Henry Turner: Nique Clifford is “Doug Christie 2.0”
Of course, we need some front court help as we do on this show right now. And that’s why although he was a more of a guard, he’s so big. When I see him, I think of him as a forward, but he was Mitch Richmond’s backup, of course, with the Kings from Las Vegas, the highf flyier, Henry Turner. What’s going on, HT? Man, what’s happening, brother? What’s going on? Will you tell us what’s going on in in in Vegas? Are you keeping Kyle Draper in line? Yeah, that’s a that’s a huge pass, you know, on the Could be the other way around though. Ah, you know, it could be the other way around. HT, starting with the uh the game yesterday. Uh, anything jump off the page to the highf flyers eyes? Good, bad, ugly, you know, what what what’s your your number one takeaway from yesterday’s game? Uh, fellas, it was uh pretty much 5050. Uh, you know, I I’ll start off with the young guys. Young guys look great. The young guys look great. Uh, you know, the big fella Max, he started off, man. The first five, 10 minutes of the game, he looked like a minimum boy. Mhm. I mean, the the the the dude scored and left hand hook, right hand hook, drop stuff, uh, dunk at the basket, screen, pop out three. Look great. Looked great. Um, the young kid Nee I I just come to conceive that this dude is Doug Christie 2.0. Really? Yeah, he Doug Christie 2.0. He about 66, 67, long, lean, lanky, uh, you know, very poised. Uh, don’t shoot too many shots, but makes the right play. Will attack the rim. Uh, aggressive player on the defensive side. You know, I was very impressed with both of those guys debut the highly with us. Henry, one of the things that stood out to me and you you touched on it. I know Maxim Reo didn’t face very good competition yesterday and there’s a lot of questions about him going forward, but his offensive game, you mentioned some of the variations of shots. He’s got a very refined offensive game for such a young player, doesn’t he? Yeah. Uh his footwork looked good. Yeah, he definitely looked good down there in the low post. I mean, being 7 foot, being able to shoot with both hands, that’s a plus. Uh, in in today’s game to where it’s all about three-point shot, being able to set that high pick and roll screen, step back and knock down the uh the open three-point shot. Very impressed with that. You know, I I probably say the most impressive thing about him to me, of course, he’s 71. He’s long, his train smokes, dude, is just I mean, his arms his arm arm span just stretches out from, you know, compared to Texas. But at the end of the day, he’s able to move and slide his feet. He can slide with guard. That’s interesting. Joined by the highf flyers straight out of uh Las Vegas, of course, on the strip doing what he does. HT, one of the things that I think uh you know, going into yesterday, a lot of people want to see was Devin Carter. And of course, you being on ground zero, you’ve had an opportunity to kind of hear the rumblings and the mumblings. Of course, social network and everything. A lot of people wasn’t pleased by the way Devin Carter played yesterday. What’s your take on DC heading into the next game? I’ll tell you this. Uh he he he had a hard outing. You know, I I I think DC was really trying to show and prove what he can do out there on the basketball floor. I think he tried to score the basketball too much. uh he would have came out and just tried to facilitate and get other guys involved and pass the basketballs, he would have had a much better success rate. But, you know, you got to understand the dude missed all last year. He didn’t get a chance to come out here and play. So, this is pretty much his rookie debut. He struggled a little bit uh early on, but uh I’m willing to pretty much watch that one and see what he’s going to do tomorrow. I think tomorrow is going to be a bigger spotlight on him because he he definitely, you know, struggled and had rust on his game straight out the gate. Henry, I was saying that Devin Carter, you know, he’s on the smaller side for an NBA player today. He just he needs to make shots and Drapes was saying, “Yeah, well, his shot selection wasn’t great yesterday.” What’ you think of that shot selection wasn’t great. you know, he still was trying to get all the way to the basket, trying to go up among the trees and score. Uh it didn’t look like he was comfortable with the three-point shot. He took a couple uh you know, couple of air balls and then the uh you know, some late uh late shot clock uh shots, but nothing looks fluent for him out there, you know. So, like I said, I’m I’m willing to give him a pass on that one. Tomorrow’s going to be a big day for him. Uh and you know another guy that say okay was out there and you know he played halfway decent but he’s another one that I think that tomorrow he’s really going to have to have a better show. HT I for the lack of my knowledge and I I wanted to look it up. I don’t remember summer league being around when you came up. I can only remember like late 90. Yeah late 90s when summer league was around. With that being said, what what what would you be looking for uh as a coach, as a scout? What are you looking for when you through highf flyers eyes? What are you looking for from some of these guys at summer league? What what what are you what are some of the tangibles that you are uh you’re pleased to see