Can Bradley Beal help the Clippers?

Can Bradley Beal help the Clippers?

Good morning and welcome to the NBA daily for July 9th, 2025. Coming up, Law Murray is in the house with me and Esperhenny. We’re going to talk all things Clippers, that Norm Powell trade, Bradley Beal, and we’re going to get an update on his postplayoff tears. [Music] Good morning everybody. Good morning, guys. Welcome back. Well, been a few weeks. Hope you’ve uh had a chance to recharge and uh made it through the draft. Okay. Absolutely not. I’ve been locked in, man. We got we we got a good we got two good weeks left, so let’s get it. Also, I love that you you let me catch you right before you fly out to summer league. Um look, we we got to talk about this Norm Pow trade. Norm Powell sent to Miami. John Collins winds up at the Clippers. The Clippers now have gotten huge, adding Brook Lopez and John Collins to that front court. Um, let’s talk a little bit like what was the motivation here to to move Norm after a almost all-star season last year uh in exchange for John Collins who’s an expiring contract. Well, Norm is also an expiring contract, extension eligible, just turned 32 years old. And I think the reason Norman is not on the team and John Collins is on the team, uh, two two words, Aaron Gordon, like if you saw I’ll give you two more words. Game seven. If you saw how game seven went in Denver, uh, the Clippers with an opportunity to go to Oklahoma City, I think you got to remember the Clippers finished the regular season extremely well, 18-3. Uh, but Norman Pal wasn’t playing his best ball at that point. That was Kawhi Leonard returning to form. That was the defense. They had some slippage in the middle of the year. They got back to defending at a high level. They played desperate ball because they needed every single one of those wins to avoid the play in tournament. You saw how that ended in Golden State’s regular season finale. And I think Norm had a fantastic season. He embodied, this is Lawrence Frank’s words, but anyone who watched the Clippers to start the season could say this. He embodied the meaning of addition by subtraction. Paul George leaves and people think the Clippers were going to be bottom five in the West because they casual and don’t understand how the Clippers get down. And all they did is extend their active streak of consecutive winning seasons. And Norm was a huge part of that. But the concerns with Norm, he’s position locked. He’s doesn’t handle the ball. Great to be running your offense through, especially when James is off the floor, James Harden. And then he’s not the most versatile defender. You know, you got to hide him a little bit. He’s not someone who’s going to break your defense. The Clippers were top five defense with Norm playing a heavy minute low, but you know, it limits how many guys you can have on the floor, how many different guys you can have on the floor. And then came the injuries, backto-back injuries right out of the All-Star break. first the knee, then he comes back immediately injures a hamstring. It wasn’t his first hamstring injury. And so he played his worst basketball in the biggest moment, game seven, only nine points on 11 shots. Aaron Gordon had a he shared the game high with 22 points, but it’s much more significant coming from Aaron Gordon than it is coming from Kawhi Leonard, who also had 22 in that game seven. So the Clippers, they were were determined not to let someone like Aaron Gordon run circles around them in a series again. I think it makes them better in the playoffs because of the roster optionality. It’s just a question of fit now. Yeah. And I think the thing with the Clippers is obviously you mentioned size. Adding Brook Lopez is a big part of that size. Like how different the team looked with Zoo off the floor versus when he was on the floor both offensively and defensively it was so different. So you add Brook Lopez, you add Collins, you have that size. Versatility in the front court is so so important. There’s also the question of like where does the offense come from? And I guess that’s more of a Kawhi Leonard question than anything because Dave and I and Zena, we’ve talked about it over the last couple days. It’s like the the plan they had with Kawhai last year to kind of bring him along slowly and get him to a point where he was comfortable and then bring him in fully. Um it worked. It it felt like that was the recipe moving forward. Is this now saying, “Hey, we’re expecting Kawhai to play more.” Obviously, you’re expecting Kawhai to play more games next season, but are you is he shouldering more of a load next year for them offensively? I don’t know how much of shouldering a a bigger load is really going to be um the case here cuz again, we just saw Norm not not play, you know, four weeks and Kawhai got real comfortable in that time. It’s almost like Kawawaii