How The LA Clippers Moved To 2-0 In Summer League

How The LA Clippers Moved To 2-0 In Summer League

on today’s show the LA Clippers make it 2 and 0 in summer league what’s been the key to getting off to such a good start who has impressed and do they have a chance to go all the way in this summer league going to be talking about it all on today’s lock on summer league 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 La going into my 20th season as a Clipper fan this fall 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 LA sport an NBA content and lockon Clippers is free and available wherever you get your podcast including YouTube or I want you to let me know who has impressed you most in the summer league so far and do you think the Clippers have a chance to go all the way and of course let me know if you agree or disagree with any of my comments about the players and the stuff that I’m saying and before we get into the Clippers being 2-0 in summer league this episode is brought to you by FanDuel America’s number one sports book head over to fanduel.com and start making the most out of your your summer FanDuel official sports betting partner of Major League Baseball all right so the Clippers winning their second game of the summer league this time against the Brooklyn Nets first game was against the Denver Nuggets going to 2 and 0 they won at 87 to 78 and this time it was a little bit different the first game they were just kind of steadily increasing their lead this one through the first punch never really looked back 31- 18 in favor of the good guys in the first quarter and then two really really lows scoring second and third quarters for both teams a combined score in the second and third quarter Clippers outscoring the Nets 31- 23 so in two quarters remember it is 10-minute quarters in summer league but two quarters combined Clippers scored 31 points Brooklyn scored 23 points so low scoring game in those and then the fourth quarter was kind of an explosion the Nets out scored us 3725 but it was already in the refrigerator as the great chiar would say at that point so the Clippers wning 8778 and one thing that really strikes me about this Clippers summer league team is they’re a switch everything defense one through five you see the bench and Coach Dante Jones who’s taking charge of this summer league team for the Clippers really engaged defensively which is like what he was as a player but everybody’s on their peas and q’s and they’re switching everything and you know what allows that Musa diabate his his ability to move his feet on the perimeter and stay with wings and guards that’s what makes the switch everything defense possible for me of of course you need the smalls to guard The Bigs but there aren’t many guys that are bigs in this summer league that I’m watching that are going to take advantage of mismatches and take advantage of smaller guys so essentially when cam Christie and these other guards are switching on to their bigger guys they’re not really feeding those guys so Musa diabate being able to switch onto the perimeter that’s a huge luxury and it’s made it very hard for teams to Break by the Clippers defense cuz they’re constantly playing one-on-one basketball and ISO basketball and as far as the Clippers I think their int I mean it’s the summer league right so everyone’s intensity is going to be high everyone’s working to try to get a job everyone’s trying to work to get a spot in the league try to get a contract or whatever it may be but in my opinion the guy that’s been spearheading it all Jordan Miller second straight game here in this summer league that the second round pick from last year has been our leading scorer in this one 21 points five rebounds four assists two Steals and just one turnover another 20 plus point game you love to see it you love to see it because last year in the summer league Jordan Miller didn’t show us much he showed us oh maybe he’s like a diet Amir coffee right now he’s looking like hey Amir watch your back I’m trying to get a spot on the bench Off the Bench this season because he is attacking the basket with Reckless abandonment and in a good way he’s going right into the chest every time he’s doing that Euro Step but he’s doing that euro into guys and then hanging in the air nicely to finish off he didn’t shoot super well in this game just four for 12 from the field and just one three-point attempt and it wasn’t a clean look it was a contested three but here is the stat that I love to see as a Clipper fan right now whose team doesn’t get to the line enough Jordan Miller shot 13 for 13 from the foul line 13 for 13 from the foul line he got to the foul line 13 times in a summer league game and made every single free throw and that comes from attacking the Closeouts that comes from getting downhill I like the point he’s trying to prove I’m not scared of anybody I’m going to go right into your chest and we’re going to play contact basketball I love what I’m seeing so far for Jordan from Jordan Miller defensively pretty decent good instincts some deflections but or maybe one deflection but nothing to fully write home about because right now the Clippers are playing a switch everything defense so and it’s summer league so certain guys aren’t really being targeted like that you’re not seeing you know you might see guys not really guard on the ball much throughout a game and when there is switching everything that nullifies a lot of the advantages created in off ball actions too so you’re not really seeing too many defensive mistakes necessarily from Jordan Miller which is a good thing of course so I mean I’m very ecstatic from what I’m seeing from Jordan Miller I think the way things are going I know it’s the summer league you don’t want to take too many make too many conclusions