How The Kevin Durant Trade Affects The LA Clippers

How The Kevin Durant Trade Affects The LA Clippers

on today’s show Kevin Rant was traded to the Houston Rockets with the Clippers being rumored as one of the teams that were involved in the Kevin Durant sweep stakes how does this affect the LA Clippers an a team that finished just two seeds or three seeds above us just got Kevin Durant going to be talking about it all on today’s Locked on Clippers [Music] you are Locked On Clippers your daily Los Angeles Clippers podcast part of the Locked On podcast network your team every day [Music] 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 and just finished my 20th season as a Clipper fan you can also follow me on Twitter and Instagram at Dimedropper Pod and subscribe to my own YouTube channel Dimeropper for even more NBA content and of course Locked on Clippers is free and available wherever you get your podcast make sure you subscribe on YouTube and of course listen wherever you get your podcast make sure to get us up to 8,000 subscribers i am trying to move up the rankings and this episode is brought to you by Monarch Money use code locked on NBA at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year that’s monarchmoney.com code locked on NBA for half off your first year all right it’s happened kevin Durant is going to the Houston Rockets for Jaylen Green the 10th pick in this year’s draft second round picks i believe it was five second round picks and Dylan Brooks so the Clippers do not make the trade and so we’re going to talk about how this deal affects us whether or not we dodged a bullet or should have made the move and of course where this leaves us going forward so 5-second rounders yeah my initial thoughts when we when I saw the trade were we dodged a bullet we don’t need Kevin Durant in my opinion like the Houston Rockets need Kevin Durant the Rockets needed a bonafide number one option scoring the ball we have that and I didn’t want to complicate that because my one of my takeaways from this postseason is that Kevin uh is that Kawhi Leonard did not shoot enough and I’m not going to hear this double team nonsense because it’s not coverages that Kawhai hasn’t seen before you know s do you think the star players when that didn’t have spacing in the past use double teams as an excuse again I think we’ve never been softer on star players than we are today never so with Kawawaii it’s not just that it’s the whole conversation we had about Harden’s team versus Kawi’s team are we playing too much through Harden remember on uh per game James Harden averaged four minutes more with the ball than Kawhi Leonard in the playoffs four minutes four full minutes of game time not four minutes of actual time four minutes of that clock actually running so my thing is next year with Kawhi Leonard going into the playoffs I’m sorry going into the offseason healthy for the first time since 2020 2021 we are still going to be a James Harden team assuming that we resign him but we want to also be a team that is playing through Kawaii and I don’t think bringing in KD would help that at all i think it would make it so it’s like a 1A 1B dynamic and I personally just want Kawhai to be that dude and plus I don’t want another guy who has zero team loyalty who only cares about himself added to this team i mean how many of these guys we have to deal with you know what I’m saying i want guys that are going to bleed for this franchise and I don’t think we’re going to see that anytime soon but Kevin Durant I mean this guy on the way out Kay Adams asked him “Do you have anything to say to Suns fans?” He’s like “They wanted me gone.” It’s like dude you you’re just way too online like how i watched a lot of Suns games and at no point did I hear the fans booing him individually i saw them booing the team when they were the bed but Kevin Durant I don’t think Suns fans in Arizona in Phoenix hated the guy or begged for him to go i think he’s responding to a couple trolls online and some media radio guys like sports talk radio heads i just think that was messed up to all the fans that in Phoenix that actually supported him some of which I follow on social media so you know emotions aside though we don’t need to get older kevin Durant even though he’s been healthier the last couple years is an injury risk he has he’s been underwhelming at every stop in terms of his team success since he left Golden State and all it would do in my opinion is bring another set of expectations to us oh the new Clippers big three KD Kawhi Harden they better win a championship and then we flame out it’s going to be that that much worse and it’s going to be another kind of situation where we are super excited when we go on some amazing run in the regular season and then when we flame out in the playoffs we’re going to get clowned even more and all these Clipper fans like the ones I’m talking to right now are going to believe we actually have a chance in my opinion it’s a much better move to just work around the margins and build around Kawhai and James Harden because if we were to get a second star like a guy that puts James Harden