Speaker 1: What is going on? Clippers fans? Welcome to season three,
episode nineteen of Clips and Dip. I am Chuck Mackler,
joined by William Updyke and Adam Austlin. Willis back from Japan.
Speaker 2: I sign his name. His name is a fall out
of may I Clippers Talk. It says it right there.
Speaker 1: You know where to find him. If you want to
send trade ideas, they go directly to Adam. That is
our trade idea department. Will's back from Japan. We are
back to talk the top ten Clippers rotation, what the
heck to expect from the game on Thursday, or I
don't think any starters are gonna play, and whatever else
comes up. If you're watching, thank you so much. If
you're listening, you can watch us on YouTube at YouTube
dot com slash at Clippers podcast. Before we get into
all of the starters and bench stuff, Well, how was Japan?
How many Clippers fans did you see? Was it less
than five? More than one? Uh?
Speaker 2: It was more than one. Like weird, I saw somebody
with the cap and then what was the other piece
of gear that I saw? I think it was just
a shirt. It was just like a straight up it
wasn't the clearly not it wasn't the newest one. It
also wasn't the like the terrible c l A rebrand.
Speaker 3: It was.
Speaker 2: It was the previous, the ster like the ster sterling
errant t shirt.
Speaker 1: Okay, that is genuinely more than I thought you would see.
Speaker 2: Uh two. I was surprised. I mean, and both times
I try to be like, you know, clippers with my
Japanese I know nothing. I know. If it's not like
Arigato or y I have, I'm lost. I'm completely lost.
They were like this large white man offered to clip
my hair.
Speaker 1: I I walked away. He was shouting click, well.
Speaker 2: And like just pointing. It's kind of like it's you know,
it's a it's a weird, it's a weird vibe. So
I can understand why people weren't exactly trying to chop
it up with me.
Speaker 1: That's fair. I wouldn't either in their situation. Yeah, get away,
get away from me, Adam. I don't believe you were
in Japan. How how's your week going? You've been busy?
Speaker 3: I mean I felt like I was in another world
last night.
Speaker 1: Into it thought, but I mean everything that, all the
footage and everyone who was there said it was just.
Speaker 3: Amazing, incredible, incredible opening eye. Even though it was just preseason,
it was still the first basketball game ever played there,
and things went off. I think, I don't want to
say without a hitch, but I was listening to fans
talk about the face recognition stuff and videos of people
doing that, and it looked to be going pretty smoothly
as opposed to the lead up and the concerts and stuff.
They may have smoothed out a lot of kinks right now,
So that was cool to hear.
Speaker 1: Nice, that's great. Yeah, it's like there's also some stuff too.
They did, like preseason video stuff, so the stuff that
was like kind of some like the animations or whatever
the new I feel like saying that for the Halo
Board is disrespectful to what the Halo Board can do.
But like all those packages are gonna be way different
next week for the actual regular season, which is pretty interesting.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think there's more to unleash with the Halo Board.
But they did a couple things that were pretty cool.
They did something called the Mentalist where you use the
controller on your seat and it's like green, blue, yellow, red,
and so they would say, guess what the next color
on the Halo board is going to be, So you
press one. If you get that right, you move on
to the next round, and you keep going, and it
gets to the point where the fastest person who has
gotten it right the last four times in the arena
and they're telling you how many people are still in
the game, how many people are still in the game.
The fastest person to get the last color right, they
can find them in the arena, and I guess they
want to prize somebody last night, whoever it was. So
that's pretty You're gonna go from eighteen thousand people to
one with this game when they play it at full capacity.
Speaker 2: Do you think they could perhaps pour up a Donkey
Kong sixty four and everyone could just watch me play
for a few minutes.
Speaker 3: Dude, Yeah, we'd be so lucky. I mean, let's go
esports or games going on there.
Speaker 1: Esports at the on the Halo board would be I'm
sure they will rent it out in the next couple
of years for like a Doda tournament or something insane.
Speaker 3: Halo on the Halo Board original Xbox Halo.
Speaker 1: Come on, did you see this is the one thing
on Did you see the like remote T shirt guns
in use. Were they using the.
Speaker 3: No that'sachs they didn't go with yet, no whatever from
Battlestar Galactica those robots. No, we didn't get that experience.
They definitely were holding some stuff back and it was
still just awe inspiring being there.
Speaker 2: Well, it wasn't even a capacity they had. They have
sold out though the concerts right like it has been
at capacity. We just haven't seen an act capacity for
a game yet.
Speaker 1: Slipcots sold out two nights in a row. I believe
it into it though, makes sense one of here, dig dude,
that's mud Van. Oh yeah, sorry, you can tell my
my metal or new metal. I don't want to offend
anybody's knowledge. I didn't. I did some. I did see
some people complaining about the halftime show. It was sugar free.
Give him a break, he's an old Oh.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Adam, what were your thoughts on the halftime show?
I didn't hear you chime in.
Speaker 3: I kind of wasn't paying that close attention that it
was just background. Yeah, I don't know. I I God,
I wasn't paying that close attention. What were they saying
about it? Was there a mic issue?
Speaker 2: I was just seeing a lot of like awful on
the timeline, not even like I didn't personally even see
like a lot of descriptors. It just seemed like a
lot of people were unhappy.
Speaker 1: I watched the clip of sugar Free performing at halftime.
He's for those of you who, oh no, if your
listen to this, sugar Free is an older rapper who
raps very quickly, and he wraps off a beat, so
it's not the easiest thing to do live. Look, it
didn't seem like his best performance, but at the same time,
it's preseason. Give sugar Free a break. I'm sure when
they bring him back for the Western Conference Finals, he's
gonna absolutely crush it.