absorbed the elevated role that Norm had enjoyed for most of the first half of this past season. Um, they’re going to ask other guys to do more as is. I think there’s plenty of Miles um plenty of guys he can eat, but also plenty of guys who can kind of touch the ball a little bit. Uh, they’re going to miss Norm because Norm’s ability to get to the free throw line and to get as hot as he could get. Yes, is going to be missed. Like, this is already a Clippers team that was dead last in catch and shoot three-point attempts, not just last year, but the year before. Like, that’s just kind of how the Clippers are. It’s crazy with James Harden, right? Like James is going to have to involve um his bigs a lot more naturally. You just you just use some roster. you there are going to be a lot more minutes to guys who literally weren’t you know their arch type weren’t on the team last year. Brook Lopez is a reliable three-point shooting big who is still effective inside the arc. They the closest they came to trying that last year was Mo Bomba and Mo was pretty much unplayable like he could not comparable. Yeah, it’s not comparable at all. Right. And that’s a guy who’s going to be your backup five. John Collins is going to be in first and second units playing the four and the five where again he can make threes but he’s incredibly good as a play finisher inside the arc as well and that is going to be the relief for a guy like Kawhai or a guy like James like Kawhai is a guy they don’t ask him to bring the ball up a ton they don’t ask him to be the guy who’s you know they don’t Jason Tatum him for example Jason Tatum you Uh, rest in peace to Tatum’s 26th season. But like when you watch the Boston Celtics, they play through him. Kawawaii has never been asked to be that guy outside of Doc Rivers one season coaching him. Too has always said, “I’m going to have Paul George be the guy.” And when Paul George said he didn’t want to be be that guy anymore, that’s how you get Russell Westbrook and James Harden on your team. So James is going to still be the guy that you play through. Kawawaii is still going to be your number one option. The secondary option is a little bit more upgraded, but there it’s going to involve a lot more zoo. John’s going to touch the ball plenty. And we understand that the Clippers are not done maneuvering yet. I was about to say, where’s the shooting coming from? I mean, this is, you know, this is the big question in the playoffs that every team has to answer. Uh, I think that you can trust the Clippers defense and you know that Kawawaii and James Harden, you know, you kind of know what they’re going to bring to the table, but those shooters that create the space for those dudes to operate in just don’t exist on the Clippers roster right now. And Norm was was at least a guy who could spot up right around those other guys. You had to think about Yeah, you had to think about him as a shooter constantly. Um, I guess that brings me to my question about Bradley Beal. Can Bradley Beal come over? If you know, if we’re we’re recording before, he’s been bought out by the Suns, but the reporting is that he’s going to be bought out by the Phoenix Suns. He’s interested in the Clippers. He’s interested in the Bucks. Um Clippers have a good shot at this. Like, is he able to to to be what Norm was, I guess, is the big question. I think the big question with Brad is going to be mindset. For whatever team he winds up playing for, it’s going to be mindset. I mean, Brad had two different situations in Phoenix. A team that punted point guards and then a team that brought in all the small guards. You know, he had to play with Devin Booker and Kevin Durant on both of those teams. Let’s say he comes to the Clippers. James Harden is a lot more ball dominant than either one of those guys. And Kawhi Leonard is a lot more deliberate than KD is. that is going to be. So if if Brad is like, “Hey, I got to feel my way out as a third option, you know, if the fit was weird in Phoenix, well, it’s not going to be a whole lot more touches coming his way with the LA Clippers.” And that’s if he’s in a first unit. There’s a lot of argument. One thing that Clippers fans got real comfortable with is saying, “Okay, Norm, thanks for starting and doing great while Kawawaii was out, but you need to go to the bench.” because they felt so comfortable with Norm killing second units and right being comfortable again having his own unit where he’s going to get a heavy percentage of the touches while he’s on the floor with certain guys with Brad we saw that not work in Phoenix right so how much of that was attitude and and sort of buy in and that’s what it is about right but would you get more of that with the Clippers right it’s a winning situation you’re coming in you’re you know you’re coming into Kawawaii and and James Harden the success that they had last year