Speaker 1: Much camera.
Speaker 2: Welcome in. It's the first Clippers Talk YouTube live. I'm
Speaker 2: Adam Osland. If you missed the last show that was
Speaker 2: just an isolated podcast or podcast. We had Brian Seman
Speaker 2: on just yesterday for an hour, an entire hour, gave
Speaker 2: away a new Clippers hat. Congrats to Alex Webb for
Speaker 2: putting in the three correct keywords. It was in the
Speaker 2: comment section of the Brian Seman episode. They were it's
Speaker 2: hot damn. Of course Brian Semo was on Why Not Programming. Note,
Speaker 2: we have a clips in Dip episode coming up very
Speaker 2: soon on the schedule release, which we will talk about here.
Speaker 2: Chuck Mockler will Updike, the full crew will be in
Speaker 2: effect for that on the C and D side. I'm
Speaker 2: Adam Osland. This is Clippers Talk, trying to turn it
Speaker 2: into more of a visual experience. It's been a podcast
Speaker 2: for years, the official one for the Clippers for every
Speaker 2: postgame show.
Speaker 3: During the season. Of course, I'll be live.
Speaker 2: Streaming postgame shows from here on Alan and you can
Speaker 2: find it on the channel currently it's called that Follow
Speaker 2: Adam A on YouTube. Appreciate all the new subscribers. I
Speaker 2: don't deserve this much love. I think they were just
Speaker 2: there to see Brian Seaman, but I'll take whatever I
Speaker 2: can get at this point.
Speaker 3: U join the show today.
Speaker 2: Is a man I met walking out of Crypto over
Speaker 2: the past season.
Speaker 3: I'm walking out.
Speaker 2: Of Crypto and all of a sudden, this tall, dark,
Speaker 2: dashing nineties Bond villain type. Actually he looks a little
Speaker 2: bit like Timothy Dalton.
Speaker 3: He's the hero.
Speaker 2: A good looking guy says, how are the callers tonight?
Speaker 2: And I respond because the Clippers just got waxed. It
Speaker 2: was during that two month lull they had from January
Speaker 2: to February. How the hell do you think they were? No,
Speaker 2: I didn't say anything like that, but he could be
Speaker 2: in on who he was, and we had a nice
Speaker 2: conversation as we were walking into lot C.
Speaker 3: Won't have to do that anymore.
Speaker 2: His name is Grant Mona, also known as Money Mona.
Speaker 2: He covers the Clippers for the Sporting Tribune. He's one
Speaker 2: of Rosch Marczy's members of reporters.
Speaker 3: They do great.
Speaker 2: They do a great job covering every team in Southern
Speaker 2: California and beyond. Grant, thanks for joining me here on Clipperstock.
Speaker 1: Adam, thanks for having me on. It's kind of crazy
Speaker 1: that we're here after one conversation walking back to a
Speaker 1: parking lot after a disappointing Clippers loss. We talked a
Speaker 1: lot after that. Been a big fan of your work
Speaker 1: for a long time, so this is really cool to
Speaker 1: be on And if anyone can see the video, I
Speaker 1: do not have a natural glow or aura to me.
Speaker 1: That is just my camera. I promise once I get
Speaker 1: to a good setup here in the future, I will
Speaker 1: look a little bit better than I am now. But again,
Speaker 1: thank you for the kind words, and I'm ready to
Speaker 1: talk some Clippers basketball with you. It's been a long
Speaker 1: time coming.
Speaker 2: The glow is making you look like you're in basketball
Speaker 2: heaven right now with this Clipper schedule release or in
Speaker 2: the last Dragon or something like that. I like it.
Speaker 2: It's a good look for you Gren. I appreciate you
Speaker 2: being here. Coming up, we're going to talk about his
Speaker 2: YouTube sensational video, A complete comprehensive look Get into It Dome,
Speaker 2: which is opening tonight. Of course with the concert with
Speaker 2: Bruno Mars, we'll discuss that. We'll also play new segment here.
Speaker 2: It's a AMA c ask Me anything, Clippers, so we'll
Speaker 2: kind of do a freaky Friday Roll versal, even though
Speaker 2: it Thursday, where Grant will ask me some questions regarding
Speaker 2: the Clippers. We'll chop things up as we look forward
Speaker 2: to this season, but starting with the schedule release here
Speaker 2: just came out about two hours ago. The Clippers released
Speaker 2: officially on their social media with some kids breaking into
Speaker 2: crypt to excuse me, excuse me into it dumb now
Speaker 2: and taking a drone in there and shooting it that
Speaker 2: way and flying around and going to all the different clubs.
Speaker 2: The Lexus court side lounge where Steve Balmer was fun video,
Speaker 2: well done overall. The less fun part is that we
Speaker 2: found out a little bit before the official schedule release
Speaker 2: from Tomarazari. And I'm pulling a lot of these facts
Speaker 2: about the schedule from our great report is like Grant Mona,
Speaker 2: who's here, but also Tomarazzari, Joey Lynn, who's also been
Speaker 2: part of the Sporting Tribune at times, justin Russeau Russo,
Speaker 2: and uh what else am I thinking of here? Well,
Speaker 2: we'll try to get everybody in that I have reference today. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I want to show love to all the guys. Is now,
Speaker 2: how do I open the chat here?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I just got the chat open so if anybody wants
Speaker 2: to ask us any questions, Caesar Gamorrow says, let's go clips.
Speaker 3: All right, all right, we are.
Speaker 2: Fully active here, So appreciate all the good work done
Speaker 2: by La Murray of the athletic and everybody giving some
Speaker 2: of the highlights and things to look forward to or
Speaker 2: things to uh dread as the season schedule is released,
Speaker 2: and I guess we could start with this grant. The
Speaker 2: Clippers have sixteen back to backs, So that's more than
Speaker 2: they have had the last couple of years. Last season
Speaker 2: it was fifteen. The season before that fifteen at Crypto,
Speaker 2: the season before that, the twenty one twenty two season,
Speaker 2: it was fourteen. I don't understand how they get a
Speaker 2: new arena and end up with more back to backs
Speaker 2: than ever.
Speaker 3: And for reference, you could say.
Speaker 2: Well, they're in the Pacific Coast, so West Coast team. Well,
Speaker 2: the Warriors have fourteen back to backs, the Lakers have thirteen.
Speaker 2: So that's not good enough of an excuse in this situation.
Speaker 2: I think even the Seattle SuperSonics have less back to
Speaker 2: backs than the Clippers right now hashtag Sonics gate. But
Speaker 2: how do you explain this grant? It's frustrating for Clipper.
Speaker 1: Nation, Adam, I'm trying to decipher how this keeps happening.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to decipher, like what kind of bone to
Speaker 1: pick with the NBA and why they have such a
Speaker 1: vendetta against the Clippers year in and year out, because
Speaker 1: you know, I could understand maybe two years in a row.