Speaker 3: It's his year too.
Speaker 1: Oh every year is sugar freeze? Yeer, I don't think that.
Speaker 2: I don't think it is it confirmed yet that Fat
Man Scoob has like a lifetime seated into it.
Speaker 1: That is that they're going to keep it empty. Yeah,
they're going to keep it empty for him. They should, Man,
that was genuinely You don't hear a lot of pops
in a stadium as loud as the pop was when
Fat Man Scoop came out. Oh yeah, during that playoff game,
all right, p fat man scoop, all right, let's get
into it. We're talking the Clippers ten man rotation, which
does not include Kawhi Leonard right now. I mean, there's
no real update, right there's no timetable for.
Speaker 2: His return snuff practice with the team, so no change
in status.
Speaker 3: I think it's slicking pretty unlikely he's playing in game one,
considering he was talking about a ramp up and a
build up to playing in that first game. He's not
playing in the preseason game on Thursday, and he's yet
to practice with the team. You just expect, like, Okay,
he moves on to practice five on five contact stuff
and then you play in a game and that stuff
hasn't happened yet. How long that stuff would need to happen? Like,
does that happen for two weeks before he plays in
a game or is that just like a week long
thing you need. I don't know.
Speaker 2: Charles and I were saying that, like, if you're a
Clippers fan, be I in December. I think like I think,
in all likelihood, at the at the earliest, you're looking
at a December a December premiere for Kuhi. I mean,
I hope I'm not even saying that's the most probable scenario.
I'm saying I think that that's the soonest, like I would,
I would be shocked if we see him in November.
Speaker 3: Really, I mean, I'm hopeful for earlier November. But the
only thing I could think is you look at the
early schedule and there's two back to back right away.
Speaker 1: Bingo, so stupid.
Speaker 3: But that's still you know, it doesn't take you all
the way December. I mean getting past that could be
like the first week in November, second week of November.
I don't know, I but you know if it all
depends on how is Ny responds to everything he's doing
right now. Clear this hurdle. Did Denise swell yes or no?
I mean, like that's what I'm thinking is going on.
Speaker 2: I think in post games will be allowed to ask
the me questions, no, are you cam and are you
responding so far?
Speaker 1: And that's what's funny, is the first hurdle for him
to clear as an actual hurdle. They want to see
if he can really get over it. There's no there's
no swelling or anything. So the ten man rotation right now,
Tyl you said last night he's going to start the
season with a ten man rotation doesn't seem that crazy.
We got the starting five, James Harden, Norm Powell, Terrence Man,
Derek Jones, junior A Vitza Zubats. We have the bench five,
which is I'm putting I'm We've talked about the percentages
of his time played in the NBA at certain positions.
KPJ is the backup point guard right now, just based
on what he's familiar with. Chris Dunn back up two,
Coffee be two, three and four, Kai Jones at the five,
who has been getting better in all the preseason games.
Adam Will, What are the kind of the immediate strengths
and weaknesses can we think of for the starters we
can start? Should we start positive? Should we start negative?
Speaker 2: Let's go negative in the silver lining?
Speaker 1: Okay, cool, negative right off the bat. It's gonna be
a common thing that we hear fans talking about and
already have talked about. Is kind of like the spacing right.
You have Harden and Norm who can shoot, and then
everyone else is going to kind of have to earn
that right from other defenses. I think the half court
offense is going to be maybe a little rough to start.
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm glad Norm's starting. I thought this was
going to happen, and like it made sense to me.
You can't just lead into defense and be like, hey,
we're gonna hold into ten points in the first quarter
and we're going to score eleven.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: I don't know if that. I understood everybody's concern with
Norm Powell defensively, but he has played pretty well the
preseason and in the past. He was an above average
defender before Portland. I don't know what happened there.
Speaker 1: We talked about it. We think it was bad habits
from David Cjay.
Speaker 3: It could have been that. Like, it mitigates a lot.
If he just gets back to playing slightly above average defense,
that's all they need from him. Like, I think he's
still capable of that, and so far in the preseasons
looked pretty good. So his spacing and gravity when he
shot forty four percent from three last season, Like, yeah,
they have to respect that. That's huge for this team.
I still have concerns about the half court at times,
but Norm, it's a necessity to have him out there.
I think without Kawhi Leonard, I just don't see another
way to do it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're kind of I mean, you're right, they're pigeonholed
into doing this, right, Like the the score eleven give
up ten, I think is a great way to fuck Well,
what are you worried about with this starting five other
than the spacing and.
Speaker 2: Just I mean, I still think the size is just
gonna it's just gonna be an issue. I you know,
I we kind of had conflicting thoughts. I mean, I
agree with Adam. I think the effort has been there
for Norm Powell. We know that James Harden can be
used effectively in some defensive scenarios. Obviously, we know about
the strips which are I mean, we saw and we
saw in a huge order in the in the last
preseason game that he'll end up playing. And but I
just still think there's there's a clear ceiling to how
this backcourt can kind of defend. Uh and then it's
going to kind of fall on the other three guys
who are you know, all sound all very versatile. Uh
So it's not impossible, but I I do think the
size is going to be an issue. I just don't
see how it couldn't be.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, it is not ideal, Like, there's not
a perfect guy to bring in as that fifth guy
and say we're balanced on offense and defense, just like
we want to be. But then I look at Opening
Night and the team they're playing in the Phoenix Suns,
and it's like, oh, Norm's probably gonna guard Bradley Beal, Katee,
Kevin Porter Junior is gonna be on KD, Terrence Man
is gonna be on Devin Booker. I don't hate that, Like.
