The Los Angeles Clippers Demand to Be Taken Seriously | Group Chat

The Los Angeles Clippers Demand to Be Taken Seriously | Group Chat

Can I can I tell you guys about the most complete contenders in the western conference right now we already talked about one of them the Oklahoma City Thunder one of the only three teams in the west that are top 10 on offense top 10 on defense you mentioned the other

Justin the Denver Nuggets no surprise there we can talk about them in depth but I really want to talk about this third team which is the Los Angeles Clippers M top 10 on offense top 10 on defense winners of 12 of their last 14 games am I crazy are they really pulling

This thing together and a way that will they I mean they’ve demanded our respect they’ve demanded our attention and they look like a really complete team well not just winners of 12 of 14 every time kawhai plays they win and so this is the same old conversation we’ve

Been having they’re 10 and0 I believe in the last 10 games that Qui plays but then he all of a sudden misses I think it was four games or whatever it was under mysterious circumstances no one knows what’s going on and we’re all like oh maybe the season’s over oop wait he’s

Back so as much as I believe again in the Clippers it does not feel good to do so was I think the the thing that’s sort of changed my mind just a little bit about the Clippers is that James Harden is back to being good in isolation um

That’s that’s kind of the ball game for that’s been the ball game for him his whole career is that he’s been this incredible isolation guy uh essentially since he got to the rockets and when he’s been less effective in you know individual playoff series if you know to

Point out just a specific um it’s that he’s not been able to crush people Crush switches or crush his primary matchup in the isolation and right now he’s looking pretty damn good getting downhill he’s getting to the line um this level of James Harden with kawh Leonard

Relatively healthy um and the rest of what they got going on over there is is is something to behold but again it’s you know it’s got to matter against the best teams like can James Harden be an isolation killer I have my doubts but that’s what’s been happening

These past few weeks and they have not been Aces against the best teams in the league against the stronger opponents on their schedule have not been as solid as as you might want even at this stage in the season given the way things started but am I seeing things is James Harden

Actually been okay to pretty good defensively am I am I imagining that because I’m not going to lie I expected him to be just a dead weight burden on defense on this group in a way that it would be hard for them to collectively cover for right there’s no one signature

Joel andb level rim protector behind him to erase mistakes it has to be more of a group effort for the clippers but they’ve been able to triangulate matchups and coverages and I think most importantly Harden’s effort level has actually been pretty good and maybe that’s ultimately the benefit of having

Him in this more modulated facilitating role is not only do you get the more efficient ISO opportunities that W is talking about where he doesn’t have to force the issue as much but he actually has some energy to drive on try on defense and even more important than

That he’s using it to try on defense well I think you hit the point there which is that this team is so deep and has been for so many years that they’re able to mask some of those deficiencies they were able to kind of integrate so seamlessly in part because Harden hit

Another level and I think uh is actually trying which is always helpful but also like you have guys like Norm Powell who would start on half the teams in the league coming off the bench there and and just having him as a guy you could

Play five minutes or 20 is just such a luxury that being so rich quite frankly with Steve Balmer provides and like I’m just marveling at at various points of the depth where it’s like Mason pluming comes back last night doesn’t play because like Daniel Ty has been okay

Enough that they don’t have to play amazing pum Ley a quality backup for a lot of teams in this league and so there’s just like there’s just guys on top of guys and like when you can have Kawai just miss four games and not miss

A a beat there as long as he’s coming back to complete the P picture like this team is is going to be good yeah it feels like a good sign that the biggest hole you could poke in their rotation right now is that maybe their eighth guy

Isn’t as great as you would like but in terms of the top seven they’re pretty reliable and the eighth guys at least the eighth guy candidates they’re playing right now and air Coffey and Daniel Ty those are solid reliable players they’re they’re not going to be absolute disasters out there and so if

You can have a really good starting lineup if you can have the Russell Westbrook wild card in some of these matchups and then you can plug and play with the veterans you do have in addition to to Norm Powell hard to argue with with that kind

Of platform in terms of making an actual deep playoff run again assuming everybody in Kawai most of all is healthy can we talk about the Suns only after we talk about the Nuggets okay we can talk about the Nuggets first only why talk about the Nuggets well because

