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