Kawhi Leonard Makes All-NBA Team

Kawhi Leonard Makes All-NBA Team

on today’s show the all NBA teams were just announced and there is a clipper on the list going to be talking about that maybe could he have been higher could he have been lower what are fans saying about the selection and then going to be talking about if we should have had any other all-nba guys and what we believe some people believe the holdup is with Paul George’s contract talks going to be talking about it all on today’s lock on still in Cancun Clippers you are locked on Clippers your daily Los Angeles Clippers podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team everyday day yes sir you are 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 LA and just finished my 19th season as a Clipper fan you can also follow me on Twitter and Instagram at Dime dropper pod And subscribe to my own YouTube channel dime dropper for even more LA Clipper NBA and NBA history content and locked on Clippers is free and available wherever you get your podcast including YouTube where I want you to let me know what you think of the all NBA selections of course kawi Leonard is all NBA and then let me know if you think Paul George or James Harden had a case for the third team what you think of them not making it just give me your thoughts on the selection and if you even want to talk about guys from other teams you can do that as well and before we do that this epis episode is brought to you is brought to you by LinkedIn post your job for free at linkedin.com lockon NBA that’s linkedin.com lockon NBA to post your job for free all right so let’s talk about the news kawhai Leonard has made all NBA second team you got to love it and that’s not a sarcastic clap I’m I mean you just don’t get that many all-nba players here in Clipper land you know we were lucky with Chris and Blake for several years and then we have had kawhai a couple of times uh and then you know you go back further Elton brand so I know Bob McAdoo in the Buffalo days I don’t have the list off the top of my head I know La Murray who we had on the podcast recently put a list out but I forget exactly all the names but oh DeAndre Jordan even one time I think no I love DJ to death but I think that was because it was the weakest Center era in NBA history and that’s not even like hating it was legitimately the weakest Center era in the history of basketball because if you remember if you know basketball history the center was the dominant position at first it was the you know the greates of the games in the beginning were mostly centers so it just was but kawh Leonard man second Team all NBA you know you can’t take that for granted as a Clipper fan the only thing that sucks is it feels like we don’t get to reap the benefit of having an all-nba player because he’s not healthy in the playoffs so it really sucks man and and you know for the people I think he thoroughly deserves it he definitely to me does not deserve first team but I would have had him on the second team over the third you know the third Team guys were Tyrese halberton I think Tyrese halberton is an awesome young player no way would I have him over kawh Leonard with the way he was playing I mean kawhai played 68 games you know 24 points per game six boards four assists two Steals and a block on 52 and A2 42 88 and a half splits and here’s the thing that people don’t get Kawai Leonard is the most consistent player on the Clippers and he is probably the most consistent Defender as well I mean I don’t think zubot plays bad defense a lot but I think there are certain schemes or not schemes there are certain players that can expose that zoo is very largely a dropped Defender there is no scheme for Kawai defensively what you do with Kawai is keep him far away from the action as possible and so it’s kawh Leonard’s job because he’s playing more off ball to just be alert to be a good help Defender and I’ll tell you man there’s no secret as to why kawhai in his prime was in his defensive Prime I should say was one of the best Wing Defenders we’ve ever seen cuz the guy just has what I call a defensive antenna he has he really takes Pride and that end the floor on a nightly basis so when I see people trying to talk about oh Booker should have been second team or Lebron should have been second team look I can’t speak as much for Booker because I don’t watch the Suns all the time but I heard from Suns fans and I saw in the playoffs that defensively he was not the same this year and for anybody that’s saying Booker’s never been a good Defender that is false he’s been a very solid Defender since Monty Williams was his coach but this year with the playmaking increase I think he just got a little lazy and he just got a little tired and got you know complacent on that end of the floor that being said he’s never been better than kawhai defensively never be that in his life LeBron is one guy who I watch every night because he’s here in LA and I watch him on local television Anthony Davis completely deserve to be second team I got no gripes with that LeBron should be third team Kawai should be higher than him all these crying Laker fans and LeBron apologist Fanboys are saying that he should be over kawh Leonard because he averaged more assists and a little bit more points it’s just all the the point rebound assist argument that’s what it is with them which LeBron has always been a monster of but what you’re not accounting for is defense one out of every three games and that’s just kind of a rough estimation but one out of every