Breaking: Clippers Hire Jeff Van Gundy (What It Means & How He Can Help)

Breaking: Clippers Hire Jeff Van Gundy (What It Means & How He Can Help)

on today’s show the LA Clippers have a new member of the coaching staff and it’s a very familiar face going to be talking about what that means for the team and the NBA season is officially over the team that the Clippers are lost to Lost in the championship what does that say about how far the Clippers were from a title going to be talking about it all on today’s lock down got on my flight from 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 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 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 LA Sports and NBA content went live after every single game of the finals to talk about it on my own channel and locked on Clippers is free and available wherever you get your podcast including YouTube where you need to hit the notification Bell subscribe to know every single time we post a video and let me know what your reaction is to Jeff Van Gundy yes JVG joining the Clippers coaching staff as the lead assistant which is the main topic for our episode today also going to be talking on reacting to the Dallas Mavericks losing in the finals to the Celtics you know I’ll do a whole separate episode on Wednesday about what the Celtics winning means for the Clippers and it’s going to be major you’re going to want to listen to it because it’s going to talk about because the NBA is a copycat League whatever team wins the title every team in the offseason that’s looking to contend for a title the following year they look to say how do we combat that or what do we need that they what do we need that they have that got them over the top so and especially in the Celtics case they’re two best players are very similar archetype to us so the fact that they won a championship before us when in 201920 we’re talking about the Jays were the you know upand coming version of kawaii and Paul George is a little disappointing but before this episode continues it is brought to you by FanDuel America’s number one sports book visit fanduel.com to look at odds about any sport now basketball’s over but the WNBA is still on and then you have baseball you have the Euro Cup going on in soccer so a lot of cool stuff going on you can bet on on FanDuel but all right let’s talk about the main news Clipper Nation some good news to talk about for the first time in a while uh I am very I’m a very late sleeper so late last night you know I’m talking Monday night checking my phone at 3 a.m. and W posts or tweets that the Clippers are hiring Jeff Van Gundy as their lead assistant coach now Jeff Van Gundy has been sought after to return to the coaching ranks for many years for people in my generation they’re more well I in was introduced to Jeff Van Gundy as the head coach of the Houston Rockets that was when I was a kid my first the first time I heard that name he’s the head coach of the Houston Rockets but for many people in my generation and most of my generation and the younger people than me you remember Jeet Van Gundy and you only know Jeff Van Gundy as the color commentator lead color commentator for a ESPN and a and ABC for the NBA and he had quite the reputation obviously his chemistry with Mike Breen and Mark Jackson was amazing a lot of people didn’t like that he complained too much as they said I didn’t agree with those people at all I thought that Jeff and guny was hilarious and he’d call out some bad rules in the NBA and I I definitely believe I truly believe this in the bottom of my heart that Jeff Van Gund is one of the main reasons the take foul was introduced cuz he would always complain about that he was like how is this good for our game to intentionally foul on fast breaks so there were so many officiating things he had a problem with the Y the long reviews and I think that’s why he was let go because he didn’t promote the positive aspects of the game enough but like you can’t just have people that are just going to only emphasize the positive and ignore the obvious which is that not everything in the NBA is perfect and to be honest after the coverage of these NBA Finals there were a lot of complaints on social media and i’ I felt that way for a while but we went in the very opposite direction of you know if you want to cover the game better I think we didn’t do a better job of that this season and losing Jeff Van Gundy was not good but here’s the thing I’m not here to talk about Jeff Van Gundy as a color commentator I’m here to talk about the fact that he is rejoining the coaching ranks and it’s for your LA Clippers or our LA Clippers so if you’re not familiar with Jeff Van Gundy let’s just read his resume didn’t play in the NBA so he’s one of those for anybody that you know he played college basketball at fairly unknown universities many manyo Oaks and alther in California like see they’re the they’re an niia team I’ve never even heard of them Brockport which is in New York so these aren’t even D1 schools so he didn’t even play D1 basketball and he ended up coaching but he really worked his way up to coaching ranks Right started out in high school McQuade Jesuit High School in Northeast Rochester or I’m sorry in Rochester New York North Northeast of you of the USA then he was an assistant at Providence for two years in the late 80s one year as an assistant at ruter and then seven years as an assistant for the Knicks that’s where he broke into the NBA scene and then he became the head coach of the Knicks for five years including the famous 1999 8 seed Knicks that made it all the way to the NBA finals and lost the San Antonio Spurs so those were some really good years of the Knicks that’s when he really made his name as a head coach he obviously was a part of those Knicks Miami Heat rivalries that resulted in you know him hanging on the floor uh his you know hanging on to his players legs fighting on the floor that is a famous video of Jeff Van guny getting involved in