Was The LA Clippers Season A Failure?

Was The LA Clippers Season A Failure?

on today’s show was the LA Clippers season a failure 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 every 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 Darian 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 dim dropper pod And subscribe to my own YouTube channel dime dropper for even more NBA LA Clipper and LA Sports content and locked on Clippers is free and available wherever you get podcast including YouTube and I want you to let me know if you think the 2023 2024 Clippers season was a failure now let’s talk about failure what is failure Janis said in Kubo style uh no let’s be honest I think every season a fan base and a team sets a goal now every NBA team is going to say our goal is to win the championship because mathematically you know before the season starts everyone’s zero and zero and everyone has the same odds but we know that Talon is dispersed differently in this league and only certain teams have a real shot of winning a title the second the Clippers got kawh Leonard and Paul George on July 5th 2019 it was Championship robust every seon every single season since the only season that wasn’t was 2022 because KOB Leonard was out the whole season with the torn ACL in 2020 we failed 2021 I think after we lost the second round again yeah the 2021 Clippers are going to want to say that their goal was to win the championship but me as a fan I was just like for the love of God can you please get out the second round like can we just break that curse because it really feels like a curse and I’ll never forget after the 2015 31 series that we should not have blown to the Rockets blade Griffin said something that’ll stick with me forever and he said the Clipper curse was never about not making it out of the second round it was about not drafting well and not being able to win in this league not being able to put together consecutive winning seasons multiple playoff appearances in a row be an actual team that got 50 wins it wasn’t about the second round but and he said we we broke through that one we’re going to break through this one and sadly he wasn’t able to be the one that broke it but that stuck with me forever and so that’s why I don’t believe the Clippers are actually cursed when people say the Clippers are cursed you’re talking now about winning a championship I mean now that means the curse is evolving we it never used to be oh the Clippers are cursed they’re never going to win I mean maybe some Laker fans said the Clippers are cursed they’re never going to win a ring but a lot of people are saying the Clippers are cursed they’re never going to make it out of the second round the Clippers will never be good it’s evolved now it’s becoming that we never going to win a ring so okay it’s we’re getting closer we’re getting closer but that second round thing it really felt like we were cursed so for us to get out of that second round I think everybody can agree 2021 was a success and the fact that we were eliminated without our best player I think that gave that what if like man had he been healthy I think we could have gone all the way and I think a lot of cber fans to this day believe that I believe we definitely would have been beaten Phoenix like from the bottom of my heart I am so confident we would have beaten Phoenix but I don’t know if we would have beaten Milwaukee I truly don’t it would have been a good series 2023 was a failure and in 2024 we had a much better regular season we looked like a much better basketball team Our Stars were healthier it all was much more functional there wasn’t this reported you know conflict between front office and Coach we didn’t have three different point guards that we tried out it was pretty constant we just had a slump after one of our great stretches you know we go 26 and five are playing like the best team in the league have the latest number one seed in Clipper history like relative to a season the furthest into a season that the Clippers have ever been the number one seed in the Western Conference and then we just kind of fell off a cliff for a while and then closed the season without Kawhi Leonard in decent fashion but to only after everything win one more game in the playoffs than we did last year after trading for James Harden giving up expiring contracts and a an unprotected first-rounder and I want people to stop looking at the players that we gave up and look at the expiring contracts that would have been potentially attractive at the deadline that we could have maybe gone for something else that we maybe would have needed more although if you think that playmaking was what we needed this whole time then there’s no regrets on the Harden trade but we def we gave up an unprotected first rounder which I mean considering we’re so you know devoid of picks for the next couple of years just giving up more to only go one round one game further in the playoffs just hurts but again the main reason we failed is because we weren’t able to finish the season healthy in all season long we had the best health season that we’ve had in the 213 era Kawhi Leonard actually playing 68 games Paul George playing 74 games James Harden 72 games Norman pal 76 Zoo 68 Russ 68 Terren 75 Amir Coffey 70 like like that