The LA Clippers RollerCoaster Season Thus Far

The LA Clippers RollerCoaster Season Thus Far

The LA Clippers find themselves with one of the best records in the NBA at the All-Star break and the third seed in the west with a strong chance of potentially getting the number one seed it’s been a roller coaster of a season for the Clippers and in this episode you’re

Going to hear about the entire ride where they’re at now What’s led to their record and their chances of winning the championship going to be talking about it all on today’s lockon Allstar break clipper locked on Clippers your daily Los Angeles Clippers podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every

Day yes sir you were locking in with the clips thank you for making locked on Clippers the first listen of your day your team every day I’m your host Daran vizeri born and raised in the great City of La and in my 19th season as a Clipper

Fan you can also follow me on Twitter and Instagram at dim dropper pod And subscribe to my own YouTube channel dim dropper for even more LA Sports NBA and LA Clipper content and locked on Clippers is free and available wherever you get your podcast including YouTube

Where I want you to let me know give a grade at the All-Star break uh for the Clipper season so far a through F you can do A+ a minus whatever you’d like but we’re going to talk about all of it you know a little season in review it’s

The All-Star break right now it’s a time for reflection we don’t play again till Thursday against the Oklahoma City Thunder which should be a very great game a huge game in the standings with them being just above us but let’s talk about the season as a whole and to start

Things off I want to talk about the mindset to talk about this season you got to go back to last season and last season going into it there was an expectation that the national media Clipper nation and a lot of people had that Kawhi Leonard’s back you just won

42 games without Kawhi Leonard for 82 of them and Paul George for 51 of them in the 2021-22 season you get Kawhi Leonard back you add John Wall you bring back a lot of the guys like Robert Covington Norman Powell these guys that you traded for and you’re

Going to attack this regular season and this is the year the Clippers can finally go all the way with kawh Leonard and Paul George but it ended up being an absolute disaster of a season starting with kawh Leonard’s setback when he got injured after three games and they just listed him as

Day-to-day like the next five to 10 games it was crazy I mean we didn’t know what was going on it was going back to that lack of transparency that the Clippers seem to always have with Kawhi Leonard’s injuries but we just were never able to get a rhythm you know

Early on in last season and then kawhai did come back and then he got injured three games in when he sprained his ankle against the Jazz then finally we got he and Paul George back both from injury against the Hornets in early December kawhai had that game winner and

It felt like we were starting to get back to things but tyou also had this weird you know bias towards Reggie Jackson and Marcus Morris last season that just lasted too long and then they were upset when they were getting threatened to be taken out of the

Rotation and then when they got taken out of the rotation they just were kind of malc contents on the team and it just was a mess you know mixed with the fact that Paul George and kawh Leonard could never really gain a rhythm we kind of had too many players that expected to

Get minutes for their own good and the act the most ridiculous thing was the downplaying of the regular season throughout it by the Clippers you know Nicholas Batum last season said don’t expect anything till Christmas I understand that part of that is because Kawhi Leonard’s hurt you know you don’t

Have the the team fully healthy but to say something like that you know when we have expectations to win it all and every team that’s won it all besides the 95 Rockets and the 69 Celtics have been a top three seed so being great in the regular season does coincide with

Winning the champ ionship and for him to say that was just crazy and then kawh Leonard just downplaying the importance of the regular season as well saying you know I don’t care what happens in the regular season it’s all about the playoffs I get it you are amazing in the

Playoffs and you’re great in the regular season too but you are the leader of the team and it’s not just about kawhai being great in the playoffs you need the whole team to be rolling on all cylinders so again and then tyou just the the constant downplaying

And saying like we just want to be healthy in the regular season and we’ll let the chips fall where they May and that’s not an attitude of a team that is focused on getting a high seed it didn’t matter to them they just wanted to roll the dice

Whatever seed they got and that was a complete arrogance so this season and it dates back to the pre-season training camp uh summer league every time tyo and Lawrence Frank were in interviewed they kept saying we want to take the regular season seriously we want to respect the

Regular season we just we want to get the best seed we can and then let the chips fall where they may not oh got to be healthy and whatever seed we get we’re cool with it it’s cuz they got humbled it sucks to say and I hate that

It last season had to happen for them to do this but they got humbled they were too arrogant they thought that it didn’t matter what seed they could get but it’s about building good habits in the regular season you win and you build confidence and continuity and Reps

