Where Should The LA Clippers Go Next?

Where Should The LA Clippers Go Next?

on today’s show where do the LA Clippers go from here after another first round exit for the third consecutive year going to be talking about it all 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 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 Darian Vizeri born and raised in LA just finished my 20th season as a Clipper fan been covering the Clippers for 5 years on my own personal YouTube channel Dimeropper and three years right here on the Lockdown Podcast Network your team every day make sure you subscribe on YouTube and listen wherever you get your podcast on YouTube we’re on the road to 8,000 make sure you help us get up there we got to pass locked on Spurs and locked on Nets sorry fellas but anyway in this episode we’re going to be talking about the options uh because I I guess I mean I talked about why the Clippers lost the series why we lost game seven who’s to blame the blame pie you know we’ll have all kinds of episodes like that throughout this course of the summer but the next topic at hand is where do we go from here so I’m going to be talking about some of the scenarios you know running it back retooling blowing it up just the three different scenarios that everybody talks about on a yearly basis but before we do that this episode is brought to you by Absolutely Nothing so let’s get to it all right there’s no secret ladies and gentlemen that our team was lacking some stuff you know when you don’t win the championship and you were fully healthy that means you weren’t good enough and we weren’t good enough and we were going into the postseason in as good a form as anyone 18 and3 record in our last 21 games kawhi Leonard rounding into form james Harden playing elite basketball if it’s a Zubots playing elite basketball and as a team thriving and then you look at Denver jamal Murray was injured essentially till the very end of the season well not not saying that he was out the whole year but he was out the final stretch right before the playoffs which is not necessarily ideal and they and they fired their coach with three games left in the season and still beat us so we’ll see if the Denver Nuggets win the championship if they do that would make me feel a lot better about okay we’re not that far off but I said they’re not going to win the championship this year and I’m going to stick with it they find themselves 1-1 in their series right now of the Oklahoma City Thunder so it’ll all come down to you know these two games in Denver and we’ll get a much clearer picture of what this series is going to be but fact of the matter is the Clippers aren’t quite good enough now the most why aren’t we good enough is the question i think in terms of a roster and I’m going to ask this to the commenters do you think that if we add a backup center then get a power forward let Amir Coffee go let’s say we keep everybody else let’s say we let Ben Simmons go as well right mir Coffee and Ben Simmons go and we run a 10-man rotation with a power forward that slides Kawhai down to the three we keep Zoo Harden Norm Derek Chris Bogey and have a backup center are we then a championship contender for me the answer is no for for me it starts at the beginning at the top and you know the Kawhi Leonard fans are on my head because of me saying that he deserves some blame they confuse that with all the blame or I did say the majority I kind of did believe he does just based on this the very high standards I have for the guy which to me is is respect like I really think he’s just one of the best small forwards ever play the game and you know we he’s I mean again he’s declined a bit because of the injuries it is what it is but I don’t believe that he can create good enough looks and is a good enough playmaker to go along with the fact that he doesn’t get easy baskets he doesn’t get two feet in the paint he doesn’t blow by guys to the same extent to be your number one option anymore realistically I think Kawhi Leonard would could be a great number two option on a championship team but for me you need a guy with more consistent motor throughout the course of an 82 game season and with just a little bit more he’s been through so many injuries i mean the fact that he can still play at this level to me is a testament to how good he truly is but in my opinion his days of winning you know being the number one option on a championship team are over he did it one time there was some luck involved you know with the with the injuries to Kevin Durant and of course Klay Thompson for some games that doesn’t mean that I don’t think he was good enough to win a championship as the best player just because there were injuries involved but some guys do it once other guys do it multiple times and it’s hard to do it multiple times i mean I’ve been watching basketball in live time for 20 years and the only guys that I’ve seen win like multiple rings as the dude are Steph LeBron Kobe and like that’s it tim Duncan I guess yeah h 2014 I think you could argue Tim Duncan was the best i think you could argue that Tony Parker was the best kawhai deserved the finals MVP but he wasn’t the best part on the team and I think he would tell you that Tony Parker was getting in the paint like there was no tomorrow uh but you know two-way play was probably Duncan but it was just a little too debatable so for me in my time it’s really just LeBron Kobe and Steph Curry everybody else you know the Giannis’s Joic one ring Kawhi Leonard Kevin Durant I think it’s just people will debate that Steph KD thing till the cows come home tatum and Brown people are arguing that right now so and they look