Mailbag Episode: Best & Worst Matchups For Clippers & Ways To Combat Lack Of Size

Mailbag Episode: Best & Worst Matchups For Clippers & Ways To Combat Lack Of Size

How about a Clipper mailbag Clipper Nation haven’t done one in a while in this episode I’m going to be taking your questions from Twitter and answering them going to be talking about some of the obvious questions about the Clippers going forward some stuff about potential good and bad playoff matchups and then

Some fun Clipper stuff to end you’re going to be hearing a lot of different topics in this one answering your questions on today’s locked on 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 my 19th season as a Clipper fan 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 Sports and NBA content and locked on Clippers is free and available wherever you get your podcast including YouTube where I want you to hit the notification Bell so you

Know every single time we post a video and maybe give me even more questions for another mailbag before the season resumes why not I mean I am looking for things to talk about so I did a Twitter mailbag for this one let’s do a YouTube

One you guys are the most active in the comments about anything so go ahead maybe we can do a YouTube mailbag as well but in this episode I’m going to be talking about the obvious question that several people asked and then playoff matchup stuff good and bad and then some

Fun Clipper things at the end and this episode is brought to you by prize pick prize pick is the best daily fantasy sports platform in North America all you got to do is go to prix.com lockon NBA and use code locked on NBA for a first deposit match up to

$100 but let’s get into it like like the Dome with our first question by the way such a rainy day out in Los Angeles it is no good it is no good right now at least for people like me who don’t like rain but let’s start with the first

Question and that comes from Tyler LA proot on Twitter and he asks what do you think is the solution for teams with length for the Clippers as presently constructed so obviously this is something we’ve talked about at length this is the obvious question that was going to be asked it was basically

Echoed by Jonathan Ang at John score ang4 saying without any additions to buy out guys how can the Clippers improve internally against the teams with front court size to win so I talked about it a little bit the last couple of episodes I think the number one is you’re going to

Have to really lean into offense being what gives you the advantage so if Ka Leonard is at the four or air coffee is at the four you’re going to have to really have the spacing I’m a little concerned I would wonder how a bench lineup with Westbrook

One of two on three or Harden and then Amir and Mason would work because technically you still have two nons spacers in Mason and Russ but I feel like they’ve not been bad with each other as Clippers so that’s doable I think it really comes down to guys making shots offensively and

Creating good looks because ideally hopefully you have enough one-on-one advantages with kawhai Paul George and James Harden against a a team that plays with more size in the front court and that’s really the the answer is these three guys Kawai James Paul even Russ to be honest they

Need to get downhill one-on-one and exploit this size now the main problems come defensively and on the glass right and I think before we talk about any real lineup changes there has to be a level of Pride with staying in front of the ball because staying in front of the

Ball will allow your defense to not have to rotate not have to help so then when you play Help defense if the helper isn’t helped there will be somebody for an offensive rebound for the other team what you need is to stay in front of the

Ball so when we go small we need to do a good job of everybody taking the challenge one-on-one cuz once you start getting in rotation and shots go up a lot of times there are bodies free for offensive rebounds and then in terms of rebounds everybody just needs to I know

This sounds really cliche but seriously we didn’t make a change take pride one-on-one and have to gang rebound we’re a smaller team so everybody needs to box out I’ve noticed Terrence man lately is not boxing out like that I’ve noticed it Terren come on brother please you’ve been a good Rebound rebounder in

The past but it can’t just be you rely on your athleticism and go up and get you got to put your body in front Get Low spread your arms you know butt into the defender you know how it goes and then explode we need to do a better job

As a team now the other answer is potentially trying Daniel Ty with zubats or Plumley preferably zubats but if we do that I don’t think we should have Russ in the game because the spacing would be a little bit questionable to say the least now the the question mark

With Daniel Ty playing the four and why there’s kind of you know a resistance to that is because straight up it’s a different League Now teams want bigger forwards at the four but then you see a team like the Minnesota Timberwolves or at times the Lakers they play with

Christian Wood at the four and the reason why they can get away with that is because they stretch fives or stretch fours so but with Daniel Ty this season he’s actually shooting 42% from three but it’s not very convincing you know what I mean it’s it’s it’s not enough for in my

Opinion defenses are going to respect him in any way shape or form so that’s the resistance but that being said 42% is really good like why not give it a whirl we have nothing to lose and it’s only for specific matchups we have nothing to lose in the regular season by

Trying it we have the Lakers coming up we got Minnesota again uh I believe twice so we’ve got to try it now another so those would be all my answers another question asked by Jeff gell and there might be some people in the comments that wondering the same thing