many players playing 655 plus games is amazing considering what we’ve seen the last couple of Seasons here with the clippers but sadly it just still didn’t work out we abandoned load management we really had kawhai play basically every game he could and it didn’t work so neither worked load management 2023 being cautious didn’t work 2024 playing hard it got us a better regular season record made us look like a better team had kawhai playing some of the best basketball of his career got him all NBA second team got him a new contract which we shouldn’t have given him and sadly the inflammation happened and law even talked about it that it wasn’t an injury when La Murray came on the podcast he said it was just the overuse and I mean what do you that attribute that to can he not play 68 games I mean we got him another star to take offensive an offensive load off of him but we did rip away our power forward depth so he was playing a lot of that second biggest guy on the court position and small ball Center at times in the in the few times that we did go small so are you like if somebody suggests that that’s why are we saying that the Harden trade contributed to kawai’s knee inflamation I mean I don’t really want to go push that agenda I just think we’re making a lot of statements and all of them conclude in there’s so many things that seem to have to go right to get kawh Leonard to finish a season and I don’t know if he can finish a full postseason run anymore and you know considering we’ve resigned him banking on that makes me nervous so the solution or what I I don’t think there is a solution except for just pray for the best and hope and hope that luck finally goes his way as a Clipper but what we’re going to do and I don’t have like 100% fact on this but La Murray kind of alluded to it we’re going to go back to load management with kawhai next year he probably won’t be playing back Tob backs and you know after seeing Dallas win the West with a five seed I don’t think they’re gonna care about seeding and they’re just gonna say as long as you get him healthy that’s all that matters and honestly I can’t even blame them anymore but it’s just no don’t put stock in the regular season as much and it’s like even when they’re healthy James Harden and Paul geordan you don’t know what you’re going to get but coming up let’s talk about the onc court products how much how close did The Encore 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talk about what they actually looked like when they were on the court I think there were two different versions of this Clipper team there was the one that we saw in that slump in March and April and I think late February then there was the December January and early February where the Clippers just you know coming back from that GR trip we look like World beaters I think somewhere if you combine all those results is what the Clippers are is that they looked like a championship contending team for a while because Kawhi Leonard was playing so well and let’s just start with that when Kawhi Leonard’s playing at a high level or no when Kawhi Leonard’s playing at his level when he’s healthy and playing there aren’t that many better players in the NBA maybe five let me let me you know what let me think who I think is better right now in the NBA based on how this playoffs these playoffs have gone and I’m going to compare that to what I saw in 2023 from kawhai in the playoffs when he was healthy for those first two games I’ll take jic over him we’ll go with Giannis we’ll go with it uh I’m not taking Steph anymore I’m not Luca that might be it seriously like who else like I’m not taking LeBron ad Tatum again this is just if he’s healthy and of course it’s a ridiculous if but I’m I’m taking kawhai basically top three or four in the league when he’s healthy and that’s the level that he was playing at the stats don’t always fully reflect it because one he doesn’t shot hunt in the regular season two sometimes he doesn’t shoot enough that’s one thing but he’s also playing with James Harden and Paul George and James Harden has the ball in his hands a lot and then there were a lot of games where the Clippers were beating teams up and he got to rest a lot seriously so kawhai was playing at an extremely high level and his defense was very good right 24 points a game six rebounds four assists he was all NBA second team and then the real change was I mean Paul George is going to have his shooting slumps and he’s goingon to have his hot stretches that’s normal but the real change was James Harden and the advantages that he was creating on a nightly basis in pick and roll he had a little burst to a step that he just quite didn’t have for the remainder of the season and I think that just fatigue over the course of a season you know he you know puts a lot of burden on himself on the ball it’s always been the last let’s say 12 years give or take and he’s usually healthy and I don’t know what he was doing this year I don’t know if he changed his ways but coming into the Clippers I’ve been told that James Harden still lives a very fun lifestyle he gets out and he’s around he’s outside so all things considered the he’s also on the older side he’s been through plenty of injuries the toll of the Season kind of just wore on him but he still played well