like they might be going out in this round in New York so it’s it’s not a thing you know i’m not trying to you know take a dump on Kawhi Leonard and stuff like that he it’s just he’s been through a lot he only played 37 games this season and I think having him as your number one option I think we can make the team better i just think we’re a little far off the championship now when it comes to James Harden the thing about James is we don’t get anywhere near a five seed record without a James Harden he has his limitations in the playoffs with you know his lack of shot diversity which kind of forces him to either get step back three or paint shot not much in between and teams can force the ball out of his hands and because of his defensive deficiencies you need some good defenders around him and of course because of how on ball how ball dominant he is and how good of a playmaker is playmaker he is you want as many shooters as possible and it’s hard to find the balance of great 3 and D guys you know what I’m saying even Derrick Jones Jr who was fantastic all year and Chris Dunn who was fantastic all year and helped us get the third best defense in the league did not make shots at a high enough rate in the playoffs for us to get by you know Derrick Jones Jr only shooting 30% from three in that series so it’s tough and you know I don’t know what the Kawaii fans think do they think that James Harden has to go the thing about it is he has a player option for $36 million next year and it’s safe to say in today’s market with the way he played this past season which was all NBA caliber he should be getting 40 million at least not talking 50 but about 40 million the question is do the Clippers want to pay him that because he’s not going to sign for one year i don’t think and he’s got he if I’m James Harden I’m getting a new contract right now because I prove that I can still be good for a couple of years the thing is if you want to win a championship to me he’s got serious limitations i don’t think he’s going to win i don’t trust him in those big games and just to do enough to get over that hump I think it’s hard to build the roster around to win a title you need like clutch role players that can hit threes and play D i think a power forward and a backup big will help but you’re putting when a team’s putting their eggs in the James Harden basket it’s like you kind of live and die with his pick and roll and he’s so ball dominant that it feels like it’s always your number one source of offense and that source of offense gets you far i just think we’ve seen enough of a sample size over the course of however many you know let’s see 14 years now I’d say where they he’s been given the keys to an offense we’ve seen enough where I don’t think it’s going to lead you to a title i think it could be a great team so for people that are still saying Kawhai’s that guy do we need a new number two do we let Harden walk after what he did this season i mean if you’re a guy that supports Kawhi Leonard you should be appreciative of James Harden because of you wouldn’t have seen a healthy Kawhai in the playoffs without James Harden so the likelihood is Clipper Nation that they’re both coming back i mean Kawhi Leonard’s on a $50 million contract i don’t think the Clippers going to look to shop him at all i think they’re going to say he’s gone to the offseason healthy for the first time in a while since the bubble and you know the next year we came out and he had an allNBA season and we made it to the conference finals i just think he’s not getting any younger you know he’s 33 years old right now he turns 34 in in June so in a little over a month he’s going to be 34 years old you know he’s got this next year and then the year after on his on his deal but I don’t see any way that Kawhi Leonard’s not coming back for year seven as a Clipper which would be more than CP3 which doesn’t feel like that at all because of the seasons that he’s missed i mean he missed a full season so essentially it’d be year six james Harden has that player option i just think we’re going to resign him it just depends how much we’re going to resign him for at this point I think James Harden will take possibly this will tell us a lot about James Harden if he takes a team friendly deal again to allow us to still get something in the offseason you know not you know right now we’re currently not in the second over the second apron that was part of the reason we gave Paul George up so we have some ability to get stuff but it’s not till 2026 where we’re going to you know have all this the luxury of cap space and all that we can improve this roster though a bit i need someone that’s a little bit more familiar with the cap and the salary and the aprons and stuff like that to help me out a bit with that can’t lie but I do know that James Harden’s contract will dictate a good amount for us um let us know let me know in the comments do you want to see James Harden back and what do you think his contract should be because if we’re trying to go all into the off seasonason of 2026 then how much longer do we want James Harden you know we want to go a different direction after this next year and is he going to take a one-year deal he might as well just opt into that player option but I don’t think James Harden wants to leave i think he wants to stay and retire here but it depends you know how because the championship window I don’t know you need you need to get a little younger if you want to go championship now Norman Powell he’s an interesting one because he’s got one more year on his deal i think that’s a contract the Clippers could very much look to trade i think teams would love to