Episode 409: LA Clippers Season Grades + What Will James Harden Do?

The LA Clippers season is over, did the end of it sour what was a "successful" year? Adam, Will, and Chuck talk season grades for Kawhi, Harden, Zubac, and everyone else, wonder what the future will hold with James Harden's contract, and generally just try and decompress 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
What is going on? Clippers fans? Welcome keeping a chill
to start. Welcome to season three, episode sixty six of
Clips and Dip. I am Chuck Mockler, joined by Adam
Osen and William Updike. We're finally all three decompressing about
the Clippers season as a whole. We're gonna give some
player grades, some coach grades, and some of the talk

(00:33):
about the Lawrence Frank presser. There's two pretty big pressing
questions for the Clippers. Thank you for hanging out. Thanks
for watching all the lives that we did over at
YouTube dot com slash at Clippers podcast. Some of those
were very fun and four of them were not as
fun because of how the team played. Before we get
into the season as a whole. Adam Will wonderful to

(00:56):
all be together. Has the taste of Game seven left us?
How are you still? Do we are? We? Are we
past it? Will? You're shaking your head?

Speaker 2 (01:06):
No, I mean, like, like, you know, it's only natural
to overreact. I just don't feel like this particular Game
seven would be an overreaction. And you know it sucks
because I you know, you went up against a really
good team. It would be understandable to lose in seven,

(01:28):
just not the way that the way that they did
kind of taints the entirety of what they achieved this
season for me, And I know that that's not you know,
there's a lot leading up to those four games, right,
there's eighty two other ones. But I think in the
biggest of moments, the way that you show up shows
a lot about the identity of the team. And I

(01:50):
think that that is like that that's really a bummer,
especially given like how good I felt about.

Speaker 3 (01:55):
This team for that ending like nine game stretch.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Yeah, gotta be honest, No, it's not gone, and it
completely changed my ideas and thoughts on this season.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
It's the competitor mind that Adam, you were grimacing as
I brought up Game seven still hurts.

Speaker 4 (02:12):
Yeah, I think Will's harsh but fair. I think this
is how the sour taste is going to be left
in our mouths all summer long. It's the never ending warhead.
Instead of gobstopper, it's sours. It's really frustrating because they
were so competitive in that game. It was just by

(02:36):
the first two minutes of the third quarter, it was
over and at Kawhi hits a three It's an eight
point game to start the third and they go on
a seventeen oh run. How does that happen? How do
you let go of the rope like that? In the
series that was so close and back and forth and
I yeah, I'm not over. It's gonna take some time.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
It was disgusting. It was a really gross game of basketball.
And watching the Nuggets get blown out the other day,
it just the vibe, like what you said about how
they kind of showed up and started the game the Clippers.
You were like, oh, this doesn't feel good, Like, oh no,
we're not locked in at all, Like this is the fans.

(03:19):
You know, they flew the fans out, which is a
very great move by Ballmer, but like, yeah, that to
show up or not show up the way that they did.

Speaker 4 (03:30):
Embarrassing.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
It's embarrassing. Even Lawrence Frank said it, how that was
a pretty candid moment from a GM to be like, yeah,
we were that was embarrassing, Like that was indicative you
should be embarrassed. Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 4 (03:42):
It's one thing if you know it's twenty nineteen and
you lose Game six badly to that Golden State Warriors
team after you had won two games in that series,
and you didn't feel like you ever really had a
chance to win that series going in. It's bad when
you get blown out at home by Phoenix in that
game six and twenty twenty one. But that Clippers team

(04:03):
fought and gave all they had, and they didn't have Kawhi.
Eventually they broke they had everybody healthy. They just won
Game six an impressive fashion with great performances from Kawhi
and James Harden and then a complete dud of a
game in Game seven outside the first quarter.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
And on Will's birthday. Yet again, the Clippers disappoint Will
at his birthday, something that has happened before and might happening.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
I think it's the new tradition. They're just going to
lose in the first round on my birthday until till
we get those picks back.

Speaker 3 (04:39):
Yeah, until what twenty thirty one, twenty thirty.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
I think twenty thirty.

Speaker 4 (04:44):
We're right there, we're good.

Speaker 1 (04:46):
Twenty thirty, we're right, we're knocking on the door. So holistically,
we're kind of doing a post mortem here for some
marketing talk. How will this season be remembered in three
to five years for the Clippers? So just some team
stats for everybody. Not as fondly as eighteen nineteen. I'll
tell you that right now. Hey, you got that right.

(05:07):
The Clippers were fourteenth in offensive rating, third in defensive rating,
fifth and net twentieth in points per game seventh and
three point percentage, but twenty ninth in attempts twenty second
and turnovers per game. They won eight in a row
to avoid the play in, and then got beat in
seven games, the seventh game being the most gruesome. Buy

(05:27):
the Nuggets holistically taking everything into account, I like what
Will said, not as fondly as eighteen nineteen. I think
I think the loss was so bad in game sevenhen
it overshodoers. What was a overachieving regular season?

Speaker 2 (05:49):
It went from like an overachieving regular season, like the
Bad News Bears, lovable losers, to just straight up losers, losers.
Take the levable out of it, the lovables out of
the equation for me el for.

Speaker 5 (06:02):
Love, Yeah, adam uh, I don't know.

Speaker 4 (06:11):
The twenty one twenty two season comes to mind a
little bit because they even make the playoffs, and they
had a lot of fight, but then they lost the
two playing games and the second one they're up by thirteen.
I know they didn't have Paul George. I think both
of them had double digit leads. That was frustrating after
a really good season to not get into the playoffs.

(06:32):
They lose technically in the postseason and they're planing. But
this was a real missed opportunity for a group that
had I think some high potential to make a little
run to make it interesting. And yeah, it's hard to
reconcile or just married the two things. You have a
great regular season, you win fifteen more games than some

(06:55):
people thought they were going to win. And those same people, though,
were let down by thinking they're gonna win this series now, right,
and they're gonna get some revenge for twenty twenty, right,
And why is healthy? And we're good. We're the healthier team.

Speaker 2 (07:10):
And it's not just losing, like I I that's just
the thing I'm coming back to, man, Like it would
be fine to lose a close game seven, This was
a really close series. Yes, we were the healthier team.
They have, you know, the best player in the world
right now. It's just like it, It would be fine
like that would it would be a totally different scenario
to get like yet another like James Harden, no show.

(07:33):
Just the way they got b is just come on, man,
like what like it feels like we're just not even
fucking close to anything right now in terms of like
actual like like postseason contention, not the well, I mean,
it was our year.

Speaker 3 (07:48):
We pissed it away, but it was our year.

Speaker 4 (07:51):
Is that the title of this video?

Speaker 1 (07:53):
We pissed it away? That was our year? The first
round exit the way they left the first round two.
Because not to look too far ahead in some of
our programming schedules, this is effectively the same core next
this this is what we're getting next year two.

Speaker 2 (08:11):
Yeah, I mean that's essentially exactly what Lawrence Frank said,
like we're running it back.

Speaker 3 (08:15):
There's not a lot of other.

Speaker 1 (08:16):
Options, Yes, and for good reason. There's no other options.

Speaker 2 (08:20):
For the best you can do is like minimize the
amount of years you keep James Haven line up with
the Kawhi years, and not any longer than that.

Speaker 1 (08:29):
We'll see what James wants. What about James.