in that third option role I want a guy and I know this is maybe being like a little too picky but I want a guy that’s clearly worse than Kawawaii but can get buckets more than James Harden right now that’s what I want now those guys don’t grow on trees and I don’t think we’re going to get a guy like that but in my opinion we dodged a bullet and now for Houston I think it’s actually a really good move because I don’t think Jaylen Green is it but I’ll say this about Jaylen Green he’s a much more talented young player than anything that we have so the the offer that I guarantee you the Phoenix Suns are trying to get Zoo and I applaud our front office for staying strong on on not saying yes to that cuz that was definitely in the discussion it was reported by multiple people and I’m happy that we stayed Pat because Zubots is not just about this era of Clipper basketball he could potentially take us into the next era of Clipper basketball and he’s literally the best thing we have going for our franchise right now in my opinion is Zoo so definitely the right move not to trade Zoo so in my opinion we dodged the bullet i think Clipper fans should be happy that we didn’t give up Zoo for Kevin Durant because they were never going to accept Norman Powell Dererick Jones Jr and Bdon Bogdanovich and I I truly think that that would put so much pressure on those top three guys on our team that I don’t know or I guess we’d have a big four harden KD Kawawaii and Zoo but the depth after that would fall off a cliff it really would and then one or two guys get hurt and boom you’re in that same situation that a lot of these teams that you know have super teams recently have faced where you’re paying three guys a lot one guy gets hurt and the rest of your roster isn’t great but you know what makes it a little bit easier for us is Zubots’s having such a good contract but you’re putting a lot of onus on those guys and then one of them goes down and then you need these other guys that are on like vet minimum contracts or like making less than $10 million a year to really help you out and it’s going to be hard so I think we dodged the bullet truthfully um I think Kevin Durant is still amazing i really do think he’s still amazing i just I said this on my own podcast because I’ve covered every playoff game Kevin Rance’s played since he left Golden State on my personal YouTube channel Dimeropper you can check those out i said it after 2022 Kevin Rance’s never going to lead his team to a championship like as a clear-cut number one option you know with Golden State they’re going to argue who was better between Curry and Katie till the Cows come home for many decades but it was not not clear-cut and it’s clearcut that KD was the best performer in some of those finals but I don’t think he’s going to lead a team to a championship and we’re going to if he was to come we’re going to have more questions about who’s the leader in the in the room and all that and Kawhai and KD will be on their I’m just here to make you know I’m just here to clock in and clock out type of mindset and I just I need more accountability you know from a franchise leader and I just think that KD kind of lacks that he’s getting into back and forth with me on Twitter about winning culture i just that’s not what I’m imagine we get KD and he’s arguing with me on Twitter after games like yeah I’m cool on that i think we dodged the bullet thank you we keep we kept Zoo but coming up how about our match up with the Rockets how dangerous are they going forward going to be talking about that coming up I got to tell you about Lollipop lollipop it’s a new kind of soda made for people who love the classic taste of soda but want something that supports their health with just 2 to 5 gram of sugar and 9 g 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us to handle we played them in back-to-back games in November in Houston and we lost both won by eight the other by 21 however we didn’t have Kawhi Leonard in either of those games and then we played them at home and it’s not a game that I remember attending and we lost 117 to 106 but I’m pretty sure James Harden that was one of the few games he didn’t play yeah he didn’t we started KPJ Chris Dunn Norm Zoo and Derek Jones so kind of hard to like gauge we didn’t have a good match up with them this season because the Amen Thompson Dylan Brooks those guys they did a really good job on Harden but we didn’t have Kawhai now I think with the defensive personnel they had they would have been a pretty good matchup for us in the playoffs i mean like like we would have been a good matchup for them but our experience and their lack of offense I don’t know if they would have beaten us in a seven game series now though they get KD who’s a clear 25 points a game on efficient scoring and is going to make them a different threat you know we’re looking at a starting lineup now of probably Fred Van Vleet Amen Thompson Kevin Durant Jabari Smith and Alprren Shenun which is a really good starting lineup in my opinion now when you look at the matchup you’ve got KD and Kawhai going head-to-head but I think Jabari Smith would guard