He says realistically how does PJ fit in in my opinion PJ doesn’t you know he’s just he could not stay in front of the ball when he was playing before defensively and then offensively he shot 29% and 27% from three so that’s not somebody that belongs in a rotation on a championship

Level team and last year he really hurt James Harden at times uh spacing wise in games six and seven and Joe Missoula made the adjustment of playing off of him with the time lord and having him in help and it really worked it really changed that pick and roll with embiid

And Harden so I would not want P Tucker there’s no there’s no role for him except for being a Udonis Haslam like grit guy on the bench and he’s not willing to do that so there is no role for him and then we got another question here from

Angel fan at OC xg1 1958 I like this guy a lot he says anything Clips can do on the buyout Market to offset the problems they have against big lineups got exposed during Minnesota Etc so again in this same kind of is in the same topic and I’ll say this the buyout

Market there is chimi metu former USC Trojan pretty mobile good size but he’s not shooting well from three this year about 29% Daniel Ty is is shooting better than him he’s just not nearly the athlete uh or mobile he’s much younger you know Chim he is then there’s the

Option of Wan Gabriel now he’s not necessarily that much of a stretch but he’s physical he’s going to work hard he’ll pick up some fouls for you so I think wnan Gabriel he’s not too bad of an option either but then there’s my favorite potential option that again was

Shooting 35% from three last year for the Celtics Blake Griffin bring him home another big body can give you some spot minutes take some charges get physical maybe knock down the three make some good reads in the short roll I mean come on could you imagine James Harden Blake

Griffin in the short roll I think that’d be some pretty good stuff Russ at the dunker Blake to Russ from Harden I mean come on so I don’t think they’re going to go to that because I don’t think these players entice them much but I mean I’m Team Blake and the last

Question comes for my boy Spence loyal Clipper fan even before me if we don’t sign an addition to our front Court to help 213 and our guards what’s a lineup that can help those guys from getting banged up as much as you’d like to see without PG or kawhai playing the four

And my answer to that is what I said it’s Ty because otherwise if coffee’s in and Kawai is in Kawai is really going to be guarding the bigger guy he’s stronger so it’s Ty plumbley and Zoo together is not an option the spacing is really

Really bad even in the 90s I don’t think they would run that with two guys that couldn’t even make a mid-range it’s not that Zoo can’t make a mid-range but he won’t take it so anyway but coming up going to be talking about some matchup stuff good and bad matchups for the

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$100 all right so let’s talk about some matchup related questions the first one comes from colangelo’s last burner at your goats burner he says what teams present good and bad matchups for the Clippers in a playoff series like who don’t you want to face in the first

Round okay even if you think you can beat them all right well I’ll tell you who I don’t want to face I don’t want to face the Dallas Mavericks because it just feels like Luca he might get us eventually three times I mean we I feel

Like we are the better team but with the additions of PJ Washington and Daniel Gafford seems like everybody is now super high on Dallas because Daniel Gafford and Derrik Lively together POS two big lob threats and then you do have Kyrie Irving if he’s healthy in a

Playoff series I mean we didn’t play against I mean they had Jaylen Brunson but that wasn’t the Jaylen Brunson we know now or even the year after that he was really played off the floor in that series against Dallas this time having Kyrie Irving I mean that is going to be

Tough I still don’t love the Mavericks defense on the perimeter I think very reliant on Derek Jones Jr uh I think that kawhai would still have a field day with them but I don’t know if I’d want to play them I mean especially in the first round if we play

Them in the second round it is what it is because you can’t Beggars can’t be choosers in the second round of the NBA Playoffs but first round I would prefer not to play the Dallas Mavericks the Minnesota timber worlds are obviously a bad matchup for us at this point I think

That’s very clear obviously playoff basketball is different but just from a schematic perspective they have a the guys for us and they won’t play us in the first round though so it’s kind of irrelevant the Lakers this particular year I’m not a fan of playing them

Because of their size and then we don’t have the same bodies to throw at LeBron I mean you want to put kawi Paul on him that’s a little bit much for them throughout the course of a series and the other thing that concerns me about that is we don’t have homec court

Advantage really for any game the most we have is a 50-50 split in our home games and that’s very problematic in my opinion or unfavorable you know I think we are the better team but it’s just it’s a lot of pressure and I just when it comes to Big pressure moments the

Clippers just being a Clipper fan I have major ptsds so I would prefer to stay away from the Lakers this particular year as well in the first round uh and then the Denver Nuggets but I don’t think we’re going to play them in the first round the New Orleans Pelicans is

