How The LA Clippers Lost Paul George

How The LA Clippers Lost Paul George

on today’s show Paul George is officially gone he is going to Philadelphia the contract was insane $212 million and in this episode going to be talking about what led to his departure what the Clippers could have done and trying to look at things from Paul’s perspective where do the Clippers go from there going to be talking about it all on today’s lock down no more 213 Clippers you are locked on Clippers your daily Los Angeles Clippers podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every [Music] 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 Daren vieri born and raised in LA and finished my 19th season as a Clipper fan not too long ago 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 LA Clipper and LA Sports content went live directly after the Paul George news to speak my mind on my channel and locked on Clippers where I also released an episode earlier Monday morning so this will be the second episode released on Monday as I said I’m going to have you covered for all things clippers off season and there were so much news this weekend and I’m just not able to get all the points I want out and isolate each move and talk about them in one episode because it’s only 30 minutes so I’m going to try to just grind out the episodes and just throw them out there for you this week no matter what day it is we’re just going we’re just going we’re going to talk about every move and I’m starting an order of what I feel is the importance of it so this is going to be Paul George and probably the last we’re going to be talking about the specific move of Paul George to Philly we we’ll reflect on his tenure as a Clipper we’ll talk about some of that stuff how we should feel about him as a fan base you know his five years relative to Kawai or maybe even going back to relative to CP3s and looking at that but in terms of the actual move after this this will probably be the last I speak about what how we lost Paul George I mean of course I’m going to make references to it in a bunch of episodes in the future probably for the rest of the time that Kawai is here but it’s not going to be a whole episode dedicated to it and speaking of episodes this one is brought to you by FanDuel America’s number one sports book right now is a great time to bet on things on FanDuel including baseball got the Euro Cup uh going on kopaa so head and the Olympics are coming up soon so head over to fanduel.com loock on and start making the most out of your summer but in this episode as I said it’s about Paul George you know there’s a lot of other Clipper news to talk about Russell Westbrook being shopped you got uh Brandon Boston is no longer on the team we picked up drik Jones J so that stuff is all big news James Harden getting resigned will be the next place that we go by the way because as I said areas levels of importance after Paul George the next Act of business was what’s going to happen with James Harden we brought him back great deal I’ll do an episode on that but let’s talk about it right I released an episode earlier this morning that was recorded before the actual news became official that Paul George was going to be a Philadelphia 76er again I am absolutely shocked about this all I never thought when he signed 5 years ago and demanded a trade here he would want to leave at any point especially when the Clippers gave him everything he wanted they gave him a huge contract after he choked in the bubble and they rewarded him with all his friends the played point guard guard Reggie Jackson John Wall Russell Westbrook even James Harden who he seemed to I guess not want to play with anymore but the money is what spoke and the money is the theme of this first segment why did we lose Paul George we weren’t going to off him that much money and I think every single Clipper fan I really don’t know one Clipper fan that thinks that we should have paid him that much money I mean that contract is absolutely outrageous 4-year Max worth 212 million so Paul George will be getting paid 565 million as a 38-year-old there’s absolutely no way we should have paid that like yes it is is a it is a travesty to lose him for free after everything that we gave up for him it absolutely is and that’s what stings the most and that’s what makes me be really mad at Paul because he made all these promises that ended up being empty promises about what he wanted to accomplish for this franchise what he want what he set out to do I mean it’s a huge disappointment huge and I get it you know it’s hard to ignore that much money if we were paying him say what was it 3 years 150 million I mean man he’s saying no to an extra 62 million there that’s a lot of money so you can’t really knock the guy but you can knock the guy because at the same time we’re Clipper fans and fandom is emotional and you came home and set out something that you were going to win a championship here and here’s the thing I truly and you might think I’m if you’re a Philly fan watching this episode cuz I know there’s going to be some that come around just see what I’m saying look guys I I’m not trying to be harsh I have nothing against the Philadelphia 76ers organization uh one of the best alltime organizations if we talk about the history of basketball but Paul George I don’t think he’s going to win you a championship one I think that’s way too much money to pay him two and three his goal number one was not to win a championship it’s just to make money because yes I actually believe the 76ers have a better chance of winning than the Clippers but here’s the issue their number one option is a huge