Speaker 1: I can understand maybe even three. I'll give them three
Speaker 1: years in a row of doing this. But you have
Speaker 1: a brand new arena. This arena is going to be
Speaker 1: hosting the twenty twenty six All Star Game, so you
Speaker 1: know that the NBA is really invested in to this,
Speaker 1: and they still find ways to give the Clippers the
Speaker 1: most back to backs. They still find a way to
Speaker 1: give the Clippers. And look, they will not have any
Speaker 1: noon games, which is a good thing. I'm sure we'll
Speaker 1: get to that, but the back to backs are probably
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm not going to say worse, because those
Speaker 1: Newton games are brutal. The Clippers were ten and ten
Speaker 1: and those Newton games last year, but it's really bad.
Speaker 1: I mean, I understand, you know the logistics of it.
Speaker 1: I understand you got to make sure that the West
Speaker 1: Coast gets what they get, and you got to understand
Speaker 1: that some of these West Coast teams are going to
Speaker 1: have some of these back to backs, like Phoenix and
Speaker 1: the Lakers. The Clippers are going to have a stretch
Speaker 1: where they do play the Lakers and Phoenix, and I
Speaker 1: think a seven game road trip or something like that.
Speaker 1: But again, it's local. It's closer than if they were
Speaker 1: to having to go across the country. But these back
Speaker 1: to backs are killer. And I, Adam, you asked me
Speaker 1: like why this is? I really wish I had an
Speaker 1: inside source in the NBA to explain why, because we
Speaker 1: really don't have an explanation a Clipper fans are searching
Speaker 1: for an explanation for this. You would think, hey, they
Speaker 1: have a brand new arena, all that stuff's going to
Speaker 1: be gone, and no, it's the same type of stuff.
Speaker 2: So again, NBA maybe missed the memo on the whole
Speaker 2: end to it.
Speaker 1: Don't No, I don't think so. Listen, Adam. They're tweeting
Speaker 1: about it or xing about it. I don't know how
Speaker 1: to say it now, but they are sending out a
Speaker 1: lot of things on social media about the into a
Speaker 1: Dome and like I mentioned, they've already been to the
Speaker 1: Endo a Dome. Adam, Silver's been there to open the
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six All Star Game kind of ceremony, So
Speaker 1: I don't know what's going on there.
Speaker 2: It's interesting because I saw this. I think this came
Speaker 2: from to mar Azari as well. But according to Positive Residual,
Speaker 2: the LA Clippers have the second toughest strength of schedule
Speaker 2: at a five to twenty two win percentage, behind only
Speaker 2: the Portland Trail Blazers. This factors in everything from home
Speaker 2: road rest advantage, travel and altitude. I just ooh, it's
Speaker 2: it's never ending. And I know it's consistently been like this,
Speaker 2: but I think the first thing we all thought of
Speaker 2: when the Clippers were getting a new stadium was they
Speaker 2: won't get the short end of the stick anymore when
Speaker 2: it comes to scheduling conflicts because they will be the
Speaker 2: first priority at their own arena for the first time ever.
Speaker 2: It is their own, it's their new home. More on
Speaker 2: that coming up. But I am, yeah, a little bit
Speaker 2: dismayed by what we're seeing today because I thought for
Speaker 2: sure they would be I don't know, at least comparable
Speaker 2: to the Lakers having thirteen back to backs same city.
Speaker 2: What's the problem there? And you mentioned, you know, the
Speaker 2: back to backs and some of the teams they could
Speaker 2: be facing, you know, both times they play the Boston Celtics,
Speaker 2: the defending champs, those games come on the second night
Speaker 2: of a back to back.
Speaker 3: That's people can say.
Speaker 2: You know, opposing fan bases will always spin this as
Speaker 2: whining and complaining, even when you have a legitimate gripe
Speaker 2: and their teams probably don't have the same issues, so
Speaker 2: they're not having complaints like this. But I think it's
Speaker 2: fair because there is a phrase out there called scheduled loss,
Speaker 2: and it is real in sports. Your schedule matters, when
Speaker 2: you play teams, who you play, all that stuff factors in, right.
Speaker 1: Oh, absolutely, And a lot of times over the past
Speaker 1: couple of years, Clipper fans were so used to these
Speaker 1: back to backs and so used to the load managing,
Speaker 1: which I expect the Clippers to probably do with Kawhi
Speaker 1: again this year, just based off of what I've heard,
Speaker 1: what I've seen, and what we have all seen over
Speaker 1: the past three four months with Kawhi's me. You know,
Speaker 1: we've had so many instances of it just being a
Speaker 1: scheduled loss. We just go into games and you just say, hey, oh,
Speaker 1: this is going to be a skilled Okay, we're supposed
Speaker 1: to lose this game. That's never how it should be,
Speaker 1: right as an NBA fan, as anybody that covers the team,
Speaker 1: anybody that knows basketball, that's really not fair. And over
Speaker 1: the past four or five years. Look, I've been a
Speaker 1: fan for fourteen fifteen years, but yeah, you know, even
Speaker 1: past that, I'm not really sure what the number is.
Speaker 1: I can't really say anything about before twenty one, twenty
Speaker 1: two or before the two one three era, But in
Speaker 1: the two one three era, it was always a matter
Speaker 1: of Okay, oh, hey we're playing a back to back. Oh,
Speaker 1: we're gonna lose that game. And that's really unfortunate. And
Speaker 1: I thought that, hey, you get a brand new arena,
Speaker 1: maybe you have things go your way, maybe the curses
Speaker 1: are kept at Crypto dot com arena for whatever whatever
Speaker 1: you may see. But it seems like that's not the case.
Speaker 1: And again, the noon games are gone, which is a
Speaker 1: good thing, but it's unfortunate, Adam, because on X like,
Speaker 1: we get all this information right in sequence and in
Speaker 1: timeline order, and the first news drops like, hey, we
Speaker 1: don't have any twelve thirty games, and everyone's like, oh, hooray, finally, nobody.
Speaker 1: We don't have to deal with this anymore. And obviously
Speaker 1: the people overseas are like, oh, that sucks because now
Speaker 1: I have to watch it early in the morning. But
Speaker 1: then right after that, all of our beautiful reporters out
Speaker 1: there and everyone that covers the team are like, well,
Speaker 1: actually the good news stops there. There's some bad news.
Speaker 1: We have to play sixteen back to back. And I
Speaker 1: think tol Mayor tweeted this out as well. Again, I
Speaker 1: don't know if it's tweet or X. I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: keep saying tweet. But in the second half of the season,
Speaker 1: there's like seventeen of twenty nine of those are on
Speaker 1: the road or something like that. So again, the strength
Speaker 1: of schedule was very high. The back to backs are
Speaker 1: very high. Again, as a Clipper fan and as somebody
Speaker 1: that's covered the team over the past, you know, four
Speaker 1: or five years, I'm not surprised at them. But again,
Speaker 1: I would have loved to see a little bit of
Speaker 1: help Adam Adam Silver as well. With both of the Adams.
