Speaker 1: What is going on? Clippers fans welcomed to season three,
episode thirty nine of Clips. If Kawhi Leonard is back
with the Clippers, Adam will and I are back to
talk about Kawhi Leonard being back. We are Clips and Dip.
Thank you for hanging out with us. I am Chuck Brockler.
Adam Ozma's here, so is Will Updike. Thank you for listening.
If you'd like to watch us, you can watch us
at YouTube dot com such at Clippers Podcast. We're talking
mostly Kawhi today. We're talking how we felt he looked
in his debut, it into it, expectations now that he's back.
Then we're gonna talk a little bit about the Nuggets
and Wolves road trip. But before we get into that,
Fellas Adam, we know we're burning daylight, so we will
get into the Clippers talk quick. How are you doing?
How does it feel around twenty four hours now that
Kawhi has returned for the Clippers.
Speaker 2: I feel good about it as good as you can.
As I said earlier in the season, I'm never gonna
feel secure about it ever again with kawhiness right d
because he played sixty eight games, everything was fine until
it wasn't last year, and this new issue is something
they're going to have to manage and that's ongoing. But
it was still great to see him last night. The
lift on his three point shot was big for me,
knocking down. I think he started three of three from
distance or something like that. He looked very smooth, he
said postgame. The basketball part is easy for him. It's
just getting out there. So overall, it was cool to see.
It was a special night, and it almost felt like
either he picked the perfect game and the perfect time
to come back, or it almost felt like it was
meant to be, like it was our night or our
year for Kawhi's return because everybody played so well in
his first game back.
Speaker 1: Well, how are you feeling.
Speaker 3: I'm feeling really really good. I mean, you know, the
only the only thing I could take away from that
win that in a negative sense, is that just you know,
not not a great opponent and they weren't at full strength.
But a lot of things went right for the Clippers,
and it's hard to not read too much into just
like how much more on their game everyone is with
Kawhi Leonard out there. There's a certain sort of ease
there's also a certain at the same time, a sense
of urgency for just how important this is. And I think,
you know, everyone who's been close to him in this
situation knows that any time that you have on the
floor with Kawhi Leonard is kind of precious, and I
think that it, you know, it definitely ups the ante
for like what is expected and what you need to
do out there on the floor. So I you know,
I love where I saw. Like I said, a lot
of stuff went right, but it's hard to not take
away that there's there seems to be a different level
of sort of congealing. Like I feel like this team
sort of even meshing really well, and the vibes are
already so good, but now there's like just a little
bit of an extra fire underneath there that I think
that I'm hoping continues to translate as his return ramps up.
Speaker 1: I like that you said, you know, minutes of the
court with Kawhi are precious. It's not wrong. You're not wrong,
And I don't.
Speaker 3: Think anyone is, Like you know, I don't think anyone
is unaware of that, you know what I mean, Like,
you know, they want Kui to succeed as much as
everyone else, and they know that they got to make
the most of their time out there and you know,
at the same time make things easy on him.
Speaker 1: For those that missed it, the Clippers trounced the Hawks.
They were shorthanded on the second night of a back
to back. I hope they went out after the Lakers game,
because the Hawks did not have a good trip to
Los Angeles on the basketball court at all. That defense
was putrid for parts of that game. Clippers kind of
dominated everything. It was bad. Dude, love that Adam tweeted
at one point like the Hawks just don't care and
it on the defensive end. It really felt like that
will to your point to kind of playing a depleted team.
They let Derek Jones Junior had six dunks against the Hawks,
which is the most dunks he's ever had in a game.
They just forgot about him. On the baseline they'd lose
Norman transition.
Speaker 3: It was like, okay, Terrence too, didn't he have like
three baseline like three baseline docs.
Speaker 1: Well, talk about Terrence's return. Terrence's return was more surprising
to me than Kawhi is, just in terms of how
good he looked. No disrespect to Kawi looking good, but
Terrence looked maybe some of the best he's looked all year.
Kawhi was on the minutes restriction. He ended up playing
what like just under twenty nineteen twenty five. Yeah, unclear
how long that's gonna go, but like not surprising. I
think twenty minutes feels fair. Adam, do you like the
longer Tyler mentioned, you know, like we're gonna run him
in longer spurts. He came back last time, he was
playing four minutes a shift and then he was kind
of out. Now we're gonna see the longer shifts. Seemed
like it paid off last night at least.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I wondered if in that second quarter, because
they were rolling and he came in at the nine
point fifty nine mark and played till like there was
a minute and a half left in the first half,
if they just said keep it going, We're not gonna
need him in the second half. Just keep running this
with Kawhi right now because we can get up by
twenty as they did at the half I think it
was seventy four to fifty four, and just end the
game right now because we're humming out there. So I'll
be interested to see how they allocate the minutes if
he gives them that long of a shift against Minnesota,
because they might feel like they need to more evenly
divide up the minutes with ten in the first half
and ten in the second half. And I do want
to say that before people get mad about this. It's
gonna happen, and it might happen tomorrow. The Clippers are
gonna be in a tight game and Kawhi Leonard's not
gonna be available because he is going to hit his
minutes limit and it might happen tomorrow, and just know
that's coming. I don't think they're going to expand it
more than twenty minutes in the game too. I think
it's still gonna be twenty minutes. So with travel, why.
Speaker 1: Game two with travel? Game two with travel, So it's
like not even like it's a home game.
Speaker 2: Like Yeah, the reason Kawhi was the one to suggest
coming off the bench when he came off the acl
was so he could play more minutes late in that game,
which did pay off because he hit a jumper against
the Lakers over Lebron James that helped him win. So
the difference now is it's going to be harder for
them to have any minutes left late in the fourth
quarter for Kawhi to play unless they pull him after
like two or three minutes in the third quarter in
a tight game.
Speaker 1: That's a good call. Yeah, people are gonna definitely be
upset about that. I like the foreshadowing on your part
at him and will you were like Kawhi was what
LT Murray tweeted this out in the second quarter. In
Kawhi's minutes, he was plus twenty one justin that just
in that span. So I think that goes to your
point of like people were a little more there's like
a responsibility to not let Kawhi down. And I feel
like everyone, especially in the debut.
