How Derrick Jones Jr. Massively Helps The LA Clippers

How Derrick Jones Jr. Massively Helps The LA Clippers

on today’s special Fourth of July episode the Clippers have signed Derek Jones Junior one of our adversaries this postseason with the Dallas Mavericks clamped Paul George and now he is signed to the LA Clippers on a three-year $30 million deal what do we know about Derek Jones how does it help the Clippers and what holds does he fill going to be talking about it all and more on today’s lock time off season 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 in the off seon between my 19th and 20th season as a Clipper fan you can also follow me on Twitter and Instagram at di dropper pod make sure you subscribe to my own YouTube channel dime dropper for even more LA Sports LA Clipper and NBA content and locked on Clippers is free and available wherever you get your podcast including YouTube let me know in the comments what do you think of the Derek Jones Jr signing I expect based on the way the comment section of the locked on Clippers listeners sees basketball I think we’ll all be very excited about this you should be excited about this and before we talk about Derek Jones Jr this episode is brought to you by game time game time is the best place to get great deals last minute deals on tickets for any event all you got to do is download the game time app create an account and use code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase so this feels good you know we are still mourning 213 not really I’m not at least but it is the end of an era and it’s a first for me in the content creating side of my Clipper fandom that era of my Clipper fandom the dime dropper locked on era is the first time I’m talking about a Clipper team that doesn’t have Paul George on it so adjusting to this new era of the int Dome and kawi Leonard and now kawhai and James Harden are the only two stars that we have we need to retool the roster right we have some money left over with that we can use the taxpayer mid-level exception and this is one of the ways we have used it and it is by signing Derek Jones Jr immediately to a three-year $30 million deal this was announced a couple of days ago I want to say on Sunday and man July 1st is when the official article came out but uh from ESPN about Derrik Jones signing that three-year deal but man I was pretty stoked when I saw this and I’m not particularly sure at all the reasons why Dallas couldn’t sign him obviously Dallas went for a bigger fish and Klay Thompson and then they got Nai Marshall from the New Orleans Pelicans to kind of supplement that defensive loss and uh per se but let’s talk about what Derek Jones Jr brings to the table this is a guy who you know when he first came in the league he was a relatively unknown commodity he played for the Phoenix Suns to start his career didn’t really play much that first year second year he got moved to Miami didn’t really play much the second year but the one thing that people knew about Derek Jones Jr he could jump he’s got crazy bounce and that’s something that we know even more now we obviously got to see him in some Dunk Contest pretty sure he won the 2020 Dunk Contest let me just double check that cuz my if my memory serves me correctly he won the 2020 dunk contest but why is that significance why does a dunk contest matter for the Clippers well because we’ve we talked about all season long yeah it was Derek Jones we talked about it all season long what do the Clippers lack size and athleticism now while Derrick Jones is only 6’5 he looks about 6′ 7 because of his wingspan the guy’s got long arms but the fact that he can jump out the gym that gives us something that we haven’t had in the 213 era that gives us something that we haven’t had La that we didn’t have last year he adds to our athleticism by a lot cuz he’s legitimately one of the most springy players in the league now James Harden has another lob threat for those Baseline Cuts we have another Outlet in transition that is somebody that can get out and run is just an athlete in the open floor I mean when we talk about checking off the boxes that this Clipper team lacked last season and athleticism being one of the main ones Derek Jones Jr completely directly addresses that so that’s fantastic not to mention the obvious elephant in the room that hasn’t been addressed he literally locked up Paul George and we I admitted it when he was on the team Derek Jones Jr is a very solid Defender now I’m going to talk a little bit more about you know this the other the specific Avenues in which Derrick Jones helps us in the next segment but just to continue talking about the journey that he’s been on you know this is a guy who he kind of found his place in Miami that’s where he’s been where he was the longest in 2019 he became a regular part of the rotation for them but that team didn’t make the playoffs he averaged 19 minutes a game and averaged seven points and four boards Off the Bench he did start 14 games but he played in 60 so that season the heat didn’t make the playoffs that was Dwayne Wade’s farewell season he started to break out into the rotation as a regular NBA player there then the following season is the bubble season where he missed he didn’t play in 13 games but he started in 16 and played in 59 out of 72 games and that’s when I remember although in the playoffs he