Speaker 4 (08:35):
It is I really felt like they beat themselves in
so many ways in the series too. It did indeed
to go seven. The reason I had clips and six
is because I didn't feel good about going there in
a Game seven. I didn't turn out this poorly. We
did bring up before game seven it's gonna go one
of three ways. The Clips win close, Denver wins close,
or Denver win's gonna blowout. Clippers winning gonna blow out

(08:56):
was not on the table.

Speaker 5 (08:57):
No, clearly.

Speaker 4 (09:00):
So game one in game four. The game four is
the one where it's just when you talk about identity
and just coming out flat for a playoff game. After
how well they played down the end of the regular season,
down the stretch of games, winning eight straight, winning I
think eighteen of their last twenty one, fighting like hell

(09:21):
up in Golden State and winning that game to stay
out of the playing How do you not have more
intensity and urgency to start game four, to get down
by twenty two, just to mount a comeback and then
lose on a miraculous airball from you know.

Speaker 3 (09:37):
Get stigured.

Speaker 4 (09:38):
That's the game. That's the one that just kills me.
It's like you you had to go up three to one.
I remember texting Carlos, I was like, gotta get both,
gotta get both these games ad into a dome. You
want to win this series, you got to go up
three to one on them. That's the way I know
a lot of people be like, oh, well we want
to get on them. I don't care. Then you have
a chance to close that at home in game six.

(09:59):
That's really bothered me.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
Yeah, not chasing Game one. Both teams, Like the first
two games, I think both teams felt like they should
have won the game that they lost, right Like Game one,
it was like, felt like the gliber should have won
this one. Game two, you're like, I have the hell, okay,
we'll take it, like make up for game one. Game four.
The number one team in defensive rebound percentage all year,

(10:22):
the Clippers, which is something we all wanted them to
work on in the preseason, which they did. But then
the lineup that was out there, the laxa daisical. Nit
Like there's so many photos or stills or videos of
James Harden just watching someone get a board like over him.

(10:45):
It feels like I'm not putting the whole loss on him, obviously,
but he had a pretty He didn't talk to the
media for three games in this series, which means he
had a bad series. I love what he did in
the regular season. We're gonna talk player grades. Next segment.
For the whole season, but there was like it's just.

Speaker 4 (11:06):
They played like a team to me at times that
thought they had a larger margin for error in this
series and they really did. Oh look at how Denver
had to limp into the playoffs firing their coach and
GM and they don't have a bench, and how are
they going to be able to, you know, beat this
team with this depth that is on this rule. I

(11:27):
don't know. I really think maybe they they underestimated the
Nuggets to some degree. It felt like that at times.
I don't know how else to explain some of just
the sleepwalking efforts to start games.

Speaker 1 (11:43):
And like you mentioned this to Adams, starting games has
been something that's plagued, I would say, because it really
didn't help the end of this season.

Speaker 4 (11:53):
They were good in the regular season with it, but
they weren't good in the series. It came back the
old bad habits came back on yeah.

Speaker 1 (12:02):
And the old good habits went away right like all
the all the pick and roll habits we built up
in the in the regular season that you know, the
zoo touches just unraveled. Is maybe it was the last
eight games. Maybe it was gunning so hard they didn't

(12:24):
have any gas to avoid the plan in itself.

Speaker 4 (12:27):
But I think gets six days off which we start
of this series. I don't know. I think I think
they clearly weren't. I came into the series and I
did say, I don't care that their defense is twenty first.
I don't believe Denver is that bad defensively when they
actually care. I never bought into that.

Speaker 1 (12:49):
And they they were number one and like points off
turn like they were number one and two. I think
it was points off turnovers and fast brak points or
something where it was like that kind of defense, even
if it is ranked twenty first, is the kryptonite for
a team like the Clippers who turns the ball over.

Speaker 3 (13:05):
They're like they're an average too above average defensive team.

Speaker 1 (13:09):
Yeah, it's a great way.

Speaker 5 (13:10):
To put it.

Speaker 4 (13:11):
Aaron Gordon was maybe the best player in the series,
and at a position where the Clippers are deficient in
that led to a lot of those offensive rebounds. His defense,
I said two years ago, I think he's the best
defender on Kawhi, and he showed it at times outside
Game two. He was very solid against him and he
made Kawhi work on the other end when he had

(13:32):
to defend him. I think that we get into this offseason,
that's going to become a much bigger conversation now about
the power forward stuff. But they exposed some weaknesses for sure.

Speaker 1 (13:45):
Did you see the the law list of what do
you think the priorities are for the Clippers? Of the
five positions? Where do you think power forward is on
the list?

Speaker 4 (13:56):
Do you put it last?

Speaker 1 (13:58):
That's fourth.

Speaker 4 (14:00):
At the four?

Speaker 1 (14:02):
You know what, maybe it's thinking Okay, before we get
into whole season grades for the players and the coaching
staff on the whole. Would you consider this? The balloons
are here, would you consider this? Would you consider this
season of success? Regular season? Regular season was a success? Yeah,

(14:26):
I'd put that playoffs complete the entirety of.

Speaker 3 (14:29):
The season, Like if you're including postseason now.

Speaker 1 (14:32):
Yeah, they honest question.

Speaker 4 (14:36):
I'll say yes reluctantly lowercase yes. Yeah, it's okay. I
said six through ten they'd finish in the West and
they gave us so many memorable moments during the regular season.
The majority of the season takes place in the regular season,
as bad as the ending is, and that's when you
need to be at your best. I still I gotta

(14:59):
go with the five months that led up to it
and put that a little bit higher and say, yeah,
it was a success and it will feel better I
think as time goes on and we get further away
from this playoff series.

Speaker 1 (15:11):
Yeah, I'm gonna go with the dot dot dot sure
is my answer right now as of May six, fifty
eight PM.

Speaker 2 (15:20):
I just my concern is that that Game seven said
a lot more about this team and what it's going
to look like next year then the other.

Speaker 1 (15:29):
I do think that this season will be better than
next This season will be looked at, I think compared
to next season, compared to next season. Yeah, you know
what I'm saying, like putting a bunch of carts before
a bunch of horses. I think people like I think
this year, regular season wise, we over we over punched,

(15:49):
which is good. That's what you want to do. You
want to play better than you're supposed to be. But
I don't know if we get another nor mere like that.
We'll get into all that later, all right, let us
know if you think the regular season was a success
or the whole season was a success, either at Clippers
Pod or at Clippers Podcast on YouTube. Please don't ask
us about free agency. Yet we're gonna get into that

(16:10):
at some point. The list is not pretty for who
the Clippers going to afford, so you don't want to
see it either. We're gonna be talking the whole season
grades after a quick audio break. If you want to
avoid these, you can watch us on YouTube. We got
ads and the whole season grades coming up in three two.
What all right?

Speaker 2 (16:29):
Welcome back into clips and did We are doing a
bit of a Clippers sort of season post mortem over here.
We're talking the whole season grades. We'll just kick things
off with the starters. I'd like to start with a
guy that I think we're all going to be in
agreement on and I think is sort of unimpeachable really
through this entire thing. Couldn't go with the Piazza Zubots

(16:53):
And I'm going big a now.

Speaker 1 (16:56):
That Adam is gonna do.

Speaker 2 (16:57):
I know that Adam's gonna disagree with this one. I
know that he's going to disagree pretty harshly.