those altercations and as I said earlier I know him as the coach of the Houston Rockets he ended up coaching them for four years and made it to the playoffs a couple of times but was let go in after the 2007 season when uh they lost in game seven of the Utah Jazz that was a really tough pill to swallow especially for Tracey McGrady because they had the home court they seemed like they were ready to get that first series win you know for McGrady and Yao and they just fell short uh so then he was replaced by Rick Adelman and then ever since then he’s been the lead color commentator for the NBA on ESPN and obviously he got a whole new Legion of followers because of how funny he was how witty he was and I thought he offered some great Insight but of course I don’t think maybe this era wasn’t his favorite era of basketball but like does every single person that’s covering the game have to be that this era is their favorite I don’t know if that’s needed necessarily I think there is good to have some push back um and just the chemistry between Mark Jackson and Jeff and Gundy but here’s the thing teams were trying to poach him for many many years this past season he worked as a consultant for the Celtics so ended up getting a ring but he kind of I guess served in the Jerry West role but now June 18th 2024 the Clippers have hired Van Gundy to not just be on the on the coaching staff serve as lead assistant under tyo lead assistant so he’s gonna have a big role in our coaching staff now how much does an assistant coach move the needle I don’t think very much however NBA players always say they talk more to the assistant coaches than the actual head coaches so we’ll see what kind of tactical influence he can have he definitely has passion and this is the first time he’s going to be actually working on a coaching staff in many years but what’s shocking to me is that van Gund is not taking a head coaching job but that tells you what kind of respect or what kind of relationship he and tyo must have because the article by W says that his relationship with Lou and the franchise’s fondness for Van Gundy played major parts in the Clipper’s ability to land him so that has to be maybe he’s friends with tyou I’m sorry with Lawrence Frank tyo but he has good relationships with someone in our building and so to have Jeff Van Gundy I’m super excited because I’m a fan of his for his commentary and all that so what kind of differences can he make though what can assistant what can an assistant coach truly do we’re going to be talking about that coming up I got to tell you a little something about FanDuel America’s number one sports book right now you can place bets on FanDuel for baseball and WNBA and more summertime means baseball and you can bet it all on FanDuel right now new customers get $200 in bonus Bets with any winning $5 bet that’s 200 bucks you can use to bet everything from the finals MVP to who’s going to hit one out of the park visit fanduel.com lockon and add a big win to your summer bucket list FanDuel America’s number one sports book all right the news coming out of Los Angeles on Tuesday is that Jeff Van Gundy is joining Ty and your LA Clippers coaching staff as the lead assistant the right-and man baby and it’s going to be a great rule for Jeff who of course is overqualified and let’s talk about the potential differences he can make now I the only experience I have about coaching is I coach at a youth level right I’ve been an assistant coach I’ve been a head coach and I absolutely think assistant coaches matter your coaching staff absolutely matters when it comes to schemes when it comes to relationships with the players and just being able to give you what you need as a head coach if you have a guy that like you want to go to for defensive things a guy that you want to go through for your substitutions and your rotations that’s really good about that stuff all these things it’s great to have people the right people alongside you now Jeff Van Gundy has a fire to him as you can tell from listening to him talk listening to him commentate being a head coach in the league so what kind of differences can he make well he’s he’s goingon to get mad at our players for flopping we don’t really have that many floppers like that oh my God what am I saying we have we do have Norman pal and James Harden now but when I think of Kawai Paulo George I don’t think they flop at all really I mean Kawai definitely sometimes exaggerates contact whenever he gets any contact he’ll go hey so that’s pretty funny Paul George sometimes doesn’t exaggerate contact enough but there are also times when he goes to the rim and he’s looking for a foul more so than the contact anyway I don’t think that’s going to be a thing where jeffan Gundy stops our players from their their own Tendencies but I think he’ll add a seriousness to the locker room I think not saying that there was an unserious this past season we had a great regular season our team just kind of got fatigued but I think he will add to that seriousness is my point now in terms of schemes if I had to make a prediction I don’t think we’re going to see anything too crazy because of Jeff Van Gundy that’s just my prediction I don’t think an assistant coach moves the needle like that I think the players move the needle new additions people that are actually on the court not on the sideline do I think coaching matters AB absolutely and that includes assistant coaching but it’s not like a player the Clippers are not going to you know take the next step because jet van gundy’s an assistant coach they’re going to take the next step if Kawhi Leonard can be healthy and we get a younger roster or get a better roster I should say younger obviously was what we want to lean towards but just better you know but Jeff Van Gundy to me Mor of the story I don’t think it’s a needle mover it’s an assistant coach but I think it’s great and here’s the thing even if he did move the needle we probably wouldn’t be to tell outside of just hearing quotes