Speaker 2: James Harden's not defending Kevin Porter Jr.
Speaker 3: Any of those guys.
Speaker 1: Sorry, Oh, I'm sorry. I thought we were talking starting
fives against the sun starting five. Yeah, you're putting KPJ
in the starting five on Opening Night?
Speaker 3: No? No, no, let's say that Derek Jones Jr. I
keep going DJJ, KPJ, Jeff Van Gundy, jbg J. All
the abbreviations with this team recently, that.
Speaker 1: Too many Breeves, too many breves bro Yeah, okay, yeah,
so you got.
Speaker 3: Norman Bradley Beal, yes, Derek Jones Junior on KD, and
Terrence Man on Devin Booker.
Speaker 1: Cool. Yeah, okay, for sure.
Speaker 3: I'm comfortable with that.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: No, I mean, but that's not every team they're playing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the season borderline.
Speaker 3: Yeah. They do get him twice pretty early.
Speaker 2: And there's just I mean there's some tough covers in
the Western Conference at the guard position. I mean, he's
not thoughise, you know, not tall, I mean, very strong,
very tough to deal with Luca Donchez. I mean, it's
gonna tower over both of that backcourt.
Speaker 3: But I think what they're gonna do is they're gonna
hide him on Jade McDaniels, Yeah, or put him on
Mike Conley and hide James Harden on Jade McDaniels, like
they could hide him on some threes that aren't scores,
you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I like too the chemistry between Terrence and Zoo,
just in terms of Terrence knowing how to funnel guys
and things like that, is going to be huge for
that has to be locked in lockstep for the starting five.
Derek Jones, Junior, Terrence man In, Zoo all have to
be which I'm sure j Van Gundy is getting them on.
I'm not. I don't mean to say it like that.
We've seen them be good at defense in the preseason,
so seeing that all come together with those like that
bottom three of the starting five is crucial for the Clippers,
not you know, getting in these situations where if the
shooting is not really there with the starting five, then
it's there's even more pressure on the bench and even
more weird lineup stuff to happen. We do have a
strength and that we have a top ten, top five
defensive center in the league angling the starting five.
Speaker 3: Yeah, a good backbone and.
Speaker 2: Chuck you haven't heard from you haven't heard years.
Speaker 1: Biggest concern. I think it's streakiness. I think we're gonna
get nights where you know, Norman James Harden are gonna
combine to shoot like sixty five percent or something. It's
just gonna be an unreal you know, first eight minutes
or something like that. And then I'm I'm just worried
that we're not We're only talking to starting five, so
I'm not gonn talking about Harden off the floor yet.
But if Norma Harden are both kind of in jail
or whatever the kids are saying by their defenders, things
become very difficult for the Clippers to score the ball.
Speaker 3: Slow down Harden to slow down the Clippers offense completely.
Kind of like it seems like they're prepared for this
like he's going to play more off ball than we
have seen. Yeah, it's great because he can't just do
everything and run everything all the time at thirty five totally.
Speaker 1: And we saw will and I talked about this a
little bit last night. Derek Jones Junior brought the ball
up quite a bit to like initiate things and stuff
like that. So I've been wanting to see more like
small small screens and stuff like that. We've talked about
Kawhi as a screener, we talked about Terrence as a
screener and stuff like that. So I think they're gonna
wrinkle some of that stuff in. But yeah, man, if
you I mean early in the season, the first month
and a half, they're just gonna throw everything at James
Harden to the opposing team defensively, because why shouldn't they
You have to prove that everyone else can play without
the system kind.
Speaker 2: Of And there's just I mean, this is kind of
like a double sided thing because I think the most
exciting and scary thing about the Clippers is like how
many sort of unknown quantities there there are? Right you know?
Is DJJ is shooting that he enjoyed in the playoffs,
is that going to be sustainable? You know? Can he
open the floor up?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 2: Is are we going to see more offense run through zoo?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 2: Like we you know, there are steps and things that
you can see the ceiling of, but it just remains
to be determined how that is all going to work.
So yeah, I don't know. Like I said, it's a
double edged thing because it is very exciting, but at
the same time, like if it's you know, if we're
getting bad answers to those questions, it's gonna look really
really bad.
Speaker 1: And the defense I feel way better, Like, like I
feel better about the defense seeing Derek Jones Junior buy
in to the new stuff, seeing the older Clippers vets
by into what Jeff and Gundy is bringing.
Speaker 2: How about Kai as a backup? I came away pretty
impressed with that with that performance last game.
Speaker 3: Yes, I mean he was up against Gafford at times.
He actually had a real big man on the other
side to go up against for once.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm like that. I mean, it's a great segue
into the back five because there's gonna be a bunch
of weird lightups. Tyler. We thought Tye has been tinkering
Tie before ten man rotation opens, We've used to usually
he plays like an eight or something like that. With
what con version of the Clippers have been, I.
Speaker 2: Mean, and it kind of begs the question like how
often can this team, like how long can they tread
water if you have a full bench unit out there,
because you know, we don't enjoy the same that we've
had in previous seasons. And Charles and I were talking
about this a little bit last night, but a lot
of our depth is actually kind of relegated to like
two positions maybe three as tween or small forward. So yeah,
I think that that is gonna necessitate a lot of
ingenuity from Tie. But he is the guy to do it,
you know, like if there if there was one guy
that you want in that situation, it has to be him.
And I just hope, I mean really, I just hope
that he can be react without overreacting. And also, you know,
maybe we we can't afford any ten game sample sizes.