three games LeBron does not care on defense he’s been doing this for a while for years to conserve his body for the long hul he is 39 years old it’s not normal for him to put in the same defensive effort as he once did or as a kawh Leonard but even when kawhai and LeBron were the like let’s see LeBron when he was 32 that would be 2 16 Braun right 201617 season because his birthday is in the later end of the year so he’s even then he was taking it easy defensively because the East was weak so you get away with it I watched that I was LeBron was my favorite player at the time but which I know it’s hard to believe now but Kawai Leonard is not that he just takes more Pride defensively uh granted LeBron does more offensively but I think a lot of the stuff LeBron does he chooses to do sometimes like he loves having the ball kawh Leonard is one of those guys here’s the ultimate argument for me and any Clipper fan that watches us will agree kawhai Leonard there are so many games that the stats don’t do him Justice he always has a good floor because he always plays good defense for the 99% of the time LeBron has a habit and Westbrook and Harden at times have been this way throughout their careers as well the common denominators having the ball lot but where the stats look better than the performance and I think Kawhi Leonard is so often on the other end of the spectrum and LeBron is on the other end of the spectrum and that’s not to knock LeBron’s year I think you can argue he should have been second team but like we had a better record than them and they’re going to have two second teamers and we don’t have any like that’s just nonsense to me Kawhi Leonard was great in the regular season people are going to let the fact that he was healthy that he wasn’t healthy in the playoffs Cloud them from reality that this guy had his best regular season as a Clipper due to health due to health 68 games played I mean his efficiency was crazy and just you the defense is not shown in that statistical like breakdown it’s just not and that’s half the game I understand that people value offense more but like just ignore it completely and say I I saw some people commenting Kawai defense arguments in 2024 and those are very much people that do not watch the clippers because nobody is saying that kawh Leonard guards the best players anymore because he does not but if you watch kawh Leonard versus LeBron in low man help and just help in general kawai’s way more engag defensively and it’s not even close and I’m not even saying that to be a biased guy like I’m the guy that wants to blow this up so for me to come in here and defend Kawai it’s real I’m being genuinely honest here I I don’t you have to find a couple of guys I think uh there’s one one of my boys over on Twitter and I’ve met him in real life he has a great Laker platform his name is Raj shout out to Raj uh he watches Clipper games he’s such a basketball fan so he doesn’t watch the lck Clipper games with oh I’m a Laker fan that hates the Clippers he watches it like I watch Laker games there’s another basketball team in La for local I don’t have to pay money for get leak pass to watch We’re blessed in Los Angeles to have two teams like I’ve always enjoyed this that we have two teams I can watch one every night obviously one night I have no rooting interest than the other night I’m nervous and on pins and needles not anymore but when I was a kid especially but reason I brought bring up Raj as an example is because I think he’s one of the few Laker fans that truly watches the clippers because he genuinely watches basketball but a lot of these F these arguments are made in bad faith I watch both and I’m going to tell you that if you want to talk about who the best defender in the city of Los Angeles was this year it’s Anthony Davis by a country mile it’s not even close not to say that zubot and kawhai didn’t have good defensive years but Anthony Davis deserves that second team selection kawhai Leonard absolutely deserves that second team selection you know who else was on that third team sabonis You could argue that Jaylen Brown could have made it over him morala story kawhai deserved it LeBron did not deserve it over him and kawhai definitely shouldn’t have been first team so he’s right where he belongs with the Ant-Man with Anthony Davis with I don’t even have oh Kevin Durant congratulations to Kevin Durant too for making it after because he had the injury concerns as well just like Kawai and he had a very good year so kawhai Leonard First Team all second Team all NBA it’s a great accomplishment and you should be proud it’s just very unfortunate that we don’t get to reap the benefits enough unfortunately but oh man all NBA you’ll absolutely take it and coming up going to be talking about by the way so just the years that I just want to list out before we uh go to the break Kawhi Leonard’s years of all NBA 20156 was his first all NBA team he was first team that was when the Spurs won I believe 67 games and uh only lost one game at home which was tying the 1986 Boston Celtics record and then he was all NBA first in 2017 where he was lit that was the season where I was like oh my God like how is this guy become this good and then 2019 because 2018 he was injured the whole year 2019 all NBA second team because he missed 22 games and then 2020 was all NBA second team for us and then 2021 was all NBA first so this is his third time in 5 years making an all NBA team as a member of the Clippers like the guy is you know he’s actually had some good regular seasons it’s