take Norman Powell on one year expiring contract $20 million the guy can go out there and get buckets for you and I think he can help your team whatever level they’re at whether they’re a tanking team and you need someone to get buckets whether they’re a you know playing level team you can get to put a six-man get get a Norm as a six-man i don’t know but in my opinion you know these are the these are the players that are on the contract for next year kawhi Leonard Norman Pal Bogdon Bogdanovich Zoo Derek Chris uh Drew Eubanks the amount’s not fully guaranteed nico’s on a player option i think he takes that but he might want more who knows he’s he doesn’t play enough in the regular season to be honest with you and then we have a team option on Kobe Brown so that’ll be interesting to see but no Amir Coffee Patty Mills oh Cam Christie would be back uh Jordan Miller no Ben Simmons so I think a lot of these guys will be back and the most likely scenario is the Clippers going to run it back because they don’t really have anywhere to go who wants Kawawaii coming up though going to be talking about if we retool what if we change some pieces around i got to tell you a little something about Door Dash nba fans you know what time it is playoff season means big performances and even bigger rewards door Dash is bringing the heat with a slam dunk deal for Dash Pass members during the 2025 NBA playoffs it’s called They Swoosh You 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can’t.” Trust me I feel you i totally feel you but the actuality is the team starts and ends with Kawaii what makes this last playoff run a little frustrating is that we had a healthy Kawaii and we still didn’t win and my eye test seems to differ from those of a lot of mainly Kawaii stands that say that this was this wasn’t he did everything he could moment and no one else helped him i don’t think that that was the case personally i think maybe game seven you could say yeah of course he was the best player didn’t feel like other guys were up to par but you know watch the beginning of that third quarter again and tell me that Kawhi Leonard is not at fault for some of the stuff that’s going on on that defensive end of the floor uh it’s it’s just the honest truth so it’s tough to stomach you know what I’m saying because we had that excuse of oh well we didn’t have Kawhai and we’ve done this if we have a healthy Kawaii this is going to happen for so long so to me it starts and ends with Kawhai and what I wouldn’t keep James Harden if you got rid of Kawhai so no team is going to really give up much for Kawhi Leonard I don’t think at this point so he’s going to stay this next year and at the end of the day he helps make you competitive and he’s going into the offseason healthy and he’s still a great player now how are we going to manage him next year you know likely we’re going to load manage him throughout the season i would assume it’s going to be a whole thing again and yeah it can be a little frustrating you know year after year to have to deal with it but he’s still such a good player when he’s on the court you know his record when he’s on the court speaks for himself speaks for itself so like I mean he’s going to be back most likely the James Harden conversation is an interesting one because it really makes us go a different direction if we don’t bring James Harden back i just don’t see any avenue where a guy’s all NBA carries your team to 50 wins when your best player has to you know misses so many games 45 games and you don’t bring him back you know what I mean it’s just a matter of how much he’s asking for so for me if he’s asking for three years I would say nah like I would truly say nah three years is a lot i mean if we bring Kawhi Leonard back like let let’s have an offense that’s run through Kawhi Leonard the thing is how good of an offense does that look like he’s not a great passer out of the double team but it’s like it’s more like 2020 where we’re looking at Kawhai to shoot 20 shots a night and I like that kind of thing but he’s the one that’s always wanted a point guard to take the ball out of his hands as well and people think that’s just Paul George it’s not so I don’t know but if you get rid of Harding you’re going a totally different direction i don’t see that so then it comes down to the other guys you’re definitely having Zoo come back he’s on an incredible deal i mean 19 million a year or 18 million it’s one of the best deals in the league he should be getting 30 in my opinion norman Powell that’s the contract where we should try to move him honestly just totally buy into Bogey as our sixth man get a power forward for him ideally somewhere and then slot Kawhi Leonard down to the three and start Chris i mean I wouldn’t start Chris Dunn i would have him off the bench and start Derrick Jones and just go with the starting lineup probably of Harden Derek Kawhai whoever the new power forward is and what’s his name zoo or we just totally if if that guy is not a better basketball player than Nico but he’s just a guy that’s a rotation player start Nico just don’t play him more than 20 minutes a night during the regular season and play that other guy and it’s it’ll be Nico’s last dance essentially right player option one more year if he opts into that it’s this is it for him he’s you know 37 years old he’s probably going to hang it up soon but you know it depends how badly does he want a ring what does he think he has the best chance to get it will a team offer him more than 4 million i mean he’s pretty versatile that’ll be something to look at does he want one bigger contract because he’s you know in the playoffs it doesn’t hurt having a guy