Adam Auslund on R&R for Post Trade Deadline Talk

Special Clippers Talk with Adam Auslund on with Roggin and Rodney after the NBA trade deadline passed. Winners and losers, the Lakers, the Suns, the Clippers.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
All right, Saltier. Adam Auslinin the house, host of Clipper comp
down the halftime in the postgame show. First, good on you, congratulations
you called it. You had Kyriegoing to Dallas before anybody did, right
after Kevin read the report. Dallasjust made too much sense. But we
talked about it here last Friday.Thanks for the love, Fred. Yeah,

(00:20):
you had it. You nailed itbefore anybody else even came up with.
You know, I didn't have himbeing the Clippers last night without Luca
Dante. But so you hit something, missed some Yeah, that's all right.
So you know you're one, You'reone out of two. Adam,
Adam God, I'm trying to thinkback and trying to remember this much action
the day of or the eve ofthe deadline. Man, it just especially

(00:41):
the names that we've been thrown outhere. Have you probably you know when
a move goes down, like whathappened with Kevin Durant, there's that ripple
effect that it turns into an armrace in a hurry where everyone feels like
if you're not getting better, you'regetting worse. Right, And there's a
new super team in town. Andby the way, I think this could
work much better than what happened withthe Brooklyn Nets when we all thought it

(01:03):
was a sure saying that they weregonna win with him and Kyrie Irving and
James Harden. Because as much asHarden has transitioned into more of a playmaker,
CP three can just do what he'salways been doing and just give it
up to Booker, give it upto Kevin Durant, and then find DeAndre
Eaton for a few lobs here andthere so he can keep everybody happy.
And if you want to talk abouthigh degree of difficulty shot makers, they

(01:26):
don't get much better than Kevin Durantand Booker out there. It's not just
three points shooting their mid range assassins. It is going to be extremely difficult
to beat this squad on paper.But we all thought the Brooklyn Nets were
gonna win multiple championships and that nevercame to fruition. Okay, but by
at at the same point, sorryfit at the same point, did you

(01:47):
just made Adam where James Harden hadto try to adjust his role and didn't
work In Brooklyn, Chris Paul doesn'thave to adjust his role and he's been
doing it and doing his thing,so given the fact, or just let's
assume it's a big assumption that theycan stay healthy. They got to be
the team to beat without question.Right, Oh yeah, they're kind above.
But health is a big deal becausenot only is Kevin Durant coming off

(02:12):
a sprained MCL, Devin Booker's comingback from growing injuries from hamstring injuries.
CP three's not getting any younger.He gets banged up. And they went
through a stretch without Devin Booker werethey only won five games, and they
were five and seventeen in a twentythree games stretch. Now, their last
eleven games they went nine and two. So they've been up and down this
season. But yeah, you getthose guys on the court together, nobody

(02:35):
can match that high end talent.Okay, So obviously now when you look
at it, you've got to thinkthey're the favorites because of the addition of
Kevin Durant. Both the Clippers andthe Lakers active though trying to position themselves.
We'll start with the Clippers, thatwill move to the Lakers. All
right, So what do you thinkabout what the Clippers did? I like
it. I think they had toretool their backcourt. It wasn't working.

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There was a log jam there.It's tough to see a Jackson go.
It's tough to see Luke Kennard go. John Wall. That experiment wasn't happening,
and Bones Highland has a ton ofupside to get him for two second
round picks. He reminds me alot of a young Lou Williams who can
go in and just fill it upfrom the outside. He's had seven games
of twenty points or more so farthis season, and doing that on a

(03:19):
team with Jamal Murray and Nikolayokich andAaron Gordon. That's not easy. But
defensively, he's been a liability onthat end. His play has been up
and down, and he was outof the rotation in just his second season
with the Denver Nuggets, so it'slooking at a high ceiling with him.
Eric Gordon still plays at a veryhigh level bringing him back to the Clippers.
It's been astounding the way he hasaged. He just went through a

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stretch where he had three straight twentypoint games. Is one of the number
one options with the Houston Rockets whenthe young guys aren't playing well. He's
very reliable. He's a solid defender. I like that pick up a lot.
And then Mason Plumbly made too muchsense. I told you guys,
if there's one thing that to guaranteeat the trade deadline or at least before
the playoffs come around, the Clippershad to get better in their front court.
They had to find another big tobackup of eats the Zoobots, and

(04:05):
Mason Plumley's coming off one of hisbest stretchers where in January he was getting
sixteen and eleven per game. Youcould argue they have the best backup big
in the league. He's been tremendous. So I think they did very well.
Whether or not that closed the gapenough, And really it still comes
down to Paul George and Kawhi Leonardpeaking at the right time. And last

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night they didn't play well, andthose two had been good. They won
eight of their last eleven games.But your superstars have to perform out there.
But I think what they're looking foris just more consistency, because all
season long, they've been consistently inconsistent. No matter who's been out there,
there've been lolls offensively, they've beenlolls on the defensive end. They had
to do something to shake things up, and this does do that, and