Kawhai and Kawhai would guard Jabari Smith like if we played them and then you got Amen Thompson guarding James Harden personally I think they have a good matchup against us and I would predict the Rockets to be better than us next season right now just with the rosters as they are because they’re a growing young team and they were already the two seed we were the five seed but a full season with Kawawaii you know that might make a difference however we just don’t know how many games he’s going to play so it’s a tossup but I think most people would consider the Rockets a little bit more of a serious contender than us i think it’s interesting because we still have a whole off season you know to talk about and the moves are going to be made and this is not going to be the final iteration of the Rockets or the Clippers and I think it’s probably closer to the final iteration of the Rockets than the Clippers because we have not done anything yet this off seasonason but I mean the Rockets got better in my opinion jaylen Green he’s a good young player but by the way Phoenix is completely out of the picture i mean I don’t even know what’s going to happen with Deon Booker it’s sad because he’s in his prime right now but he didn’t have a very good season and now he’s got Jaylen Green Beal and him it’s like yikes so I wouldn’t even consider the Suns a team at this stage that’s nice the Suns got worse the Rockets got a bit better but the thing is if KD gets hurt then they’re going to be kind of in trouble because they’re going to be relying on Alprren Shenon and Fred Van Vleet to carry the offensive load and we’ll see if Amen Thompson you know makes any strides in the positive direction i think he will but will he ever be a good shooter he and his brother i don’t know honestly but if we’re talking about shooting getting a guy that’s one of the best shooters of all time is definitely a good move and Kevin Durant I mean in terms of his supporting cast and and like the balance of it all I think this might be his best team that he’s been on since the Warriors maybe i mean the Suns when he first got there it was him Booker Aton and Chris Paul that team we lost to but I don’t know their defense wasn’t good enough for me so and this team’s defense is good so maybe this is the best i mean in terms of balance I would say Golden State but obviously talent-wise you can look at Phoenix and Brooklyn but anyway in terms of the conclusion I think our matchup with them would be interesting it would be a good It’d be fun like you look at the starting lineups let’s just say our starting lineup is James Kawawaii Derek Chris and Zoo i don’t know whatever let’s just let’s just go with what it is right now let’s put Norman Pal in there and take Chris Dunn out so how would we match up there zubots and Shangon we got Derrick Jones guarding Kevin Durant kawawaii and Jabari Smith matching up harden and Amen Thompson matching up and then you’ve got Fred Van Vleet and Norman Pal so to speak but then they have a really good bench like they have Tari E they have Steven Adams you’re reuniting Stephen Adams with Kitty like god imagine if we could have Stephen Adams backing up Zoo like that’d be huge that’s where the Rockets are good they have that depth you know with those kind of guys like Tari E and Jan Tate and the young core that they have and I mean they’ve done really well after the Harden trade to be honest with you Cam Whitmore as well who should have been a Clipper but we wanted to trade for Aaron Gordon in the second half of the 2023 season but our matchup with the Rockets I can’t say it got better or worse i honestly think our match up with them might have gotten better i know that sounds insane but I think Jaylen Green’s athleticism and Dylan Brooks point of attack defense cause us more problems than what KD is going to cause us i could be wrong katie is also one of the only guys one of the only two players in NBA history alongside Boris Dial to beat the Clippers three times in the playoffs and he did it with three different teams so I could that those comments could age like milk but honestly like it’s we’re so far away from the playoffs next year so I think it’s somewhat insignificant to talk about like the specifics of the matchup all I’ll say is this on our day I think we could beat them you know it’s not a team where I’m like “Ah we can’t beat him there’s no way we can beat him in a series i I don’t think that way even Even if we were to make no changes I don’t think that way but coming up what are the changes that we should make where does this leave us now going to be talking about that coming up i 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for 50% off your first year that’s monarchmoney.com code locked on MBA for half off your first year all right so the Clippers don’t swing for KD and I’m very thankful for that because it just feels as though lately the Clippers want to just go for big names and star power and I’m going to talk about it on Tuesday’s show but the Thunder is an episode in itself i always make an episode on you know what does the new champion say about the way you got to construct