Speaker 1: I would like to see some help here.
Speaker 2: You may be thinking, well, they're next to Sofi. Maybe
Speaker 2: there's a conflict there, and that's the reason well, guess what,
Speaker 2: there's only two times where there's a conflict there, and
Speaker 2: maybe working around this led to some of the back
Speaker 2: to backs. I don't know, but November seventeenth, a gamement
Speaker 2: so far Chargers and Bengals, Clippers take it on the
Speaker 2: Jazz later that night, December eighth, Rams versus Bills, it's
Speaker 2: so far Clippers taken on the Rockets later that night
Speaker 2: into it Dome plan accordingly. I just I don't know
Speaker 2: if there's enough excuses. It just doesn't seem like, you know,
Speaker 2: they're prioritized. And it really hurts the Clippers because we
Speaker 2: know going into this season, as you alluded to their grant,
Speaker 2: as you so articulately mapped out exactly the issues here
Speaker 2: Kawhi Leonard, We're all guessing. Even Brian Seman felt like
Speaker 2: it yesterday on the Clippers Talk podcast. You know, Kawhi
Speaker 2: is probably not playing back to backs this year, and
Speaker 2: you can't really blame the Clippers or Kawhi at this
Speaker 2: point with what we've seen over the last four seasons
Speaker 2: where he either hasn't been able to start a playoff
Speaker 2: run or finish a playoff run. It has been extruciatingly
Speaker 2: frustrating I know for Clipper Nation and especially for Kawhi Leonard,
Speaker 2: but if anybody should get a little bit of a
Speaker 2: pass in this situation, you would think it would be
Speaker 2: him because of his injury history. It just I don't
Speaker 2: like saying it is what it is, But unfortunately his
Speaker 2: body has been betraying him.
Speaker 3: So when you're the Clippers, and you already know.
Speaker 2: Going into these sixteen back to backs, there's a real
Speaker 2: good chance Kauhi is only playing in you know, none
Speaker 2: of the back to backs, either front end or the
Speaker 2: back end. That's the only time you're gonna get him
Speaker 2: In a season where they don't have Paul George, it's
Speaker 2: him and James Harden trying to carry the load. That
Speaker 2: just makes things that much more difficult.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And that's the thing about it too, is that
Speaker 1: I don't think fans really understand that you don't have
Speaker 1: the I guess supplemental firepower on the offensive end to
Speaker 1: kind of sustain those back to backs like you did
Speaker 1: last year. You know, last year, if Kawhi was out,
Speaker 1: you still had a big three of Russell Westbrook, James Harden,
Speaker 1: and Paul George. You know, if Paul George is out,
Speaker 1: you still had Kawhi, Harden Russ and Norm Powell. Now
Speaker 1: I'm more high on the Clippers than a lot of people,
Speaker 1: and I think there's a Bleacher Report article that came
Speaker 1: out today just saying that the Clippers would be the
Speaker 1: twelve seed. I'm sure we'll get to that. But again,
Speaker 1: now this year, it's going to be more crucial than
Speaker 1: ever to play better in those back to backs, to
Speaker 1: make sure that when you go into these back to
Speaker 1: back situations that the games before that you take care
Speaker 1: of business. And especially in a Western conference where everyone
Speaker 1: I feel like is going to get better at them,
Speaker 1: these back to backs really hurt. And you know, like
Speaker 1: you mentioned, a lot of people are going to think
Speaker 1: that we're complaining, we're whining as people that deal with
Speaker 1: this all the time. But it is ridiculous. I mean,
Speaker 1: like you said, the Lakers the Warriors have less back
Speaker 1: to backs, and they are I mean, the Lakers are
Speaker 1: sharing an arena with the Kings and the sparks and
Speaker 1: concerts and everything as well.
Speaker 2: So Ryan Dodd is asking specifically about the Lakers. They
Speaker 2: have thirteen instances of back to backs. The Clippers have
Speaker 2: three more at sixteen.
Speaker 1: Continue grand Yeah, So again I think This boils down
Speaker 1: to if it was a full roster with Paul George,
Speaker 1: where you can get that twenty points per game, you know,
Speaker 1: score back in the lineup, and you could still have
Speaker 1: a very good big three with those three guys without
Speaker 1: one of your big stars, and I think we would
Speaker 1: be kind of a little bit better on this. But
Speaker 1: with the team right now as it's built, it's really
Speaker 1: defensive centric, and then the offense is going to have
Speaker 1: to find a way. With Norm Powell, Harden and Kawhi,
Speaker 1: I feel like those three are going to lead the
Speaker 1: team an offensive output. Now. I know that a Vitza,
Speaker 1: Zubats and Terrence Mann are going to pick up the slack,
Speaker 1: and I think they'll be a lot better this year
Speaker 1: in terms of volume. But these back to backs not
Speaker 1: just hurt in terms of the fatigue in terms of
Speaker 1: what it means to the team going forward, but you know,
Speaker 1: where are they going to get some of these scoring?
Speaker 1: Where are they going to get some scoring when there
Speaker 1: are going to be drafts right There are going to
Speaker 1: be scoring droughts, There is going to be tired legs.
Speaker 1: And I think that's why the front office kind of
Speaker 1: went out there and said, hey, let's get some athleticism,
Speaker 1: let's get some defensive guys. Let's bring in JVG and
Speaker 1: kind of go based off that. Maybe they were predicting
Speaker 1: that we would get a lot of back to backs.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure, and stick it a little bit with
Speaker 2: the schedule before we move it forward. I just want
Speaker 2: to point out a couple other features during this eighty
Speaker 2: to two game schedule for the Clippers. Now, obviously you
Speaker 2: play everyone four times in your division.
Speaker 3: They're in the pactive as check. My Sckler would say.
Speaker 2: They also play the Thunder four times. They also played
Speaker 2: the Mavericks four times. They also play the Rockets in
Speaker 2: Spurs and Blazers four times. So don't that's decently balanced.
Speaker 2: I would say Rockets, Spurs, and Blazers. They're probably fortunate
Speaker 2: to get the Spurs and Blazers, although be careful what
Speaker 2: you wish for.
Speaker 3: Wemby could turn into the I.
Speaker 2: Don't know, a top ten player by the end of
Speaker 2: this season. He's that incredible. They played the Nuggets once
Speaker 2: at home, two times away, the Timberwolves once at home,
Speaker 2: two times away.
Speaker 3: That's not great.