literally he played 15 games but he played such spot minutes just six and a half minutes per game so it wasn’t really a huge role for him mind you this is when he’s 20 2 years old and he’s playing for the Miami Heat he’s playing for a regular season team that ended up getting the five seed and you know ended up making it to the finals in the bubble not saying he had a huge role in that but he was on that team he was on a team that made the championship twice in the NBA and I will say this about that 2020 team that’s when I first started noticing Derrick Jones as like okay by the way he was undrafted so this is a guy who’s really made a great career out of himself for an undrafted player but I remember being impressed with him in 2020 I was like oh okay so drick Jones is turning into a solid player you know he’s got his athleticism uh he shoots well from the field because he gets easy baskets and he can guard a bit that 2020 season he averaged eight and a half points and four rebounds but then he got a move to Portland and he was actually a regular starter there for the first time in his career played 58 games out of 72 in the 2021 season started 43 games and averaged seven points and three and a half rebounds so very similar stats to 2020 but at at that point you’re probably thinking he’s not a starter on in the NBA he’s a bench player the next two years 2021 22 and 2223 he spends with the Chicago Bulls and with the Chicago Bulls he was a bench player played 51 games in 2022 that was a very solid Bulls team and then in 2023 played 64 games for a team that lost in the second playing game to the Miami Heat he averaged Five Points and two rebounds that year on 50% shooting and 34% from three now at this point you know the first seven years of Derrik Jones Jr’s career you think okay he’s a bench player in the NBA he’s athletic you know he can be in the dunker spot and get lobs but he’s not really a good spacer you know at that point these These are three-o percentages 27% his rookie year oh man 177% his sophomore year 31% his third year 28 his is fourth 32 is fifth 33 is 6th and then he shot a career-high 34 in 2023 but now we get to last season and this is by far Derrik Jones Jr’s like real coming out party is showing everybody that he’s a not just an NBA player and not just a starter a good NBA player a solid role player and you got to give credit to LCA donic and Kyrie Irving they obviously make him look good they give him open shots more than he’s ever gotten but what really was amazing about Derek Jones this year is that he earned that starting role 66 games started out of 82 76 games played out of 82 so the first thing that St sticks out there is the last two seasons he’s missed 18 games and six games that is absolutely something we need we need somebody that’s available 76 games you’ll love you love to hear that the thing about Derek and now I can just call him Derek is that this past season he solidified his place in that starting lineup for what ended up being a finals team so yeah PJ Washington and Daniel Gafford came and added to that defensive prowess but he was really one of the only good Defenders on the team before that trade you know he’s got the length he’s got the size he’s solid laterally the main thing is he just he has the bounce obviously but he does not come off a 6’5 he’s got those long arms that make him look like he’s 6’7 and his foot speed is pretty good now granted is he a lock down Defender is he a guy that’s you know one of the best perimeter defenders in the league no I’m not going to say that but he was literally the best perimeter Defender arguably either him or PJ Washington he would take the guards for a team that made it to the finals so that’s better than anything we have but coming up I’m going to be talking in oh let me say his numbers for the season last year nine points which is career high on 48% from the field and a career high 34.3% from three so it’s still not very good from three you compare to guys like Amir coffee teren man Norman pow kawhai and even last year Paul George and even Nicholas patum who we’ll talk about in a future episode this week it’s not great but what he does give you is stuff that other guys didn’t athleticism a lob threat a transition threat a point of attack Defender and coming up we’re going to talk even more about the holes that he fills I got to tell you a little something about game time game time is the best place to get great deals on last minute tickets all the way up to the start of the event all you got to do is go to game time but here’s the thing with killer last minute deals all in prices views from your seat and their lowest price guarantee game time takes the guesswork out of buying MLB tickets save up to 60% off buying last minute for sports concerts comedy and theater save even more when you choose a section and let game time choose the seats with Zone deals take the guesswork out of buying MLB tickets with Game Time download the game time app create an account and use code locked on MBA for $20 off your first purchase terms apply again create an account and redeem code l c k e d o n NBA for $20 off download game time today last minute tickets lowest price guaranteed all right back talking about the newest Clipper Derek Jones Jr who at last year averaged nine points a game to go along with three rebounds so let me just say this the