from players and staff you know no one actually knows unless you’re in the building what kind of impact an assisant coach can have and as I mentioned in the first segment the players themselves they say that they talk to assistant coaches oftentimes more than the head coach so the into a dome era will begin with Jeff Van Gundy on the Clippers coaching staff now I did mention that jet van gundy’s best finish as a coach was that 99 Knicks team where they made it to the finals as an eight seed coached a couple of really solid Knicks teams towards the end of that decade and then that had a lot of toughness and then he became the Rockets coach and they never could get out of the first round they lost that 05 series to the Dallas Mavericks they lost that 07 series to the Jazz but let me tell you this and I did a little research before getting on this episode Jeff Van Gundy has coached 10 NBA Seasons 10 and a half because he was he took over Midway to the 96 season but let’s just say the 10 full seasons he coached he has never coached a team that was below top eight in defensive rating never now I know that’s largely Personnel based but I don’t think that’s a coincidence because if you look at that Houston Rockets team in 2007 they had like Ray for Alon Yao Ming Tracy McGrady like those guys are not known as like some great Defenders Of course Yao Ming is a presence under the basket but you know that is not a crazy defensive roster now they did have the Chuck Hayes of the world Shane bad although Shane Bader he might have still been in Memphis then he might have been in Houston I don’t remember exactly what year Shane Bader went to Houston but the point is Jeff Van Gundy every single one of his rosters has been top eight in defensive rating and seven of the 10 were top five so that tells you what kind of basketball lens he probably had which is great cuz this year the Clippers defensive rating was what 16th in the league let me just double check I think it was 16 but I haven’t looked at it in a while but we weren’t a very good defensive team we were very mediocre in that department and of course when we did trade some wings with size for James Harden we weren’t going in a defensive Direction yeah we were 17th last year in defensive rating previous year 18th in 2022 we were eighth and we had Paul George missing 51 games and kawii Leonard missing every single game so we went from three straight years in the top 10 to yeah bottom half of the league so hopefully Jeff Vanoni that’s the biggest thing I’m G to be looking at can he help our defense get better can maybe he be a tactical mind defensively although like there’s no schemes that people haven’t really seen it’s all about Personnel but will he challenge certain guys defensively that’s another thing will he be holding guys accountable and telling Paul George you know dude like you need to be more aggressive get in the post will you be telling James Harden stop pounding the ball so much move the ball quicker push the pace a little bit more be more engaged defensively is he going to be saying all that stuff is he going to be holding guys accountable what kind of relationship he’s going to have with these players even though he hasn’t coached since 2007 it’s been a while the league has changed this is the player empowerment era dudes are a little more sensitive that old school style of coaching of being very tough and can be frowned upon so like Tom tiido is like The Last of a Dying Breed I’m not saying van gundy’s like that but he definitely has an old school mindset which I obviously love and even though I’m 25 I just the 2000s in this era are just so drastically different the league is so drastically different feels like I I’ve lived you know I’ve been an NBA fan longer than I have because it’s just such a different league but I’m hoping that we there’s there’s no secret that the Clippers could use some more accountability in the locker room some more holding these Stars accountable in particular Paul George so hopefully Jeff Van Gundy I’m hoping can hold the guys accountable and of course be more of a defensive mind but coming up going to be talking about what the Dallas Mavericks losing in the finals means for the clippers because yes we did lose to the Dallas Mavericks G 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 championships 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 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and stuff like that but just briefly to talk about it because that’s going to be looking at more like how can we be more like this the Celtics how can we be more like a championship team this is talking about how far we really were from it the Dallas Mavericks went to the finals and we lost to them in six we had the series tied 2 two without our best player at 100% for the whole series played two games and was a shell of himself we decided to sit him out cu it wasn’t worth it that is not the LA Clippers of the regular season this LA Clipper team developed their identity due to the play of kawh Leonard the 68 games that he was healthy that’s where we became one of the best teams in the league that’s where we got the number one seed through what was it 47 games or something um that Kawai is our guy you can’t judge the Clippers and actuality without Kawai I mean you can just say that they’re never healthy that’s true you can say that you should anticipate him being injured that’s true but you really want to talk about what the team could be what the team’s roster construction is it’s built around a healthy Kawai you don’t build a team around your first you know actually well I I was going to say you don’t build your team around your best player being injured but one of the main reasons we got James Harden straight from Jerry West mouth was the injury insurance so that’s one issue right we’re building the team in anticipation of our best player being hurt a lot and that’s never a good thing when you’re building a team an anticipation of your best player being hurt