your roster because every single champion when you win a title teams are going to look at you as the example and the standard of what’s going to win so with the Thunder winning the chip it only further kind of puts into place the way teams are winning in this 2020 in this 2020s decade which is some homegrown stars or stars that you saw grow in front of your eyes and then you brought some role players in went through the trials and tribulations and got over the hump that’s not the Clippers you know we went for James Harden we swung for the fences we we got two guys that were vets in the league in Kawi and Paul George there was nothing like developmental about it you know what I’m saying and so maybe that’s part of the reason why we are where we are in addition to the bad luck obviously in 2021 we had the best chance to win a title in that year and Kawaii got hurt unfortunately but this is like a good thing for us because in my opinion now we just got to move on and look at how we can strengthen this team around the margins and I think that’s what is going to be happening the first act of business for sure is going to be what’s gonna happen with James Harden and his contract i think for sure he’s gonna get brought back it’s just a matter of what price you know what I’m saying how much are we going to pay him and with that contract how much more flexibility are we going to have around him that’s the biggest question for me and after that you know improving around the margins right and going out and getting a power forward that I think will take the physical stress off of Kawhi Leonard i mean not like I don’t think he was overstressed but it’s just somebody that h can guard the Aaron Gordons and those big athletes on other teams and just be an like an OB topend kind of player for us would be great you know what I’m saying um I don’t think Bobby Portoris is that defensively but he would be good just another guy that can score has some size um I’m looking at some of the unrestricted free agents um unrestricted free agents that are playing that position and I mean the list is not plentiful if we’re being honest julius Randall has a player option but he’s making $31 million so there goes that john Collins has a player option for $26.6 million i mean I wouldn’t opt out of that if I were him dorian Finny Smith as a player option for 15 million i think he’s opting into that as well marvin Bagley is an interesting one because he had a really good game one of the playoffs against the Thunder and he showed some signs of life but I mean he hasn’t been a relevant fixture on any good team so I wouldn’t put him in that conversation now Bobby Poris has a player option for 13 million it’d be interesting to see if he wants to test out the waters in the market so I didn’t even realize that Bobby had a player option i think someone that would be very interesting for us to look at though is Chris Buchet because he’s a good athlete he can knock down some open shots he’s on a team in Toronto where like he’s not really playing for anything but development and he’s already been in the league a couple of years i don’t think he’d be bad personally but he was making he was making $10 million a year which is a little much in my opinion for the things that he’s proven but I think he’d be someone we should look at i truly do this past season he played 50 games averaged 17 minutes and averaged 10 points a game to go along with four and a half boards he is from California originally played for Oregon obviously was was sadly injured in that 2017 uh final four run that they had with Peyton Pritchard Dylan Brooks Tyler Dorsy and Jordan Bell but I would look at I would take a real look at um at Chris Buché like is he a starter though on a good team that’s the thing it’s like how many of these guys can come in and start you know and and if we’re talking about in the context of Norman Powell being traded or like Bogey being traded then we shouldn’t even be looking at unrestricted free agents because we’re going to trade for someone but I’m just looking at if we fall you know if we don’t get any of those guys who could we get that’s an unrestricted free agent at the power forward spot i’m looking at the options i mean they’re not great trendan Watford what about Trendan Watford i mean what did he do last year for the Nets he was only making like $3 million he averaged 10 and a half points a game and four boards but only played like half the season so like I don’t know is he the answer i don’t think so the names I mean I could just keep going through the names like the power forward spot in today’s NBA is an interesting one because then there’s Larry Nance he’s an unrestricted free agent i honestly think he would be great for us but you could also play him as a backup center you know Trey Lau is an unrestricted free agent he wouldn’t be horrible jonathan Kaminga I’ve seen some people ask about him should the Clippers go for him i think he would be great because it also segus into the next era of Clipper basketball just another dynamic ball handler he’s very raw but I think he’d be interesting presua is another name that’s