Speaker 1 (17:03):
Hell yeah, I knew it was coming. So Also, we
did the whole season because I think for the regular season,
because of how well the team played in the regular season,
you'd probably give everyone on the roster in it just.

Speaker 3 (17:15):
The way they overachieved, it would be pretty difficult not.

Speaker 1 (17:18):
To not to be a right. Like I mean that respectfully.
Like everyone played pretty damn good.

Speaker 4 (17:24):
It's not very interesting if we just go regular season.

Speaker 1 (17:27):
Yeah, I'd go a for Zoo as well. He took
the leap, he did everything all. He played so well.
Carl Tart bought his jersey the biggest Hopefully he remains
on the team. If you know about the Carl Tart curse,
he excelled. He was great in the short role with passing.
He played great defense. He played really good defense on Jokich.

(17:49):
As Adam mentioned on Twitter, he did everything that everyone
who loves Zoo knew that he could do, and who
didn't like who wanted him to do right Like he's
a double double monster. Hard to not give him an A.
I don't think anyone would give him over.

Speaker 4 (18:12):
Even though he wasn't great. Also in Game seven, he
still gets an A plus For me. On the year,
it was tremendous. He can be the All NBA third team.
He's definitely going to be making All Defensive team. Him
being on conversation for Defensive Player of the Year is awesome.
This was his year. I might look back on this

(18:33):
year and think about bigs New's year.

Speaker 1 (18:35):
That's a good call.

Speaker 2 (18:36):
Yeah, that definitely is a positive takeaway. And he still
did have the second lowest plus minus of any starter
in Game seven. It was him and Derek Jhonesonior. Still
in the negative there, but not as much as some
other folks, not as much as the other fuckers.

Speaker 1 (18:52):
All right, well, who are we grading next? Next?

Speaker 2 (18:57):
Putting the fire, Let's go done, Let's go Chris done. Chris,
who I feel like is an interesting one, had some
ups and downs. I think you know that there are
times where his defensive impact was undeniable. Unfortunately, some of
the struggles on the other end really sort of reared

(19:20):
their ugly head in the in the playoffs, although I
do feel like we saw him grow throughout the season,
or at least get to where he's spent at other
points in his career as a ball handler, because I
feel like at the trade deadline we were all sort
of like bemoaning the fall off in ball handling, especially
when Norm was out for that period of time, and
I do feel like Dunn was able to rise to
the challenge. He was able to become much more of

(19:42):
like the facilitator and playmaker that I kind of thought
that he was when we when we acquired him. But
done is an interesting one for me because so much
of the season I would say, you know, it's like
pretty much goods as promised.

Speaker 1 (19:58):
The best perimeter to fender of the Clippers I've ever had,
or damn close to it.

Speaker 5 (20:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (20:03):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, like absolutely, like yeah, absolutely elite. It's
just so tough though, because it's like.

Speaker 1 (20:12):
It he's a specialized tool.

Speaker 2 (20:14):
He's a specialized tool, and it's not like, well, I
want to say, it's not like it was like, oh shit,
like this is like wildly exceeding my expectations, but I mean.

Speaker 3 (20:23):
Defensively, like, I mean, the guy is a monster. It
was pretty impressive.

Speaker 1 (20:28):
I gotta go.

Speaker 3 (20:31):
Considering like sort of the totality.

Speaker 2 (20:33):
Of everything, as we often should do, I'm kind of
on in B minus C range.

Speaker 1 (20:42):
Wow, I'm gonna go be minus for what it's worth.
He shot thirty three and a half percent from three
of three attempts per game.

Speaker 3 (20:49):
What his exact career average or slightly below?

Speaker 1 (20:52):
Yeah? What does average like? Thirty two?

Speaker 4 (20:57):
Yeah, thirty one?

Speaker 1 (20:58):
I think, okay, a couple percent.

Speaker 3 (21:00):
So that's why he's getting to be minus instead of
a seat.

Speaker 1 (21:03):
I was gonna go B plus just because of the
defense was so good he I mean even in the playoffs,
him fighting off that, him fronting Joker for that ten
second like that is just like the epitome of what
this team in the regular season with Bill Donalds was

(21:24):
crazy good defense and not giving up on that end
of the floor. Wait, you're going to be B plus
plus eighty eight and a half percent. You're nearly A
on this, So what you're nearly A on this? Nearly A.
It's just the only thing preventing it. Was just like
he is a specialized guy. And in the playoffs, you know,

(21:45):
we saw the lever pool from Tyloo whatever whatever, but
like you said, he was able to be a release
vel for Harden. He got a lot better at that
than I thought he was gonna be. I gotta go
back you just so.

Speaker 2 (21:55):
I'm understanding this curve. Zoo is an A. Chris Dunn
is all so nearly in A.

Speaker 1 (22:01):
Yeah, Well, Zuo's an A plus. Zoo was an A plus.

Speaker 3 (22:06):
Yeah, I said A.

Speaker 1 (22:07):
But you know, but I'm going B plus. Yeah, Adam,
what are you going? Hoye?

Speaker 4 (22:18):
B I was thinking A minus for a second, but
you're right, I'm giving Zoo the A plus. I don't know.

Speaker 2 (22:27):
I just don't think they're in the same tier in
terms of like expectations to delivery Personally, I'm.

Speaker 4 (22:33):
Just relative to who he's been in his career, and
I do think he exceeded expectations. He became the best
perimeter defensive. This is the best perimeter defensive season we've seen.
I enjoyed watching him so much.

Speaker 5 (22:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (22:49):
Oh, he was good early on in the series. Unfortunately
he started missing a lot more. He still shot I
guess thirty five percent in the series from three he
shot almost thirty six or said ten eight.

Speaker 5 (23:02):
Yeah, uh, I don't know.

Speaker 4 (23:07):
I'll go B plus as well. But I was really
really encouraged with his play. I love washing him. Here's
a difference maker. They're not a top five defense without him.
That point of attack defense from Chris Dome was spectacular.

Speaker 1 (23:23):
Yeah, I'm trying to see what did hold on? I
mean Norm shot thirty Yeah that yeah, anyway, Yeah, I'd
like the difference maker part he's getting. There's also some
intangibles of why I'm giving him the BB plus range
twos because he was a leader. He had the G
league guys asking him questions. He was a trickle down

(23:45):
vibes guy. Him and Batoomb filled that role of like
defense by example. Okay to a be this, we're in
the teacher's lounge. Okay, who's who's next to the start?

Speaker 2 (23:59):
You don't want to hear from his parents later. It's uh,
next up, let's go. Let's go norm.

Speaker 1 (24:14):
Oh, this one is tough, dude. He's the reason. He's
a huge reason why the Clippers won fifty games. He's
an absolute he had his best year ever. And this
one isn't hard for me. Where are you going? This
is a for me?

Speaker 3 (24:32):
This is an a season for norm I was gonna
go I can see that, but like it's it's it's
a career year. He rose to the challenge.

Speaker 1 (24:40):
He got hurt the other part. He got hurt at.

Speaker 3 (24:43):
The like the wrong part of the season, which sucks.
And he just kind of never really like.

Speaker 1 (24:50):
I don't know, he couldn't bounce back out for the
All Star break, you know, like yeah, and the playoffs.

Speaker 3 (24:56):
He was at the absolute worst time, like.