where they probably feel I’m assuming the Clippers feel like they had a shot at winning the title last year because of the way they pushed the Nuggets, the way the Nuggets pushed the Thunder. So, you’re coming into that environment. I mean, it seems to me like it’d be pretty easy to buy in on that. That is why offseason conversations for players, especially veteran players, is so critical. If you tell a guy in the off season that we plan on starting you, then the disruption when that changes in the regular season is profound. We I’ve seen it with the Clippers. Bradley Beal played with Russell Westbrook for a year. And you know what? So much of what happened with Russell Westbrook when he left Washington to go to the Lakers correlates with what happened with Bradley Beal when he went to Phoenix. right down to Frank Bogle having to coach those dudes and what happened when James Harden came to the Clippers. Russ spent that whole summer like camp Clippers, camp Russ, I’m going to help you guys and it’s going to be how we’re going to do things because I’m the leader of the team, not just the starting point guard. But when that changed a month into James being on the team, things got disruptive. It’s gonna be the same thing with Brad where, you know, you saw when he came into his season and was expected to be the starter, he kind of shut down. If the Clippers can convince Brad that, hey, look, we might need you to come off the bench and Brad can buy in, then that is going to help him at least offensively because yes, talent-wise, skill-wise, the man can still put the ball in the basket. any decline of value for Brad outside of what he’s making contractually. If you just look at, you know, does he still finish effectively? Is the shot still looking good? Is he still getting to his spots? He can do those things. It’s mentality. And then the big thing that has nothing to do with basketball, availability. Brad, this is too much time. And that is another good way to just look at Norman Pal. Norm was looking like he could be an MIP candidate, some kind of award, but once he missed four weeks, couldn’t get that rhythm back and the team that he left was not there when he got back. Kawawaii was Apex Kawawaii again. That’s what that’s what you got to be concerned with with Brad. What are the conversations to get his mind right? Especially after not just the soulless basketball he played in Phoenix, but we’re talking about the Washington Wizards. We had free Bradley Bill means recently it’s four years ago. He got freed. He about to get freed again. But no matter what, he’s got to be available on the court no matter how those conversations go about his role. Yeah. RIP to the Bradley Beal no trade clause by the way. That thing is Oh man. Hey, wait stretch is not a bad deal though. You know, you can you get paid for him, especially if he has kept him happiest. Exactly. Yeah. Uh, okay. Law, I have to ask you since we’re talking about Bradley Bill, there’s also another uh free agent on the market that the Clippers have been rumored to, and that is Chris Paul, a potential reunion with CP3. I know he’s talked about maybe this being his farewell tour. feel like that would be poetic if it ends with the Clippers. But um what do you think about CP3? Especially because I feel like ball handling, you know, Beiel can alleviate some of the ball handling pressure off of James Harden, but adding another guy like Chris Paul would make a lot of sense for this team, too. Well, I think it would make a lot of sense considering how bad the Clippers were from a ball handling control aspect. The Clippers has said that they had three goals. Uh I I feel like it was more like a 1 A, one B, and a and a two. the two being shooting. It’s like anybody that you add to the team. I think they wanted to make sure that they had shooting threats. They lacked that. That’s why Ben Simmons was slashed from the rotation. Um he doesn’t shoot and he doesn’t even score anymore. So like he lost his utility and he would have helped positional size ball handling, but they couldn’t use Ben because he was a non-threatensively. Uh Chris Dunn basically got shadowbanned by the Clippers by the end of the series. like the Nuggets refused to guard him. Basically taunted him, said Nico Batum should start and game seven, Chris Dunn finally did lose his starting job and played with no confidence in game seven. Um, Bradley would help your ball handling compared to Norman Pal. Norman Pal one of is is a subpar ball handler and passer at his position. John Collins does not help that. Brook Lopez does not help that. Um, Chris Paul makes sense on paper, but Chris Paul probably does not make sense for a Clippers team that does not want to get older and smaller. And probably does not make sense for a Clippers team if Chris is going to insist on playing and being a 30 minute guy still or a 25minute