injury risk just like ours so Paul George went from one team that’s I need my number one option to be healthy to another team that’s I need my number one option to be healthy or it means nothing the safety net the the thing that he really gets some help where he gets some help is Tyrese Maxi and his youth you know as opposed to James Harden that’s huge but that’s really why I’m saying I think they’re closer to a ring because if it was just embiid and Paul George like how much better is that think kawhai and Paul George maybe maybe a little in the playoffs I’m always taking kawhai over embiid uh embiid in the regular season yes is better now but sorry like I I’ll stand on that I think Kawhi Leonard is but it’s not it’s not like I’m anti- embid it’s mainly there I don’t think there are many players in the league that are better than kawhai in the playoffs like I don’t even think Kevin Durant is better than kawhai in the playoffs so at least in recent times since since 2017 since kawhai hit his prime so ultimately ladies and gentlemen it’s sad that we ended up here that we lost Paul George for nothing but would you have run it to pay him that money because here’s the thing if you’re wondering why does Paul George want that fourth year so bad well $62 million ain’t nothing to scoff at but also there’s the over 38 Rule now which is a provision in the NBA’s new collective bargaining agreement that limits teams from offering contracts lasting four or more years to any player who is at least 38 years old or will will turn 38 during the contract so there you go he got the max he had the ability to get it he’s not going to get a better chance than this to get this money 212 million he’s going to leave his family his parents won’t be able to be at every game his second longest tenure with any A Team LA Clippers seven years in Indiana two years in OKC 5 years with the Clippers and as of now it says four years with Philly let’s see how it goes I mean the thing is he’s such an injury risk to to pay that much money as well he just came off a very healthy season though so we’ll see and maybe just the going away from the bad luck of the Clippers will help him in that regard but I don’t know know man that’s a lot of money and I stand by the franchise’s decision not to pay him and again if you’re wondering why it goes back to that new collective bargaining agreement again teams that go above the second apron which we would have been with that contract have no access to any mid-level exception which is what we’re going to be using to supplement the roster now that Paul’s gone I can’t believe I’m saying that now that Paul’s gone in 2024 as your host man we’re going to be heading into the second this is the second offseason I’ve had as a no technically the third offseason I’ve had as a host cuz I did do offseason pods when I first took over so I’m excited man I just just enjoying building the family of clipper fans I know a lot of people aren’t going to rock with me and not love my style not love the fact that I am a solo host I get it I’m not everyone’s cup of tea but those of you that have appreciate you man let’s keep rocking no Paul George the Paul George fans are going to stop listening probably but that’s okay we’re here for the long term man we’re always have been and that’s my goal and that’s that’s what I want to show is like this is for ever for me you know so when I argue with certain people about players I don’t get too married to any one player uh and if I do it’s cuz man they’ve done a lot let’s talk about other things about the new CBA as to why we didn’t pay Paul George that money can’t aggregate contracts and trades can’t send cash in trades so again it’s just limiting you trade-wise can’t acquire players when they sign and trade their own free agents elsewhere can’t acquire players when they sign sign and trade their own free agents elsewhere okay can’t and then this is the one that was the ultimate killer can’t trade a first round pick seven years in the future and that pick falls to the bottom of the first round if a team is over the second apron at least twice in a Four Season span the second apron didn’t exist in the previous CBA this is a new way to prevent teams from this is an article I’m quoting bleach report this from 2022 I believe is it 2022 no 2024 June 29th wow it’s very recent so they because everyone’s going through this now right and it says this is a new way to prevent teams from running up their payrolls in the pursuit of titles the problem I have though is that it limits teams from reigning their own players which with that whole bird rights rule that made it so that you can overpay for your own guys to keep them together and yeah you would go over the luxury tax but like this stuff is just crazy yeah so when what it means aggregation restriction teams over the second apron can’t combine salaries to acquire a bigger contract they have to have like exact matching salaries they can only take back equal or less for any player they send out so yeah apparently if if those rules existed last offseason Boston couldn’t have gone porzingis or holiday according to this article so it’s crazy man we didn’t want to have those restrictions we already don’t have our picks coming up right I’m I really wonder how many teams are going to be over the second apron if it’s multiple teams that are going to fall to like you can’t have multiple 30th picks right so is someone going to get 29 someone going to get 30 or are are no teams going to be above the second apron because of that I think there are going to be teams that are but here’s the thing so we were over the second apron this year if we are