from it if you had air coffee playing in the summer league for example he would probably be destroying so it’s going to be interesting to see if Jordan Miller what kind of contract he’s on this season and if the Clippers will try to feature him in games I mean for me I think he’s earning a spot to at least get a chance now it’s fun because in the first game of the summer league the Clippers shot double digit more shot attempts than the Nuggets but this was an exact opposite the Nets shot 72 shots Clippers shot 60 shots Nets shot 39% Clippers shot 42% Nets shot 10 more threes they shot 32% Clippers shot 36% but here’s the big disparity 177 more free throws for US 20 9 free throw attempts for the Clippers 12 for the Nets we shot 93% from the line and we outrebounded the Nets 3527 and you know I said 12 free throw attempts to the Nets if you haven’t figured it out by now Jordan Miller had more free throws than their entire team in the game so I don’t know it’s the summer league so you’re not going to hear people you know bitching about refs oh the free throw disparity but n Jordan Miller he was constantly aggressive constantly getting downhill and forcing the refs to call stuff and a lot of times they were not playing defense without fouling so really happy with that really happy to see a Clipper youngster a rookie or now he’s going to be a sophomore showing some great signs in the summer league and just showing some great signs in general but coming up going to be talking about the other guys cam Christie mate Kobe Brown how did their game go and who was the best part of the Nets how about a former Clipper 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 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got one shot off in the game it was a wider offensive game for him two points four rebounds one assist on yeah one for one shooting and 17 minutes he was a plus4 though I just again love his defensive activity the thing about Musa is this he is undersized for a five right he’s a little undersized he has a good leaping ability he does block shots he is aggressive he’s physical he’s a very solid perimeter Defender too for a big the thing is right now he’s got no offensive ability no shooting ability so as of now in the NBA he’s a five right he’s a five but he’s undersized and can’t really finish can’t really do anything offensively so what kind of spot does that give you in the NBA like thing about zubats right he’s not a shooter he’s more of a traditional big but he’s seven feet tall Musa diabate is not seven feet tall and I’ve seen and there was a time I think it was against the Jazz last season where either last season or the season before teams were going Musa was playing the five and teams were going right at his chest every single time and as as hard as he was trying to be vertical and all that he’s 610 and I don’t know how much weight he’s put on he was listed at 210 when he came into the league he probably has put on a little bit since then but let’s say’s 610 220 like that’s not going to deter guys at the NBA level at The Rim so unless Musa develops some sort of offensive skills he’s not going to be an NBA player in my opinion not even a backup because like I don’t know how many players in NBA history can be 610 centers and don’t have offensive skills I think he’s got amazing Mobility he’s a great athlete but he’s going to have to do something offensively and I’m still not seeing that Improvement I’m rooting for the kid though let’s talk about cam Christie in this game cam Christie continued to show me what I saw in the first game which was that he has no hesitation pulling the threes and he shot well from three in this game two for four from deep but he was 0 for four from two uh six points just one rebound three steals so I saw some better defensive activity Some solid one-on-one defensive possession so maybe he’s somewhat like Max Christie in that sense that he’s a good on ball Defender the thing about cam is right now he’s still really thin and I saw there were sometimes he was struggling a bit with the physicality when he was switching onto those bigger guys as I mentioned earlier we were switching one through five um but that’s normal he’s gonna have to get into the gym keep getting stronger keep putting on muscle but he was okay my main thing with Kim Christie is this he he did some good things defensively but he also you know got blown by a couple times had some Closeouts where he got driven by I think he’s just he’s going to spend time in the G he he might play a little bit of NBA minutes and garbage time but he’s not going to be a part of the rotation this season no he’s not I can tell you that right now I’m very confident in that take Jordan Miller is definitely further along the road and then you still got guys like Amir coffee as of now so I don’t see the place for cam Christie there then there’s Kobe brown right Kobe Brown continues to not show me as much as I would like to see he had 13 points in this game six rebounds two assists four turnovers and fouled out I’m sorry not fouled he had six fouls in summer league there’s even more fouls right look that up real quick summer league foul limit 10 fouls yeah players are allowed to commit 10 fouls before fouling out so Kobe Brown had six fouls he had 13 and six five for seven from the field and two for four from three in 27 minutes so if you look at those stats they sound really good I think Kobe Brown’s defense was pretty good he had one really nice rotation that caused a steal but offensively I still don’t see much to write home about yeah he did shoot two for four from three and it was they were both in the beginning of the game though very early first two shots of the game the Clippers made were Kobe Brown threes and then he was 0 for two from the rest of