Throughout the team put yourself in situations that you’re going to potentially be in in the playoffs that’s what the regular season’s about they disrespected it hence why they’re saying they respected it so even before we got James Harden the attitude in training camp the attitude in those first couple

Of games you know I said early on this season that we’ve had more games where we’ve blown teams out and rested our starters in the fourth than last season where we had more games where we waved the White Flag because we were getting blown out we had it like within 20 games

We had more blowouts in favor of us than what happened last season where we were constantly waving the white flag and you know load managing games when we needed wins it was just a disaster this season the load management has kind of gone out the window I mean it seems so kawh

Leonard played in the All-Star Game by the way so he’s completely fine he said what injury when asked about it so clearly it was load management so we haven’t completely taken load management out of things so Kawhi Leonard he has missed one game with load management and

Then he missed four games with injury and then Paul George has only missed three games so we are really not doing the load management stuff this year like that not the way we have in the past and it’s also been good luck so it things have been really different around here

Absolutely just the approach to the regular season you know tyou I haven’t had much bad things or criticisms I haven’t had too much criticism or bad things to say about him this season and a lot of clipper fans aren’t as well and one of course that’s because he’s got

More talent but two you can easily lose with Talent you can’t win without it though and Tylo is doing a good job in my opinion I know a lot of commenters constantly agree and we can disagree that’s fine but I think he’s doing a fine job you know he’s getting the most

Out of basically everyone it’s been an unfortunate situation in terms of Westbrook we know he could probably give more given a bigger role but this is the role he has to play for this team given the trade that we made for Harden and as far as you know getting him to buy in

What about all the man management stuff you know I guess now it’s kind of going sour with bones and of course PJ Tucker but he got bones to be the biggest cheerleader of the the longest time and I think it’s only natural now that Bones

Is like I’m not going to play anymore so I don’t know if I want to do this but for the most part I think tyo is in a great job of getting the guys to be motivated on a nightly basis I haven’t had too many problems with his lineups

Or anything like that and I think we’ve been serious I really do so I think the approach to the season is the biggest difference and that’s why I say things have been different here and we stand at a 36 and 17 record but coming up going to be talking about the biggest thing

That made this season go from an under the radar potential we can sneak up on teams to on everyone’s radar and the talk of the NBA world the trade for James Harden and what it has led to on the court I got to tell you a little something about grammarly no matter what

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Shows covering every League find locked on sports today now available on the free Fire TV channels app all right so let’s talk about the event that turned this season upside down for the Clippers and uh yeah I don’t I don’t mean upside down in in the

Sense of good to bad or bad to good but just in terms of the attention that we were getting you know we were talking about going on the radar you know being less seen no not as many nationally televised games nobody expects anything from us because the health of Kawhi Le

And Paul George but then we made a trade for James Harden when we were three and one on the season actually no we were two- one and we made the trade for James Harden and it was obviously extremely controversial I had my opinions of It ultimately we didn’t end up giving too

Much and at first it was a disaster I mean having I thought that that big four wasn’t going to work if they all started that was what I was very adamant about it was also very adamant that Russell Westbrook wouldn’t go to the bench and when we we were three and seven and

Everybody was clowning us and we were 0 and5 with James Harden it was bad you know six game losing streak it felt like all we went from We’re three and one we’re more serious this year Russell Westbrook bones Highland everybody’s in their proper roles now James we make a

Big splash and you got to figure things out now and I think we it was good that we did it early of course if they were going to pull the trigger they probably should have done it in train uh in the summer but they didn’t want to give up

Terrence man there was that whole thing now I know a lot of people probably wish we would have given up Terren man but I think no regrets you know Robert Covington’s been injured a lot this year Nico’s been pretty good but I’d rather have Terren you know going past this

Year as well and I think we’ve been fine with what we’ve gotten so far I can’t really complain with the results of things but we got James hard we got him and once Russell Westbrook agreed to go to the bench I know there was a story about how he volunteered but I don’t

Believe it I’ve said that many times I’ve heard that you know he just went to the bench or he was he was put on the bench essentially I don’t know if that was Ty’s call the front office’s call but he has been a good sport about it and that’s the one

Thing I didn’t know would he sacrifice and accept this on a team where he was already basically asked to be the point guard the starting point guard that they didn’t have and now you’re replacing him with one of his good friends that you’re saying you know you would rather have

Him be the point guard and the fact that he’s been able to sacrifice for his friend and I think one of the things I underestimated was their friendship and that Russ would be willing to sacrifice for a team that’s treated him well and and he’s been just awesome in his Roll