Speaker 1: Some inguluity is what we need from the head coach.
Thank you. I love point today a little bit.
Speaker 3: I do have some hope that I don't think we're
going to see any five MANI line changes or anything
like that. After the second preseason game when he tried that,
he was like, yeah, that was my fault when we
started to turn the ball over over and over again.
And then he had the quote there regarding and this
is when people start to thinking, oh, Norm Powell is
definitely gonna be the starter, taking him out early with
a viatza zoo bots to then get him back in
later in the first quarter. Like, I think those two
are going to come out after the first six seven
to eight minutes, maybe six or seven minutes, and come
back in towards the end of the first when Harden
takes a seat, and then they'll bridge the end of
the first into the first five minutes of the second
quarter before James Harden comes back. So I think it'll
be those two paired with a lot of bench guys.
I think it's three guys next to Norman Powell, and
it beatsa zoobots a lot of the time. Three bench guys,
that's a good call.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And then you can have you know, you put
Doune out there with Norm, that's not you know, you
got him to cover defensively, he can take he can
take cover in the one or the two or whoever's
the toughest cover, which is nice. What do you think
of Dun's preseason so far?
Speaker 3: I thought it was everything I needed to see. Like,
that's Chris Dunn. I think he's nuts defensively. The start
of the fourth quarter was pretty crazy last night. I
don't think Dallas made a basket till the seven and
a half minute mark, and the Clippers got like eight
turnovers the first like five minutes of the fourth quarter
and just said we're not letting his score ever right now,
and they had it felt like wing stopper clamp City
was going on. They had a tomb out there. Dunn
was out there for some time, a mere Coffee was
out there. KPJ was out there and was playing good defense.
Williams then came in later in the fourth Like, I
don't know, Chris Dunn has had some incredible defensive plays
so far the preseason. It's his offense that you worry about.
And is he gonna make threes? Like, I don't know
what's real with him. I don't think what has happened
the last eighty eight games, which is the last two
years in Utah where he shot over forty percent from
three overrides everything else in his career from distance, which
has been below average.
Speaker 2: That's fair, that's a yeah, it's I mean it's going
to be really interesting too, you know, assuming that KPGA
is a really solid part of that ten man rotation.
I mean having him shifted off ball so much more
is going to make that all the more crucial.
Speaker 1: What are his off ball numbers? Do we have any
of those for KPJ. He hasn't really been ad.
Speaker 3: Three point shooting. Yeah, I've set him here a few times.
Forty eight percent from three in the twenty one twenty
two season and forty four percent from three the twenty
two to twenty three season. That's that's pretty crazy. Actually,
the forty eight percent might have been like ninety nine
point nine percentile.
Speaker 1: I mean it has to be. Yeah, I don't know how.
Speaker 3: Many I but it had. I mean he was playing
heavy minutes, he was a starter. It's got to be
something significant, totally. Yeah, I think you can shoot it
off ball, But does he want to play like that? Sure?
Speaker 2: And what I was saying done is going to be
shifted more off ball. But oh that Hey, I love
this segment. Hey, I'm talking about completely different things.
Speaker 3: We're here, numbers are trash. I'm sorry, I don't know
you started the anti done.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, because KPJ and Doune is interesting too, right,
because you kind of have it's kind of similar in
terms of like what they bring not ability wise to
kind of Norman Chris Dunn being out there. Right, you
have a guy who's very clearly the offensive guy being
helped on the defensive end by Chris Dunn. So Chris
Dunn has a pretty big role, like a very important
role on this Clippers team for mitigating some of what
may pop up with the backcourt defensive issues, which is
exactly what we signed up. And I like what you said,
like his preseason, that's Chris Dunn, chunky stat lines, nothing
crazy diving for I think someone said on the chat
last night that I loved he's like doing the dirty
work without talking about it, like he's just doing it,
like this is what I'm here to do. I fully
know my role.
Speaker 3: I don't think he can help himself, like he only
knows one way to play. It sounded like one of
his other nicknames was smoke, like he wants all the
smokes because of the fights and stuff and the chippiness and.
Speaker 1: Me look it up on Basketball Reference, the mecca of nicknames.
Speaker 3: I don't know if it's mainstream enough for Basketball Reference,
but he says something it was an interview recently or
like one of the Clippers little montage things. Oh yeah,
where they were asking him what is your name and
what are your teammates call you? I think this made
the rounds on the Instagram side for the official Clippers account,
and I think he mentioned smoke was with the names
he gets, It's like, oh, I think I know what
that means.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no official nickname on basketball. They gotta get on
that over there with that seven people who run that
website or whatever. Crazy. All right, Well, give us, give
us a strength of this bench unit and how they
can work in to games. What are you looking forward
to seeing?
Speaker 2: I mean, I think it's a really interesting blend of
youth and athleticism with some really solid, uh you know,
consistent league veterans that you know, we know what we're
going to get. Uh. You know, everybody loves Patum. Couldn't
be happier that he's back. You know what you're gonna
get from him, Chris Dunn. I mean, you know, like
while he might not pop out or jump off the page,
you know what you're going to get on a night in,
night out basis. There's just a lot of extreme consistency
there and mixed with sort of like the high ceiling
upside of some of these younger guys. I mean, I
think it's pretty it's pretty damn exciting. And again I
think there's gonna be great nights and probably some really
terrible ones, but I do I do enjoy that mix
of having having you know that the sort of known
quantities and just consistent guys with that sort of athleticism.