enough in the playoffs for what you expect from him I’d say I mean I only think he had two great games the other games I don’t think he was quite good enough all four of them honestly just looked good shooting percentage wise uh but as a third option I think his stats if you look at him over the course of the series they were good they were fine but it wasn’t you know you weren’t going to beat the Mavericks without Kawai I just even if Paul Georgia played better I don’t think so um just we just weren’t a better team in any way shape or form without Kawai now to answer the question I think that we are a team that’s very good but I think every single time we played against the team that was Contender or young we didn’t look that great Minnesota kind of beat us up OKC kind of ran us off the floor and as the season went on you just see the fatigue Factor you could just see that we were old we’re still too relying on jump shots and we don’t get to the rim enough and our point of attack defense is still not quite good enough and we lacked a four so all those things I don’t think we were good enough to win the championship and Russell Westbrook Off the Bench is just too volatile you know I mean as a starter he’s volatile too but Off the Bench I feel like you’re just not getting much of the positive from Russ on a consistent basis you’re not maximizing him because he’s in his you know he’s kind of in his fields and he’s trying to so trying so hard to make an impact so that’s how I feel about that so to answer the question did we put together a championship product on the court not quite I don’t think we failed miserably I always again I I still think the Harden trade was a mistake uh in terms of that being what we went for I think we should have you know given the season some time to see what we needed because Factor matter is we gave up all our fours we didn’t have that size we didn’t have the athleticism uh to contend truly in my opinion with the Minnesota of the world and I don’t know what happened in the playoffs against OKC but it’s just we’re a little too slow and old and I think teams had better point of attack Defenders than us we didn’t create enough easy baskets we were very we became very reliant on how what what kind of looks is James Harden getting us in pick and roll and I don’t want to be that kind of team that’s really relying on that because kawhai and Paul they live off a pretty tough shot diet it’s a lot of contested jump shots Paul George doesn’t get to the rim enough in kawai’s case when he’s got that contested mid-range from 15 feet and in or even like 16 feet in in it’s pretty money I’ll take that that’s like a layup in my opinion but Paul you just don’t know what you’re G to get so then a lot comes down to James Harden creating the pick and roll we don’t use vit zubats enough as a Creator in terms of throwing him down throwing down the ball to him and asking him to create that’s something we got to definitely look at next season so how do we Elevate this team well we got to get some more athleticism and size at the four position for sure can we get a better point of attack Defender than Terren I doubt it got to develop zoo over the course of the Season more as a go-to guy that’s all we can do I think in terms of what we produced I don’t think we were that is that big of a failure I think we were actually still one of the better teams in the league but the health part is where we just didn’t come through but coming up let talk about the performances of certain guys in the playoffs who can we actually trust next season for the Long Haul if that’s the goal going to talk about that coming up all right so to close out let’s just talk about the playoffs right my whole thing before this season ended was like whoever plays well in the playoffs is coming back and whoever doesn’t is is gone but that was assuming that kawhai was healthy and that’s one thing I don’t like is that over the last couple of Seasons as a Clipper fan Four Seasons in a row without Kawai every single player on the roster has had to play Above what they’re supposed to be doing they’ve had to you know bench above what they can and that’s because that’s not ideal that’s not ideal for any of them stars or rooll players so let’s just go with my definition of like or my criteria before the playoffs started if you didn’t play well in the playoffs you’re out if you did you’re in so I’m I’m going to be the judge of this Kobe Brown didn’t really play so that doesn’t count Brandon Boston didn’t really play doesn’t count so let me just say this if they have no chance of contributing to a playoff rotation time to trade them or let them go if they want to go all in with this era I’m sorry because you don’t have enough but you want to you know wait for the future it’s like that’s why this is so flawed to me I mean you want to have some youth but if Brandon Boston Jr and Kobe Brown are not going to be able to play basketball important basketball just sitting there not even able to contribute throughout a regular season not even throughout a regular season then trade them and get someone else there there are teams out there that will go for young players Amir coffee he did not play well enough in the playoffs so but again he had to start half the games which is not ideal that’s not