three rebounds thing you would like to see that number go up this season now granted that lets you know that he is not the answer to our four problems and I don’t mean four separate problems I mean our power forward problems we don’t have that guy we want to ideally move Kawhi Leonard back to the three to just have more size out there and make him have less low man responsibilities around the basket so that would mean that one of either Terrence or Derek Jones would have to go to the bench and to be honest I’m starting to lean towards Terren going to the bench and playing with a more fast-paced second unit that’s going to be led by B Highland in my opinion most likely I would hope cuz it’s like it’s about time we give that dude a chance and we’re going to talk about Chris Dunn in a few days as well about how he could potentially help but bones like it’s very clear that Terren can play in a halfcourt base system but he prefers to get out and run and I don’t think James personally as good as James Harden is and how as good as he is at creating shots I don’t think teren man is like the perfect role player for Harden to play with I think man was a lot better built to play with someone like Westbrook or somebody like bones Highland to get out and run I just think that his three-point shooting is still what’s a little what is a little wishy-washy even though you know he found his form shooting the ball in the second half of the season last year I think Terren having so many just stand still catch and shoot threes he like oddly gets in his own head and then sometimes he passes them up I think he’d be better at coming off the bench but I’m not opposed to seeing him start if that’s what it comes down to I just think that Derrik Jones at this point after this past season has proven more as a role player in the league like yeah he doesn’t have a one signature game like Terence Mann does in the playoffs but he was a starter on a finals team and whether you want to say he was the worst starter of the five which you I would say Gafford was because Gafford legitimately not to say Gafford was bad at all but he got outplayed by Derrik Lively Derrick Jones Jr guarded Paul George he guarded SGA he guarded Anthony Edwards and he guarded J Jason Tatum he guarded of the best player in every series and he won three of them he was if you don’t like the wording of that he was on the team that won three of them and he was a huge part of it now we can just look at it each individually I would I I did not ignore the finals he didn’t have a good finals so there are some questions about is Derek Jones Jr a starter on a championship team because he didn’t play well in the championship he had what like six points a game in the finals let let me look at the stats right now six points points a game in the finals which is seven points technically which is one point lower than his average three rebounds on 43% shooting and 25 from three three for 12 from three so those are all the threes he got and it’s crazy because they had five games played but he only got 12 threes off which is only one more than Josh Green who came off the bench and played a total of 19 less full minutes which tells you that the Celtics I mean they I mean if you wanted to go listen to my Celtics Mavs breakdown you can go to my personal Channel but they didn’t concede a lot of open threes they made Luca and Kyrie play one-on-one a lot and because their point of attack defense was so good they didn’t even have to overh help but the thing about Derek Jones is he just didn’t play well in the finals the pressure was on he got some looks didn’t make them and defensively Jaylen Brown and Jason Tatum if I’m just being candid they got whatever they wanted for the most part so do I think der Jones Jr is a stter on a championship team I don’t know I still have some doubts about that can he help the Clippers and be a starter on the Clippers next year absolutely can he be the best point of attack defender on a championship team now that’s the question right because I said all season long and I’m the biggest Terren Man Fan around that I don’t think Terren man can be the best point of attack defender on a championship team I think he has to be one of your guys kawii Leonard used to be the guy that was the best point of attack defender on his team but now he’s not asked to do those things and shouldn’t be doing those things because of the wear and tear of Superstar and his offensive responsibility Derek Jones Jr is closer to being the best point of attack run a championship team than Terence man but just judging by the finals I just don’t know if he is I just don’t know if he can be but I’ll tell you what he gets us closer to that and I’m not totally saying he can’t be I know for a fact that Terence Mann can’t be the best point of attack defender on a championship team and I’m not just using the fact that he hasn’t want to ring it as evidence that’s just my eye test and seeing like let’s let’s do we you can do this exercise if you want let’s go back and look at who the best perimeter point of attack point of attack just essentially means perimeter to me I don’t know why if if you think I’m getting too technical with some of these terms please say that in the comments I’ll simplify it all day long you know I’m not going to sit up there like JJ reick uh in the broadcast I remember some people