An interesting one I know everyone’s probably screaming at the TV right now or what about the Pelicans D what about the Pelicans I know and I I’ll say this I would be a little nervous playing them because of our matchup in the regular season but in a playoff series Zion

Hasn’t played one playoff game I really would take our chances with it I wouldn’t be I would much rather play The Warriors I would much rather play the Sacramento Kings would I rather play the thunder we’ve played them once with Kawai and we beat them but yeah I

Mean the Thunder are the Thunder better than the Pelicans because the record says they are the Pelicans have a little more experience in the sense that they’ve been together a bit longer and in the 2022 playoffs Ingram and CJ got some experience together with alen junis but the Thunder are probably the better

Team that I wouldn’t mind playing either to be honest like we should be we should be beating either of them where James Harden kawhai and Paul George like at this point if they’re going to win a ring together they’re going to win it right now it’s not going to be the

Thunder and the you know who’s the T Pelicans that knock us out it can’t be it can’t they mustn’t let it happen and then there’s the Suns who preferably I’d like to play in the second round I like actually want to play them in the second round but first

Round it’s a little nervy playing against those guys in the first round we never doesn’t really end well for us a lot of times although we’ve only played them once in the first round so yeah my my take with that is I I want to play

Phoenix in the second round of the NBA playoffs now another question in relation to matchups this one actually no it was basically the same question from Joey netland he’s a Russ fan Joey netland 4 says what do you think the best and worst playoff matchups would be for the

Clippers so worst Minnesota timber rules and Denver Nuggets best probably the Sacramento Kings yeah I don’t know about any other one else being on the level of the Sacramento Kings is there anyone else I mean if we play the Houston if the Houston Rocket somehow made it but they won’t uh I

Would be down to play them the Utah Jazz I can’t really like say like the Warriors would be the better than the Kings because they scare me a little more than the Kings just because they have Draymond Kay and Steph mainly Steph and I I like the Sacramento Kings

Too but they just don’t defend well enough for me to be afraid of them in the playoffs whereas the Thunder are a good defensive team the Pelicans have improved massively defensively the nuggets are Champs the Suns aren’t great defensively but like am I more scared

Of the Kings or a team with KD and Devin Booker on it like come on question answers itself so the worst matchups Minnesota and Denver and the best would be the Sacramento Kings I would say the next question comes from treker at Francisco an on Twitter he says

What’s the future of the Clippers realistically look like as a championship contending what the future of the Clippers realistically look like as a championship Contender given our obvious disadvantages against bigger teams I kind of already addressed that but he says should we be happy just making it to the Western Conference

Finals and preparing for the next season at into it what expectations should the fan base have absolutely not we should not just be happy making it to the Conference Finals this team Kawhi Leonard and Paul George was put together to win a championship and all of a sudden we lost

Belief in that so we felt like we needed a third star now that we have a third star and it’s working and it’s the best Clipper team we’ve ever had at this point of the Season eye testwise and tied for the record 36 and 17 we should absolutely have a

Championship robust attitude and I know that’s crazy as a Clipper fan that we’ve never made the finals and this and that but we should we have a player that’s good enough to do it we have a team of stars we got to do it now teams are not

Getting any uh there’s a lot of young teams in the league with budding stars and we’re not getting any younger we got to get it now this is a great chance right here last year at the Staple Center always will be able to stake a claim that this is their Arena

To a degree by getting something that you can’t take away a championship would be poetic and Laker fans would hate it so that would be my answer to that we need to be Championship robust mindset because that’s what this team was put together to do that’s why you went for

Harden and trade a pick for him but anyway then the next question comes from optimist prime rib at usual uncore suspect 89 he says deep dive on what the hell happened to tyo last season uh yeah let’s put it this way I can’t do a deep

Dive but I’m just going to say this I think he became too close to some players Reggie and Senior and empowered them so much to the point where they thought they were Untouchable and had an ego that was too big for what they were good for how good they

Were and I think Tai had problems oh I don’t know why he was so not in favor favor of Terren man for so long but in the front office had to Strongarm him but I will say he does prioritize spacing I’ve learned that he’s an offense first mind and Marcus

Morris you know he he was cool with him the next question comes from Peter Boone my Belgian brother over here he says let’s see where is the com all right he says is this the best version of Harden that we have on our team no it is not

But then he says maybe not stats-wise but as a player to win games and go for the championship well I’ll say this with the Houston Rockets as a number one option he won a lot of games and he was close to the championship but I never