and some of the things that you might not want to see? I tell you what, number one, Jay, summer league was around. I I didn’t play with the dinosaurs that long ago. Okay, just checking. Just checking. Our summer league was uh in Utah and we had summer league in Orlando. Okay. So, you know, you weren’t part of the Boston version of it, huh? No, some league was still up and moving. But no, when you’re like a a GM and your coach and your front office, you just want to see how guys play, you know, and when you have the young guys, you want to see if they have that deer in the headlight look or do they have some type of sense of what’s going on. Are they making the right play? Are they making the right read? You know, just like uh Lee the other day, he didn’t make all of his shots, not at all, but he took the right shot. He took the shots that came to him. He didn’t rush anything and wanted to see how guys play out there on the floor. You know, their basketball you could make an extra pass or whatever. So, you know, for for our young rookies, both of those guys got passing grades yesterday. All right, Henry, at the OKC Summer League game, they’re playing the Nets, and I don’t know if you saw this guy by the name of Eric Reynolds II, there was a jump ball at one end, and he got the ball and he laid it up and in, and he scored on the wrong basket. We’re just wondering if the high-f flyier ever, ever in your illustrious basketball career, stretching back to youth days, did the high and I say, no way did a highf flyier ever score on the wrong basket. Well, you know what, fellas, that I’ve never been 100% on anything in the NBA or in my basketball career, but I am 100% on that. That means that means you have a very uh low attention span. When you don’t know what basket you’re warming up on, when you don’t know which way, you know, your offensive basket is, you’re not paying attention at all. Yo. Now it’s kind of looked down on that, I think. Yeah. Yeah. The the Rocky Mountain mountain review. Is that what you played in? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay, baby. That’s what I’m talking about. And gave them numbers, Jay. Look, it says I’m looking the Salt Lake summer uh league, which I thought started in the late 90s. In 1990, after sending a team to California summer league, Scott Leaden, the Jazz director of ops, invited Portland, Phoenix, and the Kings. Yeah. Dang. But boy, HT was there and saw late getting it in. Yeah, I bled there and I bled in Orlando, too. You do you remember anything from that? Yeah, man. Of course. Like what stands out? Um just you know I um me and Cliff Robinson became real good friends man at that particular time. Uncle Cliffy. Yeah. Yeah. And uh when me and him became real cool, man. But it it was just summer league, bro. You had to go there and ball. It was a bunch of guys that trying to make you know their lifestyles in the NBA and you had to show the kids the law. So I mean it was definitely a dog fight. Mhm. Henry, what what can you tell us about how you personally are feeling about the Kings off season so far? Uh, specifically the the Shruder acquisition. Uh, I look at him as a guy that can help. Mhm. You know, what are we going to do with him? Are we going to start him? Is it going to come off the bench? I have no idea. You know, I mean, I I know I know we were always talking about the Kings and the point guard, but I’m looking at the roster like, okay, Malik Monk is still here, right? I’m looking at the roster saying that Keon Ellis is still here and we still got the rookie. He’s here. So, I know we need a we quote unquote we need a point guard, but we have point guard. So, I mean, are you going to let those guys fight for a starting position or are they going to automatically just come in and just give it the stroke? Mhm. Last one for me, HT, you know, because I uh I always enjoy the conversations that we have. What does the highf flyier do when he’s in Vegas? Right now, fellas, I’m sitting in my room. I’m overlooking the resort. They have, let me count for you. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine pools. Nine pools at resorts. What? Yes. Nine pools at the resort. So, I’m sitting up. I’m facing the Bellagio. I’m facing the wind. I’m looking at fire. I’m looking at the strip. And I’m just sitting down looking at people in pool having a good time. Will you get to see Do you see the fountains from your room? The Blagio Fountains. Yeah. Wow. That’s nice. Put my boy up there in the penthouse. That’s what I’m talking about. Yeah. Well, thanks for your time. I know. Not the penthouse. Let’s make that clear. I’m not in the penthouse. I think you’re already on today on the station. So, we appreciate you making time for us as well. Enjoy your stay, HT. Uh, we’ll talk to you soon. I Flyer. Thank you. Yeah. Hey, hey, hey. Anytime, fellas. I tried to come on the other day, man. We was having technical difficulties. That’s all right. Anytime you need me. All right. We appreciate it. Thank you, Henry. All right. Yeah, the highf flyierly wondering about that point guard situation and some people wondering why
Former King and Kings radio analyst, Henry Turner, joined Jay and Whitey on the Drive Guys today to talk about his first impressions of the Kings new rookies following their strong start against Orlando last night.
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