like Nico on your roster ask the Lakers they could have used someone like that but Derek Jones is going to be back and that’s going to be awesome chris Dunn is going to be back and he’s on $5 million a year which is awesome drew Eubanks it says he’s on $4,750,000 but the mount’s not fully guaranteed i would try to package him in a deal or just wave him and just get that salary out of here like or just Yeah just package him in a deal he’s not If we’re trying to He’s a waste of a roster spot to me like that’s let’s let’s get someone that can actually contribute then the question is do you want to go and I don’t I would not bring Ben Simmons back it was just a waste in the playoffs i mean I don’t know people like Ben Simmons people say he gave us some good minutes i see what the coaching staff sees he doesn’t look at the basket his confidence is so shaky it’s not Guys that don’t look at the basket at all no no not for me in the championship setting no it’s not going to work it’s not going to work and his his urgency is just off in my opinion it’s not like he just goes out there and does all the dirty work all the time he There was some stuff that was just inexcusable from him at times in that series in terms of defensive miscommunication and just a lack of urgency but he had his good moments as well i’m not totally opposed if we bring him back i just think are we going to use Jordan Miller are we ever going to try to transition and play some younger guys that’s the thing right what about Cam Christie i mean he’s still pretty young if we’re a win now they see that the problem is we’re like a win now team but we can’t win the championship but there are people that think we can people that think we can’t it’s just it’s it’s a very strange position to be in Clipper Nation unfortunately I would just say in terms of Retool the most likely scenario I could see us doing is doing what I said trading Norman Pal getting a power forward returning Kawhi Leonard to the three and then I don’t know what we’re going to do with Ben i think I could easily see us bringing us bringing him back on a very small contract a cheap contract i’m very interested to see what we do with Kobe Brown because he’s not big enough to play the power forward in my opinion in today’s in any era especially power forward so and I think that Emir Coffee and L Murray even said something about it that he’s seen is probably his last days as a Clipper because he didn’t get any minutes in the playoffs so man we’re going to have no homegrown players left outside of Kobe Brown maybe not even Kobe Brown Cam Christie Jordan Miller I think that the team’s really lacking that to some degree i’ve expressed that for a while but hey I wish Amir Coffee very well and you know I I haven’t been checking the comments and that’s on me clever nation sorry but uh let me know if you think Tyoo not playing Amir Coffee was a mistake in the playoffs i know there’s some people that feel that way but coming up going to be talk so by the way just as just to finish off I don’t see any scenario where we retool around Harden and trade Kawhi Leonard i mean I don’t unless the team comes out with some crazy offer and then like signing James Harden and then trading him i don’t believe that that’s a possibility i think the most likely scenario was Norm i don’t see us trading Zubots if Kawhi Harden on the roster and everyone else like I they’re not trading Derrick Jones or Chris Dunn so coming up going to talk about what it would look like if we do what some people want which is blow it up blow it up absolutely sky high going to be getting going to be talking about that coming up i got to tell you a little something about Amazon Fire TV Stick did you know your Fire TV is also an Xbox turn any TV into your gaming and entertainment hub with Fire TV Stick 4K devices no console required just grab your paired controller subscribe or sign into Xbox Game Pass Ultimate with EA Play included and you’re ready to play dive into hundreds of premium titles from EA Sports College Football 25 to Call of Duty Black Ops 6 and Avowed as easily as you stream your favorite shows it’s gaming made simple and it’s all on your Fire TV play highquality Xbox games at a fraction of the cost of a console already have a console a Fire TV Stick 4K device is more affordable and easier to travel with allowing you to take your or your kids games wherever you plug in head to amazon.com/firetvlocked on to get started xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription and compatible controller required available on select devices including Fire TV Stick 4K second gen Fire TV Stick 4K Max first and second gen and Fire TV Cube third gen all right Clipper Nation so it’s gonna be a long summer and that’s okay uh I think sometimes it’s good for us to all take a break from the fandom of Clippers basketball especially with the ups and downs and you know you miss it when it’s not the season i to be honest haven’t missed a season like when it’s offseason I’m like very relieved like I I still produce these pods and I hope you still listen and you’re tuning in and this is what the real fandom is all about is these offseason pods is really finding the strength to get up here and do them and talk about it even though it can be sad and depressing at times but we love this team and it’s going to make it sweeter when one day we do end up winning a series again cuz man it’s been a couple of years now since 2021 unfortunately every single year I’ve been the host of this show we are a first round exit so hey man there’s other hosts that aren’t in the playoffs and not talking about a team in the playoffs so it could be worse now the option