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I think it makes them better today. All right, let's now move to
the Lakers. I think they areimmeasurably better today than they were yesterday,
at least on paper. What doyou think? Yeah, I mean it's
started. The hotching More trade wasnice. They kind of got the ball
rolling with that. But bringing inguys for one first round pick that can

(05:09):
all play and assist you right now, and one of them is a pretty
dynamic player in D'Angelo Russell coming backto the Lakers. Now, there are
times where he can be a ballstopper and he can be polarizing because of
that, and he ISOs a littlebit too much. But you would think
in this situation where he's looking fora new contract and that's a decision they're
going to have to make, he'llbe on his best behavior out there and

(05:30):
sharing the basketball. But I loveBeasley and what he brings. Three and
D type of guy out there.And then Vanderbilt, a really good hustle,
active rebounder who actually can step outand shoot a jumper here and there.
And then Mo Bamba. You gottastretch big now that you could throw
next to Anthony Davis that won't clogup the paint if you want to play
that way, and then getting ridof Thomas Bryant, who wasn't playing much

(05:53):
defense at all. He had somereally good stretchers for the Lakers. But
if it's true, and Chris Hayesreported that he wont to be traded after
Anthony Davis came back because he wasgetting less playing time, it kind of
had to move him. So Idon't hate that Mo Bamba's an upgrade.
Yeah, I think Rob Polinka hasredeemed himself and many fans eyes and a
saying okay, bet you guys allkind of me out. And I thought

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they probably had in terms of improvementfrom a week or week and a half
ago whenever they got Hotchi Mora.They've had the most significant improvements so far
really on paper. And Lebron Jameswas obviously looking for that. I mean
that comment that he made post gameafter he gets the scoring record, talking
about, you know, I canstill win multiple championships for any organization,

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I think is the wording there.You know, they're running into a situation
where if they don't do anything thisupcoming summer, you never know if Lebron
James asked out like, that's whereit seemed like things were heading. It
could get that nasty. Well,and we can tell you Lebron's out tonight.
He's got an ankle. He's notplaying against Milwaukee. Broke the record
the other night. Now a littlesore, so he won't be playing tonight.

(07:00):
It looked like he was talking aboutsomething on the sidelines. He was
dinged up in some way. Andnow, what are you suggesting a little
snarky right there? No, I'mjust saying he's just gonna shut it down.
Now you've got the scoring record,you're flying. That's all he cared
about. Even a little snarky withthat comment. Yeah, I'm just saying
that I'm not playing tonight, that'sall. Okay, who else is not
playing? Friends? Cerious that youjust may are going to be very depleted

(07:21):
with all these trades in the works. Well, Ad didn't play much the
other night. If you watch thetape, he wasn't doing much. That
was awkward. He wasn't cheering Lebronon when he made that shot. That
was so weird to see that footageof Anthony Davis sitting down. It looked

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like he was almost pouting, whatdid he attempt nine shots on the ball
game and then post game given shortanswers, what we can do better,
we can win. That was strangeto see too, so and Russell Westbrook
got into it with an assistant coachthere, and maybe the vibes were just
off and they lose a ball gamewith Lebron sets the record, so there
was a lot to sort through.But yeah, something didn't seem right locker

(08:03):
room wise. Yeah, going backto the Clippers, I mean, we
saw Reggie Jackson have a great runat the end of the season. That
what went wrong? What went wrongthat they just had to make a deal
at him. I think they werejust looking for more stability at the guard
spot, and Reggie Jackson is abeloved guy, and like when they had
to move Lou Williams or felt likethey had two for a gen Rondo.

(08:26):
It may just have been time.Unfortunately. I think his last play with
the Clippers ended up being a turnover, and he had great moments for this
organization that run in twenty twenty one, when, especially when Kawhi went down,
Reggie Jackson played like a damn Allstar. He was awesome in that
playoff run. But he has someerratic play out there, and they call

(08:46):
him Yolo Reggie sometimes with some ofthe shots he'll take and at moments,
you know, turning down giving theball up to other guys who are in
a better position to take a shot. They called him Big Government because he
would bail him out at times withcatch and shoot threes at the end of
shot clocks. He had the pbnJ bites he was throwing into the crowd.
He's certainly going to be missed,but I just think it was time

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and a lot of people saw thewriting on the wall where he was just
two up and down with this teamthat is trying to win a championship and
still trying to Right now, allright, well, how do you sum
up Russell Wassbrook's tenure with the Lakers? Erratic or maybe predictable in some ways,
because I think a lot of peoplefirst guessed it. It wasn't something

(09:31):
where you had to wait to seethe product on the court, and we
never really got to see them ina playoff situation where I thought it'd be
even tougher to have him and LebronJames out there late in games. The
fit just wasn't right for Russ,who needs the ball in his hands a
lot more, but more importantly,him not having shooters to defer to.

