonna be multitasking. Football is a
Speaker 2: great family sport because you ain't got to do a
Speaker 2: damn thing. You can do a whole lot of multitasking
Speaker 2: during a football game. Can't do that during basketball game.
Speaker 2: Basketball game, you blink for five minutes a team down
Speaker 2: by ten.
Speaker 1: So what's the next piece you're working on right now
Speaker 1: that everybody can be looking forward to from the athletic.
Speaker 2: Oh man, I mean me and my ors were talking
Speaker 2: about that earlier today. But it'll more than likely involve
Speaker 2: some level of player ranking. So yeah, I'm I'm in
Speaker 2: a player evaluation mode heavy right now across the entire league.
Speaker 2: So I don't know how soon that'll turn around. But
Speaker 2: that's my next project. And you know, obviously whatever else
Speaker 2: Sty'll let me write.
Speaker 1: So it will be thorough, it will be comprehensive, It
Speaker 1: will be La Murray. That's the way he does things,
Speaker 1: includes all the contexts and then filters it down to
Speaker 1: come up with these great opinions that you heard today
Speaker 1: on this live. This has been another edition of Clippers Talk,
Speaker 1: the third live. We have done law once again. I
Speaker 1: want to thank you for doing this and staying on
Speaker 1: for so long. It was just great to hang out
Speaker 1: with you again and shoot the ass when it comes
Speaker 1: to be ball.
Speaker 2: Hey appreciate it, man. And you know, it's like we're
Speaker 2: coming to a different basketball team next year, like an
Speaker 2: expansion team almost. So looking forward to making my way
Speaker 2: around the into it Dome and figuring out when we'll
Speaker 2: talk about hoop again.
Speaker 1: We'll get real familiar. One of the opening night, you know,
Speaker 1: I have I already told somebody I don't know, but
Speaker 1: we're gonna have you on pregame one of the first,
Speaker 1: one of the first days they're into it. Do so
Speaker 1: for La Murray. I'm at a Moslin We're at one
Speaker 1: hour and fifty five minutes. He're on this Clippers talk Live.
Speaker 1: Talk to you next time, likely earlier next week, because
Speaker 1: I'm done. We're done for this week.
Speaker 2: It's oh