Off the Bench bringing energy on a night toight basis some games where we you know really need to kick up the ass he comes in and gives everything he’s got you know Relentless Rim pressure getting to the basket some really good defense this season just always adding to the

Collective energy noise level emotion to the game especially at home and he’s bought into that role and he’s been pretty damn great in it he hasn’t missed a game this season he’s played an all 53 he’s the only Clipper to played in every single game besides Norman poell and

This season Russell Westbrook is averaging 11.4 points a game 5.4 rebounds 4.6 assists and 1.1 steals he has started 10 games those were the first 10 games of the Season we’re three and seven and then he’s come off the bench for the other 43 he’s shooting 46% from the field this season

So pretty good and then 28% from three which is obviously not very good but Russ I think I’ve been very satisfied with him and ever since he’s made that sacrifice we we have gone 33 and 10 33 and 10 and a big reason James Harden I

Mean he’s come in he’s given his pick and roll Mastery to the team he’s kind of revived that Brooklyn role where he’s got two guys that are going to be the first and second scoring options but he’s still going to have the ball in his hands the most you know running the show

And I think James has done a really good job of balancing when to be in attack mode when to give kawhai and Paul George the ball I think he has really for the most part made and obviously Westbrook has had to sacrifice and at times he takes away from Westbrook because he

Wants the ball in his hands but everybody else I think James Harden is elevated I really do and he is bought in defensively you know I’m not going to say he’s been great but he’s been better than I believed he would be I obviously I’ve always said even me who isn’t a

Huge fan of the way James Harden plays I always said that the defensive stuff is a little overblown he puts in a little more effort than people think and he’s not as bad as people think where they can always abuse him but I think he’s been even a little

Bit better than that I think he’s been decent this season defensively and he’s done everything you can really ask for for him from him and then Kawhi Leonard’s been so great I mean the fact that he’s been healthy who would have ever thought after all these injuries

You know year five for him as a Clipper of course it really feels like four because he didn’t play in 2022 he’s averaging 24 points six rebounds four assists two Steals and a block and he’s shooting 50 3% from the field 45% from three which is top five in the league

Last I checked it was top three and 89% from the line so he’s 1% away from averaging 50 40 90 he plays really good defense and his defensive responsibility has gone up since we traded for Harden because we lost him of that front Court depth so he’s had to be that backside

Rim protector whenever if it’s zubot or Mason Plum he gets pulled out of the paint and he’s been just phenomenal in my opinion in these in this aspect he doesn’t guard the best player every night anymore but he’s had to guard elite players more since we traded for

Harden and I think he’s done such a great job and those stats that I listed don’t even do him Justice because a lot of the games we’ve been blowing teams out and that’s the special part about this Clipper team this season is we’ve blown out good teams we’ve blown out bad

Teams we’ve won close games against Bad teams we’ve won close games against good teams but the main thing is we’ve made winning a habit and I’ve said that many times it’s not just building winning habits when you’re healthy and you have this much talent three stars and then

Westbrook who some games he plays like a star s and then Norman poell who’s a six Man of the Year candidate averaging you know 15 points a game Sorry 13 points a game on 49.5% from the field and 45% from three 45% from three you know

You’re going to have a chance to win a lot of basketball games but the continuity the fact that these guys have been healthy knock on wood and I’m still knocking they just they’re building winning habits and they’ve made winning a habit they’ve really beaten teams up went on that nine game winning streak

Six- one on the Grammy trip smacking Boston on the road I mean they’ve made some statements they can compete against very good teams so it starts with a sacrifice you know kawh Leonard and Paul George in my opinion haven’t had to sacrifice too much of course Paul George

Sacrifices touches kawhai the same but I think they’ve wanted this they wanted a point guard to take the ball out of their hands I think they were probably okay whether it be Russ or Harden but it’s both right and then Russell Westbrook and Bones Highland to me have

Had to make the biggest sacrifices of course James Harden’s not shooting and scoring as much but he still is doing what he wants to do and that’s half the ball in his hands the most most more than anybody on the team which is what what’s happening Russ and Bones they’ve

Had to really be good sports about this and Bones it looks like you know from what we’re hearing could be reaching his wits end but Russell Westbrook I think he’s just been awesome about it so you need sacrifice to win championships every single Champion says it and right

Now you’re seeing that from the Clippers and that’s why it’s working out so shout out to everybody they’ve done such a great job the guys like if it’s a zubot is having such a great season and James Harden has definitely elevated him having an elite pick androll player he’s