I mean, that was a shock to the system to
watch the like the athleticism and the dump everything on
this night, and that was not watched basketball that in
a long time. I mean, that's pretty damn exciting.
Speaker 1: I loved to your point. There is a pass that
Batoom hit KPJ with off the elbow when KPJ was
cutting and Batum just hit a little just you know,
a very simple veteran NBA play which has hit the
cutter right where they need it and it was an
easy bucket for KPJ. So totally agree with you on
that point, Adam, What are you most looking forward to
other than Kai Jones, maybe taking Zubat's starting spot.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean Zubos didn't played great last night. I'll
say that.
Speaker 2: Uh, eleven and sixteen coward, he sucks.
Speaker 3: Did he end up with that?
Speaker 1: Let me look it up. He had a ton of boards.
Speaker 3: He had eleven and twelve he got. He was five
of ten though, from the field, and he's been missing
Like coach Luce thought, he was rushing it post game
with some of his post moves, and the game before that,
they weren't getting it to him enough or getting it
low enough in the posts where then they're forcing him
to have to dribble to get to his spots, which
you don't want. You want him deeper in the post
when he catches it. So it's kind of been hit
and miss. I mean, I'm not overly worried about it.
And Kai is not taking his job. We'll see if
he can take Obama's job. Let's start there, guys. Way huh,
I was just gone.
Speaker 1: I was absolutely he deserves it too, I was. I
was just looking at zoos statline from last night, eleven
and twelve fifty shooting for steals.
Speaker 3: I gotta be honest.
Speaker 1: It looks crazy.
Speaker 3: Well, that third quarter run the starters made to start
the second half was everything, because they lost all the stars,
lost their minutes in the first half, they did not
play well in the first half, and against the Dallas
team without their two top players, kind of curious, like
they didn't look and sync at all.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it was the turnovers, like.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but Dallas had in twenty nine of them. We're
never gonna see that all season long. It was insane.
And it makes sense because they're missing the ultimate offense guy,
the new James Harden and Luka Doncic who has the
ball in his hands all the time, and another ISO
guy and Kyrie Irving, So how are they going to
run their offense at all without either of those guys
out there? And you saw it, and the Clippers took
advantage of it, and it was great. And thirty six
points in transition. Yeah, we're not going to see that
this season. That's not going to happen. But they had
sixteen the Friday night in Seattle against the Portland Trail Blazers,
and they had all these long outlet passes and it
felt more repeatable or sustainable with the way they were
doing things in that game versus what we saw last
night maybe, and you could see there it's a point
of emphasis. They're really doing it. They are getting it
to their athletes because if you've got all these guys,
you better use them now. So you have to construct
an offense that works. That means you got to run more.
And they are doing it. They are intent on doing it,
so I appreciate that aspect of it.
Speaker 1: There was the Harden quote from last night about how
like I can't remember the term they use, not explosive
passes or something like that, but like he's like, I
need to get these guys out in space basically, like
almost talking about it like it was soccer, Like guys
need to get these guys in space or they can
run because that's where Derek Jones junior, that's where Kai
Jones is at their best is when they're in transition.
Speaker 3: Oh me, man, they have so many guys that can
do it now. Yeah, just like Will said, it's weird watching,
like you're not used to seeing this brand of basketball
from the Clippers, Oh.
Speaker 1: Not at all. And we have to imagine that Jordan
Miller is going to work in at some point and
like he'll be the eleventh guy. But like he's looked
really good in terms of getting offensive shit done in.
Speaker 3: The Yeah, so what we call get her done? Jordan Miller.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh yeah, he's a big Larry the cable guy Miller. Okay, So,
per ESPN's Basketball Power Index, one of the aisle disnamed things,
I think you could make. The LA Clippers project to
be forty two and forty nineteen percent chance of winning
the Pacific Division, some say the hardest division in basketball,
fifty one point five percent chance of making the playoffs,
thirty two percent chance of finishing top six, forty percent
chance of making the plan. Their projected seed is eight
point one. William Haggle, No Haggle that from ESPN's Ultra
Superpower Index.
Speaker 2: Oh man, I mean they're not winning the Pacific Division
this year.
Speaker 1: I mean I thought I see over as far as
I'm conider, I even fucking roll the ball out.
Speaker 3: Amazing how it's still gonna end up their year?
Speaker 1: Well, sure, you know things.
Speaker 2: I didn't say anything about seating.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that was the point we had to reiterate
yesterday too. It is just because it's our You're a
seeding don't matter, dude.
Speaker 2: I don't get so they have a fifty one. They
have like a nearly fifty two chance of making the playoffs,
but only a forty chance of making the plan.
Speaker 3: Okay, I heard from Russo earlier. This same formula has
the only winning forty games, Like, what are legally winning
forty games?
Speaker 2: We're gonna win fewer games.
Speaker 1: I don't know about that.
Speaker 3: The same formula has some other weird projections out there.
Speaker 1: I guess, hmmm, I wonder if this formula was created
by I don't know. That doesn't make any damn sense.
Speaker 3: It ain't Tim Legler.
Speaker 1: So maybe it is our year. Then maybe we actually
have an eighty percent.
Speaker 3: Unstatable team unstatable formula.
Speaker 1: Okay, the Clippers might be unstatable this year. There's gonna
be an that arena.
Speaker 3: Even wins and losses and that, oh they don't.
Speaker 1: That's not a team stat I'm this guy now, Wins
and losses aren't a team stat.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 1: That's a horrible way to judge a team. We shouldn't
base our judgments on that. Okay. Well, if it has
the Knicks only winning forty games in this formula, white people.
Speaker 3: Shit, that's what Russa said.