just God playoffs coming up though gonna be talking about if James Harden and Paul George could have had a case for third team GNA be talking about that coming up I got to tell you a little something about LinkedIn jobs when you’re hiring for your small business you want to find quality professionals that are right for the rule that’s why you have to check out LinkedIn jobs LinkedIn jobs has the tools to help find the right Professionals for your team faster and for free I’ve never actually hired on LinkedIn but I’ve been hired on LinkedIn so it was successful for me maybe it’ll be successful for you if you want to improve and find the right candidates for your business LinkedIn isn’t just another JW board LinkedIn has a vast network of more than a billion 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I’m looking at the comments right now Kawai over LeBron is very unserious for second team like this that’s in to me that’s you have an unserious view of basketball in my opinion if you think that that’s unserious um okay here we go other players receiving votes Jaylen Brown was the closest to making the third Team all NBA with 50 third place votes no first or second but guess who was second to making it to our second cut Paul George I think that’s Paul George over Maxi is ridiculous this season I think that’s crazy James Harden not even being in the vicinity of this when Paul George was SEC so basically the voters thought that Paul George had the 17th best season of anybody in the NBA that’s insanity and you know what Paul George we were very harsh on him at times I will admit but he averaged what let’s see his stats were actually pretty good though 23 five and four so only one point see the thing is you look at it and you say he played 74 games that’s major 74 games one less Point than Kawai one less rebound than kawhai about the same in steals blocks assists efficiency Kawai shoots 5% better from the field three-pointers they’re only separated by 04 and Paul George shoots a better percentage I have to say Paul George’s stats always average out pretty nice he’s still had a good season so I don’t think it’s crazy that he got third place votes I think that’s fine but like is did Paul George have a better season than Maxi that’s nuts to me no way he had a better season than Maxi Maxi had to carry without him beat out for so long like imagine Imaginee if Paul George didn’t have Harden or kawhai it would be very hard for us to win games Rudy goar was after Maxi I think Rudy and it’s crazy I’ll take Paul George over Rudy goar but Rudy goar had a better season than him like undoubtedly he had a better season than him wemi okay I’m I’m pumping the breaks there Zion I’ll take Paul over that Pao Ben Caro are you telling me that Paul George had a better season than Palo van Caro because I don’t think he did people overrate Paul George’s defense a lot a lot he does not always bring on that end I’m not even hating I love Paul George but he’s getting a little too much love from the voters because people really think of him as a Defender and he’s an inconsistent Defender Harden got no votes let me know what you guys think of that like he didn’t have any votes that we’re seeing here D rozan got more votes than Harden I think that’s a little crazy not take anything away from DeMar but James Harden was arguably as good as Paul George if not better in this season because the stretch that we had that 26 and five Harden was our second best player in that stretch so I don’t know man that’s so so funny that they had Paul George as the 17th best player it just I don’t think I think I’m not even going to say that the stats don’t do him Justice I think the stats do him Justice I just think that again you’re not seeing the defensive side of things and I think Paul George has a has developed a reputation that he doesn’t consistently uphold and that’s all effort and it’s interesting with Paul like he’ll average out those numbers but it’s so volatile like sometimes he’ll just be on a heater like those games like that game against Chicago where he was just ridiculous and then he’ll just go like 3 for 12 very consistently so those are my thoughts on that but coming up speaking of Paul George let’s talk about what I believe could be holding up the contract negotiations going to be talking about that coming up I got to tell you a little something about eBay Motors passion drive and patience the formula for winning championship is also what keeps your ride or die alive eBay Motors has everything you need to maintain your vehicle and level it up to Peak Performance superchargers roof racks exhaust kits LED headlights and more whether in you’re into speed power or style eBay Motors has you covered with over 122 million parts for your number one ride or 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contracts to expire at the same time so if that if the 2627 season is the end of the 213 era that would be eight years of 213 my God we had six years of Lob City this would be the sixth year of this and it just feels like this has not been a thing for as long just because we saw LOB City play more together on the court and of course there was two shorten seasons in the 213 era but they want Co I think they want Paul George’s his contract to end when kawi does I think that’s what the holdup is and it’ll be interesting to see how he you know kind of go with James Harden uh and his contract negotiations do we want them to expire as well you know three-year deal we’ll see maybe the fourth one with a player option but I mean