Speaker 2: Pelicans once at home, two times away. We know how
Speaker 2: it goes against the Pelicans, the Jazz, they get them
Speaker 2: twice at home, once away. Grizzlies twice at home once away. Remember,
Speaker 2: the Grizzlies just are a season removed from being the
Speaker 2: number two seed in the Western Conference. You expect them
Speaker 2: to be much more in the mix of being a
Speaker 2: top five team with joh healthy. Again, if you go
Speaker 2: games by month, just five in October, of course, is
Speaker 2: the NBA season is just tipping off sixteen games in November,
Speaker 2: ten in December, but then plus two for the NBA Cup,
Speaker 2: fifteen games in January, tough, ten games in February, seventeen
Speaker 2: games in March. Isn't that the exact same number odds
Speaker 2: of March that they had over this past season that
Speaker 2: everyone was fearful of going into the last year at
Speaker 2: Crypto dot Cabareta.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and exactly. And that's I feel like a little
Speaker 1: bit of a reason why after that All Star Breaker,
Speaker 1: after that Grammy trip, we saw kind of a slowdown
Speaker 1: with the Clippers, or they had that stretch where you,
Speaker 1: like we both mentioned, we were walking out of that
Speaker 1: arena saying what is going on with this team? It's
Speaker 1: because of games like that, and again, the strength of
Speaker 1: schedule behind the Portland Trailblazers is a little bit ridiculous too.
Speaker 1: But again it's balanced enough to where you can throw
Speaker 1: in some teams that we probably won't be doing very
Speaker 1: well here and there. But again, in the second half
Speaker 1: of the season, it's going to be a struggle. Again,
Speaker 1: it's going to be a long, long trip after the
Speaker 1: All Star break. It's going to be tough after the
Speaker 1: All Star breaks. So and that's where a lot of
Speaker 1: these veteran players kind of wear down a little bit.
Speaker 1: So again, they didn't make it easy for the in
Speaker 1: the for the second half of the season.
Speaker 3: And I believe your number was correct.
Speaker 2: Seventeen of their last twenty nine games will be road
Speaker 2: games for an older veteran team that could be on
Speaker 2: the bubble of just trying to get out of the
Speaker 2: plane and being a top six seed health permitted. And
Speaker 2: that's just if you're saying Kawhi and James Harden are
Speaker 2: both able to go sixty plus games. Yeah, this was
Speaker 2: not great news for Clipper Nation. Unfortunately today it's not
Speaker 2: exactly what we're looking for from the schedule release. We
Speaker 2: won't belabor it anymore. Here's something good.
Speaker 3: Into it.
Speaker 2: Dome opens up tonight, Bruno Mars is opening things up.
Speaker 2: I'm not as familiar with his music. He did the
Speaker 2: Super Bowl a few years back. He is an incredible
Speaker 2: live performance. When it comes to playing and singing at
Speaker 2: the same time and staying in key. Bruno Mars is
Speaker 2: a as elite as it gets, and I'm interested to
Speaker 2: hear tonight. I don't know if you're going Grant, but
Speaker 2: I'm interested to hear the reception how loud it gets,
Speaker 2: because this is what interests me most. We're all gonna
Speaker 2: find out together at the same time, how loud crypto
Speaker 2: into a dome can get.
Speaker 3: How loud we know how loud.
Speaker 2: Crypto could get Game six against the Utah Jazz Brian
Speaker 2: Seman said this yesterday on the podcast. He said, when
Speaker 2: they did that test display, I don't know if you
Speaker 2: were there for this, with six thousand people scattered throughout
Speaker 2: into a dome, it got up to one hundred and
Speaker 2: twelve decibels. Now I'm from Norcaal, I'm from Sacramento. I
Speaker 2: remember during NBC games they used to bring out a
Speaker 2: sound meter to test the decibel levels and one ten
Speaker 2: was loud. I think one twenty or one thirty is
Speaker 2: a jet engines something like that. So just six thousand
Speaker 2: people meaning three times that is when into it Doma's
Speaker 2: at full capacity. I can't imagine how loud it's going
Speaker 2: to get and we're all gonna find out at the
Speaker 2: same time exactly.
Speaker 1: And I think that's what Steve in the front office
Speaker 1: really put into account, is like, we want the acoustics
Speaker 1: to be good, because trust me, I've been to concerts
Speaker 1: at Crypto dot Com Arena. I've been to concerts at Sofi.
Speaker 3: You know what about Crypto. I just want to say this.
Speaker 3: You know this trick too.
Speaker 2: If you're there early pregame, before the crowd fills in,
Speaker 2: the concerts sound great.
Speaker 3: Oh the warm up.
Speaker 2: Performances, their sound checks are amazing. It's when the crowd
Speaker 2: comes in that screws up the acoustics in the building
Speaker 2: at Crypto dot Com Arena exactly.
Speaker 1: And you know, I think that what they tried to do.
Speaker 1: And a lot of people are saying, oh, well, it's
Speaker 1: a small arena. It's you know, it's not going to
Speaker 1: hold a lot of people. I think that was the
Speaker 1: main point, right. You want it to be an intimate
Speaker 1: ecit experience. You want it to have better acoustics than Sofi,
Speaker 1: and I know Sofi is a huge stadium. You want
Speaker 1: to have better acoustics and Crypto dot Kam arena. So
Speaker 1: hopefully that's the case atom because you know, from when
Speaker 1: I was there and I toured it and I did
Speaker 1: my whole video, it sounded really amazing. And again I
Speaker 1: think that for these concerts it's going to be a
Speaker 1: really fun experience because the lighting on the halo board
Speaker 1: is going to reflect on to the top of the dome.
Speaker 1: You're gonna have the use of the halo board because
Speaker 1: Adam I mentioned this in a few lives that I
Speaker 1: did for the Sporting Tribute, They're actually going to activate
Speaker 1: the full halo board front and back at Sofi Stadium.
Speaker 1: Initially they didn't do that. You could only use like
Speaker 1: your own screens or a portion of the screen. So
Speaker 1: I'm pretty excited to see kind of the logistics of
Speaker 1: it how it's gonna work with the concerts, because you know,
Speaker 1: by what they're saying and by when I was there,
Speaker 1: every seat, even if you're at the top, even if
Speaker 1: you get one of the cheap seats, it's gonna be
Speaker 1: a great experience because that halo boards right in your
Speaker 1: face and it's closer to the floor. So again, I
Speaker 1: think that the whole concept of this, with a better acoustics,
Speaker 1: it should play out good on paper. But again we're
Speaker 1: just gonna have to wait and see. I'm worried about that,
Speaker 1: and I'm worried about the logistics of the parking because
Speaker 1: I've been to many RAMS games. I go to almost
Speaker 1: every RAMS home game, and I do the tailgates and
Speaker 1: all that stuff, and it is a mess down there
Speaker 1: in Inglewood. So the free shuttle parking is gonna be key.
Speaker 1: And just the logistics of how they're gonna work all
Speaker 1: that out for this concert, I'm I'm really excited to
Speaker 1: see that part of it, honestly, And I know that
Speaker 1: sounds really boring, but I'm just maybe that kind of person.
Speaker 2: Caesar Gamero says here on the Clippers Talk Live. Do
Speaker 2: you guys think pg would get booze or cheers when we.