guy. He’s not going to start and he’s relatively position locked. I keep using this term because the Clippers are getting to be, you know, even with Kawhai, let’s say Kawhai misses 20 games, you still got, you know, if you add one more guy, that’s nine guys you got to find minutes for. And you, whoever joins his team, whether it’s Brad, Chris Paul, someone like Malcolm Brogden, has to be actually bought into the fact that minutes are going to be allocated to those who are helping the team win and that’s it. And if there are any other agendas, especially with a bunch of dudes whose contracts are either going to be decided on next summer or in 2027, that’s when Kawaii’s up, then you can’t have that. So, there’s a disease of more. Uh, if guys are going to be bought in, this is looking like a team that will be really good. Um, and Chris can contribute to that or Brad can contribute to that. But if guys are going to be carrying on about what they feel like they’re owed because they were in the league 10 years ago at a high level, that’s not going to work. And so it’s going to be fascinating to see what the Clippers decide on um in the coming days and weeks. I can’t believe it’s 2025, almost 2026, and we’re still talking about Malcolm Brogden on Contenders. What are we doing? Like, come on. We we can stop with that. Uh guys, stick around after the break. We’re going to talk to Law about his player tears and whether he feels any vindication after the playoffs. [Applause] In case you guys weren’t aware, Law does the NBA player tears over at the Athletic. He uh took over after Seth Partnow left. And uh you do it in a little bit of a different way than Seth. You have your own method. That being said, I mean, I I think your peer uh your tears this year were great. Very on target with the way I felt about most of the players. Nobody nobody seemingly too high, right? Like which is really the big thing in a tears. I think we get out ahead of ourselves when we start talking about players. I mean, Anthony Edwards in that one D um which is essentially like the fourth level of level one as a guy who can win a game for you. I thought that was pretty perfect. And I thought the playoffs pretty good example of of why he was there. So Law, I want to ask you um after the playoffs, any changes to your tears? Any regrets about where you finished up on your tier list heading into the playoffs? Man, uh I I will say putting this together was a year-long thing, even though you only see the end project. Like I thought about not just what it needed to look like to present to an audience, but I needed to develop my own methodology. I needed to understand and really change and challenge what I thought about the game of basketball and how individual players fit in that because I’m a big team guy. I don’t look at basketball as a guy alone in a gym. And I think that’s what winds up happening when you start evaluating players. Everyone’s like this guy, that guy. Like it’s he can do this. What does a player look like in relationship to all the guys that they can affect on the floor on both ends of the floor? That is hard. Um, you know, and so Tyrese Hallebertton obviously uh called out, you know, everyone who called him overrated and that was a theme, right? And I will say the best thing that I had going for me is just I had some feedback uh from some people that I really trust, you know, some people at the athletics, some people who work for teams, some people who I just am like, you know, ball and I trust you, so can you beat this list up for me? You know, um and it’s like I think the toughest part is a guy like Tyrese and he plays as well as he did. It’s like, man, he’s got to be a tier one guy at something. It’s like, you know, I I feel good about where he’s at, but I also feel like I could have put him in 2A and no one would have no one would have got mad at me. You know what I mean? Yeah. Um, if anything, I got to if you know, the injuries in this playoffs were tough cuz it’s like I can’t put I can’t keep Tatum where he’s at. I would probably drop Tyrese. Um, and you’ve got Tatum in in 1B, which is essentially you got him like as the fourth or fifth best player in the league. Um and and obviously that injury is probably going to affect that. Yeah. Um it’s it’s tough because Jason Tatum is a guy who I feel like I hate using overrated and underrated. You will never hear that from me unless you guys bring it up first. But the thing with Tatum is I feel like he’s underappreciated for sure. Um people look at him and compare him to guys um who honestly Tatum’s role is so unique to me. The Celtics did not play with a traditional point guard while he’s been ascending to first team AllNBA status year over year over year. Like people don’t understand how hard that is. They’re going to lose that and the Celtics are going to look unrecognizable next year. And that