but I will say this I do after this has all been done the playoffs after it’s all over now I do think we would have beaten Dallas and I know it means nothing to say that but I just think when you look at running it back next season and that’s what the Clippers are inevitably going to do you got to look at what was this team’s potential stealing without kawhai do I think it was a championship team this season absolutely not I do not I think we were too slow too old not good enough defensively and Kawhi Paul George and James Harden just did not get to the rim enough but I will tell you this we didn’t get enough easy baskets but I will tell you this I think we would have beaten Dallas and Dallas made it to the championship why do I think we would have beaten Dallas we took him to six games and kawh Leonard’s Health actively or kawh Leonard’s availability actively hurt our team but if you want to have an honest conversation and MAV fans a lot of them were not willing to have that with us about kawhai that was not the real kawhai let’s say we go into the playoffs with Kawai fully healthy playoff Kawai even if Luca outplays him or even if like look if Luca played the exact same way that he did against us like that if Kawai was healthy they would have definitely Lost the series but let’s just give the Mavericks the benefit of the doubt and say Luca was not 100% Luca plays as well as he did against Minnesota against us even with that I think if we had a healthy Kawai we win we have three stars so they’re two their whole thing this postseason and it finally came back to bite them was if your team had two shot creators they could take you they could put Derrick Jones and PJ Washington on Harden and Paul they could put Derrick Jones and PJ Washington on Jay dub and SGA however Kyrie Irving guarded J dub a lot the question would have been could Kyrie Irving have because Kyrie Irving still guarded James Harden that’s the crazy part he still guarded James Harden a lot but at times Harden saw PJ Washington and actually he had an easier time getting by PJ Washington than James uh than Kyrie Irving funny enough but Mor or little story I think we would have beaten Dallas I think we had three stars in more depth than they did but would we have beaten Oklahoma City you might think yes we’re more experienced we should but we had trouble with them this season their youth their athleticism we didn’t have what Dallas had we didn’t we would have had to beat Dallas on the fact that we had three stars and they had two and we probably had a better Supporting Cast but OKC let’s just say we beat OKC out of experience I don’t think we would have beaten Minnesota and even if we did did that I don’t think we would have beaten Boston I know we beat them in Boston but the fact of the matter is the Clippers you can make an argument that maybe next year they go to the finals but how far are they from winning the championship and here’s the thing you can’t just say well we would have beaten Dallas without Kawai and Dallas made to the final so we’re really not that far off that’s crazy talk to me because the Clippers are always injured when it counts with this two on3 era even before this two3 era so it’s very hard for me to say that the Clippers can get any positives out of Dallas losing I think if anything Dallas winning would have been like man we’re really not that far off because if we had had a healthy kawhai maybe Dallas would have never gotten there but the one thing I learned about this postseason is you can’t evaluate things like that Styles make fights and Dallas was a great matchup for Minnesota because they exposed Rudy go Baron drop coverage that well I would say exposed Rudy go Baron drop coverage but you couldn’t really play effective drop coverage against Dallas right Luca was carving them apart they were getting those lobs to Derrik lley and Daniel Gafford which they were doing against us as well the answer to beating Dallas was having switch everything personnel which was what the Celtics had and the Clippers just don’t have they switch one through four like the Mavericks do then they’ll play Drop coverage with zoo or their big whatever they’re doing so the Clippers they’re not going to build their team around trying to beat Dallas next year that would be you know just not necessary it’s going to be about how can we be like Boston especially because Boston has a very similar core that’s heading the that’s the head of the snake for them in their two Wings than the Clippers very similar so that’s going to be tomorrow’s episode is how the Boston Celtics winning the championship affects the Clippers and what they did that we couldn’t do that’s going to be a good episode but the mor of the story Jeff Van Gundy is a clipper now he is on the coaching staff he’s the lead assistant how much of a difference will he make I like the defensive records top five seven out of 10 years in defensive ratings as a head coach hopefully he’ll bring some of that and some accountability to our locker room and then Dallas the Dallas Mavericks have lost they have not won the championship the winner of the West has not won the championship the one team that we thought in the in the East was a serious Contender has won it and that’s the Boston Celtics you can follow me on Twitter and Instagram at Dime dropper pod subscribe to my own YouTube channel dime dropper for even more LA Clipper LA Sports and NBA content and WNBA content and copaa content throughout the summer and lock on Clippers is free and available wherever you get your podcast hit the notification Bell so you know every single time we post a video give us a festar review on Apple podcast follow us on Spotify and wherever you get your podcast and of course subscribe to the YouTube yoube channel for all things LA Clippers All Summer Long the age-old proverb continues go Clippers and we’re flying back from Cancun to Los Angeles next episode have a good one go Clips always go clips

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