that some fans want is for us to just blow it skyhigh now the only thing I’ll say is about that what teams want Kawawaii and are you signing James Harden and like doing like a sign and trade are you just letting him walk i mean I can The good thing is Kawhi Leonard might have some trade stock because he ended the regular season and ideally or sorry ended the playoffs healthy and ideally I would love Kawhi Leonard as I said at the top of the show to be a second option and we get out we get a first option but how many players are better than Kawhai realistically in the league still it’s the thing i don’t see Joic or Giannis coming here so the reality is blowing it and we we don’t have our draft picks ladies and gentlemen let’s go to the draft pick situation because that’s the thing you can blow it up and tank and go a different direction when you have draft picks the problem with us is we don’t have draft picks this season we are going to get the 30th pick 30th pick this year because the Thunder had the best record in the league so we’re getting 30 don’t know if we’re striking gold there but it’s it matters it’s still a first round pick we have a second rounder this year via Minnesota so we actually have our picks this year but Minnesota is pretty good so I don’t know if those picks will be that good and we haven’t struck gold on a pick since what Terrence man air has given us some good moments but I would say Terrence man 2026 we don’t have a firstrounder so no matter what we do this upcoming season we aren’t getting our pick so we can’t tank we’d essentially just be giving it up to I think either Philly or OKC and then we have a second round pick but only if it’s in 2026 but only if it’s below 43 or 42 I should say and then OKC has the right to swap in 2027’s first round and then we don’t have one in 2028 so we’re cooked in terms of picks if we could get some first rounders back for Kawaii that would be huge but the thing is for me with blow it up you got to put Zoo on the table as well and see what teams will be willing to offer him because he’s got such a crazy contract put everyone on the table and see how much you could get is it worth it do we have the picks back the thing about Steve Balmer though is he says that he won’t tank we’ll never blow it up we’ll always be competitive cuz in my opinion I think he realizes that like oh with Donald Sterling they always sucked these Clipper fans a lot of them will still accept mediocrity and being in the playoffs and appreciate that but sometimes you need to be bad to be good again the qu the thing is we just don’t have the picks so we just got have to ride it out and wait for free agency but if we look at the free agents and we’ll definitely do more episodes on this this off season i’m looking around and looking at unrestricted stars i mean you’re not looking at really anybody the one guy that has been a oh Kyrie Irving has a player option and he just had a serious injury he’s not going anywhere and then you’ve got I saw D’Angelo Russell he’s been an all-star one time he’s not a star i mean who else is there i’m looking around and I’m not seeing any stars the Rockets have a team option on Fred Van Vleet i don’t think they’re going to take that contract but he’s not a star miles Turner is an unrestricted free agent but again he’s not a star and he’s not going to be a backup lebron has a player option he’s I mean I would assume he’s going to opt in he’s making like 50 million there are no stars that are unrestricted free agents julius Randle has a player option he’s a star i mean we do lack a power forward that would not be terrible but can we afford Julius Randle i don’t even know how that cap stuff works i don’t think we could afford Julius Randall so there’s no one really out there Clipper Nation for a big free agent this summer there’s no one literally no one cp3 I mean John Colin Oh hold on one sec john Collins is a player option i mean it’d be nice if we can get John Collins be power forward but that’s what we’re looking at is like the power forward we can have episodes where we talk about that but blowing it up is not going to happen I don’t think and yes if you’re frustrated about that in the comments and say “We just got to go a different direction we just got to go a different direction.” Please express yourselves in those comments cuz I’ll read them one day maybe in the near future you can follow me on Twitter and Instagram at Dimeropper Pod subscribe to my own YouTube channel Dimeropper where I had a very long and heartfelt end of the season speech as I always do my monologue whatever you want to call it eulogy of the Clippers and of course Lockdown Clippers is free and available wherever you get your podcasts right here on YouTube as well make sure you subscribe let’s get up to 8,000 subscribers the age-old proverb continues go Clippers

Can the Los Angeles Clippers bounce back after their playoff exit? With Kawhi Leonard and James Harden at the helm, the Clippers’ recent first-round loss to the Denver Nuggets has fans questioning the team’s future in the NBA.

Explore the Clippers’ potential paths forward as Die hard LA Clippers fan and Host Darian Vaziri analyzes key performances and strategic options. From Kawhi Leonard’s evolving role to James Harden’s contract situation, this episode breaks down the roster dynamics and possible trades. Discover insights on players like Ivica Zubac, Norman Powell, and Ben Simmons, and consider whether the Clippers should run it back, retool, or start anew.

Tune in for an in-depth look at the Clippers’ strategy and what it means for their championship aspirations.
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