Speaker 3: Well, and I you know, I like I'm in favor
of the theory of longer shifts. I think that it
helps him get in rhythm. It also like it just
establishes a little bit more consistency, you know, like if
Kawhi is out there in these short stints. I feel like,
you know, Tyler talked about like a tendency to like
watch Kawhi, and I think that's very true, right, Like
how is the how is you know in your in
the back of your mind. The emphasis not, you know,
getting Kawhi the ball, getting him involved as much as
possible when he's only on the floor in these short
little stints. So while you do have to manage that
with meeting him late in games, overall, I'm in favor
of this approach versus like more short stints personally.
Speaker 1: And the short one.
Speaker 2: Said, sorry, jehead, go ahead. Well you said they're treating
it like preseason, and in preseason with a starter and
a star like Kawhi, you may not play much at
all in the second half, so they may lean towards
playing him more in first halves if they're treated like
preseason and second half whatever this is not. They're not
pushing to win a game in January with Kawhi. They're
gonna go off the minutes's restriction, and if he runs
out of minutes early in the third corner, I mean,
that's it. You just have to expect it.
Speaker 1: And there might be almost like an offensive restriction for Kawhi.
And like because on defense last night he kind of
did a lot I thought, and his debut, he guarded
Trey Young at one point he was contesting threes well
like he was his presence was very much felt on defense,
but he was asked to do a little more than
I maybe thought he would. His debut offense completely on
the side of the coin, you know, he was hanging
out on the perimeter. I think he only dribbled. He
did one drive in the half court like he had
Trey Young on him at one point try to fade away,
missed it, got it back and passed out of it,
which I think to me that was like he's still
very much like maybe he doesn't trust the burst yet
or something like that. But offensively, and he talked about
it post came. He said something to the effective basically like,
don't expect me to go out there and score twenty
thirty points right now, like that is going to be
And I don't know if it was like a team thing,
but the team was playing well around him on offense
even though he was a I don't want to say
non factor because that's not true because you still have
to account for him, but not a lot activity wise, Yeah,
touches wise, that's going to be a much not by
a bunch, but a slower ramp up than defense, it seem.
Speaker 3: Yeah, which is surprising just because of that is what's
been more needed for this team. But I do think
they're just trying to be conscientious of the effort level
on both sides. And I mean, again, it's another hard thing,
like you can't take a whole a lot a whole,
like many constants from last night's game just because of
you know who they were playing. How that panned out,
I mean, was at the scoring Clippers half of the season.
Speaker 1: I think, so they scored their most fast break points.
Speaker 2: I don't think it was most points in the half,
but it was most points in a quarter. With the
forty five spot they put up in the second, it
was it was close to most points in the half
of seventy four. I think they might have gotten seventy eight.
Speaker 3: Geez. Oh, Well, what I was saying is like I
don't know that that's necessarily like a rule, you know,
like let like, I don't know how much they're actively
lightening the burden on him offensively, especially when he is
so needed, but just his presence out there, you know,
everybody talked about how everything was like a little bit easier,
and that's certainly going to be true, and that's going
to have a massive impact, even if he's ramping up
touch wise.
Speaker 2: I think he can control his activity on the offensive
end more than he can on the defensive end. It's
just so instinctual for Kawhi to fly around on defense,
and that is a problem that is leading to more
miles being run per season, but it's also what makes
him great. So what do you do about it? It's
kind of like what was the old Chris Rock line
about the Tiger. Tiger didn't go crazy, that tiger went
tiger like, it's just quiet, and how he is on
the defensive end, like this is who he is. He's
a monster on that end. When he sees somebody with
a basketball and he gets switched on to Trey Young,
he's gonna sit down and get in the defensive stance
like he can't help himself there.
Speaker 1: And we saw it. I loved that he blew up
a dribble handoff for a steal and couldn't finish on
the lamp. That was awesome to see. And his first
foul he almost got a steal. So you're totally right
to that point of like instinctly defense, he's gonna do
it like it's just gonna happen. What how are we
feeling about the rotating starting five, cause that that's a
new thing, I think, kind of to some surprise to
some people. Chris Dunn started yesterday. Derek Jones Junior did
not Ty basically said, it's gonna plan on how kind
of how they're guarding Hearten and stuff like that. How
are we feeling about it right now?
Speaker 3: Will you have a Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna contradiction
basically everything that I've said thus far, and I will say,
from this sample side, let's just make Derek Jones you
just like, let's just make DJJ at the starter. I
think personally that it makes more sense. I don't really
get why you need three guards out there with Kawhi back,
especially like with someone done's shooting woes. I mean, not
that DJJ has necessarily been better from outside, but I
like the look a little bit more. I like the
size a little bit more. I like the athleticism a
little bit more. And also, I mean, I think we've
debated about this until the cows come home, Like is
it more difficult to cover you know, a modern day
three or four TVD But Derek Jones has the size,
and he is switchable and and can can guard a
lot of spots. I just I like that a little
bit more that. I mean, you know, done obviously great defensively,
not a whole lot on the other end. So I'm
I'm a bigger fan of that. I think I feel
like it's a little silly even to have this debate,
like to to even need this sample size, Like why
do you need three guards in the modern NBA?
Speaker 1: You think eventually the Derek Jones junior lineup will went
out because there's gonna be a set line up.
Speaker 3: I would like, I would be very surprised if it didn't.
We would have to see this bench unit like with
him in it, like whatever that rotation ends up being
do some very special things. And I I just to me,
it makes a lot more sense to keep DJJS as
a starter and to just go back to that look.
I personally think it makes a.
Speaker 1: Lot more sense. Adam, what say you about the rotating
starting lineup?
Speaker 2: I think in a video game and you can just
switch guys in and out and there's nothing to worry
about with personality conflicts or just rhythm. It makes sense
to go with Chris Dunn against a team like Atlanta
because they want another ball handler out there. And he
probably is the overall better defender against someone like Trey
Young versus DJ, but DJ can do it, and he
can also guard up against DeAndre Hunter or if Jalen
Johnson was available yesterday. The versatility with him is the
difference maker for me because of his height and long arms.