Speaker 3: Match up against him?
Speaker 2: Well, he's returning November sixth, That's probably one of the
Speaker 2: biggest games of note on the schedule. He will be
Speaker 2: it into it, dumb his first time back in LA
Speaker 2: since leaving the Clippers. On November sixth. I think the
Speaker 2: majority maybe sixty forty of people will be booing it
Speaker 2: this time because of what he said about the B
Speaker 2: team comments and those booze could be very loud considering
Speaker 2: the sound set up there head into it.
Speaker 1: Zoe Grant, Yeah, I agree with you. I think that
Speaker 1: especially with the wall too. You're gonna have the wall
Speaker 1: like right against the away team bench, and the the
Speaker 1: away team is gonna have to come through the wall essentially,
Speaker 1: So I think that will probably be Adam, you put
Speaker 1: it at sixty forty, it maybe seventy thirty. I mean,
Speaker 1: I've seen a lot of Clipper fans on social media like, oh,
Speaker 1: I can't wait to boo this guy. There are people
Speaker 1: that say I'm taking time off of work to go
Speaker 1: to boo Paul George. So but in my opinion, Adam,
Speaker 1: this is how I feel about it. He was a
Speaker 1: main part of why the Clippers got to a conference final.
Speaker 1: He was a big part of that. He is a
Speaker 1: Clipper legend in my opinion. He's a top three, four
Speaker 1: or five Clipper player in history. So his tribute video
Speaker 1: should be good. But the way it exited, the way
Speaker 1: he exited, the way it went, and Round one of
Speaker 1: the playoffs against the Mavericks. The way he talked about
Speaker 1: the team after free agency, it leaves a bad taste
Speaker 1: in a lot of Clipper fans' mouths. So I feel
Speaker 1: like every time he touches the ball, he'll get booed.
Speaker 1: He'll probably get booed when he's introduced in the starting lineup.
Speaker 1: That's if he plays that game. I know there's been
Speaker 1: a lot of talk about is he actually gonna play
Speaker 1: against Kawhi, Is he gonna guard Kawhi? Is he gonna
Speaker 1: guard Harden?
Speaker 2: But I think game winner over him before.
Speaker 1: Exactly, Yeah, when he was on Indiana Paul George, So listen,
Speaker 1: I think that you know, when that tribute video does play,
Speaker 1: he should get around of a pause, he should get
Speaker 1: a standing ovation. But everything around that, Adam, it's gonna
Speaker 1: be loud with booze, and it's gonna be very dome.
Speaker 3: It's gonna be fair game.
Speaker 2: Because he hurt himself. I think he was his own
Speaker 2: worst enemy. I understand you have a podcast, you have
Speaker 2: to talk a lot. Sometimes the stuff that comes out
Speaker 2: of my mouth if I'm doing a really long episode
Speaker 2: talking late night Clippers talk, it's ill advised and I
Speaker 2: get a little bit loose with it, especially if it's
Speaker 2: safe harbor hours.
Speaker 3: It happens when you're talking so much.
Speaker 2: But it was just so unnecessary for him to take
Speaker 2: that shot at the Clippers. With the way I would
Speaker 2: say this, with the way Clipper Nation treated his podcast,
Speaker 2: I don't know if it gets off the ground without
Speaker 2: Clipper Nation support for his podcast. They had his back,
Speaker 2: They helped the viewership, the listenership. So as talented as
Speaker 2: I think he is and can be as a broadcaster,
Speaker 2: because he has humor to him, he's self deprecating. There
Speaker 2: was a misstep with him calling them the B team
Speaker 2: and buying the hand that fed him for so long.
Speaker 2: With Clipper Nation, who they were in the trenches defending
Speaker 2: him after what happened in the bubble. Some of them
Speaker 2: were defending him after what happened against Dallas this past season.
Speaker 2: I really couldn't anymore after that. It made things much
Speaker 2: more difficult. But okay, we can move on from Paul George.
Speaker 2: We've talked about him extensively. I do want you to
Speaker 2: plug your YouTube video of the into a Dome experience
Speaker 2: you had because you got in about two weeks early.
Speaker 2: I just got in there on Sunday, I.
Speaker 3: Did get a private tour, and there was some stuff
Speaker 3: that I.
Speaker 2: Couldn't show, and I turned it into more of a
Speaker 2: quick four minute TikTok video with graphics and all these things.
Speaker 3: But yours was very thorough.
Speaker 2: You took the fans everywhere from your point of view,
Speaker 2: did some nice narration too. Just tell them where they
Speaker 2: can find it, because I think it's got over one
Speaker 2: hundred k views already.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I went into that. I got an
Speaker 1: email from the Clippers and they're like, hey, you have
Speaker 1: two dates to do this. It's either August eleventh or
Speaker 1: it's July twenty seventh, and I said, I want to
Speaker 1: get in there as soon as possible. I've been waiting
Speaker 1: on this. So you can find it at money mo
Speaker 1: Media on YouTube. I also have TikTok at money moow
Speaker 1: Media TV, where I have a bunch of clips from
Speaker 1: that long vlog that I did. But yeah, you know, essentially, Adam,
Speaker 1: when I went into that, you know, and I knew
Speaker 1: I was covering the Clippers this year full time as
Speaker 1: a full season credential. But what I wanted to really give,
Speaker 1: and this is why I this is what my pages
Speaker 1: are dedicated around, is just bringing a fans perspective to
Speaker 1: media because a lot of the times, the way the
Speaker 1: Clippers are perceived in media, the way it's you know,
Speaker 1: told in media, the way you.
Speaker 2: Give too much of a fan perspective, You're going to
Speaker 2: get your potential.
Speaker 3: That's all I'm saying. Don't good.
Speaker 2: Yeah on the team though, so I don't you're okay.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to do a stand perspective. I'm going
Speaker 1: to do a fan perspective there. But in any case,
Speaker 1: I just wanted to give fans like when you're at
Speaker 1: the arena, when you just get there. I wanted to
Speaker 1: I wanted to do it from the parking to across
Speaker 1: the bridge, to get to the end. I wanted to
Speaker 1: do all the intricacies because we all know about the
Speaker 1: halo board, we all know about how it looks, we
Speaker 1: all know about a lot of that stuff what people
Speaker 1: don't really know. And you put this on on your
Speaker 1: socials as well as the controllers at every seat, the
Speaker 1: leg room, the plush seating, the high school uniform wall,
Speaker 1: how you can access that, how the zoom through is
Speaker 1: going to work. You know what the concourses look like,
Speaker 1: how you're going to navigate some of your seats and
Speaker 1: all that stuff. That's a lot of the things that
Speaker 1: people don't really know when they're going into a new arena,
Speaker 1: and a lot of people may skip over. So I
Speaker 1: just wanted to give it from that fans perspective, because
Speaker 1: when you're walking in for the first time, I wanted
Speaker 1: you to be a little bit more familiar with how
Speaker 1: the concourse works, how the stadium works, how it looks,
Speaker 1: how you're going to get there, how you're going to
Speaker 1: get out, the atmosphere. And obviously I went during the
Speaker 1: day and it's going to look awesome at night with
Speaker 1: the lighting on the dome. So but yeah, I just
Speaker 1: wanted to That's my main message with all my pages.