Never really had uh if it’s a zubot and then Daniel TI you know when Mason plumy was out for so long he came in it was such a great backup with energy you know protecting the rim best he can being good in the pick and rolles finishing

Around the basket and just always giving us effort and then Amir coffee you know his spot has been freed up because of James Harden’s arrival and US losing roko Morris and Nico and you’re seeing how great he’s he really is player he works well off the catch he has that

Pull up mid-range when guys close out hard on him at the three he can make the three he’s shooting it at a let’s see air coffee 45% from three he’s shooting 56% from the field I mean are you kidding me these are great crazy shooting splits and then teren man while

He’s been a little underwhelming offensively this season he has started and he’s finally consistently got that role and he’s doing a very good job of guarding the best player every single night and doing it a decent enough job for us to win a lot of games and that’s

All that matters less is more sometimes and we don’t want you know so much so many guys that want the ball in that starting lineup and coming up going to be looking at some lineup data uh overall this season some interesting things and also looking at the straight

Up championship chances of the Clippers what are our weaknesses and what do some potential series look like going to be talking about that coming up I got to tell you a little something about Nissan are you the kind of driver that likes to push things a little further ever wonder

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17 this season three and two without Kawai Paul George is averaging 22 and a half points a game five rebounds 3.6 assists only 0.1 less assists than Kawai and only 0.1 less steals than kawhai 1.6 for Paul and he’s shooting 46% from the field and 39 from three and 91 from the

Line so he’s still shooting really well as well and he’s been good I mean he’s a deserved Allstar you can also argue though that James Harden’s been even better than him 17 and a half points a game for James five rebounds eight assists a steal and one block and funny

Enough James Harden is actually third on our team actually second on our team in blocks tied with Kawhi Leonard and Daniel Ty if it’s zubot obviously first but that’s pretty impressive is it not James Harden tied for third on the team in blocks I’m sorry tied for second on the team in

Blocks so there you go and as far as James Harden these are the lowest PPG he’s had since the 2012 season with the Oklahoma City Thunder coming off the bench so that tells you his sacrific to a degree now some interesting lineup data if you’re wondering how come Russell Westbrook

James Harden and Paul George and them don’t play together much well here’s the thing we’ve started to see some signs that those four the big four can play together with a spacer with IIT zubot they’ve played 71 minutes with the four of them and they have a minus

26.7 net rating so it has not been good now there is a lineup of Russell Westbrook James Harden and Terren man and Paul George and that lineup is and that lineup has played only 29 minutes and they’re minus five in net rating but the Russell Westbrook James Harden Paul George Co Leonard Norman

Powell lineup that we’ve seen recently they’ve played 20 minutes they are a plus 47.7 net rating and of all five player lineups the Clippers have used this season that have played 20 or more minutes they are the best in terms of that net rating statistics so Westbrook Harden Paul kawhai and nor

We’ve had some success with that but in terms of fourman lineups the James Harden Paul George kawi Leonard Norman pal quartet a lot of times with the V zubats that lineup has been our most successful this season of all lineups that have played 70 minutes or more 70

Minutes or more the lineup of Harden Paul kawhai Norman zoo is our best with 28.8 net rating then the other one is our starting lineup plus zoo and Plumley they’re very similar net rating wise um and then Westbrook kawhai Norm Tyson coffee with a plus 5.2 so that’s a

Little interesting tidbits for you right there the James Harden Paul Kawai Norm zubot lineup is pretty lethal to end games and then we’ve seen some success now with the big four plus a spacer so look for that as the season continues um but yeah as far as the weaknesses the

Clippers have shown a tendency to struggle against big athletic teams a lot of times with multiple bigs cuz our weakness is we lost some stuff in the front court right so even though we’re a slower team now since we got Harden we do not play as much fast-paced ball you

Know before the season it was all about running running pace Pace that favors guys like bones like Terren like Amir like Russ but when we got Harden it’s more like okay Harden and Kawai they’re great in the half court we want to slow things down we’re an older team you know

Zubot as well is not much of a runand gun guy so the thing about it is when the game becomes slow when we play against teams that have more size than us we seem to struggle and a lot of times it comes down to can they get two

Of our three stars Harden Paul and Kawai two of them have a bad night on the same game and when they do a lot of times we lose for example Minnesota has shown to be our biggest issue this season they have so much size you know we don’t

Really have a power forward anymore Kobe Brown and PJ Tucker are our best options we tried PJ Tucker he could not stay in front of anybody defensively anymore and offensively not not only could he not shoot the ball he didn’t want the ball he was being completely ignored he