over it next year that’s already twice in a Four Season span so that’s why we didn’t want to be involved with that so we’ll see how the clip ERS fill out their roster elsewhere we talked about Derrik Jones putting us at the first apron but again I’ll have more details on that what that means coming up but up next what could we have done to keep Paul George was there anything we could have done G to be talking about that coming up I got to tell you a little something about FanDuel America’s number one sports book I love sports I can’t lie it’s my favorite thing in the world but in the summer things change a little bit you don’t have basketball you don’t have hockey even though I don’t watch that much hockey throughout the regular season I love the Kings though it’s mainly international soccer tournaments if it’s that kind of uh summer and baseball and thankfully this summer we’ve got the Olympics FanDuel this summer is hooking up all customers with a boost or a bonus daily that’s right there’s something for everyone every day all summer long and if you want to play duel on uh play some bets on FanDuel head over to fanduel.com lockon and start making the most out of your summer FanDuel official sports betting partner of Major League Baseball all right back here talking about the departure of Paul George why did he leave well it’s obvious the money why didn’t the Clippers pay him didn’t think he was worth going over that second apron uh for oh and and here’s the thing if Paul George was a more reliable basketball player even when healthy then maybe they would have been willing to do it cuz he has been more available than kawhai even though it’s not as much as people really think he has been more available but when he’s on the court he leaves a lot to be desired and then he goes on his podcast and has these quotes then he flip-flops in what he wants you know he talked about he was being used too much off ball after the bubble then in 2023 he was saying it’s not easy to have drew holiday picking me up full court and you know it would be nice to have a break from that and it’s like the balance I guess we could never find for him we don’t even know if there is a balance for him it’s just when he’s playing well he’s going to say it’s great when he’s not he’s going to make a bunch of excuses that’s what we learned about Paul George in his time and look I’m blessed and honored to have been the host for one of the great Clippers of all time one of the significant Clippers of all time and one of the great you know talented players in the history of the league like he might be a Hall of Famer who knows he has a very good case and I’m happy to have been here and covered them as as much as anyone like I probably was as close to watching this team as anyone you know maybe besides the beat writers themselves so I think I just just a pleasure I just want to say weird moment to say that but let’s just say this what could the Clippers of have done to keep Paul George now first let’s ask the question do they want to keep Paul George yes I think they do why because they are they are committed to Kawhi Leonard and trying to maximize the fact that we the LA Clippers have never had a player like this we have never had a player that’s been the best player on a championship team clear-cut and gotten him in their Prime where they have the ability to potentially get us there with their abilities we’re not just going to give up on him even though a lot of people and that’s very warranted including myself think look it’s hard to believe that this guy’s going to stay healthy we got to move on but we gave up all our picks for Paul George I truly and we’re going into a new stadium so it’s like do you want to open up a new stadium with no stars in a city like La who begs for stars and a franchise like the Clippers who are the second team in LA but again a brand new stadium in a city that breathes basketball I just think it doesn’t matter who’s playing it’s going to be people are going to be interested like it’s been enough years after Co that people aren’t as scared because I remember after right after Co there was a real hesitancy for people to go back to live games like there really was we’ve been in Far Enough removed from that I feel as though that I’m not saying we’re going to sell out every night but I don’t think it’s going to be a crazy attendance issue even if we didn’t have kawhai even if we were rebuilding and I think so many Clipper fans are excited for something new and want you know Kawai Paul George to be gone that they would be excited but I think there is a level of excitement that’s going to be coming up this off this uh summer that we no longer have Paul George in the sense that we changed I don’t know if we’re going to be better right now I don’t think we are going to be better but we have changed we have done something they did stand up for something and stood their ground and didn’t just let Paul George get what he wanted so I believe they wanted to keep him though right but they wanted to keep him under their terms which was you’re not going to get an extra year more than Kawai we’re not going over the LX of the second apron now the question some people are wondering did Paul George get offered a four-year deal that was around the ballpark of 160 million and I just think whether he did or didn’t he was probably like I can get so much more than Philly like that’s a joke like I’m not doing all that so he was very adamant about what he wanted due to what I said in the first segment and the Clippers were adamant that they shouldn’t give him that so the only other explanation is that look the Clippers weren’t