I think eventually the reasoning behind well, we want another
ball handler out there to alleviate some of the pressure
on James Harden. The difference is going to be as
Kawhi ramps up and gets more minutes and has the
ball in his hands more, that argument is going to
fizzle away for having Chris Dunn out there because of
the ball being Kawhi's hands more at that point. So
I do think DJ will win it out eventually, and.
Speaker 1: Not that he's exactly lighting it up currently. From three,
I think he like two for his last ten. Derek
Jones Junior outside the outside the arc is a little
more trustworthy this season than Chris Dunn, which I think
is also something to considered too. Right teams are fine
with Chris Dunn shooting the ball. Teams aren't is fine
with Derek Jones Junior shooting the ball and him in
the starting lineup that opens it up more for norm
you know, like it just I think eventually it'll.
Speaker 3: Win that versatility, Like I don't know, just the versatility
off ball too. I like, like Adam said, I think that.
To me, it's just kind of a no brainer, I guess.
Speaker 2: And I think DJ is two for his last twenty
two from three.
Speaker 1: Is it twenty two? Because I was just looking at
the quick last five when I was tweeting last night,
and I was like, damn, this is a little bleak.
Speaker 2: Because his three point percentage right now, what is it
at thirty five percent? Two weeks ago it was probably
closer to forty five percent.
Speaker 1: He's shooting thirty five percent. Oh it's bad. Oh for three,
oh for two, one for three, one for he took
six versus the Pelicans. That'll get you if you're Derek
Jones junior. That should probably never happen again. But there
also is like this is inherently a temporary thing. No
team has gone into the playoffs with like we've been
rotating a guy out for the last twenty five games,
you know, Like I just don't with a fully healthy
team at that point, there's gonna be a set lineup
going into the playoffs that I just think that's it
has I would be worried. I don't know.
Speaker 3: I I agree, But at the same time, like I
trust Hid like he can he can tinker with the
lie that to like to his heart's content. It just yeah,
So when I say no brainer, I mean that, like
that's to my much smaller basketball brain than Tyls. So
I'm in no way criticizing that. It just to me
seems like a more just a more natural fit, I guess,
I want to say.
Speaker 1: And I think you kind of have to do this
a little bit right, just because we haven't seen Kawhi
with any of these guys. So it's like, I don't know,
if it's a competition it's gonna end up like that,
but I think it's gonna shake out to Derek Jones
Junior being in that starting five.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And it is interesting because he hasn't played with
either of the two guys that they're rotating, so maybe
they're just getting a sample of what Kawhi looks like
with both and they're tracking those numbers, as I'm sure
they are. I'm not saying that's the intent behind this,
but they're gonna look at who has the better net
rating next to Kawhi as well. Over this time, I
just don't see how you can continue to justify well
if DJ's playing better than Chris Dunn or the versatility
is being utilized more that you don't eventually go away
from Chris Dunn because the balls in Kawhi's hands more. Anyways,
Like if the point is well, we can't have it
in James Harden's hands all the time. Well, once Kawhi
gets up to speed, it's gonna be in his hands
a ton. So therefore, what has Chris done doing out
there as having another ball handler when you have that
in Kawhi.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I like not shooting well.
Speaker 3: I really like your your point about data too, because
this clearly isn't just about starting lineups, and we're also thinking,
you know, forward to closing lineups, and with Kawhi Leonard
being limited to these stints, I you know, I think
it does make sense to sort of play with things
a little bit because you have so much you have
you know, much less time to sort of play these
things out, especially if you know, like we've talked about,
for the foreseeable future, he might not be in closing
lineups depending on his minutes.
Speaker 2: Look, that does not that is if any team can
pull this off right now, it is the Clippers because
of coach louse tinkering, because of Kauhi's limited availability, because
of the guys who have done this over the years
for them.
Speaker 3: And the egos, I mean, like this is their normal.
Like you know, I do think this is a rarefied
situation where you do have the temperament and the personalities
where you can do this, like I you know, not
every team could say that like this. This could cause
a friction in a lot of other locker rooms.
Speaker 1: I love I love Derek Jones quote last night when
they asked him about the rotating. See he just may
said I don't care like I care about winning, I
don't care about and starting or anything like that.
Speaker 3: And how often have we talked about on this show,
you know, like don't put too much credence into like
who the actual starters are for this team. You know,
watch you got to watch the rotations.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and four of the five starters are set, Like
that's the other part. Yeah, speaking, we're gonna talk about
expectations out of KUIs back in a sec. But we
do need to talk about Terrence Man's return. Because Terrence
Man returned as well and looked as good as he's
maybe looked all season. Terrence Man comes back, a lot
of people are now assuming that KPJ's out of the rotation.
I don't think that's true. It's very clear that Mobamba
is out of the main rotation. But I like Terrence
making Tyler if he can continue to build on this
first game. Granted it was, you know, it's first game
of four weeks. I like that he's going to try
and he's gonna have to make Tyler think about some
stuff with some of the rotations. KPJ and Terrence looked
pretty solid together last night, but it just seems like
it pushed Mobamba out of the rotation. It doesn't seem
like anyone else got pushed out of the rotation with
Terrence coming back.
Speaker 3: Bench Wise, I mean, Bomba was already kind of on
the outs.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Nico was going to play a lot of center
as what we learned last night.
Speaker 2: To Bomba's matchup dependent. Maybe he plays against Minnesota because
they have Gobert, but against a team like Atlanta, anytime
coach lou can get away with not playing a backup big,
he's probably going to.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a good call. Do we think is so?
And I know we talked about a little bit last
episode we were all together, but are we gonna see
some ten games sample style with main bench guys, like a,
is Tyler just or is that just gonna be all
matchup dependent? Because I wonder I've been saying Tyler wants
a smaller rotation, but it's a difference when the smaller
rotation is like, you know, spot minutes for bomba and
matchup dependence, that doesn't really count as like a full
rotation guy. But now we got right the benches just
for based on last night, the bench is Derek Jones, Junior,
Terrence Man, Kevin Porter, uh betoom a mere coffee. That's
ten guys between the starting five. And those guys, I'm
really curious to see what it looks like.