on the board potentially he’s an unrestricted free agent i don’t know how I feel about him torian Prince just had one of the best shooting scenes of his career but I think he’s more of a small forward than a power forward uh Gershan Yaveelli I said him I think he would be great i don’t know about him starting but I think he would be really good um because he had a really solid season with Philly but yeah I mean these are the names there isaiah Jackson could bring Kai Jones back if we want but that’s kind of it you know what I’m saying so a trade is probably our best bet when it comes to the margins and then a backup center let’s take a look at who we could look at as a backup center i mentioned Larry Nance i think he could be viewed at as that bobby Poris was kind of being used as that until he brought in Jericho Sims brook Lopez is an unrestricted free agent if he’s okay with being a backup that would be insane click Capella I would love as a backup because he hasn’t really truly made his transition to a backup and he’s has that synergy with Harden having Zoo and Capella on the same team I think would be great you get someone that’s a kind of a lob threat i know he’s really declined in his finishing ability but as a backup center he hasn’t been a true backup center since like 2016 i think it would be great for Clink Capella honestly to come to the Clippers and be a backup i think he’d be our strongest backup since Hartinstein who won a title and then Miles Turner is unrestricted free agent but is he though i thought he had a big contract extension no he’s an unrestricted free agent okay well he’s going to get he’s going to get the money back like he’s he’s going to get paid i can promise you that wow i totally didn’t realize that Miles Turner was an unrestricted free agent he’s going to have some suitors but I think he’s going back to Indiana after that finals run i don’t know why he’d leave mov no al Horford’s an unrestricted free agent but he’s old and I don’t see him leaving Boston we can bring Mason Plumbley back psych deandre Jordan victory lap nope these guys are all old luke Cornett actually had some good had a pretty good season for Boston uh I wouldn’t mind him at all actually and then let’s see jackson Hayes I mean he would give us a lop there and some athleticism off the bench i honestly think he could be an okay backup jericho Sims honestly wouldn’t be a horrible backup either but I think that the Bucks going to bring him back and then that’s about it but anyway I mean those are some of the options not too great but I again I think you got to make note that like the Clippers are going to try to trade for someone and use one of Norman Pal or Bdon Bdonovich’s contracts to do so so we’ll see but yeah overall I think the Clippers are I’m happy that we didn’t get Kevin Durant i just don’t think we need to go double down on more star power for this era of clipper basketball i’ve been very public i don’t think we’re going to win a championship with this era i don’t think Kevin Durant’s going to help us do it uh I think it really comes down to Kawhi Leonard and James Harden if we want to get a better second option and make James Harden a third option I don’t know what we can do what assets we have to trade for somebody like that um and if they want to go a different direction from James Harden I’d be completely shocked considering what he just did for us having an allNBA season so I think the best route for the Clippers is just improve on the margins and be competitive and see if luck breaks our way we can win a title next year but like title is just when you see how young the Thunder are and the energy and the end endurance and the stamina it took to do what they just did it’s hard for me to sit here and say with a straight face that we’re going to be able to do it with two guys over the age of 33 leading the way next year but we can still be good you know we can still be good this is the position that we’re in because of the trade Paul George trade that’s all I have to say it’s just the facts you can follow me on Twitter and Instagram at dimedropper pod subscribe to my own YouTube channel Dimeropper for even more LA Clipper and LA sports content and Locked on Clippers is free and available wherever you get your podcast on the next episode we’re going to be talking about what we learned from OKC winning the title the age-old proverb continues go Clippers

Kevin Durant’s trade to the Houston Rockets shakes up the NBA landscape. Did the Los Angeles Clippers dodge a bullet by not pursuing the superstar forward?

Host Darian Vaziri analyzes the implications of Durant’s move for the Clippers, exploring potential matchups and the team’s offseason strategy. He breaks down how the trade affects the Clippers’ roster construction, focusing on building around Kawhi Leonard and James Harden. Vaziri also examines free agent targets to strengthen the team’s power forward and backup center positions.

Tune in for expert insights on the Clippers’ championship aspirations and how they can navigate the evolving Western Conference landscape.

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