Speaker 1 (25:00):
And he wasn't incredibly stellar in the playoffs.

Speaker 4 (25:03):
I think that's why I'm going to be that's fair.
I think the playoffs because he.

Speaker 1 (25:08):
Had from three sixteen points per game.

Speaker 4 (25:16):
The first forty five games are a plus plus spectacular.
It's not his fault. He got hurt, it's not his fault.
He comes back and now Kawhi's roll and it's kind
of clunky. It's the fits difficult, it's not, but the
playoff series I needed more. The game seven, Norm was
really bad, dribbling the ball off his foot at one point.

(25:37):
It was rough to watch, and he just if he's
not scoring, he doesn't offer much else. And the defense
at times earlier in the season I thought it was
pretty good. I thought it was good at times. God
was it. Game six, he had a possession where he
locked up Aaron Gordon. I'm like, why doesn't he do
this more? And that's frustrating.

Speaker 1 (25:58):
He had fluxes of defense where you'd be like, oh damn,
you sat in the chair, you like really gritted this
one out, way to go, and then it would just
flutter away.

Speaker 5 (26:09):
You damn box out.

Speaker 4 (26:10):
At the end of game four, right, yeah, I love Norm.

Speaker 1 (26:16):
Absolutely, be all right, that's fair. Who's next? Will we
got the two big guys next? So which one are
we going with.

Speaker 3 (26:27):
Let's let's start with Kawi and we'll end this one
on Harden.

Speaker 1 (26:32):
So Kawhi thirty seven games played, Man, this one is tough.
Is B minus fair?

Speaker 2 (26:43):
I'm at I'm at B B minus. I'm probably closer
to the minus.

Speaker 1 (26:50):
I think part of me is saying this too, because
he's a little older. He's lost the explosiveness that once
was obviously expectation. I was so excited. The ramp up
was so perfect, right, like they brought him back then. Also, wait,
the medical team a plus for the Clippers this year.
Everyone shits on the medical team. They did a wonderful

(27:12):
job this year with bringing Kwhi back and everything. I
got it. Yeah, like b minas like, but I think
maybe that's just because I was. I still want him
to be top five in the league, and I don't
think he is. That's not disrespectful. He's still very high
up there.

Speaker 3 (27:31):
But no, he wasn't. Yeah, not consistently. I don't think
he was at that point.

Speaker 1 (27:39):
Yeah, Adam, what are you going? It's a tough one
to great die.

Speaker 4 (27:43):
It's funny because you mentioned thirty seven games in the
regular season and twenty two or twenty three of those
he was really at an all NBA level, yeah, and peaking,
and he comes into the playoff series.

Speaker 1 (27:59):
Which is like a back from last year.

Speaker 4 (28:03):
Someone I in interm of a number of total games
like played at that level. Like I thought he was
pretty close near the end of the season to about
where he was last year at his best, honestly, Like
he was awesome in the game against Golden State, but
it's the playoff series and it's not that he was bad,

(28:26):
like I think he might have led both teams and scoring. Still,
he shot fifty four percent from the field, forty one
percent from the outside, twenty five points a game.

Speaker 1 (28:33):
Like, it's not can he showed he had to set
the tone like you're just getting doubled.

Speaker 4 (28:42):
Like I saw him moving fast at the you know
down by twenty he was still rotating. And I think
I think I'll go b because I just needed a
little bit more in the playoffs, I needed one more
game two from him, and that it really wouldn't been
enough to win the series.

Speaker 1 (28:59):
Maybe in the in the rhetoric kind of after Game
one of like he's got to be in attack mode,
it was kind of like, yeah, man, you should be
an attack mode. We would prefer that.

Speaker 5 (29:11):
Yeah, yeah, it was.

Speaker 4 (29:14):
It was a good series. It wasn't a great series exactly.
It's about Kawhi's standard that he has said. So I'll
go be the overall for the season.

Speaker 1 (29:22):
Yeah, m all right, now, maybe maybe the hardest guy
in the grade in terms of duality between regular season
and postseason. James Harden and I got maybe this isn't
a hot take, but I'm going to see because it
was what seems to be an average James Harden season,

(29:43):
which is the regular season. You go, holy shit, this
guy is leading the team. He's putting his body on
the line. Second night of the back to back, I'll
put up fifty during which that game also did turn
the Clipper season around. That game against Detroit is huge.
Then the playoffs were just so incredibly frustrating. Doesn't talk

(30:05):
to the media for those three games C plus B.
Maybe I'm being too harsh, but she was so good
in the regular season. Again, I cannot stress that enough.
And I changed. I didn't. I wasn't a James Harden hater,
but I did really come to appreciate and respect what
he does for a team, the young guy stuff, preseason
stuff like yeah, I'll have the bad taste in my mouth.

Speaker 2 (30:28):
I like, I I think take like, you know, thinking
about relative who to who he is, which is a
Hall of Famer, which is, you know, one of the
one of the greatest scorers of his generation, which.

Speaker 3 (30:41):
Is so many like elite things.

Speaker 2 (30:44):
To me, this is a sea season because it was
basically status quo, I mean, which again for him, a
really good standard to set for a lot of the time.
I'm not saying that, like, I'm not saying that he's bad,
but like it was just more of the same in
the playoffs, and then the way he chose to address it,
like there's it just doesn't even feel like there's any

(31:06):
self awareness or attempt to try and improve some of
these things. And I think that that is like, to me,
that's really troubling. So it just feels like more of
the same. And he could have another great regular season
next year, and I wouldn't expect anything different in the
playoffs than what we got this year and what we've seen.
What's the stat of like the five greatest like players

(31:27):
of this generation, like Lebron Stepp whatever, He's the only
guy to have more than like five games with less
than four field field goal attempts and he has like thirty.

Speaker 1 (31:38):
Yeah, that's not a good sat Adam, this is the
toughest wonder Great.

Speaker 4 (31:43):
Yeah, I'll go I'm gonna go be because yes, it's
a similar regular season to the things he's done in
the past. He's also thirty five though now, and that's
gonna heavily way into my decision here. Even though Game
seven was bad, I'd say he had four good games

(32:04):
in this series, Like Game one would have been his game.
If they win Game one, that's on him, like he
was killing it. Yeah, but Game seven, Yeah, I agree
with Will, like I it's it's all on him at
this point to flip the narrative like and I don't
know this late into into his career if he if

(32:25):
he can do it. But these elimination games, they just
haven't been good enough. But Game six was great and
that was an elimination game. We technically got a Game seven.
But yeah, it's rough b B B B to be
minus somewhere in there.

Speaker 1 (32:39):
Yeah, it's we're gonna see it again next year, just
for this core just you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (32:46):
So, and again I do want to stress like he
was incredible at points during the regular season, Like I'm
not taking away anything. Yeah, he he really, I mean
he's a huge part of the reason this team was a.

Speaker 1 (32:58):
Zoo doesn't take Zoo doesn't have the season he has
without James Harden.

Speaker 2 (33:02):
Yeah, and it's tough, Like I am definitely grating him
on a harder curve because of like what's expected and
like you know, like and what he's done and who
he is. So for a lot of other players, you know,
this would definitely even playoffs and pan, like even you know,
playoffs included, this would probably be an a season. But
because of like who he is and what he's done to.

Speaker 3 (33:24):
Me, this is like this is a C season for him.