going to resigned Paul George this summer the sad part is when we’re looking at a rebuild and stuff like that which I’m looking at further down the line the Clippers seem to not be but in the back of their mind they have to be you got to get something for Paul George a guy you gave up the farm for of course that implied you were getting kawhai as well but you gave up kawhai is making you get basically give up all these things for his star that he wanted his friend I really am curious as to what Kawai thinks of all this if he’s just like okay with it it’s like how badly do you want to win a championship then man because I don’t think this helped your chances if and if it’s on some just like he’s a grown man he’s going to do what he does it’s like okay you guys always people like KD say these things like who are not they’re guys that don’t pull you know what I mean and like again I just think I like guys that do when it comes to Leading your franchise I’m just disappointed we didn’t get anything for Paul George after all that like let’s one thing I left out of the last episode that we need to talk about is the Golden State Warriors negotiations because it’s very clear that Paul George is willing to go to Golden State however there was an article released by Tim kawakami of the athletic who’s a warrior beat writer and from what I know has very good relationships with lb and the Warriors front office saying that the the Warriors offered a package that involved a combination of kaminga Moses Moody a first round pick and I believe Andrew Wiggins or Chris I don’t know if this was before Chris Paul I think Chris Paul was involved as well but those other names I mentioned were in that article and everybody just took it as to combining them all together and saying that was the package Clippers said no to Clippers at front office is a joke you think the Clippers wouldn’t have taken Jonathan kaminga Moses Moody no I think they absolutely would have I believe and another art I think it was his name was Brett seagull reported or tweeted the Clippers weren’t the ones that were saying no to kaminga the Warriors they want to give him up so if you’re not getting kaminga do you just take on Andrew wiggins’s contract which is not great Mo or CP3s for Moses Moody and a first rounder as opposed to maybe having the cap space to get a Derrick Jones Jr who we got it’s not how much worse is it you know if you’re not getting kaminga then it’s not really I don’t think it’s the worst thing in the world that we got lost him for nothing if we’re being real we were kind of stuck let me know what you think of that in the comments though would you have would you have preferred Mo I mean I would have loved a first round pick I can’t lie I would have really loved the first round pick so maybe I would still have taken it but what do you think that’s a question for for you in the in the comment section do you think we should have taken Moses Moody let’s say kaminga wasn’t involved Moses Moody take on a bad contract like cb3 Wiggins and then a first rounder or what we’re doing is like getting Derek Jones we’ll see who else we get but I say we probably will get another role player two will we get a star will we get one of those guys that everyone’s talking about like d Rosen uh Klay Thompson by the time I even released this somebody one of them may be gone uh LaVine I don’t know I don’t know if we’re gonna be able to do that it’s GNA take some moving of salaries like Westbrook or PJ Tucker we need to get rid of PJ Tucker salary that would be a huge W if we can do that but coming up where do we go from here I guess I’m already getting into it but where do we go from here now that Paul George is gone going to be talking about that coming up all right the 2 and3 era has come to an end after five years you know before I do reflection episodes on it all why it went so wrong maybe looking at Paul georg’s resume as a Clipper compared to others this is our episode talking we got to talk about all the stuff this week that’s happening and starting with the most important thing is that Paul George left talked about why he left it’s the money uh winning a championship for the Clippers was not huge on his priority list I don’t think winning a championship period is that high on his priority list what could we have done as I said I don’t think much I think the other alternative was accepting an offer from the Warriors that would have made us take on a bad contract and what’s it called get a first-rounder but I mean what what I would have been curious of is if we’re taking a contract to replace Paul George would we then still be over the second apron I believe we we may have been so that again that’s what what they wanted to avoid in all like in every single way now where do we go from here see I’m team blow it up but they’re not going to do that because they’re entering a new stadium and they want to stay competitive so they pledged their loyalty to Kawai and said you know what no matter what we are going to have Kawai start out the in it dome era and once they saw how they traded once they traded for James Harden I think they basically were like okay we’re going to be willing to pay him unless it goes horrifically wrong and they were they know that James hard is a floor Riser just having James Harden on your team from James Harden’s resume he’s never missed the playoffs he’s literally made the playoffs every year of his career so by definition having James Harden so far has meant playoffs and opening up your new stadium you want to be a playoff team for monetary gains for the business side of things now the question is how invested are cliber