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That wasn't one of the Lakers' strengths. So when he's driving and kicking it
out to guys, they're not knockingthem down anyways. They had one of
the worst three point percentages to startoff the season the first two months.
They've improved now through the trade deadline. Austin Reeves is coming back. But
I don't think it was ever amatch made in Heaven by any stretch of
the imagination. I do think therecould be a good fit between him and

(10:15):
maybe a team like Chicago or Miamior the Los Angeles Clippers. I think
there's less of a chance now.They brought in Bones Highland and Eric Gordon,
but there were rumors out there.He's played with Paul George before,
and they do have all the shootersyou could ask for to help kind of
make Russ more effective in that secondunit. And to his credit, he
did come off the bench and hedid start playing better at times. Didn't

(10:37):
have a great stretch over the lastcouple of weeks, but you know,
it was up and down certainly itwas bumpy. You know, we saw
the Mavericks beat the Clippers without Lucalast night. How do you see that
working out with Kyrie down there?I know you called it. Now it's
a reality. How do you seethat playing out well? On the court.

(10:58):
You're talking about maybe the most talentedbackcourt in the history of basketball,
with the things both those guys cando. Luca Dantage, to me,
is one of the greatest players I'veseen. And he's in what year four
or five now, I've never seenanything like him, the phenom he is,
and you can say he's got someHarden in him, some Lebron James
in him. But to do thisand possibly end up being the face of

(11:20):
the league being a European player,that would be breaking new ground. And
he's just so damned talented and skilled. And some people are worried that,
well, maybe he can't play nextto another superstar out there. We're gonna
find out, but I think it'llwork offensively on the defensive end, now
Layton games with those two out there. While Luca's big, he's not a

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very good defender. Kyrie Irving,you know, he can dig in once
in a while and played great againstSteph Curry at times in the NBA Finals
and surprise some people with his defense. But he's undersized and you can maybe
pick on both of those guys onthe other end. So it may come
down to just trying to outscore teamsat times that maybe with the Dallas Mavericks
do because they still have Christian Wood. They didn't get a lot of defensive

(12:03):
help. They lost their best defenderand Dorian Finney Smith in the trade to
bring in Kyrie Irving. But yeah, they're gonna be magical to watch on
the offensive end. All right,before we let you go, as everything
played out today, any deals thatdid not grab the headlines that you think
will make an impact or a differencedifference maker type deals getting crowded to Milwaukee's

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big because Milwaukee's really surgeon right now. They're playing great basketball. They're taking
on Lakers tonight and then the Clipperstomorrow. But another three in d wing
to help out a team that isone year removed from winning the championship.
That's big, and they're still waitingto remember for Chris Middleton to recover from
his injuries. He's been coming offthe bench. Still he's not in true
form, yet they can still geta lot better. I was surprised that

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Denver didn't do more. You know, they bring in Thomas Bryant. That's
an okay move, I think,but they lose Bones Highland and then a
team in Toronto. They didn't endup trading Ocean and Obi or Fred Vanvley.
That was very surprising that they stoodpat or team like Chicago who had
a chance to maybe blow things up. They're not really going anywhere. They're
keeping Zach Lavine. They still haveDemard Rosen. So there were some non

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moves out there that I thought certainlywould have made that weren't, especially with
Toronto. But the rumor was theywanted Terrence man in a first round pick
for Fred VanVleet from the Clippers.That was out there, so they were
playing hardball. But yeah, Ithink the Milwaukee Bucks got better. But
the headline is still the Phoenix Suns. Everybody's gonna be chasing them, Chase
the Sun. It's gonna be likethat right now. Once we see them

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all out there on the court,I do think they're gonna be devastating.
But we've seen this before where superteams don't always work out so it'll be
interesting. But this was a teamthat was after Kevin Durant in August.
He wanted to come there, soit wasn't a surprise. It was still
shocking. But I brought this upwith you guys last Friday. The other
shooter drop could be Kevin Durant wantingout of Brooklyn now because he doesn't want

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to stay there. And even withCam Thomas having three straight games of scoring
forty points for Brooklyn out of nowhere, you thought that would have sold him
on Stag and they picked up somenice pieces. And the what if now
is if they knew they were goingto trade Kevin Durant all along, and
I'm guessing they didn't. But ifthey had known, wouldn't they have taken
the two first round picks from theLakers for Kyrie Irving? Wouldn't they have

(14:16):
made that move because they're going intoa hard rebuild now because at first they
brought in guys that they could helpKevin Durant win now still and still be
competitive now it's over. I wonderif that would have happened, the Lakers
could have had Kyrie. I thinkof the time, it was just a
little bit different clippers and bucks.Tomorrow you'll hear it here on the radio
station. Addem. You got thepregame at six thirty, right, I
got say six thirty. Friend,there you go, saltya adam alsome to

(14:39):
appreciate you hanging out. All Ilove you, guess all right, love you