Speaker 1 (33:27):
Well yeah, Kawhi and Harden are on a much different
curve than anybody else for for what this team is now,
of the bench, who do we start with here because
we we're just we're doing with guys who finished the
year on the Clippers. Do we go Derek Jones junior
because he was a starter? No, ku, no, no KPg.

(33:50):
I don't think what's after a they have new grades.
How kids can get like six point zeros in the
high school now, don't even get me started on that. Uh,
Derek Jones Junior season grade. If you need a refresher
on his.

Speaker 4 (34:08):
Stats, I know B plus.

Speaker 1 (34:10):
Yeah, I'm investment where I'm.

Speaker 4 (34:12):
At year shooting wise for the regular season.

Speaker 1 (34:16):
Great defense obviously, like Electric gave us the legs, gave
us the dunks.

Speaker 4 (34:22):
Like some of the best highlights from this season from DJ.

Speaker 1 (34:26):
That one the put back he caught, It was like
all the way back here, camera working. That was phenomenal. Okay, yeah,
pretty firmly B plus overplayed his contract. Ten million a
year for Derek Jones Junior is crazy.

Speaker 2 (34:43):
He might be an at for me low a A
minus one.

Speaker 1 (34:53):
Ninety Bogey bogged and Bogdanovic whole season considered short for
him for the Clippers, thirty games for the Clips, twenty
five minutes per game, did get off to a rough
start and then proceeded to shoot forty from three for

(35:15):
the Clippers.

Speaker 4 (35:18):
I'll probably go BE minus.

Speaker 5 (35:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (35:21):
He played better in the playoffs. He was inconsistent. His
playoff start was kind of like the start with the Clippers.
He started slow, he didn't make a shot the first
couple of games. Yeah, B minus C plus somewhere in there.

Speaker 1 (35:41):
I think I would go B but only for all
the reasons you just said. I'm only bumping him up
because he made the shot to give Zoo his triple double.
Oh that's a good one. You know when you're you know,
when you give a teacher like, oh, goat you like
an apple or whatever. I'm he gets a B because

(36:01):
he he helped which he almost missed. So but yeah,
start of the playoffs was rough. He couldn't defend Lebron.
You know what the hell's to deal with that? What
do you think we brought you here for? We brought
you to stop him Brom? Uh, well, what are you
going be?

Speaker 5 (36:22):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (36:23):
Yeah, I'm in that like I'm in that mid B
I think range. He he did exceed expectations for me,
which were lowered by the start of his tenure, and
just this season in jail that he.

Speaker 1 (36:36):
A lot of clippers.

Speaker 2 (36:39):
But yeah, I would say he slightly exceeded expectations. So
I'm gonna go B B two B minus Nick Batoon
a A.

Speaker 1 (36:54):
How is he still doing this? He never plays bad?
How is he still doing this?

Speaker 4 (37:00):
I'm gonna go a minus only because I could have
used more of him at times in this series. Yeah,
and the regular regulations in the regular season for the
series and then, oh, we don't know how many minutes
he can play. They didn't say that, but some people
were wondering, well, why don't we find out since it's

(37:22):
the playoffs. Now, let's see how far we can push
this thing.

Speaker 3 (37:26):
Also, they didn't have like a stellar, stellar game seven.

Speaker 1 (37:30):
But uh was he seventeen minutes a game in the
regular season something like that.

Speaker 5 (37:35):
That's low.

Speaker 1 (37:38):
For what the Clippers need. Ben Simmons, see, he was hurt.
He like his best game was maybe his first game
for the Clippers. The injury really does it.

Speaker 3 (37:55):
This is a this is a C minus for me
minus too. It's still passing, I guess.

Speaker 4 (38:04):
But the first two games of the series he was good.

Speaker 2 (38:09):
He did have some he have some really good moments.

Speaker 4 (38:13):
But he was good. Yeah, more than serviceable. But I
think he didn't play. He didn't play enough. The injury
hurt him. And his best game was that first game
against Utah.

Speaker 1 (38:28):
Yeah, I guess, Oh yeah, I forgot that it was
against Utah. So it's like just still.

Speaker 3 (38:32):
Okay, yeah, just still some of the same some passivity.

Speaker 1 (38:36):
Tyler talked about it just like.

Speaker 2 (38:37):
The exact same issues and like this is this was
a team that was asking him to do like considerably less,
maybe a little bit more when he first started in
the lineup, just given sort of like yeah, they wanted
him to do some more ball handling, but like, other
than that, I just feel like he wasn't in a
position where he was really stretched as a player at

(38:59):
all or asked to do anything that would be crazy.

Speaker 1 (39:02):
Like difficult for him.

Speaker 2 (39:03):
And I still feel like he kind of underwhelmed me
in a lot of those areas. So I would say, yeah,
it's a a C minus for me, because again, if
it was over, like if we had him over a
longer span, I don't know that this would be a
passing grade if the status quo stayed the same. But like,
I'm going to give him the benefit of a doubt
and he's getting the C minus or what we saw.

Speaker 1 (39:24):
Okay, a mirror coffee someone who a lot of fans
thought that would have turned the tide of the playoff series.
One guy stopped said he stopped listening to our channel
because I said that a mere coffee probably won't play
in this series, and for good reason. You're a fool,
I'm an idiot.

Speaker 4 (39:47):
He'll never hear this that guess up.

Speaker 1 (39:50):
Yeah, man, I hope you got muted.

Speaker 3 (39:53):
I hope you got hidden from the channel on YouTube.
So you're screaming to the void.

Speaker 1 (39:58):
See this, hide everybody. No one's getting blocked, but you
are screaming at nobody. If you're screaming on this chair,
where are you guys going? This is a weird one.
See maybe C minus. He was really bad defensively to
end the year. He played in more games than I
had remembered.

Speaker 2 (40:15):
Yeah, I kind of wish that we could take like
pre All Star break for a mere coffee because it
was just felt like such a jam.

Speaker 1 (40:23):
Twenty four game ten points, shot.

Speaker 4 (40:27):
Shooting splits are good. Yeah, Like I think I go
B minus.

Speaker 2 (40:33):
Yeah, I'm with that, like B minus to be it's well,
I mean, I was gonna say, it's not his fault.

Speaker 3 (40:39):
You can play in the playoffs.

Speaker 1 (40:41):
His defense again, I love him here. He's weirdly one
of the longest tenure Clippers. But the defense at the
end of he was biting on pump fakes, he was
fouling shooters, he was doing stuff that this team. If
you're an offensive juggernaut, you can have a guy who
like oh weriginally felt when you're built on defense and
you have whatever the fourteenth ranked offense, you can't be

(41:05):
given away free buckets, and it felt like he was
doing that a little bit at the end of the year.
And I don't think he would have made a difference
against the Nuggets. I'm sorry, probably not.

Speaker 4 (41:18):
I don't know, as.

Speaker 1 (41:21):
It doesn't mean he's bad either. He's a rotational NBA player.

Speaker 4 (41:24):
Well, yeah, I don't know. There's role players struggle so
much in this series. I don't I don't know. AMR
might have been better than some of these guys the
way they were playing, but he.

Speaker 1 (41:37):
Was just cold too.

Speaker 4 (41:40):
Well, he got hurt. It was weird that he didn't
play even in garbage time of this series. And I'm
pretty sure he's gone this offseason.

Speaker 5 (41:50):
But uh, I don't know.