fans going to be I think there’s a large section of us that are just over it there just has no point in caring when it’s all about kawai’s health never wanted James Harden and despite how well he did are probably they want to get see us get younger they don’t want the old you know stars but then there’s another section that are going to be supportive of whatever the Clippers do and are going to be very optimistic no matter who’s on our team that are gonna be you know feeling good about the fact that look Paul George he always made excuses he’s going to be out now now it’s kawaiian Harden we’re going to surround him with some good role players and see where we go from there who knows maybe we get a lower third star that’s a downgrade from PG but still solid like the Rosen LaVine or any of those guys I mentioned earlier I just don’t think that’s a championship or a real Contender so that’s why I don’t think it’s special or it gets me that excited I will say it gets me more excited than just it ju than if we were to just run it back with Paul next year it it does get me more excited what do I think is a better team the one with Paul what gets me more excited this team that’s probably worse why would I get more excited for a worst team cuz neither of them are going to win the championship and I want to see some change I want to talk about something different so like if you’re just picking how you lose Why not pick what I like that was my whole thing with James Harden it’s like I never believed we were going to win the championship before and with James Harden I I also don’t believe we’re going to win a championship so why would I root why would I want to you know see a guy who I know is going to make us probably have a better regular season record but I don’t like the way he plays and all that you know I’ve talked about it enough but next episode we’re going to talk about James Harden’s contract and you know what he gained some points for me for signing that contract uh and it was very Team friendly very Team friendly so salute to him on that I think he’s been very good about all the things that he said for the most part as a Clipper and his actions have backed up his words for the most part 90% of it I mean the the only quote that really disappointed me was the there’s no pressure before game six cuz I was like I mean I get it we don’t have Kawai but like guys they you we traded for you we we we’re all in win now team so that just kind of irked me but compared to Paul George I mean Paul George has five years worth of quotes So James Harden will have his first full training camp as a Clipper and I think there’s a chance that he has his best season since I don’t know how much better it could be than 2023 that was a pretty damn good season but maybe his best since preh hamstring I would hope I think he’s averaging 20 and 10 again next year ah maybe not 10 20 points eight assists five boards on 44 37 86 splits see I I don’t want to do all the stat predictions yet because that’ll be in episodes for the coming months but where we go from here right how do we fill out the roster I say with Derek Jones we got somebody that can guard at the point of attack if we can I think that’s fine there we got to obviously replace Mason plumbley who just signed with the Phoenix Suns which again I guess we’ll talk about that in a coming episode not we’re not going to dedicate an episode to that but that’s good we didn’t want plumbley back he was too old too poor defensively so Kai Jones I know a lot of clipper fans have been talking about Kai Jones want to seeing him is he ready to be a backup center on a team that is going to advertise Championship aspirations because that’s what Kawai is you know Kawai still wants to be on a team that is competing for a championship which again I’m wondering how he’s taking this Paul George stuff unless he truly believes that we can still compete without him and not even getting another star or maybe he’s begging for a third guy that can score behind the scenes because the thing is he’s going to load manage this year the Clippers are going to load manage him I don’t have a 100% Source on that but from everything we’ve heard and seen it’s very logical and likely that they’re going to do that I don’t think that’s going to prevent Kawai from being healthy necessarily I think luck will prevent kawhai from being healthy um or kawhai from being injured I think luck good luck that we haven’t had since he’s been here really and he hasn’t had since he’s been here but getting a backup center with some athleticism if they can stretch the floor even better and then a big four that’s what we need if you can I mean drik Jones is still a little too skinny for that and then we could be solid so that’s what I have on this one Paul George is gone he accepted a better contract in Philly you know are we G is he is it addition by subtraction I guess we’ll do another episode dedicated to that we got plenty of time now we got way more offseason material to talk about for me so I can’t get out enough episodes at this point second episode of the day hope you enjoyed it we’re going to probably try to release another one before the end of the night talking about James hard and what his team friendly deal means the age-old prover oh you can follow me on Twitter and Instagram at di dropper pod subscribe to my own YouTube channel dime dropper where I went off how about Paul George and locked on Clippers is free and available wherever you get your podcasts including YouTube Here For the Long Haul baby the ageel uh the ageel proverb continues go Clippers

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