Was truly a believer of Harden as a number one option his stands are going to hate I said that but Sumi second option Harden I think if he would have been the second option in his prime he could have gotten a ring probably some people his stands would say definitely I say

Probably cuz I think it’s hard to to adjust to that especially with the way that Harden plays but he did it with embiid came up short so third option Harden absolutely is the best in terms of trying to get him a ring so I would say yeah in terms of

Winning basketball I think him not neglecting the mid-range shot is Major those years with dantony where he neglected the mid-range shot it made it so that you’re either getting a floater or a layup a three for him or a three for someone else and sometimes threes

Aren’t going to fall on teams are taking the rim away you got to have something else and I like that he takes the mid-range now in the last two two years he’s done it so I would say yes but it’s not the best version of Harden of course

Not and he says is this the best team for him to fit in that he has been on H I think Brooklyn was very similar personally Rene Zarate at Renegade Clips is our last question of this segment and he asks how important is this season dependent on how this year I think he

Meant how important is next season dependent on how this year ends good and bad um I think it’s very dependent but then he asks how realistic is it to have a drastic change in general for this team headed into into a dome I don’t think it’s going to happen next season

Now after next season who knows but you know Paul George getting extended that’s major kawh Leonard will have to validate his extension with the play in the playoffs this season you know the extension that he just received Paul George obviously still hasn’t gotten it yet uh and someone else actually I’m

Going to end it with his question said I would definitely want to hear your thoughts on the chances of this team sticking together after this year especially after the weird responses to PG resign I think the main thing is the Clippers realize we shouldn’t pay PG and

Kawhai the same amount of money and I think they are a little bit more sure about kawai’s basketball I think they’re just afraid of his health and they took a gamble by paying him right now and just not wanting to get into the weeds with that drama in the offseason but Paul

George he is not you know the way he plays he’s so up and down I wouldn’t give him that money until he proves it a little more but I think Paul George will be here I mean if Kawai is here I think Paul will be here and because we’re

Going into the stadium new stadium they’re not going to blow this team up but anyway coming up gonna be talking about some fun Clipper stuff there was some other questions that are a little bit more light-hearted going to be talking about those coming up this next segment is brought To Us by

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At aist tires3 says favorite Clipper moment this season and all time man what was my favorite Clipper moment I’d say the comeback against the Nets I’d say that was my favorite Clipper moment this season and then my favorite Clipper moment all time is definitely when we broke the curse the

Terrence Man game no doubt about it and then so my next question comes from Jay this is my guy Jay loyal Clipper fan see him at the games all the time Hoops with Jay says the Clippers recently emailed fans asking which Clippers should be the first to get their number retired I was

Part of this survey you and I have in the past had convos about which Clippers are deserving of it but who do you think should be the very first one Blake McAdoo one of 213 I’ll say this not one of 213 Bob McAdoo I think he deserves to

Have his number retired for this franchise but I don’t think he should be the first cuz I would like it to be an LA person I would think Ralph Lawler should be the first one especially considering his age but and yeah he’s a Clipper so Ralph Lawler should be the

First number 100 but if I had to choose a player it would have to be Blake Griffin so that’s my answer to that he just changed so much for us um it was our guy then the next question I think the last question comes from Joe Lise

And he’s asking about red jerseys yes or no of course red jerseys next year are you kidding me are you kidding me so yeah that’s basically it I’m pretty sure that was all of them that were worth answering no offense to the other commenters I think the last one

I’ll just Jonathan a had another question he said since PG first has been dealing with the groin injury his performance has been up and down with plenty of low IQ mistakes before I even answer the next part of it is that unnatural for PG Jonathan even with uh

When even when he’s fully healthy performance has has been up and down with plenty of low IQ mistakes I mean come on what is his outlook for the stretch run looking like can he reclaim his spot as the second best player on this team and be back on his bully is I

Absolutely think he can I think it all depends on his choices and I hope his groin is okay but that’s it for me in this one Guys YouTube let me know what you want if you want a mailbag comment any questions you have that are not

Those I feel like I answered so many and those are like the major ones but let me know 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 content and locked on Clippers is free

And available wherever you get your podcast including YouTube hit the notification Bell get us to 5K guys I said let’s get us to 5K before Thursday before the season resumes we’re almost there please let any Clipper fan you know know the ageold proverb continues go Clippers

In this episode, die hard LA Clippers Fan and Host Darian Vaziri answers listener questions from Twitter in a mailbag episode. He addresses the biggest question for the Clippers in regards to lack of size. He then gives his favorable and unfavorable potential playoff matchups. In the end, he answers some more light hearted questions about the Clippers.

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