Speaker 4 (41:52):
It would have been interesting to see, but be minus
for me.

Speaker 1 (41:55):
We'll probably see it next year. Drew Eubanks the Australian Sensation.

Speaker 4 (42:04):
D down and uh.

Speaker 1 (42:13):
Yep plus yeah, Like, I don't know, backup center, he's
not the worst backup center the Clippers have ever had,
so that's should he should put that somewhere. Kobe Brown, Yeah, Moses,
Kobe Brown felt like you didn't really take a step.

(42:37):
Maybe an incomplete and but like a respectful incomplete, Like
you couldn't have gotten this down. I'm really sorry. Got
some playoff minutes killed it in game seven. No one's
talking about that part of the game.

Speaker 4 (42:51):
I'll go see minus. I don't.

Speaker 1 (42:54):
It's a weird one to grade.

Speaker 4 (42:55):
Yeah, this is an incomplete type thing.

Speaker 1 (42:58):
Yeah. Patty Mills, Hey, hey, I for like. He was
great with the content team. He was here to do.
He did it what he.

Speaker 2 (43:10):
Did exactly what I thought he was gonna do, man
and bring good vibes.

Speaker 1 (43:13):
Just brings bring the vibes. Finally, Jordan Miller.

Speaker 4 (43:24):
I'll go C plus they see see.

Speaker 1 (43:27):
I'm gonna go. He's running out of time to show
what he can do, and I don't like. I think
we've seen it far. That's the roster construction far, that's
the minutes he's been given. I don't know if we've
seen it.

Speaker 4 (43:44):
It was a big story the first two months of
the season. Oh yeah, we talked about Jordan Miller so
much and he started hot and then they adjusted and
he's got to adjust back.

Speaker 1 (43:55):
He's got to adjust back. Next year's grade will be
a lot more important. He's got to adjust back. Now
we get to the coach. I just want to level
set though, JVG and Brian Shaw. We're giving a's right.

Speaker 4 (44:08):
Yeah, uh, Tyler, what does Brian Shaw do?

Speaker 1 (44:14):
Interim coach goes? He goes undefeated? TYLERU holistic season grade.
I'm going B minus.

Speaker 4 (44:31):
This is heavily waited on the playoff series. Therefore, yeah,
it's B minors to C plus.

Speaker 1 (44:40):
Regular season A A plus plus plus.

Speaker 4 (44:46):
It's just there was still like sixty percent of your
grade was still waiting in the playoffs.

Speaker 1 (44:53):
And that's exactly. Yes, it's like, yes, it's exactly that's
how it's waiting on this show.

Speaker 4 (45:00):
I was thoroughly disappointed with Coach Lou in his playoff series.
And I love Coach Lou, but I expected to be better.

Speaker 2 (45:11):
I don't think it had a larger tactical advantage in
this series, which is.

Speaker 1 (45:17):
Kind of shocking.

Speaker 4 (45:19):
I do put I do start with players when I
think about this stuff. But the series was so close
that when you don't put in rebounding personnel at the
end of game four defenders and you lose that game,
and yes they came back, I don't know how to
weigh how much blame should go and coach Lou for

(45:42):
the lack of urgency and how much is it on
the players? I don't know how to divvy up that
type of play, especially why did they come out flat.

Speaker 1 (45:50):
In game seven? Specifically kau I had it. Yeah, game
six they played good. Well, excuse me, we are grading.

Speaker 5 (46:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (46:01):
Get I don't blame the turnovers on him in game one.

Speaker 1 (46:04):
Oh god, no, I do not blame the turnovers. I'll die.

Speaker 4 (46:10):
It's it's really it's because in game four so much
was demanded strategically and they came up short there and yeah,
and then not playing I think. I don't know. I
thought I thought after game four, okay, but team's gonna
start game five, here we go. He doesn't start till
the second half a game six. So I do think

(46:32):
there's some level of the urgency starts up top. It's
got to be there, and then it trickles down to
the team and the players. I know it's not it's
a really tough job, but yeah, I'm going to be.

Speaker 1 (46:43):
Minus well yeah, I mean, like.

Speaker 2 (46:52):
Range, he is just such a huge part of this team.
Over exceed like you know, over exceeding expectations. That's really
hard for me, Towagh, but I've been super harsh on
everybody else through the playoffs. So I'm with Adham though,
because I just the thing I struggle with a lot

(47:14):
is like, yes, there are some some tactical errors and
in key moments, but like, how much of these games
coming as close as they are, it's really just about
execution on the side of the players. And I just
don't know, you know, like I know that I know
that this is a thing that happens a lot to

(47:34):
the Clippers, like sort of regardless of coach. So I
don't know, you know, like I don't really know like
what to say about that, Like I have no comment.

Speaker 1 (47:41):
On that, but.

Speaker 2 (47:46):
There's a lot that went wrong in that series that
I can't put on tie. So that's why he's not
like a CEE or below to me. But yeah, I'm
probably probably at like a B minus.

Speaker 1 (47:58):
Go ahead.

Speaker 4 (48:00):
They hit their threes. They're wide open threes that they
generated through ties and James Harden's offense, Like they shot
three percent or three and a half percent worse from
three than Denver. That could easily be the difference.

Speaker 2 (48:15):
I even some of the defensive schemes, which I know
is like JBG as well, but like there were times
that we were not executing on stuff that we had
done all year long, and I just like that, like
that's why games get close, that's why you blow games,
And that has nothing to do to me personally, that
has nothing to do.

Speaker 4 (48:32):
With the coach.

Speaker 1 (48:34):
Coach isn't out there. We ended the season on an
eight game winning streak to avoid the plane too, Like
it's like, it's not like we walked into fifty wins.

Speaker 4 (48:44):
Yeah no, yeah, I mean coach Lou had a good year,
a really good year. It was just that series that
left you one and war and a lot of this
is on the players for sure, because there were many
times were it's like you've got the mismatch Kawhi, you
have Jamal Murray on you now go at him like,

(49:08):
I don't know. It was just a bad, bad series
all around.

Speaker 1 (49:13):
Yeah. That in the Beverly Hills video, I know that's
weighing on Will's grade.

Speaker 4 (49:19):
I haven't seen it.

Speaker 1 (49:20):
Oh really well, I never saw it. He's just like
walking around some guys like what are you doing? Man?
He's like, We're good. What's up? All right? Let us
know your player grades at Clippers Pod on Twitter at
Clippers podcast on YouTube. I know that no one will
agree with anything that we said. I promise you we

(49:40):
didn't mean to personally offend you with our grades. That's
all I can say. Great our grades, Yeah, great, our grades?

Speaker 3 (49:49):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (49:50):
Right? Your professor over here? Yeah, who's got the most
chili peppers? All right? Coming up quick, just Lawrence Frank
presser talk and then we we'll send all of you
on your way. Audio break with some ads coming up
in three two one.