Speaker 3: And eight of them in double digits last.
Speaker 1: Night, that's nuts. I'm curious to see what the bench
starts to look like closer to the playoffs, because we're
not running ten guys in the playoffs. I just I
can't really see that happening with TYLERU. Not that it's bad,
I just I just don't see that I think.
Speaker 3: Though, at the same time, like if you can keep
a guy ready enough that you can sort of use
even spot minutes like some matchup dependent sort of switches.
Look man, like this team, you know, the top ceiling talent,
you know is not maybe as high as certainly as
some of their other competitors and even years past of
this team, So you got to try to find those
things on the margins. And I do think that, you know,
if you can keep a guy in the rotation enough,
you know, I'm not saying that he's like part of
the you know, like the solidified playoff rotation, but even
if you can get find a path for him to
like spot minutes in a matchup dependent scenario, I mean
that's utility. That's you know, like that that's necessary. I
think for a team that's constructed the way this.
Speaker 2: One is, I think they need to figure out, hopefully
Kawai can stay healthy enough where they can see what
they really have with this team, so they can find
out if they do need to do a consolidation trade,
if somebody is expendable. If they are playing these guys
and they're able to stay in rhythm for some time,
someone's value may go up and they can make a
move before the trade deadline. I don't know. I'm not
looking at Terrence Man's performance last night in that way.
I love what we saw from Team Man. That looked
like the energy spark guy, and he said a postgame,
my job is to keep the energy up. Because the
lead was down to fourteen and then he had that
nice run in the second half. A lot of his
buckets were just extending a double digit lead. The game
was already pretty much over, but he kept kind of
the pedal down. That's that's classic Terrence Man right there.
So I don't know if they can keep all these
guys happy and just see what happens, who's playing well,
and how the pieces fit. But in order to really
get you a good view of how this could look
and who you need and who might be tradeable, you
need Kawhi Leonard to stay healthy. You need everybody to
stay healthy, just for a section of time here so
you can see what's going on.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we got it. Yeah, there's a you know, there's
a month until the trade deadline, so there's not a
whole lot of time to figure it out.
Speaker 1: I think I would say, just as a caveat if
Terrence keeps playing well like this and KPJ plays better
as he has been playing, I would Terrence makes enough
that that's a trade that would be a difference maker.
You know, KPJ doesn't make enough to be traded for
some you know what I mean, Like you just look
at how the salaries work. It's not like we would
trade KPJ for someone making like four million dollars who's
very good and plays like the power forward or something
like that. So I think it would probably be Terrence
if if anyone's value were to get pupped. All right,
coming up, we do have to talk about expectations. We
already know what Will's expectations are for this team. We
already know that they're written in stone, but we do
have to talk about the expectations. We also want to
There was an ESPN snippet going around, and I think
we should give a disclaimer on the wording it if
people read it and freaked out. So if you're listening
to the audio, there's gonna be a bit of a
break coming up. If you're watching this at YouTube dot
com Slash at Clippers podcast, we're still here. So we
got an audio break, and then we're talking expectations in
three two.
Speaker 3: What all right, welcome back into clips and dip, talking
about what you've been waiting for all season long, the
return to Kawhi Leonard. We got to see it in
a little preview last night. Now we got to talk
expectations and what this means. There was also a quote
that came out at the first place I saw it
was from Tamara Zarli. But I Chuck, do you want
to talk about this because it's a little troubling. I
think we need some wording. But it's about Kauhi and
how he's feeling in his return.
Speaker 1: Yes, so obviously as Adam has laid out very well too,
like we gotta still monitor how things are going with Kawhi.
But there was an ESPN snippet that said, and chel
Mara had a video of this, which is a better
answer than how this was transcribed. I'm gonna read this.
It says Leonard was asked what would signal to him
about how his knees are feeling, whether after games or practices.
He said he wasn't sure, and that he woke up
recently and it was flared up and I couldn't move.
So now I'm just keeping it moving and I don't know,
it's just day to day. The word recently is doing
is a not what I said in the context of
the answer, so much heavy lifting. It's the last injury
he had, is what he's talking about. He's not talking
about recently, which would in a lot of people's heads
signal a week ago or something like that. Right, Like,
you see recently and you freak out, But it's not recently.
It was the last injury that it happened.
Speaker 2: That's what I've listened to it a million times. I
listened to the last last night's postgame interview or earlier.
There's no indication there did they mean to say? I
tweeted at Baxter Holmes, like, Hey, what's going on here?
Because there is a big difference. Do you mean the
most recent injury, because there's a difference between that and
recently him waking up and feeling like this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like I just and I do believe, I guess
kind of the flip side of the coin. Day to
day does feel fair that coming out of Kawhi, he's
coming back after a game, we're gonnaee outlooks on the
travel day which is today, Like that all makes sense,
but the recently part, because I read that was like,
oh shit, like what is recently here? But then you
listen to the full context of the quote. Check out
the Wonderful Beat Writers for the La Clippers to Mayor
Lot Murray Justin Rousseau for the full quote. But like
it is kind of like to be there. No, yeah,
it should not be there at all.
Speaker 3: So I saw I saw the video. I saw the
video before this ESPN thing, and I, you know, contextually,
I didn't think that he was talking about this, you know,
this recently happening, and I was trying to trying to
use any other word, but it being his you know,
the last time has happened. And I think, you know,
if you're looking at this, it's not one hundred percent
still the answer that you want. I mean, you'd love
to hear that, you know, better than ever, not a
doubt in my mind, but I just we're not going
to get that. So it's still it's worrisome, but in
the status quo way, I guess where it's like, you know,
I would love to know that he's like, it's you know,
it's responding better. This is a better response than you know,
the Olympics and and how I felt. Then, you know,
I would love to hear something like that. I don't
think that we're going to get that for a while,
until we truly know what the impact is, if there
is any you know, residual swelling, how it feels when
he's traveling, et cetera. So it's I don't want to
say that it's not worrisome, but it's not worrisome in
a the way that this article was particularly worded or
worrisome compared to really any other time. I suppose with Kawhi.