Speaker 1: I want to make sure that you know, we have
Speaker 1: a fans perspective in the media. And look, I don't
Speaker 1: want to make it a negative fans perspective, because we
Speaker 1: have a lot of negativity in the Clipper fan base,
Speaker 1: but I think it's important for the fans to be heard,
Speaker 1: and you know, especially look look at how the NBA
Speaker 1: treats the Clippers. We kind of know how they're treated
Speaker 1: in national media.
Speaker 2: All right, we'll close things out with this. I want
Speaker 2: to chop it up with you a little bit, but
Speaker 2: I want to turn things around where you can be
Speaker 2: the interviewer. I'll be the interviewee, but then I might
Speaker 2: come right back at you. But you can put out
Speaker 2: the jumping off point with the question here. We're calling
Speaker 2: it amac ask me anything, Clippers, and if you guys
Speaker 2: want to get involved in the chat, throw it on here.
Speaker 3: We could start with Luis Limos.
Speaker 2: He said, I might be delusional, but I think Clippers
Speaker 2: will be better than last year. Grant, if you want
Speaker 2: to answer that question, since you are now the interviewer,
Speaker 2: go ahead, my friend.
Speaker 1: I am going to say no to that, just because
Speaker 1: they just lost a twenty point per game score. The
Speaker 1: West got better, The Grizzlies are going to be better.
Speaker 1: You know, there's going to be a lot of teams
Speaker 1: that are going to be fighting for those top four seeds.
Speaker 1: And if we remember, the Clippers almost lost that number
Speaker 1: four seed to the Dallas Mavericks late in the year,
Speaker 1: and that was with four stars. Now the Clippers have
Speaker 1: two guys plus a lot of depth, of course, but
Speaker 1: I just think I saw them more in the six
Speaker 1: through nine slot. These six through nine spots, that's just
Speaker 1: where I have the team. So I'm not gonna call
Speaker 1: Luis delusional, but I love that the positivity, but I'm
Speaker 1: going to humbly disagree at them.
Speaker 2: It's hard to make the argument that they're going to
Speaker 2: be better than the four seed in at least heading
Speaker 2: into this year one of the toughest Western conferences, a
Speaker 2: gauntlet like I don't know. I know we say this
Speaker 2: going into every season, but this year, with young teams
Speaker 2: getting better like the Houston Rockets, like the San Antonio Spurs,
Speaker 2: and then as you mentioned, with Memphis getting a job back,
Speaker 2: I just don't see many teams dropping off. In fact,
Speaker 2: there could be an argument that if there was one
Speaker 2: team that could drop off, I think the national media
Speaker 2: and you spoke about this recently where somebody had them
Speaker 2: ranked twelve, would say it's the Clippers because they lost
Speaker 2: Paul George.
Speaker 3: So other teams may be.
Speaker 2: Gaining on them while they're falling back to the pack
Speaker 2: a little bit more. And I agree with you, somewhere
Speaker 2: between six and nine. Brian Seaman also nice. Brian Seaman
Speaker 2: also said on the podcast yesterday that he believes their
Speaker 2: ceiling is about the sixth seed with the current roster
Speaker 2: construction that is, but you got an ammac for me?
Speaker 3: Ask me anything.
Speaker 1: Clippers I do. And I've been wondering about this for
Speaker 1: a while. With the departure of Paul George, right and
Speaker 1: we know that how good of a score he is.
Speaker 1: You know, he's an All Star caliber player, Somebody's going
Speaker 1: to have to step up and take that role. And
Speaker 1: I'm not going to say that they're going to match
Speaker 1: the output of that. But Norm Powell, he's been a
Speaker 1: mainstay in this team for a long time. Adam, what
Speaker 1: do you think his role is going to be? Because
Speaker 1: on many occasions over the past two years, for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: he said, I'm trying to be an All Star, and
Speaker 1: in my mind I was always like, not yet, buddy,
Speaker 1: You're probably going to be a six Man of the year,
Speaker 1: but not All Star level. This year, I feel like
Speaker 1: he's going to have to pick up the slack and
Speaker 1: be an eighteen to twel point per game score to
Speaker 1: kind of pick up the slack for what Paul George
Speaker 1: will be missing from this Clippers line, because what we
Speaker 1: all know, the defensive part of it is going to
Speaker 1: be a lot better. Jeff Van Gundy coming in is
Speaker 1: going to change that. Derek Jones junior, being a great defender,
Speaker 1: a guy who locked up Paul George in the first
Speaker 1: round over the past playoffs, He's going to be a
Speaker 1: great part of this. Chris Dunn, who's replacing basically the
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook role, is one of the best guard defenders
Speaker 1: in the NBA. So Norm Powell on the offensive end,
Speaker 1: I feel like there's a runway for him right at
Speaker 1: him to kind of take another step. And I know
Speaker 1: that a Vitza Zubats is going to take another step
Speaker 1: Terrence Man, but Norm Powell, this is kind of what
Speaker 1: Norm has been waiting for, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is green light Norm. I think it's a
Speaker 2: great observation because Norman Powell, I've always felt like has
Speaker 2: more to his game than we've seen. This is somebody
Speaker 2: who dropped forty points in a playoff game for the
Speaker 2: Clippers against the Phoenix Suns when they were down many men.
Speaker 2: No Kawhi, no Paul George in that series in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty three, at least Kawhi after the first two games.
Speaker 2: He's capable of offensive explosions. It's really comes to me
Speaker 2: with Norman Palett comes down to can he do enough
Speaker 2: of the little things to not be a negative. Can
Speaker 2: he do enough of the little things when it comes
Speaker 2: to guarding his man and I think, you know, he
Speaker 2: has long arms, he has quick feet. He showed a
Speaker 2: higher for pensity to play defense. I felt like when
Speaker 2: he was on the Toronto Raptors and the stakes rated
Speaker 2: their highest at that time, I felt like, you know,
Speaker 2: he hung his hat on his defense.
Speaker 3: Coming out of UCLA.
Speaker 2: Nobody expected him to turn into this high efficiency three
Speaker 2: point shooter like he has been in the league. But
Speaker 2: it's come maybe at the cost of his defense at times.
Speaker 2: Now coming into last year, he did say that was
Speaker 2: the first year he kind of put the All Star
Speaker 2: goal behind him, and I think it worked out. He
Speaker 2: didn't finish top three and six Man of the Year voting.
Speaker 2: I thought he should have easily because of I think
Speaker 2: he ended up point total wise the leading scorer off
Speaker 2: the bench in the NBA. He shot forty four percent
Speaker 2: from three. They didn't put him in a three point test.