what air coffee’s out there to be this was his first time playing any playoff basketball too but based on my criteria he would have to go we’d have to look to trade him uh based on what I was saying before the playoffs Daniel Ty I wouldn’t resign him because we didn’t use him right we didn’t use him in the playoffs so if you’re not going to use him let him go go get some just let Kai Jones take those minutes when Mason plumbley or if it’s zubot is injured Mason plumbley he was awful don’t resign him bone highand he didn’t do anything right another young player wasting away trade him he you’re not using him in the regular season because Russ and Harden were healthy get get rid of him you can use Xavier Moon if they one of them goes down PJ Tucker just awful get rid of him try try to get rid of him at any any means necessary like man right now nobody would be on this team Westbrook awful he was terrible you know trade him even if he opos him the player option get rid of him so at this point I’m just cleaning house Terren man I would keep him nine points five rebounds two assists on 41% from the field but 45 a half% from three which is kind of the opposite of what we saw this season where he shot well from the field and then not great from three but I would keep Terren and he consistently performs in the playoffs and again had to perform a little bit of his weight again in this postseason but the one thing about Terren is he needs to let it fly more he just he shoots 45 a half% from three defenses are still giving him the three ball and he’s just not letting it Fly and that can be very frustrating then there’s Kawai who you can’t really judge so I’m just G to keep going Norman pal average 13 points a game on 43% shooting and 45 from three look I think normal was a little disappointing in the playoffs but again he had to do more than he was needed than it was needed from him and Norm’s whole game is benefiting off of the creation of other guys without Kawhi Leonard we weren’t creating nearly the same amount of good looks so I think Norman Powell was fine I think I obviously would want to keep Norman pal zubats no debate definitely bring him back Paul George based on my criteria he’d be out the door he’d be out the door just let him walk don’t resign him and then James Harden based on the stats he looked good I don’t think he was quite good enough but again he was asked to do more than he needed to do he still shot 45% from the field and 38 from three and averaged 21 points and eight assists and four and a half boards to go along with a steel in a block so if you read those stats out like that they sound good so I’d say James Harden keep so my team would be James Harden kawh Leonard Norman Powell IIT zubot Terren man that would maybe even be the starting lineup how about that James Harden Norman pel Terren man kawhai and Zoo but then you still have kawhai playing the four that wouldn’t be a terrible starting five I don’t think right but then Off the Bench you literally have nobody on the roster except for like Kai Jones Musa diabate Jordan Miller you have to replenish well you’re gonna trade some guys right you’re getting rid of some guys but yeah so what’s the realistic thing I mean in the postseason Paul George he made me change my opinion of him I don’t believe and trust him at all going forward you know his performance was weak 19 points a game didn’t all the problems that we saw year they came through in the playoffs you know didn’t take advantage of mismatches had no go-to moves shot himself out of games with only jump shots defense was whatever didn’t take over games no Authority in games really just was good in games four- one he was good in game one he was great in game four not good enough in the others just No Superstar quality to him at all in terms of like I’m taking this over and then you know he’s saying failures it’s not we don’t see this failure the pressure is off as I get older just you know you you give it your all and that’s it like no and he doesn’t look hungry at all and then he’s doing the podcast after it’s just like just another year in the books it just my biggest thing about the playoffs is that my opinion of Paul George changed about how much I I believe in him going forward so how do you solve the playoff problem well you got to have Kawai there to put everybody back in their normal spot as far as Paul George I don’t see him changing I think the only thing that can change is just that he has less weight to carry because of kawhai being there and then having a better team around him that’s all I can really say but that’s it for me in this one ladies and gentlemen it was a failure of the of a season both seasons with me as host of lock on Clippers were failers of a season sadly maybe it’s me you can follow me on Twitter and Instagram at di dropper pod subscribe to own YouTube channel dime dropper for even more LA Clipper and LA Sports content and lock on Clippers is free and available wherever you get your podcast including YouTube let me know if you thought this was a failure of a season and let me know about any details of what I said if you had a problem with it if you agreed give me all your thoughts in the comments below the age-old proverb continues go Clippers

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