Speaker 1: Leonard that's a good point. Any of the other returns
has been the same thing. We all watched that depressing
game that was his return to Staples against the MAVs,
like that was horrible. But yeah, the word recently should
not be in there. I hope it gets changed. I
don't think it will, but yeah, upsetting not the best
way to report that news. Now expectations, people are excited
Kawhi Leonard is back. I talked to a lot of
people last night into it who were firmly on the championship,
you know, Western Conference finals. Then we'll see what happens.
Trade we know Will's shirt has answered all the questions
that he's being asked of. My shirt says, this is
our year. How do we feel? I know we did
the We were talking last time. It was all together.
We were talking, you know, like it's probably gonna be
four five seed. The West is crazy tight. Seeing him
out there last night really made me. I cannot wait
for playoff basketball for the Slippers team because they're gonna
be a problem if they get home court. I think
they probably win the first round and then I don't
know what happens because the West is crazy. But Adam,
how are you feeling. Were you bullied last night by
seeing Kawhi back or have your expectations remade the same?
Speaker 2: It's pretty much the same, you know. That was the
type of performance I was expecting. The threes were a
little bit surprising, but it's also just one game. I
was just going off of what we looked like from
distance when he came back from the acl and it
really took him some time to start knocking him down
from the outside. So that was encouraging. That was good
to see, But still want to see him explode, have
a dunk, have a tough layup, open up as he's
running down the court and get into sixth gear. But
last night, I don't know. I think I don't want
to say it was more about the Atlanta Hawks just
being that bad, because I think the Clippers, you know,
they forced their will on them and made Atlanta kind
of tap out because they realize, oh, this defense is
really good. The only way we're winning tonight is if
we get unusually hot from three, and that's probably not
going to happen. So I guess we're going on too
in LA, That's right. Yeah, I don't know. My expectations
are still the same. I felt like if they have
Kawhi close to the version they had last season, with
this squad that they have put together, they do have
a chance against anyone in the West in the seven
game series.
Speaker 1: I like that. And Will, I mean, of course it
is our year, but how do you see this this
playoff series going.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, this is our year. Was still
dependent on Kauiet So no, not much has changed there.
I think it just really depends on where where can
you get yourself in the standings. You know, things are
pretty tight right now, like four through seven. Uh, it's
like what a half a game a game, So you
know there is some maneuvering to be going on. Uh yeah,
Fourth is the Denver Nuggets at twenty and fourteen. We're
currently at twenty and fifteen, so there is quite a
lot of maneuvering to happen. We'll see. I don't know, man,
We've talked about this. I know that it would be different.
I really don't want a four or five first round.
Speaker 1: Meeting with the MAVs again. Well have you seen did
you guys see that clip of Luca at their last game. Dude,
that is he's.
Speaker 3: Like I taught you, I never know when he's hamming
it up. Gotta be honest. I feel like his ankle
is damn ankle was broken that one series.
Speaker 1: He was fine on the court, I get that, but
that footage, dude, he is like he's barely service. It's
to freak everyone out. Yeah, I like Adam, same with me,
Like it didn't exactly make me think any Like, there's
still gonna be such a problem in the playoffs. Just
to play the Clippers at into it. The home court
is going to be so crucial. Shout out to the
Wall last night for being incredibly into the game as well.
But they're not going to be able to you know,
some seasons it's like, oh, if they lose this last game,
they get this opponent, or if they win this last game,
they get that opponent. I don't think that's going to
be in play this year. I think a lot of
teams are not going to know who they're playing until
the season is maybe directly over. If these standings stay
like this, except for the Thunder of course, because I
don't think they're going anywhere, but a lot of these
teams in that middle section of the playoffs standings, it's
just gonna be it's gonna be jumping around a ton.
Speaker 2: I mean last season, we didn't know till the very
end between Denver and Minnesota, like who was the two
and who's the three? Right, So there was some of
that jockeying for position late. Yeah, it'll be more of
the same. Nobody's going to be able to pick their
opponent out there, and that's what the NBA wants, And
that's this kind of the downside for a top seed
that you don't know who's coming out of the play
in to play you, you know, that can be problematic.
But yeah, okay, see's so good. I'm sure they're not
worried about it.
Speaker 1: I think, okay, see he's going to be okay. I
don't like how tight the standings are hot take the Clippers.
The Clippers and Spurs are separated by two games, and
the Spurs are night. The Spurs look like they might
be figuring some stuff out too. Wemby is a terror
upon this league and his reign. Who knows when it's
going to end. It hasn't started yet, but it'll be crazy. Yeah,
I'm I'm just excited to see Kawhian playoff basketball. Should
things continue on this trajectory of looking good. Before we
talk about this next topic, is there anything else bad
basketball related we'd like to discuss about Kawhi Leonard in
the playoffs or expectations. More than half the people I
talked to yesterday said they expect the Western Conference finals.
So I hope that happens.
Speaker 2: Yeah, We've got a long way to go here. Kawhi
is back for one game, He's played twenty minutes. I'm
gonna be gripping to the rest of the season, just
wondering after the game, you know the next day, is
you're gonna wake up and his knee's gonna flare up again?
Because that's a real possibility of.
Speaker 1: Yeah, twenty minutes yesterday and twenty minutes for the foreseeable future.
We don't really know when this minutes restriction is gonna
be up. Ten games would probably be my guess. I
don't know if he's all good. But the real stuff,
because occasionally we talk about the art form known as
cinema here on Clips and Dip. Are we excited for
Kawhi's movie that he's producing about himself because that information
came out yesterday. He has a movie come out. La
Murray asked him about the fantastic New Balance ads that
have kind of come out before his return. Those were great.
The Fred Rogan version that Adam made is so funny,
well done on that.
Speaker 2: I haven't heard about him.
Speaker 1: That's so good. We're should We're all going to the
premiere right whenever this thing comes out. Is it about Kawhi?
I think it's just about Kawhi?
Speaker 2: Is it tie in? You said these are like the
teas him fishing and stuff, like a full length movie
with Kawhi, a guy who doesn't talk that much. How
is this gonna work?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm excited. I'm assuming New Balance is
probably producing some kind of short film that's about like
either Kauhi's road to recovery or because his life is
absolutely insane too. If you know anything about the background
of Kawhi Leonard.