were saying like he’s talking about Hammer screens and double drags and stuff like that it’s like where’s Mark Jackson just with Can I Have This Dance oh by the way how weird is it that former Clipper JJ reic is now the co across the hall oh there’s not there’s none across the hall any uh anymore actually you know across the freeway down the freeway so over in downtown so yeah I don’t know that’s weird I hope they do horrible but anyway the point is point of attack just means perimeter like you know guarding screen navigation all that stuff right getting over screens drick Jones is pretty damn good getting over screens so that’s awesome much better than teren man in that regard and I’ll tell you what I love about Derrick Jones that stood out to me having watched every single one of the MS playoff games his ability to rotate and make up ground and seemingly go from the corner all the way to the basket in a split second is amazing it’s something we just didn’t have outside of like kawhai he’s so long he can jump so far and so high and he just makes up that ground quickly and I think the Dallas Mavericks had the best help defense of any team in the playoffs and it’s largely because of Derrick Jones’s ability to help and recover like Terren man Derek Jones and Kawai all in the court together is going to be and Nico one of that like combination like now we’re getting back to potentially going small again which is what Tao’s always wanted to do so like a lineup of like Harden Norm Kawai Derek and nicoo oh we’re cooking with a little gas just need Kawai healthy just cooking a little gas just saying just saying this team might not be as bad as people think and Jerick Jones ability is gonna be able to scramble on defense is gonna be amazing I cannot wait to talk about hell man did you guys see Derrik Jones Jr’s Closeouts tonight oh it’s GNA be great I like Isn’t it nice to have me so excited about a signing again like it just feels like since I’ve been host there’s just been a lot of stuff I’m not happy about but this is I’m ecstatic about and $10 million each year for three years I mean that’s a good deal that’s a good deal to me the question mark is the three-point shooting obviously that’s the that’s the big question mark but that’s not an area that we’ve really lacked you know last year it wasn’t as good it wasn’t but we were still one of the best three-point shooting teams in the league we need more point of attack Defenders and athleticism and that’s exactly what Derrik Jones brings to the table oh yeah before I end the segment the the the exercise right I mean look at the point of attack Defenders that have won titles and how the level that they are at defensively this season Drew holiday and Derek White he doesn’t get much better last season kcp and Aaron Gordon and Bruce Brown and Christian Brown I mean that’s a quartet of guys that can guard but kcp and a Aaron Gordon are like as good as it gets this previous 2022 season it was mainly Andrew Wiggins but Andrew Wiggins totally clamped up Tatum in the finals like Andrew Wiggins was and Andrew Wiggins did a great job on Luca too so like Derrik Jones and Terren are not Andrew Wiggins in 2022 2021 I mean take your pick Drew holiday Chris Middleton was still good defensively and then Giannis but it’s mainly it was mainly Drew holiday and then 2020 Lakers had a plethora of guys Caruso kcp they had Avery Bradley in the regular season but then in the playoffs I mean LeBron LeBron and Anthony Davis too and that was when LeBron was fully engaged rotating hard like Harden Westbrook fans remember LeBron against Houston defensively was a demon on the low block so I mean I’m just going to keep going why not because I’m not finding anybody that’s Derek Jones or Terrence level everybody’s better 2019 Raptors kawwai Danny Green what’s who am I forgetting Pascal even Lowry’s a good Defender so like you just have a bunch of guys Fred Van vet can guard so they didn’t necessarily have the one guy but like when Kawai needed to guard Giannis he did that see how the length that that team had we don’t have that 2018 Warriors is Klay Thompson Andre guadala like you go to the Warriors teams they have and Andre guala they have Draymond Green on the backline they have Kevin Durant Klay Thompson before he got hurt was a good Defender so you literally I mean I don’t even know how far I have to go back I think the the the best example is going back to the 2016 Cavs if we’re being real they didn’t really have a crazy point of attack guy it was they had who was even gu was Kyrie Irving really guarding Steph Curry looking back like wow like how did that not get exposed more I got to go back and watch that series but like since 2016 so essentially the last seven years where the NBA’s really changed though because the thing about 2016 and prior is you kind of guarded your position that was kind of that’s it was positional basketball now it’s a little bit more all over the place so you need elite point of attack guys and we’re we’ve improved in that category with Derrick Jones I just don’t know if he’s that guy but we’re so we shouldn’t be talking about title until we see kawhai healthy for a series I’m sorry it’s just about being as good as last year potentially and Derrick Jones gets us closer to that but coming up let’s talk about the draft I haven’t talked about that the Clippers made one