Couldn’t get the ball over the rim consistently when he was spotting up from the corner anymore every shot was short and then Kobe Brown is just a little young so Amir coffee has stepped into that Roll Off the Bench but he’s not a four he’s just a wing so when

Teams have multiple bigs you’ve seen the Lakers you know they’ve had a better match up with us this season and they’ve rolled out Christian Wood and Anthony Davis and one of our problems is kawhai Paul and Harden against really good defenses they seem to struggle to get to

The basket and that was a problem for us for years with Paul and kawhai they struggled to get to the basket that’s why we brought in Bones Russ Harden and Harden definitely helps and Russ definitely helps too but what I’ve noticed is when teams have a great point of attack Defender obviously they’re

Going to need multiple against us but a great point of attack Defender for Harden and a really good drop big that could potentially switch and not get abused that’s when we struggle because what they do is they play the pick and rules straight up no switch and they

Stay home on our shooters and they trust that the big can guard two at once for a sec and the point of attack guy can stay attached to harden CU he’s not as quick anymore so I’m a little bit worried about that come playoff time I’m not really that worried about teams like

Phoenix Oklahoma City Sacramento but teams with size you know Cleveland gave us problems but Minnesota Denver the Lakers the Lakers I hate to say it I think we’re much better than them but we don’t have the same bodies for LeBron that we used to with Nico senior

Roko but I I don’t think we’re going to play the Lakers but yeah Warriors I’m not worried about either so as far as the championship chances the Clippers are doing everything in the regular season right now that is showing you they’re serious about winning the championship I know Paul George James

Harden Russell Westbrook they have their reputations in the playoffs we’ve seen them fall short several times we’ve also seen them do great things a lot of times but it’s really about kawh Leonard he’s the reason why the Clippers are taken seriously in the first place at the end

Of the All-Star game on Sunday they were uh Brian Anderson was asking Reggie Miller and Candace Parker on the call who they’ve got coming out the west and Reggie said us and the nuggets are his two favorites and Candace said the Clippers I think they coming out of the

West I think they’re built for the playoffs so and that’s because of Kawai if it was just Harden Paul George let’s say it was Harden Paul George cakam and Westbrook you think they’d say that no it’s all about Kawai he’s the man that makes us serious and because of that and

Because James Harden’s back in that third option role that we never saw him really complete that story in Brooklyn and now Paul George can be healthy with tyo with a healthy Kawai cuz the only time Paul George has been a second option with uh Kawai healthy was the bubble never even

With Ty never got to complete the postseason so the chip chances are as high as ever for the Clippers this is the best Clipper team in Clipper history um and I’m saying that to you because we’ve never had a third star like that and we have our best number one option

Uh in Kawhi leard that’s really what it boils down to for me our number one option is the best and we have a third star we’ve never had that in my opinion that’s a super team three clear-cut stars and James Harden is a clear-cut star it just so happens

That you know there’s a lot of great guards in the west it is what it is the Clippers are 36 and 17 right now right and in 2013 when we won 56 games we were also 36 and 17 at this point now the 20134 season was our best record

Ever 57 wins 25 losses and at this point we were 35 and 18 so we’re actually better this season and then the other season 20145 where we won 56 games we were 30 four and 19 so two games worse so we’re tied for our best ever Mark at this stage of the season

And I think we’re going to oh man are we going to get 58 wins that’d be crazy but we’re just going to take it one game at a time keep playing Clipper basketball and that next game’s OKC but we’ll have more episodes before then not sure what

They’re going to be on yet but we’ll figure it out you can follow me on Twitter Instagram at Dime dropper pod subscribe to my own YouTube channel dime dropper for even more LA Clipper LA Sports and NBA content just did an episode recently where I talked about

Every West team and time stamped it lock on Clippers free and available wherever you get your podcast um the challenge is still on can you guys get us to 5,000 subscribers before the season resumes please I would love that tell your friends tell your Clipper fans show some

Love the age-old proverb continues go Clippers make sure you let me know what you think in the comments are great for the season a through F I’m going to give us an A minus

The LA Clippers have gone from under the radar before the season to on everyone’s radar with the star studded team they now after the James Harden trade. They find themselves in the 3rd seed in the West at the All Star Break.

In this episode, die hard Los Angeles Clippers fan Darian Vaziri reflects on the season thus far and talks about why things have gone so well for the team so far. He also looks at their weaknesses and title chances and the effects of the Harden trade.

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