I I would say they’re the only other contemporary like complete team right now in terms of offense and defense at a high level you didn’t take the bait I didn’t the buzzer the buzzer stick was was is not working here we talked about this before the podcast telling everyone

That they were going to get the buzzer if you talked about them is just letting people avoid it I refuse to be buzzed because here is an incredibly present tense stat for you Justin the best lineups in the league number one is the Philadelphia 76ers their their starters have been

Incredible number two your Denver Nugget starters injuries dog bites and all when those guys are on the floor they blow teams out by over 20 points per 100 possessions and even if you sub in Reggie Jackson for Jamaal Murray those lineups were were gang busters too so

Long as that is the case the nuggets are going to have advantage over pretty much anybody where things get dicier for me and I’m curious to hear how you feel about this was when you go to the bench yeah where where is the guy who’s going

To go off for 20 plus kind of similar to the Timberwolves position where if Reggie Jackson isn’t hitting there isn’t a lot of output there yeah I I thought we all felt like Christian Brown was going to take a step forward this year that step hasn’t really happened in major way although I

Will say I’m encouraged by what I see from Payton Watson honestly um it not in just one his shot looks good but the shots that are generated for him are really nice looks you know um the defense is coming along he’s got the he’s very toolsy right he’s very quick

Agile he’s very long but it’s it’s not panning out as of yet he’s not like a really good Defender as of yet but I like the direction that it’s going and I could see him you know sort of turning a couple of playoff games on his head by

Just making four threes in the game right because he was completely wide open and you know transition opportunities and stuff like that Christian Brown has been a little bit disappointing but yeah the bench is where I’m like and we knew this coming into the season that the bench wasn’t

Going to be sort of a strong point I’m still keeping my eye on that situation and monitoring it but Payton Watson I’ve been encouraged um cautiously optimistic if you will I think the question is considering how good the West is and how deep a lot of their competition is is the bench

Going to matter more now than it did last year when they can get by with Jeff Green and obviously Bruce Brown hit another level in the playoffs but it’s like the Thunder just like creating guys that most casual fans probably haven’t heard of and that guy’s scoring like 10

Out of nowhere like like comes off the bench the other night I’m like oh yeah that guy’s pretty good and like meic is someone I don’t think people are are really aware of they just have guys on top of guys on Tope of guys where they could just shuffle through and get that

Added jolt that you guys are talking about to the point where like I I ultimately default to the nuggets and I guess you can give me a buzzer for for that why do you do that General insinuation um but it’s also like this the size combination without sacrificing

Offense I’m looking up and down these teams that they’re going to go against and I don’t even know who could even come close to that sort of uh just combination there I I guess the Lakers if they swing the right trade in order to add some juice to the offense but uh

That’s obviously a big if and so for that reason I default to the Nuggets um but there’s going to be a lot of slogging going on if they are going to make it back to the finals yeah I think more slogging than we have seen previously in certain playoff series

That again will not be mentioned but you can see in in pton Watson in Christian Brown they may not be the traditional sixthman types but those are impact players I would say Christian Brown definitively pyton Watson perspectively but we’re starting to see it you just wish like a Julian strawther or someone

Like that was more consist St is the one where I think a lot of people had some High Hopes out of in Denver land especially in the preseason and it just hasn’t panned out as of yet maybe he’ll figure some things out and and he’ll look better going forward and you know

Again we got to watch the buyout Market because we got let’s be real Uncle Jeff Green was not some hotly sought after free agent that ended up giving them quality minutes maybe they’re able to get you know the veteran buyout Market or maybe they’re um Booth is able to

Pull a rabbit out the hat at the deadline to get some level of Veteran you know reliability in there there and and and that’ll get them right so we’ll See

Justin Verrier, Wosny Lambre, and Rob Mahoney talk about the Los Angeles Clippers settling into a winning groove after the initial struggles of the James Harden trade, why the team’s offense works so well, and why as usual their health in the later months of the Spring will matter more than anything else.

Check out the Bill Simmons YouTube channel: youtube.com/billsimmons

Subscribe to The Ringer on YouTube: http://therin.gr/5te1wFL

CONNECT
Shop: https://theringer.com/shop
Website: http://theringer.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ringer
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ringer
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ringer
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCT83YP07yVuaH9J19YABhlw