was the biggest things for me. I wanted to emphasize underappreciated and people will figure out why next season. Yeah. Yeah. I wanted to emphasize touches, who guys play through, how they win, how they get to their spots. And every single player, even the guys in 1A, I got three 1A guys, they all have their weaknesses, too, that have to be accounted for. There is no perfect player in the league. There are just guys who are so much better at what their strengths are and using those strengths to affect uh winning at a high level than everybody else. Yeah, I love what you said about how it’s in relation to their team and what that what they provide but also what the team context provides for them. Like I think about what people, you know, people are talking about the Paulo Ben Carro conversation online right now and it’s like man is he worth the rookie scale max but you know they were Orlando was going to pay him regardless first and foremost and second of all like there is a team context that will play a part to how good Paulo looks on the court ball handling shooting etc. Um, when it comes to guys that maybe have moved to a different team this off season, think of Kevin Durant, think of other guys. Do you think they might shift in those tiers next season when you plan on doing this? Well, look, man, the biggest challenge I had putting this together was the damn Luca Donich trait like I’m I’m like cuz you get to a point people used to love talking about guys who are untouchable. That doesn’t exist anymore. No. Okay. The MVP of the NBA, Finals MVP scoring champion was a was the guy who got traded after his rookie season. Okay? Like I think you got to completely remove assumptions that guys are just going to stay where they are. And yes, Kevin Durant has embodied this. Kevin Durant changed teams after his team was in the conference finals with a 3-1 lead. He changed teams while he had a torn Achilles in the NBA finals. We saw that happen. Uh we seen KD change teams in the middle of a season and now we’re seeing KD change teams after not making the playoffs to a team that was the damn two seed and like you have to account for those things. Yes, Kevin Durant is an established talent, but he’s going to a situation that is not established. How does that affect things? And yeah, that is a that is a huge challenge for me because I keep saying it can’t just be about the individual. It has to be in the concept of what that team does. How do they play and where are they going to line him up? You keep hearing stuff like Kevin Durant’s going to be a small forward. What is that supposed to mean? Are you expecting KD chasing perimeter guys around? Cuz I don’t want to see that. KD protects himself by, you know, having bigger or slower matchups defensively. If he’s going to be chasing around, I you got to see how that works. But offensively, yeah, like Kevin Durant, it’s going to be harder to put your bigger guys on KD on that end of the floor. And I think that’s going to be, you know, that that is always my challenge. If that’s the case for stars, role players, man, got the guys who are high level role players, the ones who will make this list. That that’s the fun part is trying to project. We’re doing a lot of projecting and we got four months of projecting left. I was going to ask you, all right, project now, project early. What’s the biggest change between last year and the start of this year? Like, who’s made the biggest leap in your mind? I mean, from the start of last season to the start of this coming season, biggest leap and biggest fall is what I’m putting you on the spot. This is tough. You definitely are. And you know, I’m built for it. You know what I’m saying? You see the jersey I got on today. So, let me tell you something. Um, no one the Thunder don’t win a championship if JDub doesn’t have the leap that he did compared and and I I I love I love that dude. The fact that he played with Brandon Miller’s wrist injury. Brandon Miller didn’t play after January. This dude played two months and won 16 playoff games with a torn ligament in his shooting wrist. And we knew it affected his game because we saw nasty shooting performances. But we also saw him say, “I got I I got an ability to beat the best defenses somehow.” Still, we saw him put up 30 points, 40 in the finals with all kinds of moves to get to his spots, finish effectively, and while defending at a high level. This dude was not just defending guys, his body type. when guys were out, Isaiah Hartinstein, Shet Homegrren, who was taking jump balls and whatnot, it was it was JDub at 65 and a and a stack 215, whatever he is. That dude is special and he probably shouldn’t be in the tier that I had him in. Um, on the flip side, I think y’all got to get, you know, some of these vets, you know, you got to just understand that, uh, the name doesn’t hold up as much as the