it’ll be the thing is if Paul Jorge does have let’s say threeyear deal four-year deal but the fourth is a player option the season after Kawai contract expires I mean you know it’s just so hard predicting these things because like you’re looking in the future I mean if Kawai has another couple injuries like is he going to retire like I don’t know he’s going to want to play out that contract though 50 million is nothing to just walk away from but like I don’t want to make a adjustment like oh well the Clippers going to blow it up in 2027 like I don’t who who knows they could hit the reset button earlier all I know is that I think Paul George the contract negotiations are being held up because the Clippers are clearly not trying to give him Max that’s been made very clear they don’t want to give him a Max I don’t think they want to give him as much as Kawai so the next step is the years and I think that they want he and Kawai to end at the same time so Paul George a reminder he has that player option for 49 million by the way oh my God it’s actually fitting that I mentioned this guess who I saw leaving work on Thursday I’m walking from work and all of a sudden I turn to my right and PJ Tucker’s just sitting there eating a pizza by himself it was so funny oh my God it was so funny I okay I don’t feel that bad that’s a rare moment that’s never going to happen again La Murray cussed a lot when he came on so we’re going to make a pass for me on that one time okay you didn’t hear that anyway but it was so funny just PJ by himself and I was like yo BJ Tucker like I saw you you know I met you when I was a kid like 11 years ago in Phoenix and you were the boy you know it always stuck with me he was like oh really and I said yeah said I’m a huge Clipper fan actually so it’s it’s cool having you on the squad even though I like it was weird because like I’m I love PJ Tucker actually I’ve always mentioned this I do like PJ Tucker because of the experience I have with him as a kid this is my second time meeting him but I don’t necessarily want him on the team right now so it was kind of awkward cuz like I couldn’t say anything positive about the way he played and if it was if imagine if it was like a m coffee like yo Amir like you know we drafted you I’m fully in support of you bro like I I I didn’t want to interrupt PJ Tucker and be like yo I used to love you back in the day but now I don’t I don’t mess with you anymore like I used to love your game back in the day when you were young like you know I didn’t want to come off rude so and he just had a mouthful of pizza so I was just trying to leave him alone but man he did not look like a pleasant guy like the last time I saw him I don’t know if that’s because it’s 11 years later or you know he just didn’t want to be talked to or it’s just a bad day at the office but also like I don’t know maybe he’s just not as happy with what’s going on in his career right now and when a guy brings up his basketball career which is anybody that sees him out and comes up to him he’s probably like ah man I ain’t trying to talk about he’s trying to you know I don’t know who knows he’s just an intimidating guy but that was pretty funny um right right outside my work and no if you ask me where I saw him I’m not going to answer that question because there’s too many weirdos out here let’s just say he was on the west it was on the west side of Los Angeles where a lot of our players live um and where I work anyway so yeah that’s my kind of conclusion about Paul George I think that’s the holdup right there and I don’t remember who it was but someone said that Paul George is definitely going to take the money he’s looking for the money I don’t know I’m still very skeptical he’s going to leave Los Angeles to go to another team especially ice cold Philadelphia although I think that’s a perfect move for him to try to win a ring a better chance than we have because Maxi and embiid for all embiid getting injured in the playoffs at least he’s still on his two feet playing on the court in every game but anyway that’s for me this one guys let me know what you thought of the episode let me know what you thought of the all NBA selection for kawh Leonard and of course uh Paul George and James Harden not being considered I mean no Paul George was clearly considered James Harden not at all let me know what you guys think of that and then the PGA contract hold up do you think what I said makes sense and keep giving me episode suggestions I still haven’t read the comments and I will be doing that I have a very long drive where I won’t be driving on Saturday so I maybe I’ll just scroll through the comments while I have a couple hours to kill so anyway let me know and I’m not going to reveal I guess what episodes are coming next also if you want guests you know Clipper people guests not players but like people that are more attainable to get throw in some uh requests for guests so remember locked on Clippers is free and available wherever you get your podcast make sure you subscribe on Apple podcast follow on Spotify and then subscribe on YouTube and hit the notification Bell so you know every single time we post a video all things LA Clippers nobody does Clippers shows at as much as we do here on locked on and of course you can follow me on Twitter and Instagram at di dropper pod And subscribe to my own YouTube channel dime dropper where I’m talking about every playoff game for the rest of the season the agel proverb continues go Clippers

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