Speaker 4 (50:07):
Welcome back in is clips and Dip episode sixty six
of season three. I'm out of Maslam. We got Chef
Mackler and Will Updyke here as we work through the
start of the off season now, and it really starts
when you get that exit interview from Lawrence Frank, the
postseason presser from him, and he commented about he was

(50:29):
hoping to push this back longer and in this effect
to be doing it right now. Hey, coach lou thought,
you know they be taken on OKAC. Unfortunately it's not
the case. We heard from l Frank on Monday a
couple of different pressing matters. I guess when it comes
to this offseason. The first, I mean, we got time,

(50:54):
so I don't know how pressing they are. But the
one thing that came to mind immediately after the season
was over, it because I think it's kind of been
underreported throughout this year, is like, guys, if James Harden
opts out and leave, it's like they're gonna have thirty
five million dollars to play with now. Is that unlikely? Probably,
but it could happen. I don't know. He didn't talk

(51:16):
to the media the last three games they lost in
this series, which was rough, so L Frank made it
known that his thinking is that he and Kawhi will
be back, but he obviously has a contingency planned in
plays if James Harden doesn't, because he could be a
free agent, they could restructure a new deal for two years,

(51:38):
line him up with Kawhi Leonard or James Hard Can
can I go for more money in that case, I
don't think they're going to, you know, take it past
two years with him as a Clipper, so they're going
to have to figure something out. If he really likes
La enough, I think it has to be a two
year deal. But that's the first I think Domino to
fall that would really change the offseason for the Clippers.

Speaker 1 (52:00):
Yeah, I like what Will said earlier too, is like
match it with Kawhi. I just hope we can match
it with Kawhi's years. Everyone the scuttle but has kind
of been that he's going to opt out and resign
with the clip like that that's been most I.

Speaker 2 (52:15):
Just don't know that the offers are out there otherwise,
Like what I mean, like, if you're Houston, would you
offer him an extra year on a lower deal and
hope that you know, just live with what it is
that he does in the playoffs and be like, well,
we could we need offense of some kind and if
we can get him for the right price, like we'll

(52:35):
take it.

Speaker 3 (52:36):
And it's a you know, a little bit of a
reunion tour.

Speaker 1 (52:39):
Because he has lef money on the table throughout his
career too.

Speaker 3 (52:42):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, a lot.

Speaker 2 (52:45):
Like I mean, we're talking like one hundred and fifty
million dollars, two hundred million dollars, so it's a lot
of money.

Speaker 1 (52:52):
And the new Apron rules make it weird. I don't
even I gotta we'll get into detail with this later,
but I don't know what the Clippers can offer him contract.
Why if he does opt out. With the new Apron
rules and stuff.

Speaker 3 (53:04):
They're gonna stay under. They're gonna stay under tax any tax.

Speaker 4 (53:08):
Yeah, I think they could give him like two years
eighty million suppot that.

Speaker 5 (53:15):
I think I.

Speaker 1 (53:16):
Would be fine with that.

Speaker 4 (53:18):
I guess it's a bump of five million per year.

Speaker 1 (53:22):
We also, as would Adam, kind of will to desperately
need him. No matter what you think of Harden for
next year, the books don't open up until the end
of next season. We desperately need If you thought we
didn't have a point guard this season, and.

Speaker 3 (53:39):
I guess, and I guess like sort of our harsh
grades aside.

Speaker 1 (53:41):
But we need him to be the point guard next
year or this team is a maybe a thirty five team.

Speaker 4 (53:50):
I mean, if you look at how Game seven started
to unravel, it was the first two minutes of the
second quarter with James Harden's off the floor. The Clippers
offense has nothing. We've seen that many times, so are were.

Speaker 1 (54:03):
Actively changing his grade. No grades are final in my class.
Uh yeah, it's I think everything points to him every
all the signs are putting into opting out and signing again,
it's the years that's the big thing.

Speaker 4 (54:21):
I think he wants to be in LA. I think
they obviously want him back. I think he's worth more
to the Clippers that he'd be pretty much anywhere else.
I just don't know about.

Speaker 2 (54:31):
Like forty forty for James anywhere else to me seems
kind of like a stretch like who has like you know,
like who has a cap like like the cap space
plus is in you know, fringe contender ish, you know
who like that he would actually be valuable for because
obviously there's teams with cap space. They're not the teams

(54:53):
that are going to sink forty million dollars into James Harden.
And there's not that many teams with cap space to
begin with, so I think the demand is kind.

Speaker 3 (55:00):
Of yeah, it's not very hi.

Speaker 4 (55:05):
Yeah, no, I agree. It's like if you let so,
let's say a mirror is making like four million this year,
if they let him goat and give James Harden four
more million per year over the next two than he
had last two years, Like, that's how you can do
it right there.

Speaker 6 (55:23):
Yeah, that's why it's very workable for them. And as
much as sorry, no, I mean as much as people
are going to go why are you guys doing this
and he didn't show up in game seven. A lot
of guys didn't show up in game seven. Of course
he has the track record. We're still paying a lot
of that in regular season production, and he was I

(55:45):
think the MVP this season, the biggest reason they got
to fifty games.

Speaker 1 (55:49):
Yeah, it's just it's a It's not a quagmire because
he is so good during the regular season, but the
Clippers are kind of stuck. And I don't mean that
in an incredibly negative way, but just where the team
is to lose James Harden again, no draft pick. We
can't tank. If you're a new Clippers fan, a trade
happened a couple of years ago where we cannot tank.

(56:10):
So they're and they've stated like we're not going to
put out a shitty team, basically like we're not going
to tank. Also, when you have quite literally no incentive
to do that, you kind of have to resign James
and then there's probably be back here in three hundred
and sixty five days. But that's a different discussion.

Speaker 4 (56:26):
There's not a point guard as good as him in
free agency that.

Speaker 3 (56:30):
She can only move close, only moves backwards.

Speaker 4 (56:34):
Yeah, and there aren't even two that can kind of
do his production. I think that are younger. No, that
stuff doesn't happen. A conversation for another day, but oh yeah,
part of the funds they're going to have open up
for them over twenty twenty six, twenty twenty seven. It's like,

(56:55):
this is great, but you're probably still going to have
to make a big trade because the guys that you like,
it's rare guys hit free agency anymore that are that good.
They let Paul George go, and that was kind of
a rare thing. He was also thirty four and injury prone,
and it was the right move. But especially as I

(57:17):
look forward to seeing seventy million dollars in Kapri open
up in twenty six, it's like, this is awesome, but
to find that guy, you're probably gonna have to trade
for him, because teams aren't dumb enough to let guys
leave for nothing anymore.

Speaker 1 (57:32):
Yeah, the other guy, Paul.

Speaker 2 (57:35):
George gets an A on the season. Just thank you
for validating that. Thank you for validating our decision in
every single way. I know that the season ultimately ended
similarly as to uh it did when you were here,
but it felt a whole lot better Buddy so a
a plus to Paul George.

Speaker 1 (57:51):
Damn, this is a teacher who just got tenure. Okay.
Nick Patum reportedly said to opt into him his player option. Great.
We also probably need Nick Patum next year if you
look at who's on this team. And then last thing,
the Norm Powell extension. El Frank's quote he's locked in

(58:13):
next season for twenty million, then he's unrestricted. I think
he lost himself a lot of money in the playoffs.
But whatever L Frank said, there's nothing better when you
have guys who have been in organization and that you
can financially take care of. And we also share a
big picture. This is how we plan on building the team,
and see if it's a marriage that makes sense. Interested
to see what these negotiations look like for Norm Powell.

(58:37):
They have time, as Adam said, but I don't know
if he will be back after next year, depending on
how the contracts line up.

Speaker 4 (58:48):
Yeah, i'd kind of be I might be surprised if
he's with them past next trade deadline.