the game from Deep um I thought you saw some more pick and roll ball handling from Jordan Miller and Kobe Brown in this game but none of neither of them make me say oh yeah they can do that at the NBA level Kobe Brown had a nice drive late in the game in pick and roll but there’s just not much there for me as I mentioned last episode he’s got a solid shot but is it good enough to stay on the floor can he move well enough on the perimeter defensively to stay on the floor I’m actually more confident about that than I am his shot he’s a little stiff he’s not a Creator so again it comes down with kobby when it comes to Kobe Brown it comes down to is he going to make open shots at a level high enough to keep him on an NBA floor because he’s like this he played like the I guess a four a smaller four in college but he’s not really necessarily a four in the NBA although I think for me it’s the offense I think he can play a small ball four in the NBA with a good center around him but he’s still more of the size of a three it’s just the offense speaking of Clippers and young Clipper players the opposing team’s best player in this game was Keon Johnson who we traded for Norman pal and Robert Covington had crazy bounce I remember when he was on the Clippers had 27 points in this game six rebounds two assists and four Steals on 9 for 16 shooting four for eight from three and five for six on the line had a nice pullup at one point on a dime that looked like a little bit awkward honestly but he still got it to go and he showed some good stuff I mean it was H it was good to see Keon Johnson you know dropping some buckets and stuff like that still losing to the Clippers of course it’s always the best part but this is his what third season now fact they’s still in the summer league uh not the best sign but you could say the same thing about Musa actually no Keon Johnson this should be his fourth season yeah cuz he was drafted to us 2021-22 so yeah at the end of the day a solid win for the Clippers overall I think my takeaways are that cam Christie I don’t think he’s going to be playing like real minutes for the Clippers Jordan Miller I think has a chance to potentially give put some pressure on air coffee Kobe Brown I’m really not sure obviously I don’t think PJ Tucker will be involved in things later down the line this season um but is Kobe Brown good enough to take to get into the role because PJ Tucker like last season Kobe Brown was getting minutes and then they were like ah he’s just not quite good enough yet then PJ Tucker you know complained his way into the rotation they gave him the minutes he was awful so is that backup four spot opening up we still don’t really have many options as that with that bigger forward like Derek Jones Jr is still just 66 you know what I mean he’s going to be good to guard wings but as that low man he can be that guy but if it’s just him and Kawai oh we have Nico forgot about him never mind we do have Nico now feels so good anyway coming up going to be talking about can the Clippers win the summer league championship and Russell Westbrook liking a post about Ka Leonard that was really interesting G to be talking about that coming up I got to tell you a little something about FanDuel I love sports I love them so much I never want them to stop but as the playoffs wind down we get fewer games and the sports aren’t sportsing like I want them to but FanDuel lets me keep the sports going whenever I want all I have to do is open the app and dream up bets anytime I’m in the mood and this summer FanDuel 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 so head over to fanduel.com and start making the most out of your summer FanDuel official sports betting partner of Major League Baseball all right so big question can can the Clippers win the summer league maybe that’d be a good uh look would feel good for the players maybe make some of the you know it would mean that some of these younger guys like Jordan Miller Kobe Brown these guys play really well and that might you know give them more of chances on the actual team is there anyone else to talk about that came off the bench of the Clippers I mean Amari Bailey 13 minutes played nine points but that’s really about it anyway now let’s talk about the Russell Westbrook thing so Kendrick Perkins was on first take as he usually is on Tuesday morning and said that the Clippers should look to trade Kawai and of course that’s something we’ve talked about a lot here on lock on Clippers is you know the Clippers got to go a different direction it’s it’s he was saying basically all the things I say all the time like look they it’s they’ve lost Paul George they’re right in the middle it’s the worst place to be this and that the part that Kendrick Perkins is kind of just like not including is that we don’t own our pick this year unless and I’ve mentioned this scenario before unless Houston is worse than us but they’re not they don’t get a top 10 pick because their pick is top 10 protected that they traded to OKC for Westbrook right now or for Chris Paul whatever side it was it was the Westbrook Chris Paul deal OKC yeah for Westbrook so OKC they don’t get Houston’s pick if Houston’s pick is top 10 in which case they would get our pick because we’re not going to be better than OKC next year now if we are better than OKC next year then they’re going to keep their own pick and we keep ours but we’re not going to be better than OKC next year I would bet a lot of money that we’re not unless SGA has like a major injury or something and kawhai doesn’t but all things like if everything goes according to plan Oklahoma City is going to be better than us and then it’s going to be us or Houston the best case scenario is we finish above Houston and they’re not a bottom 10 team in the league so the