Speaker 1: He's our favorite French Canadian reporter. All right, so throw
that out.
Speaker 3: No, I kind of like it though for the Clippers.
Speaker 1: Like forty two and forty high playing team with where
we're at, there's uncertainty around Kawhi. We have, like Will said,
some unknown quantities. Forty two and forty doesn't feel bad
for as of October fifteenth, six eighteen p. He's love
to see him get to forty five. You would love
to see him get to forty five and avoid the
play in. But I'll tell you what's going to be
rock and during the plan into it dumb?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah?
Speaker 1: Is it our year for the n Season Tournament too?
Speaker 2: I don't know. I'm not going to any vibes on
that one.
Speaker 3: It's not the NBA's year for the n Season Tournament.
It's just a bad idea.
Speaker 1: It's just a bad idea. That's fair. Before we you
a quick little audio break to talk about the final
preseason game, Adam, what soda are you drinking?
Speaker 3: Oh? One that? Unfortunately I got somebody else addicted to
hell Yeah, I got the doctor pepper zero cherry. Somebody
hit me up earlier today and said, you got me
addicted to this? Yeah, Raoul said that on X it's good.
I'm sorry, I don't know if it's your welcome or
I'm sorry, I don't know.
Speaker 1: Yet again, another product advertise on Clips and Dip that
sells crazy how that works? So doctor Pepper, if you're listening,
we would love to advertise your product. All right, coming up,
we're gonna be talking what the heck do you expect
from this final preseason game? And then that's kind of
it because we're just itching to get to this regular season.
If you're watching us, there's not going to be an
ad break. If you're listening to us, which you can
do every you get podcasts for me a quick little break.
Then we're talking the final preseason game at Into it
Dom coming up in three two one.
Speaker 2: All right, we're back in the Clips and Dip. We
talked about your starters, talk about the bench. I'm to
look ahead to the last preseason game, which you know
we we already kind of have the heads up we're
not going to be enjoying the starters in so you know, what,
what do we do with this? Charles, what's one thing
you want to see from this game?
Speaker 1: I think I'm gonna echo a pretty popular sentiment from
other Clippers fans. Jordan Miller, get him in the starting lineup,
just see what happens. It's a I don't want to
say this game is inconsequential, but if the starters aren't playing,
let Jordan Miller show out a little bit, right, we
don't start? Yeah, are the Kings playing their main guys
or not all of that?
Speaker 3: That's a good question. Not everybody is already at their
last preseason game, right.
Speaker 1: I like, DeMar gonna play, I don't know, but start
Jordan Miller Like, well, there's no reason not to. I
don't think. I mean, maybe, you know, maybe start the
normal second unit whatever. If they're all going to play, sure,
start the of that last five we talked about, but
get Jordan Miller some minutes.
Speaker 3: So that will be the Kings fifth preseason game as well,
and they are zero and three so far and are
currently in a context or a contest with Utah, and
they're down fourteen to thirteen in the first.
Speaker 2: Quarter, so they're definitely losing that game an insurmountable league.
Speaker 1: If you're playing the Clippers defense, that does sound like
a first quarter score.
Speaker 3: Can I see something maybe alarming about the defensive rating
that's being thrown around right now for the Clippers in
the preseason.
Speaker 1: Go for it, man.
Speaker 3: I don't mean to bring any negativity in here, but
I know we're kind of riding high on this, and
then it looked it up last night. It's like, do
you know the two teams? So the Clippers have the
second best defensive rating right now in the preseason, and
it'll change later tonight after these Gripper games are done.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they'll be first.
Speaker 3: The team in front of them and behind them would
be the Portland Trailblazers and the Detroit piss Oh no,
does that change anything for you?
Speaker 1: I don't think it changes the fact that it's our year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it doesn't. It doesn't change anything for me. I mean,
I wasn't putting a lot of stock into the actual
defensive rating.
Speaker 1: There's dang is who it changes?
Speaker 2: Really no point in that. But it's more about I mean,
it's more about just seeing the process. And I think
that we've seen enough on that too. You know, at
least to start of the season, they are going to
lean into the defensive identity like we heard it looks
like that can be effective. So yeah, I'm not too
worried about it.
Speaker 1: That is hilarious though, I think, yeah, Like I wasn't.
I did. There were some people after the game against
Words were like, hey, we held the Warriors to ninety one,
and I'm like, who gives a.
Speaker 2: Ship like not to sound like I keep saying we
were holding we held clay.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, may it's something there, dude, Bill, we got
the clay stop.
Speaker 3: They might have a lot of nines this year.
Speaker 1: I don't know I agree with that, but that is
but I think that's good. That's great context though, to
show like on the whole preseason maybe not the most indicative. Hey,
the Browns went on defeat of the preseason proceeds have
followed up with one win for the next two years
in the regular season. And I think the Patriots went
defeated in the preseason the year that they lost to
the Giants in the Super Bowl being their only loss.
Speaker 3: Is there something though, to bad teams want to show
this time it's different in the preseason and they're just
playing harder than other teams that know what they have
and know they're gonna be good.
Speaker 1: I think you're right because that like that's what lost
about the regular season, right, Like you don't really know
who like a bad team is until like all those
teams are starting out fighting to try and win.
Speaker 3: I know who a bad team is.
Speaker 1: Well, sure, yeah, that's and Detroy. But in terms of effort,
you know what I mean, like you know what and
being like, hey, let's not play scoot twenty five minutes.