Speaker 4: Are silent films back in twenty that would it with
one hundred It's going to be black and white, just
a montage of him doing knee workouts, and then the
only sound is gonna be him drilling a basketball and
that it's gonna cut to black.
Speaker 2: I'm all in whatever.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we have to go to the premiere at the
very least we have to. Yeah, I'm I'm hyped. Will
what are you expecting? Do you do you? I hope
that wen Herzog is involved somehow. It seems like those
two would really mesh and vibe. Will What do you
expecting from the Kawhi film, of which we don't know
a whole bunch of Oh.
Speaker 3: I mean, I don't I have no idea. Is it
doc is he starring in it? Is it? Is it narrative?
I don't know, man, I don't know what to expect.
I will say, in general, I wish that athletes would
I wish that more objective parties would produce these things.
That's all I'm gonna say.
Speaker 1: I like that idea.
Speaker 3: This isn't this isn't specifically about Kawhi. It's just, you know,
I feel like sports documentary is like the thirty for thirty.
They used to feel like so special and then now
we get one like every few months, and it's kind
of just like a it's just like a lip service
kind of thing that's not really you know, it doesn't
go that deep. It's kind of it's a little surface
level kind of yeah, quickly falls away into the woods.
So yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I do hope it's a narrative now that I hope
it's a narrative film and not a documentary. I think
that'd be said.
Speaker 3: I think I think it dramatized. I think kind of
a dramatized thing would be I would find that to
be more enjoyable.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's gonna be whenever it comes out, it's gonna
be a phenomenal event. And I'm sure there will be
some fantastic cover I just want to see snippets.
Speaker 2: It's gonna be a quiet place.
Speaker 1: A quiet place is what it's going to be called.
And the twist is that he's going to get everyone
killed by making noise. Uh oh.
Speaker 3: He also Spike Lee's returned to basketball films.
Speaker 1: I mean Spike Lee directing the Kawhi new Allance injury
recovery movie. Yeah, I've been one hundred percent of the time.
Kawhi also had a bit of what did he say yesterday?
Just putting paint on the canvas in the postgame interview
with Lauren Rosen. He something artistic is brewing up in
this guy's brain. The post basketball pop art era of
Kawhi Leander is gonna be something to look out for.
Are we expecting a good quote per interview now from
Kawhi because he kind of set the bar pretty high
for the postgame interview with that one.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean we got him talking about Jeff and
Gundy post game saying how JBG loves to tell everyone
how much film he's watching. I watched this shit out of.
Speaker 1: Film or such an old basketball guy thing to say,
I watched the ship out of film yesterday. Like Okay,
those words don't really go together like that, but it's fine.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like unforgiven with Clin Eastwood.
Speaker 1: I killed hell exactly. There's some NFL coach I think
it was the old Giants coach who could he only
watched tape using a Wii remote, so they had to
like put tape onto like we I don't know, it
was just th thing. I bet Van Gundy has some
weird thing like that where he's like, no, I watched tape,
give me broadcast.
Speaker 3: He knows how to use that.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah that's true. Yeah, okay, yeah, it's either iPad
or double reel.
Speaker 3: I mean, I wish it was like him in a
dark room with the projector, but he was. He is
in media. He knows that he knows how use iPad.
Speaker 1: That would be so funny. All right, let us know
your thoughts on Kawhi's film, if you have any, let.
Speaker 3: Us know your expectations.
Speaker 1: Yeah, let us know the expectations for Kawhi Leonards film.
Give us your synopsis of what you think it's about.
Tweeted at us at Clippers Pod. Let us know in
the comments at YouTube dot com. Just at Clippers Podcast.
Coming up after this quick break, we're gonna be talking
the road trip Clippers playing the Nuggets on the Wolves
on Monday and Wednesday, and I'm just what we're hoping
to see out of those games. If you're listening, there's
gonna be some ads if you're watching. Our beautiful faces
are still here. Clippers Roady and player of the road
trip picks coming up in three two.
Speaker 2: One welcome back in its clips and dip season three
episode thirty nine, I'm out of Maslin. We got the
Big three with Chuck Mockler and Will Updyke here and
the Clippers back out on the road. It was just
a one off into a dome where they won by
twenty six last night over the Atlanta Hawks and Kawhi
Leonard's return. Now he's with the squad on the road
trips starting in Minnesota tomorrow where you know, I don't
want to say return to the scene of the scene
of the crime. But they lost a heartbreaker ninety three
to ninety two earlier this season where the Clippers had
some really bad turnovers and Chris Dunn took the brunt
of the even though I think.
Speaker 1: I wanted to trade. After that, it was like, what
are we doing here?
Speaker 2: Yeah, the guy goes up and gets a rebound over
Rudy Gobert and then loses the basketball for a board
he never should have been able to get in the
first place, So it's a big game. Clippers are zero
and two against them. They got molly wopped, as the
kids say, by the Minnesota Timberwolves back and into a
dome in game two between them this season, and overall,
Minnesota's kind of had their number for years.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm and then they play the Nuggets. Which of
these games is harder because the Nuggets are hitting kind
of a weird stride. Russ is going to be motivated.
He's been playing well. I'm not sure which.
Speaker 2: Minnesota is down bad. I was listening to Chris Finch
postgame after their loss when Ann had fifty three against Detroit,
like they are miserable right now. The locker room is fractured.
They are right for the picking, but they're also a
desperate team trying to figure out how to turn their
season around. It's kind of just the same place they
were the last time the Clipper played him in Minnesota.
That was right after Anthony Edwards came out and called everybody.
Speaker 1: Yeah that's right. Well, we do know if the Clippers
sent doubles at Anthony Edwards, he will not like that,
So I would not be surprised if we see so
the Minnesota game. I feel like will agree disagree. Derek
Jones Junior in the starting lineup given their.
Speaker 3: Size, Well, I just don't know how long he's gonna
stick with this rotating. Yeah, Well, like I you know,
like how long? How long is enough time to rotate?