Speaker 2: He's got all these chips on his shoulder to stack
Speaker 2: up like a Las Potato can or make it a
Speaker 2: pringals where I could see what you're saying that this
Speaker 2: is Norman Powell's big opportunity if he wanted to gun
Speaker 2: for an All Star Game spot in the Western Conference.
Speaker 2: He may get his shot because last year he only
Speaker 2: averaged around eleven points per game. So this year I
Speaker 2: think Norman Powell make it, make it fourteen.
Speaker 3: Excuse me.
Speaker 2: I was looking at shot attempts where he was at ten,
Speaker 2: which was actually for him last year. Just at ten
Speaker 2: shot attempts field goal attempts per game. That's basically a
Speaker 2: career low at least since he turned in to a
Speaker 2: more high level score. So he might be chomping at
Speaker 2: the bit right now, practicing putting in extra work knowing
Speaker 2: that you know what, I got to work out my
Speaker 2: shoulders a little bit here. I got more shots to
Speaker 2: put up. Paul George was taken on sixteen per game
Speaker 2: in the playoffs, but those shots that that production that's
Speaker 2: missing from Paul George has to be redistributed throughout the
Speaker 2: t Norm Powell, I would expect him to get up
Speaker 2: to fourteen shot attempts per game now and maybe for
Speaker 2: the Clippers to really be successful when you talk about
Speaker 2: his impact and what they're going to need from him
Speaker 2: if they're going to be a team that is trying
Speaker 2: to stay out of the plan. He probably has to
Speaker 2: average between sixteen to twenty points a game, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree with you. I think the next step
Speaker 1: for him is stepping in. Now. Look, he's not going
Speaker 1: to have the games that Paul George did where it's
Speaker 1: like thirty five points on great efficiency, but he can
Speaker 1: have eighteen to twenty points per game. He's shown, like
Speaker 1: you mentioned, he's shown the willingness to be a good defender.
Speaker 1: When he was with Toronto, I always saw him as
Speaker 1: a two way guy, a guy that can play both
Speaker 1: sides of the ball. And obviously as his scoring went
Speaker 1: up when he went to Portland and when he came
Speaker 1: to the Clippers, he started to become more of that
Speaker 1: one dimensional guy with the scoring. But I've always thought,
Speaker 1: like you mentioned, I was at that game where he
Speaker 1: scored forty plus points with Russell Westbrook without Kawhi PG,
Speaker 1: and that's the pure scorer that Norm is. We saw
Speaker 1: him last year in a lot of different games where
Speaker 1: you can just put him in the corner and he
Speaker 1: can shot fake you get to the rim, he can
Speaker 1: put it up from three. He was one of the
Speaker 1: best three point shooters in all of the NBA. So
Speaker 1: it's not out of the realm Adam that he can
Speaker 1: get to eighteen to twenty, especially now with the runway
Speaker 1: that he has. I'm just curious to see how they
Speaker 1: use him because a lot of people were saying that
Speaker 1: the Halo board gave away some things in terms of
Speaker 1: what they want the starting lineup to be. Will they
Speaker 1: put him in the starting lineup? I don't think they will.
Speaker 1: I think they should stick with tea men in the
Speaker 1: starting lineup. You've been a big advocate of that for
Speaker 1: a long time, just based off of what I've been
Speaker 1: listening to, and I completely agree with you. Terrence Man
Speaker 1: was one of the best shooters in the NBA in
Speaker 1: the year twenty twenty four after it turned the calendar,
Speaker 1: so I think that he should be a mainstream lineups.
Speaker 1: But I'm just curious to see how the team uses
Speaker 1: norm because if he can be a little bit of
Speaker 1: a better defender, he doesn't have to be a great passer.
Speaker 1: I think that the runway is clear for him to
Speaker 1: be eighteen to twenty.
Speaker 2: He's never excelled as being much of a connector. He's
Speaker 2: excelled when he makes decisive decisions out there. What he
Speaker 2: is making quick movements going to his right where he
Speaker 2: can be a blur or putting up shots from the
Speaker 2: outside on catch and shoot threes. You got another amac
Speaker 2: for me, asking.
Speaker 1: Clippers, I got one more for you, And this is
Speaker 1: one that has been on my mind as well, the
Speaker 1: defensive aspect of this, because a lot of people are
Speaker 1: kind of I feel like overlooking how much better the
Speaker 1: Clippers will probably be on the defensive end. Yes, they
Speaker 1: lost Paul George. Yes he was a good defender, but
Speaker 1: he wasn't He really wasn't the same defender that he
Speaker 1: was in twenty nineteen and twenty eighteen with Oklahoma City Thunder,
Speaker 1: and I guess you could say even twenty twenty and
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one. But the Clippers got Derek Jones junior
Speaker 1: Chris Dunn. They still have PJ. Tucker, and I think
Speaker 1: that they're probably going to keep him at this point.
Speaker 1: But they got Jeff Van Gundi as the lead I
Speaker 1: guess he's going to be the lead assistant or the
Speaker 1: lead defensive guy to replace Dan Craig. So again, there
Speaker 1: are a lot of things to like in terms of
Speaker 1: the defense. Niko Batoum a guy that all Clipper fans love,
Speaker 1: a guy that I love, who in the Olympics, looked
Speaker 1: like he could guard anybody. You're gonna have all those
Speaker 1: guys around Kawhi, and I know James Harden has had
Speaker 1: his moments, but I really feel like the defensive ceiling
Speaker 1: for this team is top ten, maybe top five if
Speaker 1: everything goes well. Now, obviously that's being really really positive
Speaker 1: about the whole situation, but for you, do you see
Speaker 1: a huge leap because for whatever reason, you had wings stop,
Speaker 1: you had, you know, those years of having so many
Speaker 1: wings on the team, and they were really never an
Speaker 1: elite defense. They were an elite defense for that whole
Speaker 1: January month where they went twenty six and five, but
Speaker 1: they were never really a top team throughout the whole year.
Speaker 1: I feel like this year, with the personnel that they have,
Speaker 1: they can probably be top ten the entirety of the year.
Speaker 1: So I just want to see where you kind of
Speaker 1: have them ranked in terms of the defense or do
Speaker 1: you think that it's probably just going to be middle
Speaker 1: to pack Again.
Speaker 2: It's felt like to me that they've had slippage on
Speaker 2: the defensive end. Basically coming out of training camp, they
Speaker 2: were locked in, laser focused on that end, and then
Speaker 2: things would deteriorate as the season would go along. You
Speaker 2: look at early on last year, the first ten games
Speaker 2: or so, because if you just go off the last
Speaker 2: seventy one games last season, they were twenty first defensively.
Speaker 3: I mean, that's brutal.
Speaker 2: That is an alarming number for a team that did
Speaker 2: say in training camp our goal is to be a
Speaker 2: top five defense and to get back to playing defense.