selection and then picked up someone else going to talk about both of the players cam Christie and Trenton flowers coming up all right so to finish off the show let’s talk about the draft picks or the draft pick that we made and the Clippers took someone that isn’t too foreign for angelinos and that is because he is the brother the younger brother of Laker Max Christie cam Christie he looks exactly like Max he’s only 18 years old he turns 19 and 20 days if you’re listening to this on the 4th of July in 20 days he’s going to turn 19 he’s 65 got solid length just like his brother and he was picked 46th by us out of Minnesota now here’s the thing about cam Christie right he’s a oneand done so clearly the potential was seen and he got drafted after one year of college um here’s the thing I can’t lie and sit here and say that I watched the Minnesota Gophers play basketball that much last season season but I’ll tell you this my one of the guys that I did PA announcing well I don’t get the PA announc men’s basketball games at Pepperdine but Mike Mitchell Jr one of the starting point guard the starting point guard for Pepperdine in 2023 who I got to see play a lot transferred to Minnesota and played with Cam Christie and they made it to the NIT so they weren’t bad at all and he was the he was an all big 10 freshman like so he had a solid season he was second on the team in points he averaged 11 a game and he hit 73s let me just pull up his stats for the season so man it’s showing me game by game stuff oh here we go 40% from the field and from three he shot 39% and the majority of his shots were threes so that’s a really solid percentage 39% from three hopefully that translates of course the NBA three-point line is a little bit longer but from what I saw in the highlights 3 and D kind of guy like his brother not really a Creator but looks like he has a little more bounce so I’m encouraged by that you know three and D kind of guy Max Christie can defend I we’ll see how he does defensively but I still don’t think he’s a guy that is going to get minutes playing alongside kawii Leonard and James Harden this season but he’s worth a shot and he’ll probably spend a good amount of time in San Diego with our San Diego Clippers remember we are not the Ontario Clippers anymore we are San Diego now just like the good old days um actually it’s not good old days cuz not LA Clippers in I’m an LA Clipper fan if they were in San Diego I’d been a Laker fan so cam Christie I like it I like it I mean I like Max Christie so hopefully cam Christie will be good too now the other player we selected a little bit more of a curious tale Trenton flowers he was going to go to Louisville right and by the way he’s young too just 19 years old from Baltimore Maryland 67 with length listed as a wing shooting guard small forward he was going to he went to Sierra Canyon by the way so he ended up graduating from here actually I don’t know it says he went to somewhere called combine Academy after but he was going to go to Louisville and then he decommitted and then went to went to play in the NBL just like lamelo ball did the the league in Australia the national basketball league and he played for the Adelaide 36ers and I saw that he struggled with injuries throughout the season but at first he was going to be the starting point guard for the team but then and and from the highlights I saw he doesn’t look like a point guard at all he looks like a wing and uh according to his Wikipedia they demoted him to a wing from a point guard I shouldn’t say demoted but moved him from a point guard to a wing and you know he made his debut Off the Bench and became a starter yet again when they got a new coach in December but then he injured his knee in January and was kind of out of the rotation then he had a neck strain so he struggled with some injuries he only appeared in 18 games and he averaged five points but when you watch his highlights and there is like a a compilation that I watched five minutes of Trenton flowers as best plays in that season in the NBL you hear the commentator saying the future star Trenton flowers so I mean that’s that’s good to hear he’s going to probably spend a lot of time in San Diego as well but hey we’ll keep an eye on them right again I don’t think those guys are going to play much next season it’ll be interesting to do an episode on if Kobe Brown and Jordan Miller will get Run next season but I still haven’t talked about Brandon Boston either God we got to talk about that soon but man where do I go with the next episode I’d say Nico Batum right we all want to hear about Nico um but anyway 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 and LA Sports and NBA content throughout the summer and lock on Clippers is free and available wherever you get your podcast I’m seeing the subscriber count go up we’re almost at 6,000 please let us continue to get there Clipper Nation let’s show everybody what kind of fan base we are how much more of fans we are uh how how many more fans we have that people think and let’s get us to 6K and keep climbing up that NBA ladder the age-old proverb continues go Clippers and have a safe and exciting Fourth of July and you know what’s good to wear on the fourth of July Clipper colors because you know what Clipper colors are the colors of America go Clippers

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