I don't know. I think it would be. I think
it would make sense. But like I said, I you know,
I'm biased. I think it would make sense yesterday.
Speaker 1: One hundred percent of the time. I think it's gonna
be Derek Jones Jr. I think we're gonna throw some
weird looks at Anthony Edwards. I'm just yeah, I'm nervous
about both of them.
Speaker 2: I guess.
Speaker 3: The Timber wasn't lost three straights, which is just never
a spot I want to be in.
Speaker 1: Right, It's hard to lose four in a row. Right.
And I wanted to bring this up too, because Adam,
you're talking about this on Clippers Talk. We haven't talked
about it a bunch here. Clippers rebounding has been not
good over the last like ten games or so. Wolves
are tenth and rebounds per game over the last five games.
Like I said, Clippers are tied at sixteenth with Kawhi back.
How do we see him helping the rebounding thing. When
do we think we're pulling out of this back to
normal or is this going to be the new normal.
Speaker 2: I mean, I think he did start things off last
night with a board. I think that was the first
time he touched the basketball. That might be a sign
Kawhi is a very good rebounder for his position or
for his size. You could say out there he's going
to help. And I think overall, it's just hard to
maintain the level of effort it takes to board at
the rate that they were with a smaller group to
start off the year. They could hold it up for
maybe fifteen games, but the last fifteen games their twentieth
in doun A percentage.
Speaker 3: There's a pretty.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Man, I think that's probably an underrated area that we
didn't think about. They'd be missing him, uh, just on
the last because that was a point of emphasis coming
into this season that the coaching staff really wanted Terrence
Man to a board. So I think it will it
will improve. I don't think it's dire straits when it
comes to the rebounding department. There's a lot of different
factors that have gone into why they haven't been as
good recently.
Speaker 1: Some would say Terrence Boardman gets paid. All right, thank you,
I'll get out of here. That's one of the best
worst jokes we've had. What are we hoping? I think
from Kawhi, what I'm hoping to see on this road
trip actually has kind of the court might be secondary
to me on what I want to see from Kauwhi
on this road trip. I want to see how the
knees reacting after the travel. The travel day between in
the prem and the post game is what I'm kind
of most anxious, isn't the right word focused on? I
think from Kawhi because this is not the easiest travels, right.
They play, they travel, they play a game a team
that's very difficult, mile high. That whole thing. I expect
the defense to kind of be what again, what we
saw offense. It's gonna happen when it happens for Kawhi.
Right now, I'm just like these first ten games, I
just like, what's the how's the knee responding? That's all
I really cared about. Yeah, I don't figured out.
Speaker 3: With his first game on the road truly. The only
thing I'm looking for is him to play twenty minutes
in both games, just like in his minutes limit in
both games. You know, I don't want to say whatever
that looks like, because I don't want him to be
limping into those minutes obviously, But like I'm, I'm I'm not.
I'm not super concerned about, you know, any sort of
box scorer or anything. I think, you know, what we
saw last night was an indication that he's on the
right right track. And if he's just staying on the floor,
you know, I'm I'm trusting enough in the in the
incremental improvement that it's it's going to get there. This
is just the first heavy travel and it's a lot
of travel just a couple of days. So I just
want to see my benchmark is played twenty minutes in
both games.
Speaker 1: And for what it's worth, he's not on the injury
report at all for the game on what he's not questionable,
he's not on that thing at all. Adam, what say you?
Part two?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think staying on the floor for Kawhi is
the new win. Right now, you got one guy who's
in preseason mode and it's only going to play twenty
minutes and the rest of the team still trying to
figure out how to play around him, and they were
really good against Atlanta doing that. But I assume in
one of these two games it's going to be clunky.
It's just going to happen because it's natural. He's too
big of a piece to where they're going to have
some issues. But I still feel like overall he's gonna
be a net positive and they have a better chance
with him even in twenty minutes, even with him in
second gear at most. I will take that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, second gear, Kawhi is better than a lot of players,
and it's kind of where he needs to be, you
know what I mean. We talked about like defensively, the
instincts those are there. If he would have been going
crazy on drives or anything like that last night, I
would have been like, let's maybe pump this back a
little bit. I don't try and KPJ style dunk everything
or anything like that. So staying on the court, that's
a great benchmark. Who is going to be our player
of the road trip for this and now we can't
I don't think we have to add Kawhi Leonard to
the players we can't pick right or because he's coming back,
if he's on a minute.
Speaker 3: Come on, even with the.
Speaker 1: Adam, who's your player of the road trip? Who is
your now? The new name is the honorable James Harden
Norm Powell off. He's four of the starting five player
of the road trip.
Speaker 3: This has gotten absurd.
Speaker 1: That's down. The team's built.
Speaker 2: Man, I'm gonna pick Djang. I'm out of his shooting
funk from three two for twenty two. I knew there'd
be some regression, but this is this is serious right now.
And he talked about a little bit postgame till Mark
kind of joked like, you're just gonna dunk everything now,
and he mentioned how well he's not shooting it very
well from three. Uh, but he's But he also said,
but I'm gonna keep at it. I'm gonna keep putting
them up and they need him to. So I'm hoping
he knocks down some key three pointers and just kind
of re establishes a little bit more of a baseline
just just shooting around. All I wanted this season from
him was to shoot at thirty six percent from three,
and that is a huge victory to bring in a
guy with that level of defense and pop, with his athleticism.
If he shoots at league average from three. That's beautiful
right now, he's been so bad that it took him
down from shooting like forty five percent the first month
and a half down to thirty five thirty.
Speaker 1: Five point four.
Speaker 2: I know what they don't always like, you know, swing that.
Speaker 3: I know what he's saying.
Speaker 1: I know what you're saying. Do you think he starts
either of these games? Yes, kind of big teams.
Speaker 2: I think there's a decent chance he starts both.
Speaker 1: Will your player, because.
Speaker 2: Like they have, Jade McDaniels is a guy with size
out there. Anthony Edwards is shorter, but you don't even
realize that because he jumps so high. Uh, Mike Conley's
undersized and old now, but they have a bigger team.
Both these teams are on the bigger ranger size.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if he starts either. Your
pick for player of the road trip.