Let's let's give him twelve or something like that, like
you can get snuck up on earlier in the season
by fair. Yeah, but I think he might be right
because if I played for Portland or Detroit, which I
was not close to doing, I would be like, let's
maybe let's get out all of last season's bullshit, let's
make the preseason a little better, and then they would
tell me to shut up and wash the towels or whatever.
So you're hoping for it sounds like what you want
to see is a shootout on Thursday. You want to
see one forty eight six Clippers just to show.
Speaker 3: SEV five against the Kings again. Double overtime?
Speaker 1: How many overtimes would a preseason game have to go
to before the refs were like, we're done, we's not
doing this anymore.
Speaker 3: Is there overtime of the preseason? I don't even know.
I was asking Carlo this on the air, because remember
the Summer League overtime was like first to three or
something like that. It was a different format. It wasn't
a five minut o'clock.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 3: I don't know if anyone does, I don't know. I
Adam Silver knows.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the reps are like, we have shit to do,
Like we're not We're not gonna do five more minutes
of this.
Speaker 3: It's like nobody knows what that button does, but nobody's
gonna press it. Do you believe the.
Speaker 2: Tie has never happened in preseason? They've never They've never
even they've never even had to reach this subject.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that would be How could there not be a tie? Right? Okay,
I'm looking. Toronto just beat Boston by one one nineteen
to They didn't go to overtime.
Speaker 1: By design, Bro, they don't want us to go to
overtime on the preseason.
Speaker 3: Now, if Sacramento in Utah don't score again, they're tied
up at twenty two in the first quarter, we might
find out they don't score.
Speaker 2: Again for the rest the following three quarters. They want
to go again.
Speaker 3: I never know preseason your offensive ratio defensive, Adam.
Speaker 1: Other than lockdown defense, what are you looking for in
this in the preseason.
Speaker 3: Game, I'd like to see Kobe Brown play better. To
be honest, guys, he didn't take a shot last game.
Speaker 1: I'm okay with that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he didn't play many minutes, but a reason for that.
Kobe Brown, his play has been up and down. I
wouldn't call him a jump I would like to see
a good chunk of minutes go his way. Maybe he's
in the starting lineup with Jordan Miller. They get the
summer league guys out there and some run and I
just want to see him be more aggressive with his
offense because he's not putting him up enough from downtown.
I think he's taken like less than ten threes in
the preseason, and I don't know, like he has both
these guys at Turney twenty five, he and Jordan Miller
by the end of this year. Somebody has to show
something now. I don't know if he's going to get
his ten game sample size if he doesn't show a
little bit more right now in the preseason, it hasn't
been awful, but it just he hasn't popped at all,
and I have.
Speaker 1: To imagine that. But Tom is not playing Thursday. Hell no,
So Kobe has a chance to maybe start at that
four spot. Yeah, I don't know, Will, what are you
most excited about? What are you dreading?
Speaker 3: Then the defensive rating going up?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm putting a lot. I'm putting all my stock
in that.
Speaker 1: This was our year based on the preseason defensive rate.
I think KPJ. I mean KPJ is going to get
a chance to Yeah, I hope I'll look offensively, it's like, yeah,
he can he can make difficult shots watching KPJ. If
he can come in and kind of like make good decisions,
watch the fouls, that kind of stuff, that he's gonna
get a chance to showcase that. Because again, what about Christy.
Speaker 3: I like that he hasn't played much.
Speaker 2: Yes, this is gonna be Yeah, this is gonna be
his biggest stint of the preseason.
Speaker 3: So yeah, he's never afraid to shoot. I love that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, get him like fifteen three point attemps.
Speaker 2: I mean, I get I don't know. I could see
him being a rotational player, maybe not this season, but
he's the potential, is there unquestionably?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, gain some weight, get some time in the
G League. When do they announce? Because okay, so yeah. Also,
Kai Jones we talked about little bit. Kai Jones has
the other two way wrapped up. That's fully his, not
why is it not done yet? That's what I'm confused about.
Are they waiting for his because he's on a ten
right now? Right? No possible.
Speaker 3: I think it is an exhibit ten.
Speaker 1: But hasn't it been more than ten days?
Speaker 3: Since other guys are also on days. I don't know.
Is the ten a literal ten? Is this some grandfather?
Speaker 1: I think he swear at each other after day ten.
They're like, dude, don't worry about it.
Speaker 3: It's just like, you know, honorable men, handshake deal.
Speaker 1: They're doing this handshake. Yeah, it'll be very weird. I
don't want anyone to read too much into the final
preseason game, I guess would be what I hope for.
What I do want to see. If you're not following
law Murray on Twitter, which if you're watching the show,
you probably should be, Law Murray is trying to organize
a pickup game at the outside court before the Thursday game.
He tweeted out, Thursday fans coming into it, let's who
quite outside? Is nice? I'm serious.
Speaker 2: He's also been doing some phenomenal content on how long
it takes to walk up the stadium. Yeah, I'm loving it.
Speaker 1: Good stuff.
Speaker 3: He did the fifty one rows at the wall.
Speaker 2: It's very it's important.
Speaker 1: He did it like a minute twelve and he said,
but he's in shape. They gotta do wall races.
Speaker 3: To steep fall if you mess up.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I don't think they'll be officially sanctioned, but it'll
happen for sure.
Speaker 1: I think so. I think if they did officially sanction,
then we're like, hey, it's a quarter break, we have
two you know, you got the two staircases, And like,
I think if they sanction it makes it safer.
Speaker 2: No, there's no way someone There's just no way they
would take on that liability.
Speaker 1: What if it's Chucked the Condor versus of another mascot?
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, and.