Speaker 1 (58:53):
You can get a first round pick, Adam. You and
I were talking about this the last time we did
a live someone in them. If you can get a
first round pick for Norm pal next year. Make that deal.
I love Norm. He's a really he was untouchable this
year because the Clippers needed them. But now the shop
they for sure shopped.

Speaker 4 (59:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (59:14):
But now if he has another hot start or something,
you know what I mean, Like, I think he's we
need it.

Speaker 4 (59:22):
He's your best chance to try to get that for
trading Norm Powell. People talk about the John Collins thing
all the time, but maybe.

Speaker 1 (59:35):
Maybe this is the year.

Speaker 4 (59:38):
This is our year to get John Collins.

Speaker 1 (59:40):
Yeah, that's what we was talking about, John Collins. And
who's the other one. That's all about Miles Turner. I
saw some people asking law Murray about getting Miles Turner.
We're not gonna do that. We can't.

Speaker 3 (59:53):
Are you watching the Pacers right now?

Speaker 1 (59:56):
He's loving his life.

Speaker 4 (59:59):
Yeah, and he's like a free agent that's gonna get
paid a ton of money deservedly.

Speaker 1 (01:00:04):
So yeah, but it's like, dude, he's not leaving in the.

Speaker 4 (01:00:07):
Like he's a center too. I don't think he could
play next to the he sas Zubas. I don't think
that would work well. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:00:14):
As also said, we need to have a new conversation
about what Fords do in the NBA. Well, how do
you feel about Norm? Quick? Norm thoughts tell you what.
I hope he starts the next season like he did
this season.

Speaker 2 (01:00:30):
Yeah, so he's he's extension eligible essentially, so they could
lock him up for another what three years or test
free agency.

Speaker 4 (01:00:40):
The thing is, it's the same thing where you'd want, like, Okay,
it would be great to have Norm for two more
years to line him up with Kawhi and James Harden.
Also is.

Speaker 2 (01:00:56):
On the third he's got the he's got the guaranteed
year on next season, and you give them.

Speaker 1 (01:01:03):
Two with the player option. Wait two with the player option. Yeah, okay,
three with the player option would be crazy because he
would opt into that in a second.

Speaker 4 (01:01:12):
You want to clear your books for twenty twenty seven.
So I just think he rightfully so you could get
one hundred million dollars over like three years, and he
should do it. I just don't know if the Clippers
is the perfect situation for that, I think. And now
you're going past twenty twenty seven.

Speaker 7 (01:01:33):
Rockets should make some calls again every team They actually should,
maybe though, Yeah, the signing Norm to one hundred million
dollar contract would give me a headache.

Speaker 1 (01:01:50):
That's what the big, the big, that quote he should
cash in like him in a mere coffee, different levels
of cashing in cash in.

Speaker 5 (01:02:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:02:02):
Now, if they could get him on a team cap
friendly extension that's still a tradable extension like that what
they did with Terrence Man, all good. Yeah, then that
might make him more valuable in a trade for a
team because they know they haven't locked up for this
many years. But I would be surprised if he just

(01:02:23):
with them past next trade deadline.

Speaker 1 (01:02:25):
Yeah, cap goes up every year, some weird situation, all right.

Speaker 3 (01:02:30):
Yeah, I mean, like.

Speaker 2 (01:02:35):
I guess at two and one or a one and
one at thirty with the cap going up thirty one
seem as crazy.

Speaker 1 (01:02:42):
Oh I thought he might his age, Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:02:48):
I mean lot do it. Yeah, this is your time
to get like that four year deal.

Speaker 1 (01:02:55):
Yeah, and he got hurt, you know what I mean,
Like it's not.

Speaker 5 (01:03:01):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:03:02):
So I think he got like four to ninety from Portland.
I think he's got one more of those in him,
he does.

Speaker 1 (01:03:09):
Yeah, this is his last big contract.

Speaker 4 (01:03:12):
And I love Norm I hate to see him go.
But you got to get understand the timeline and where
the Clippers are at and where he's at It's just
I don't know. I think he's We've been talking about
Norman being trade though for years and we've been wrong before,
so maybe it's he's gonna be a lifelong Clipper, right.

Speaker 1 (01:03:32):
Yeah, they'll build the statue, all right. Think about that
about wraps it up. Our first full up of the
off season. We did it. We made it, no dips.
We get grace on the first did you bring dips?

Speaker 5 (01:03:46):
Okay?

Speaker 4 (01:03:48):
What I did earlier?

Speaker 1 (01:03:49):
What did you make a dip?

Speaker 4 (01:03:52):
I went through the Taco Bell drive through, right and
I ordered chips and nacho cheese, and I saved like
one ship and a little bit nacho cheese. That was
gonna fake it and be like, yeah, guys, I've had
my dip the whole time.

Speaker 1 (01:04:05):
Oh I love it.

Speaker 4 (01:04:06):
You know, it's just been sitting there for hours.

Speaker 1 (01:04:12):
No such thing as a deep fake. We're gonna be
back next week at some point to talk the free
agent list that everyone no doubt has looked at and
gone okay, as well as what moves the Clippers can
actually make. The dip recipes. If you're new to the show,
we do dip recipes in the off season because the

(01:04:34):
people demanded us. They would write us letters and say
clips and dip. I know, when there's basketball, it's fine,
where are the dips? We will be making dips and
reviewing them during the off season. It's not the whole
show could be. If you have any dip recipes that
you think we should try, tweet them to us at
clippers Pod.

Speaker 3 (01:04:54):
Put the comments on YouTube.

Speaker 1 (01:04:56):
Or put them on the co with the ingredients. Don't
be like trying. We got some bangers and we do
have secret recipes. We do healthy dips. Wills bring in
the healthy dips. I sometimes stretch the definition of dip,
but it's a fun time. People like it.

Speaker 3 (01:05:13):
Solsa is a dip hot sauces not yes, exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:05:18):
Well, now that we're talking about dips and giving player grades,
where can people express their.

Speaker 2 (01:05:26):
Yeah, look, look, the real season starts right now. Okay
on this show, the off season is uh oh, got it.
It's the these theories day resistants. It's what you come
here for. So you're gonna want to go ahead and
tell your friends, tell yourself, send a little reminder to
listen to the show wherever you get your podcasts. Yeah,

(01:05:46):
but listen over on Apple podcast, Spotify, go ahead, leave
a little regular review helps us out. But the best
way to watch this show, to see these delicious dips
across your screen, is going to be at YouTube dot com.
That's at Clippers Podcast with however you listen and watch.

Speaker 3 (01:06:01):
You know, we appreciate you.

Speaker 1 (01:06:02):
When you met delicious dips, were you talking about the
condiment or us? Oh freak, I thought that was pretty good. Okay, Adam,
this you did. You had to do the hardest. Give
something to be positive about last week. I don't know,
I can't, I can't. I actually can't remember anything from

(01:06:23):
last week. I've white, I've men in blacked myself. One
positive thing, Adam, for these Clippers fans.

Speaker 4 (01:06:33):
You know a lot of teams have been unlucky with
injuries in the playoffs, but not us.

Speaker 6 (01:06:38):
Maybe we'll go into the off season fully healthy.

Speaker 1 (01:06:43):
I love that. He's absolutely right. All right, we will
be were smiling through the pain. We will be back
with a coot mall next week. Have a great western
of your week and the weekend, and as always, let's
go Clips.