Speaker 3: Man, I'm gonna go with the guy who's been sort
of consistently and consistent. But after last night we talked
briefly about his return. I'm hoping the Terrence man continues
to be on the right track, hoping that he continues
with the rebounding I liked that he seemed less deferential.
He was still giving up the ball, but he he
was he was comfortable finding his spots and looking to score.
So I just I did really hope that he's he's
back on the right track. I hope that, as Kylu
said earlier, like got his guy back. That's that's what
I want.
Speaker 1: And him being good helps. Yeah, it just gives ty
looks for lineups in the playoffs, so like it helps
Kawhi a little bit. Like Terrence is a good pick.
That's exactly who I was going to pick. So now
I need to kill some time, I think. So we
got PJJ Terrence. Man, I'm to say it because he's
kind of We're gonna see some small ball lineups against
these big ass teams and Nko Batoum is gonna be
playing the five, and Nico at the five has a
lot of responsibility. Not a bad way he can do it,
but I'm interested to see Nico grow more into this
Nico at the five roll with a couple guys he
hasn't been lineups with before. So he's my pick for
Player of the Red Trip. Not gonna be a sexy
box score, but he's gonna be like plus nine and
like a three point win or something like that, and
he's gonna bother Yokic at some point. Good picks. Guess
the Jokic stopper, the Jokic stop. Yeah, and what are
the Clippers trading for a Yokic stopper? That's what I
wanted to talk about next, is that even what you need?
Speaker 3: Is that even what you need now now you now
know you need the Shay stopper or something.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we need a guy. How about this Clippers trade
for a guy who can guard any are really well, oh,
you could take this guy. Shack Bob Coozy, seat belt nothing,
Shaq get out of here. Huh Yeah, PJ. Tucker and
Bud will get it done. You add a second round pick.
Speaker 3: We're finding somewhere zero point game was on film.
Speaker 1: He'll bring a camera, okay, and that one hundred point
game will turn to a zero point game and then
we'll have footage of it. Okay. Sorry, that about wraps
things up.
Speaker 2: Fun twist. Will Chamberlain lander on the moon but did
not have one hundred points in that game?
Speaker 1: That would Yeah, I'd take that. I'd take that. He's
on the picture of just the moon drawing up the
moon on it. Someone photoshop that and send it to
us at Clipper's Pod. Okay, we gotta give a couple
of shout outs on this outro. We have to give
a shout out to Daniel Perez. He listens to the show.
Will and I met him yesterday. He seems very nice.
Thank you for listening to the show.
Speaker 3: Yeah, great to see you after a game.
Speaker 1: Yes, we also have to give a shout out to
the Clippers comms people who helped Will and I get
through what turned into a very secure situation. To get
into into it, Adam, I'm going to tell you everyone
has to hear the story. So if your media and
you have a bag and you're going into into it,
you go to where everyone's kind of queuing up at
the pedestrian bridge, you all the way to the other side,
and you say, hey, I'm media, a Clippers employee. It's
important this person works for the team. Goes hello, you
have a bag, get it through the bag check and
then go get your credential in the media check in
which is in the stadium itself, two different areas. Every
single game that we've been to, no issue. Put the
bag in the tag even game one. Even Game one,
get the tag, walk over the skybridge, go to the
media check, and the very helpful people there give you
this beautiful media pass I'm looking at now. For some reason,
yesterday the news system was you had to have a
credential to get your bag checked. This is what the
security people were telling us, and I politely will was there.
He can vouch. I politely pointed out that our credentials
are in the stadium, so how can I go get
my credential? Come back here, go through the backcheck. It
just doesn't make any sense. The security company did not
care for my gentle nudge to the logical road. Anyway.
It was incredibly frustrating the Clippers Comms people. We weren't
out there only people to have this problem. They they
made it happen. They made it happen. Everyone got through,
no worries. Shout out to the Clippers Comms people. And
I hope that guy who had a present go through
was able to get in. There was some guy whoever
like a wrap, which yeah, they looked sketchy. You can't
have a rapped gift.
Speaker 3: I'm sure it was like, I'm sure it was fine.
I want to trust that it was fine, but.
Speaker 1: But you know optics. Anyway, that's the rest. That's the
end of the shoutouts. Shout out Daniel Prez. Shout out
to the Clippers comms people, some of which I think
listened to this show, which was really cool. We're maybe
doing a live after the Wolves game tomorrow. Could be
fun games at five, I believe our time. We're gonna
do a full episode for y'all on Thursday. Will. Now
that the New Year's is over and people are going
to break their old resolutions next Friday, what's a what's
a new resolution? Maybe that people could tell them to
experience and where could they find that that content for
that new resolution?
Speaker 3: Yeah, your resolution should be get three friends to listen
to clips and this. Yep, they can do that anywhere
they get their podcasts if they want to check it
out over on Apple Podcasts, Spotify. These little ratings reviews
all helps us out, but to get the fullest experience
of this podcast, which sometimes includes my video melting for
some reason, I'm not quite sure.
Speaker 1: Of Adam's an avoid I love it.
Speaker 3: It's probably an acid flashback coming to my computer. You
can check us out over on YouTube dot com. Slash
at Clippers Podcast. But hey, however you listen, you're engaged
with this show, we appreciate you. And yeah, happy now.
Speaker 1: Happy New Year, Adam. We've gone from light to dark.
We need one positive thing to send these folks out
to start this first week of work again. For some
of us, God damn give us something positive.
Speaker 2: So check this out. Clippers are in a win win situation.
Lakers are down eight with about six minutes left against Houston.
If the Lakers lose, well the Lakers lose. If the
Lakers win, they help the Clippers chase down the Houston
Rockets and the standings. And okay, see he doesn't take
their pick. Not bad, not bad.
Speaker 1: I'll take that. That's the kind of energy we need
for the rest of this year. Thank you everyone for listening,
Thank you for watching. Again. You can find us at
clipperspot on Twitter, YouTube, dot Comience at Clippers podcast. We'll
be back for you all tomorrow most likely and if not,
full episode on Thursday talking everything that happens. Yeah, and
as always, let's go clips. Indeed,