Rockets get like the 11th or 12th pick in which case OKC would take their pick and then we probably finish like 16th 17th pick you know and we’ll take that I bet you we’re we’ll finish with this roster right now we’re like a playing team so in my opinion maybe a little better if kawhai can be healthy but I don’t trust kawai’s Health at all so so yeah that’s a major thing oh I I forgot about the actual topic at hand so we can’t really trade kaai this year because we’re not GNA be good and then James haren’s gonna be like what am I doing here Russell Westbrook liked the Instagram post that was posted by NBA on ESPN that’s saying Kendrick Perkins thinks kawhai should get traded Westbrook actually liked it it was real it wasn’t fake I I double checked to verify which is Wild is that just Russell westbr liking it on accident is that Westbrook trying to say Yeah man they should get rid of Kawai like their franchise isn’t going anywhere with him because he’s always injured if in which case look it’s a little unprofessional but he knows he’s on his way out so he doesn’t care like I don’t know what their personal relationship is if Russell westbr doesn’t like Kawai for various reasons then there’s clearly something behind the scenes that I don’t know about but I will say this how do I put this nicely a guy like Russell Westbrook who’s like super emotional and super like wears hard s and go 110% all the time with a guy like kawhai Leonard who I’m not saying he doesn’t go 100% when he plays cuz he does but he’s very quiet he’s doesn’t really seem to take responsibility for being the face of a franchise he is often unavailable but I think the main thing is some of those stories we’ve heard about kawhai feeling like he could be above the team like when he first got to the Clippers I know that bothered montre and Paul George I’m sorry montre and Lou willan those guys I know it was partially Paul George as well but Kawai you know having the you know showing up to allegedly showing up to team flights late and stuff like that and then the story about that Paul George and Terence man shared on the podcast where there was a rule that everybody has to run if someone airballs in Kawai was like nah like I don’t know I don’t know what stuff I’m just speculating at this point and then there’s the other incident that people just don’t want to believe which is that Kawai potentially left two games in 2023 without warning just left in our in middle of our playoff push against Memphis and against New Orleans Orleans and PR covered up for him and blamed other factors like the medical staff or that it was a facial contusion in which against New Orleans we didn’t see any mask or any mark on his face or anything like that so if that was the case and kawhai actually left two games in the middle of a playoff run like in the middle of a playoff push I should say and Russell Westbrook doesn’t like him I don’t blame Russell Westbrook one bit but again I’m just speculating on all this stuff at the end of the day it’s like Westbrook can’t come back now I I mean you can’t be talking about or liking stuff about the franchise player on the team it’s just unprofessional it’s not being a good teammate but again I don’t know what kawhai has done behind the scenes to Westbrook I don’t know if Westbrook’s butt hurt because kawhai wanted James Harden and kawhai and Paul George are okay with getting James Harden and didn’t say look we don’t need a point guard we got Russ I don’t know what the story is there all I know is that Westbrook is a very emotional guy very and kawhai is the opposite so I don’t know maybe the Opposites don’t attract who knows but that’s it for in this one y’all let me know what you think of everything you can follow me on Twitter and by the way if you’re wondering why haven’t you done an episode on Westbrook why is Clipper Ten Years Gone to this why it’s looking like he might get waved and there’s no place for him I will be doing one later this week probably or early next week probably this week but I got another Summer League game to talk about I’ve got lawren Franks comments to talk about about clarifying things about Paul George talking about Kawai and how Team USA pulled him not the Clippers that’s a whole deal we need to talk about so the good news is we’re getting tons of offseason content that I can talk about if you’re wondering there’s another Summer League game the Clippers have already played and you’re showing you’re posting this again as I said anytime I get a chance to talk about stuff in the offseason I’m going to take it so I’m going to talk about this one I did an episode on this I’m G talk about the next summer league game on another episode and then we’re also going to talk about the Lawrence Frank comments and then Russell Westberg situation and then Mo bomba we haven’t even talked about him either can follow me on Twitter and Instagram at Diamond dropper pod subscribe to my own YouTube channel diam dropper for even more LA Clipper LA Sports and NBA content and lock on Clippers is free and available ever you get your podcast including YouTube let me know what you think of the episode comment on what you think about the players in the summer league who’s impressed you the most if you think we can win it all and your reaction to Russell Westbrook liking that post about Kawhi Leonard needing to be traded but anyway yeah subscribe to the channel hit the notification Bell so you know every single time we post a video the agel proverb continues go Clippers

Note: This episode was recorded before the 3rd game of LA Clippers Summer League. In this episode, die hard Los Angeles Clippers fan and Host Darian Vaziri breaks down the 2nd game of the teams’ Summer League campaign vs the Brooklyn Nets.

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