Speaker 1: That we're cooking with cast. How is Chuck the Condor's
performance on into It? Is he instill in pre season mode?
Speaker 3: Gotta be honest, I don't even remember seeing Chuck yesterday.
Was that that locked in? Did he bail or did
he have a day off?
Speaker 2: Bro Chuck the Condoor, you're saying he's out completely out
of the conversation for Mascot of the Year.
Speaker 1: Who was the mascot of the year last year? Was
it Chuck?
Speaker 3: Who votes?
Speaker 1: Now? The other mascots, mascots, past mascots who were in
the Hall of Fame?
Speaker 2: Uh?
Speaker 1: Yeah, Chuck the Condor was oh twenty one, twenty two? Yeah,
was Struck the Condor?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 1: Obviously did Harry the Hawk?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah. The voters seem to like birds.
Speaker 1: Well, in twenty twenty one, it was clutch for the
Houston Rockets, as we know, bear because the Rockets because well,
of course, but you think of rocket you think of
rockets in Houston, you think of gigantic gray bears. All right,
score prediction for the real freaks? What are we? What
are we saying for the final score for this game?
Speaker 2: Eight five Clippers?
Speaker 1: Oh another another defensive master class from the Clipper. Adam,
what do you got? I'm going one to fifteen seventy
five Clippers?
Speaker 3: I'll go d.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're pouring it on, dude.
Speaker 3: Well, you got to show them what's up in the preseason.
That's that's good for your division rivals. Oh yeah, inspiring
play for the pactiv Uh one twelve to ninety eight Clippers. Okay,
I love how we are to hold them under one hundred.
Speaker 1: Umm, anything else you want to go over? Clippers Wise,
before we send these wonderful folks out on this ball
me Tuesday evening, did.
Speaker 3: I tell you guys Portland has the best defensive rating
in the preseason?
Speaker 1: Who has the worst?
Speaker 3: Actually, that's a good question.
Speaker 1: It's probably like Boston or something stupid.
Speaker 3: You'll never guess. You'll never guess.
Speaker 1: Who is seventy six ers, Lakers.
Speaker 3: Fly the Concourds is not going to like this. It
would be the New Zealand Breakers.
Speaker 1: That makes sense.
Speaker 3: Garbage at twenty nine points for one hundred possessions.
Speaker 2: Oh yike, God damn.
Speaker 3: The next closest team, so that's thirty one. The next
closest team the NBA teams would be thirtieth, and that's
the Indiana Pacers at one hundred and sixteen. So they
are fifteen points worse dan an NBA team.
Speaker 1: All right, that's that's very bad, thinks. So I don't
think we're gonna be doing Uh. I will not be
doing a postgame live on Thursday. Unfortunately. Maybe we'll be
on Clippers Talk. That's up to to comrade Adam over
there driving that back Clippers talk ship. We will be
back on Friday to talk. Whatever happened in the game
would be in a regular season game one preview on
Monday night because Clippers basketball is just over a week away.
If you're listening to this today, it comes out, Yeah, Will,
where could people you know? They're around the water cooler,
and of course all you hear at the water cooler
is preseason NBA basketball. Who's got the best defensive rating?
Who's what's the vorp situation for the Clippers? Where could
people tell their coworkers to listen to us?
Speaker 2: Yeah, if you'd like to hear more about the sham
Clippers defensive rates and join to Adam Oslin, you should
follow this podcast. Tell your friends to follow this podcast.
You can do that over on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
I think there's like a new thing on Apple podcast
where you can leave comments on the episodes. It's not
just limited to ratings and reviews. I believe that's correct anyways,
So check that out. Let me know if I'm wrong. Hey,
leave a one star review. I don't know, don't.
Speaker 1: You can also watch Don't leave a one star review.
Speaker 2: You can also watch this show over over on YouTube,
and there I can confirm that you can comment on
every single episode. Yeah, Charles and Adam will read your
comments and definitely respond to them very nicely.
Speaker 1: For the most part. Someone said that we needed to
treat Kai Jones like giantis. I didn't respond to that one.
I don't even know what that means.
Speaker 2: What does that mean?
Speaker 3: He definitely ain't playing on Thursday.
Speaker 1: That Yeah, Adam, one positive thing to send these Clippers
fans out on.
Speaker 3: You know, Kyle Jones and k KPJ fans were right, Okay.
Speaker 1: Let's not. I don't know if they're right. It's October fifteen.
Speaker 3: We are getting bodied boys. Uh. I agree with what
Will said. Despite the defensive rating truth or investigation like,
it's the principles, it's the traits. It's the habits they're
building right now that you can see. They have the
personnel and they're leaning in to using them and not
doing round square peg, round hole type of stuff. They're
actually trying to, uh play to their personnel and get
the right guys that can play this Jeff fan and
gone to the aggressive attacking defense where we'll see maybe
less drop this season. I think and less switching this season,
going to Justin Russo. I love it. I love defensive
guys like this because Patrick Beverley was one of my
favorite Clippers of all time, one of my favorite players.
They got a new one now and Chris Dunn, and
they got a guy in Derek Jones Junior who he's
intimidating just the way he talks. He's such a low talker.
He's like, damn, this guy serious, Like he wants Defensive
Player of the Year. He wants to be first or
second team All Defense. This guy is not resting on
his laurels just because he got paid a real contract.
It isn't on a veteran's minimum anymore. He's a badass.
So I'm excited for this group's defensive potential, not just
because we're going for.
Speaker 1: All the defensive Clippers heads out there, this is your year,
and funnily enough, it is the Clippers year as a whole.
We'll be back for y'all on Friday night, and as always,