game. um it it just doesn’t hold up as well. Um so there are going to be some guys who um I got to see something next year. You know what I mean? I don’t think anyone’s ready for how much change we’re going to see in the next two to three years when it comes to the the star power of the league. Like the names got rip the band-aids off. But we are about to in a major way. Like the list of guys, the Hall of Famers who were about to just be out of the league, you know, before 2028 is kind of nuts. Yeah. Like I think about a Paul George, I think about um you know those those guys who they’ve been really good for so long, but their effectiveness, their ability to win is not there anymore. You know, like I don’t know Paul’s I’ll be surprised if Paul’s a 20 point game uh 20 points per game guy anymore. You know what I mean? Um we talked about Brad. like we got to we got to see him get get his get his game back and we don’t talk about Brad like we did when he was coming to Phoenix, you know, like guys, they’re just so important where it’s like you’re just not that guy anymore, you know? Um, and a guy like uh Chris Rosenius is going to be interesting too because now we’ve seen backto-back playoffs where for a while we didn’t see this dude in the playoffs. Now it’s like something always comes up. Availability and durability can’t just be a if healthy. People love to say if healthy and it’s like no if we have a track record of you not being on the floor then it affects these kind of things where it’s like what can you do? Cuz then it also starts to be like well we can’t put you in these situations. We can’t rely on you as our fulcrum of offense because you’re not there. injuries might have sap your physical ability. You cannot keep assuming that what you’ve seen in recent years is going to be what you continue to see in the years coming. And that’s and and and that’s a consideration that we have to make for all these guys. Honestly, the one guy I think of when you mention that is like Zion Williamson. Like we’ve seen him reach heights where you’re like, “Whoa, this guy can be a top 10 player.” I mean, going toe-to-toe in the playing tournament and you’re like, “Wow, this this is the version we want to But just availability is such a big part of him and the Pelicans getting to where they want to go. Hopefully Brandon Ingram will be in a different tier next year. By the way, last year and and dependability cuz the thing about Zion, I cover Kawhi Leonard, right? Kawhi Leonard is injuryprone and has availability issues, but you don’t hear people talk about his work ethic or his will to get the very most out of when he is going to be able to play the game of basketball. and you don’t get that vibe from New Orleans when it comes to Zion, a dude who got suspended because he missed a flight, you know, um that kind of stuff. You got to eliminate that from your and again stuff that doesn’t have a whole lot to do with basketball or even your physical body. Can you be reliable and dependable as a main guy? And a lot of that has to it’s a life thing. This game has That’s why Skinny Luca is gonna be moving up a tier. I’m calling it right now. Skinny Luca is moving up a tier in the 25 26 season. He’s gonna be Andre Aiden. That’s right. Well, all right. Well, um law I will tell you once we once we wrap here that S um about S’s prediction for the Toronto Raptors next year, why he’s so high on Brandon Ingram. But uh go make your flight law Murray. go and read them at the athletic and you can hear them on this podcast all the time and next season’s not going to be any different hopefully. Uh for law Murray and Espar Henny I’m Dave Dor and this has been the NBA Daily. Thanks for waking up with us. [Music] [Music]

The Los Angeles Clippers have made major moves to their roster to get bigger. Dave DuFour, and Es Baraheni are joined by Law Murray to discuss the Clippers big additions, whether Bradley Beal moves the needle, and take a look the Athletic’s Player’s Tiers to see how it held up to playoff scrutiny.

Host: David DuFour
With: Es Baraheni & Law Murray
Executive Producer: Andrew Schlecht
Video/Audio Producer: Grayson Moody

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/nba/

Timecodes:
00:00 – Intro
00:45 – Norman Powell to Heat, Collins to Clippers
04:06 – Leaning on Kawhi offensively more next season?
07:30 – Can Bradley Beal help the Clippers?
09:38 – Is it easier to buy-in with the Clippers over Suns?
11:48 – Beal needs to be more available
12:56 – CP3 farewell tour in LA?
16:25 – Looking back on Law’s Player’s Tiers
19:04 – Jayson Tatum underappreciated
20:39 – The importance of team context
23:30 – Who has made the biggest leap?
24:58 – Name doesn’t hold up as well as the game
26:29 – “If healthy” is a problem

Thumbnail – Kenneth Richmond + Ronald Martinez via Getty Images Sport

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