Speaker 2: I think top five this year is still aspirational. I
Speaker 2: think it's not a bad goal to have. I just
Speaker 2: think about how Kawhi can still be an elite defender
Speaker 2: on that end when he's right, because I think last
Speaker 2: season may have been his best year defensively as a Clipper,
Speaker 2: just watching him possession to possession, his individual defense, shouting
Speaker 2: out a Visa Zubas for being out of position that
Speaker 2: one time. He seemed like he was really trying to
Speaker 2: lead on that end. When he was off the floor,
Speaker 2: things typically fell apart there and that's how you end
Speaker 2: up with twenty first defensively over the last seventy one games.
Speaker 2: My question is, as it always is, how many games
Speaker 2: is Kawhi Leonard going to play for them to be
Speaker 2: a top five defense. I think it would mean he's
Speaker 2: playing sixty five plus games at least, and that's hard
Speaker 2: to see at the moment with just the injury history,
Speaker 2: it's very difficult. Now, can they be top ten? Do
Speaker 2: they need to be top ten to have a chance
Speaker 2: to get out of play in? Of course, I would
Speaker 2: say they need to be somewhere seven or eight, and
Speaker 2: then offensively just be in the hunt of being I
Speaker 2: don't know, twelve or thirteen. If they could marry those
Speaker 2: two numbers and then your overall net rating is still
Speaker 2: top ten, that's how you make it to that sixth
Speaker 2: spot in the Western Conference. To me, it's a lot
Speaker 2: to ask. But defensively, they do have at least more
Speaker 2: of an identity.
Speaker 3: They're building on that end.
Speaker 2: One of the things I've really liked from Jeff Van
Speaker 2: Gundy being here and what Lawrence Frank has done since
Speaker 2: they lost Paul George. As you mentioned, the move they
Speaker 2: make immediately is in Derek Jones Junior, so they kind
Speaker 2: of tip their hand, Oh, we're leaning into defense. We're
Speaker 2: going to try to surround Kawhi with great defenders like
Speaker 2: Terrence Man, like Derreck Jones Junior, like Chris Dunn. So
Speaker 2: there's less of a load on him to have to
Speaker 2: guard the other team's best or second best player, or
Speaker 2: even third best player, because we have all these other
Speaker 2: guys that can supplement some of this less wear in
Speaker 2: Tarran Kawai's body. But also it just shows a direction
Speaker 2: that I don't know, you know, over the last couple
Speaker 2: of seasons, I don't know what their identity was. It's
Speaker 2: just a really talented team that one night could look
Speaker 2: like the best team in the NBA, and another night,
Speaker 2: when they don't put it all together or they don't
Speaker 2: have the same level of effort and intensity out there,
Speaker 2: they look like a bottom ten team in the NBA.
Speaker 2: That's what it's felt like at times, and it's a
Speaker 2: given because of guys being in and out of the lineup.
Speaker 2: But I'm at least encouraged by the fact that the
Speaker 2: roster is being constructed in a way where you can
Speaker 2: see there is some intelligent design going on with the
Speaker 2: way they want to play basketball now the Clippers, because
Speaker 2: I think this was mentioned on The Lab the Jam
Speaker 2: the podcast recently, But you could win a lot of
Speaker 2: games being a top ten defense in this league during
Speaker 2: the regular season. You hang your head on that end,
Speaker 2: and you consistently give that effort.
Speaker 3: Shots come and go.
Speaker 2: But if your defense is always there, you got a
Speaker 2: chance every night.
Speaker 1: Right, yeah, exactly, And I feel like that's the model
Speaker 1: now with a lot of teams, right, you see some
Speaker 1: of the top teams in the league, and especially in
Speaker 1: the West, they had a great defense. Now the thunder
Speaker 1: were hovering around eight to ten, but they had a
Speaker 1: really good offense. But again, that was a recipe for
Speaker 1: success for them. That Minnesota Timber was one of the
Speaker 1: best defending teams in the league and they had a
Speaker 1: top seed. Right, So I feel like the Clippers saw that,
Speaker 1: they saw what happened in the playoffs, like, hey, we
Speaker 1: have to have guys that can defend. We have to
Speaker 1: have guys that can switch. And I didn't even mention
Speaker 1: Terrence Mann or of Viza Zubats and how good of
Speaker 1: defenders they are. I mean, Terrence Man, I know that
Speaker 1: Luca averaged a lot in the playoffs, but he did
Speaker 1: a very good job. Lucas shot scene exactly exactly. And
Speaker 1: if Vitza Zubats is one of the best defenders against
Speaker 1: kol Jokic in the league, I think maybe the best
Speaker 1: defender against Nikole Jokic in the league, and before his
Speaker 1: calf injury, he was one of the best rim protectors
Speaker 1: in all the NBA. So you put all that together
Speaker 1: and you have a healthy season from Avitza Zubats, you
Speaker 1: have a healthy season from Terrence Man. Along with the
Speaker 1: pieces that they have. It's not out of the realm
Speaker 1: that they're top ten. It's not, you know, out of
Speaker 1: the realm that they'll probably touch a six or a
Speaker 1: seven in terms of defensive ratings. So I think Clipper
Speaker 1: fin should be pretty excited about that, and I'm just
Speaker 1: glad that the front office kind of saw what's going
Speaker 1: on and like, this is the direction we want to take.
Speaker 1: This is the identity that we want to have.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he is Grant Mona Money Mona, as some know him,
Speaker 2: does it for the Sporting Tribune, does a great job,
Speaker 2: really well spoken.
Speaker 3: You're a killer. I need to have you on more often.
Speaker 2: I don't know why I didn't have you all on
Speaker 2: after that conversation we had in the parking lot last season.
Speaker 2: But I really thank you for doing this, taking some
Speaker 2: time out of your day, especially because of the schedule release,
Speaker 2: so it makes it a little bit more of a
Speaker 2: priority to get some content up immediately.
Speaker 3: Thank you great.
Speaker 1: Yeah, of course, Adam, anytime. I'll look forward to our
Speaker 1: future conversations.
Speaker 2: Before we get out of here on Clippers Talk, I
Speaker 2: want to remind you guys, we'll have some more giveaways
Speaker 2: coming up. We'll play the keyword game again, probably next week.
Speaker 2: We'll giveaway another Clippers hat or lanyard or something from
Speaker 2: the flagship store.
Speaker 3: Future guests coming out, No Ego.
Speaker 2: At some point, Carlo Jimenez at some point, Big Brother
Speaker 2: Jake Warner at some point. The clips in Dip guys,
Speaker 2: I think they're coming on very soon here and programming note,
Speaker 2: we'll have a new CND podcast coming out regarding the
Speaker 2: schedule on the clips and Dip side as well. I'm
Speaker 2: Adam Oslin for Grant Mona. This has been another episode.
Speaker 3: Of Clippers Talk Alive. First time. Talk to you next time.