BREAKING: Bradley Beal is An UPGRADE For the LA Clippers | Los Angeles Clippers Podcast

BREAKING: Bradley Beal is An UPGRADE For the LA Clippers | Los Angeles Clippers Podcast

Well, well, well. After weeks of anticipation, it is official. Bradley Beal is a member of the LA Clippers. The buyout announced on Wednesday morning. He will be joining the Clippers for 2 years, $11 million. What does this mean for your LA Clippers? 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. [Music] Yes sir, you are locking in with the Clips. Thank you for making Locked on Clippers the first listen of your day, your team every day. I’m your host, Darian Vizeri. Born and raised in LA. Been a Clipper fan for 20 years. Been covering the team for five on my own YouTube channel, Dimeropper, and three right here on the Locked On Podcast Network. Your team every day. Make sure you subscribe on YouTube and hit the notification bell so you know every single time we post a video. And of course, listen wherever we get your podcast. Today’s episode is brought to you by Absolutely Nothing. And it’s something to talk about. The Clippers have gotten Bradley Beal. He has reached a buyout with the Phoenix Suns that will be stretching his contract over the next 5 years at $19 million per year. He was still owed 110 million. So, he’s giving up that 13.8 million or whatever it is to come to the Clippers because, you know, I I mean, he’s gotten paid enough. So, he is going to be coming to the Clippers. Going to be reacting to the move and then the pros of it, then the cons of it, and then what the starting lineup and rotation possibilities could look like. But man, oh man, ladies and gentlemen, I am back from Las Vegas. One of the times of my life. I feel like I told you guys all the major conversations I had with Clipper people. I didn’t mention it, but I also got the chance to meet Kobe Sanders and Kobe Brown on the last night late at night at the Arya. So, that was pretty cool. So, to say I went into this trip having not actually formally met any of our players, even though I talk about them and I’m like, you know, the what’s the word? What’s the way right way to put it? I have one of the biggest platforms of any fan, if not the biggest of any fan, right? Does anybody else have a bigger platform across all platforms? I don’t know. But you guys can put in the comments who you think in terms of fans. I know we have like Adam, you know, radio and you know, guys like that, beat writers that get more views and stuff probably. But fan, I don’t know. Uh, all I know is it’s crazy. I hadn’t known anyone. That sounds so arrogant when I say it, but I was trying to make it as factual as possible. But anyway, point being, I didn’t know anyone and then I met Jason Powell. Uh, kind of like I already knew Dante Jones a little bit, but I reminded him who I was. And so now I feel like he’d always recognize me if he saw me. Chris Dunn now knows me, Derek Jones, Brook Lopez, and of course Kobe Brown and Kobe Sanders. So pretty awesome. Go. And but we got to talk about So by the way, summer league very much recommend it. But, you know, I was told all throughout summer league that this was going to happen and the news comes out that we’re signing Bradley Beal. First off, the money. $5 million uh per year. We’ll absolutely take that. Five a.5 million for Bradley Beal who was just making 50. Bargain bargain. you you for people that think Bradley Beal is like bad at basketball now you one weren’t watching Suns games and two have extremely high standards because anybody that’s averaging 17 three and four on 50 39 80 splits right and last season if you want to go a little bit more in depth about the shooting a guy who shot from two 56 12% which was a careerhigh for him in two-point range. Shot 76% at the rim from 0 to 3 ft. 54% from 3 to 10 ft and 50 and a half from 10 to 16. So his only areas that were under 50% were threes where he was 39 which is still really good and then 16 feet to the three ball inside the three ball which is it was he was at 42% but he only takes that shot 12% of the time on average as of last year. So all those shooting splits he’s still a very good player and I don’t need to name stats to tell you what Bradley Beal is good at. You know I this is a guy again another guy I have never missed a playoff game of his career. I’ve watched every playoff game of his career from game one against the Chicago Bulls in 2014. And let me just tell you, I’ll never forget in my Facebook post back then. I was on Facebook like that. I remember saying, “The NBA playoffs are so great.” After game two of that series against Chicago where the Wizards upset the Bulls 4-1, I said about Bradley Beal, “The NBA playoffs are so great.” Cuz for those of us that don’t have League Pass, we can watch every nationally televised games and televised game and realize how good guys like Bradley Beal are. So I actually, for those that don’t know what you and maybe some of you know because you remember how like I told everybody I love John Wall. I was my favorite Eastern Conference team outside of whatever team LeBron was on because I really did like LeBron a lot at the time. He was my favorite player for a while. Which for those that listen to Dime Dropper are like what? Yeah, I know. Long story. Uh we can talk about that another time, but I really like the Wizards back in the day. And so I was seeing their journey and and then personally I think the Bradley Beal before John Wall versus after is very different. So I want to talk about that real quick by the way. So, just to make a very clear statement, good move for the Clippers. Now, what’s going to happen next and how we use everybody, that is where it gets complicated that I’ll talk about next. But in terms of you’re putting a name on, we had nine rotation guys at this before this move, right? We have, let’s say, the starting lineup from last playoffs, which was James, Chris Dunn, Kawhi, Leonard, Zoo, and Why am I blanking? So, oh, Norman Pal. Okay. Right. So, we have those five guys. Oh, no. Norman Pal’s not on the team anymore. So, I take him off. So, let’s replace him with John Collins. Right. Slide everybody down. So, those are our five guys. Then, up the bench, we’ve got Bogey, which makes six. Derrick Jones Jr., which makes seven, Nico eight, and then Brook Lopez nine. We don’t think Amir Coffee and Ben Simmons are coming back, and we know the young guys are probably going to get into the rotation, so we need another backup guard. Bradley Beal comes in. If that’s your 10-man rotation, just like those guys and then order and lineups, TBD, I should My bad. I shouldn’t say order. Rotation and amount of minutes TBD. That’s a really solid 10-man squad. Yes, we’re old. Yes, we’re a little slow, but you’ve got another big four essentially. And yes, people are going to say the Brad, let me let me get to the Bradley Beal part next because there’s going to be skeptics about Bradley Beal. Of course, not probably from our fan base, but around the league. Now, it seems like all the national media people are agreeing that, you know, Bradley Beio slides right in for Norman Powell. He is getting $5.5 million a year. His production actually wasn’t that bad. It was the price that he was or the amount of money he was getting paid that made it look so bad. So, this is a home run for the Clippers. That’s what a lot of media guys I’ve seen say on socials today and on, you know, I saw Sham Shirania, Malikica Andrews, they were speaking highly of it on ESPN. But let me just talk about the other side, which is that people are going to say, well, the Suns were a colossal disappointment the last couple years. Bradley Be had some part in that. Let’s talk about that for a sec. So when John Wall started going through injury issues, the Wizards were terrible, right? And so Bradley Beal essentially got a chance to just go off to just be the number one option because before John Wall was the face of the team. He was the number one option. He was the guy that had the ball in his hands the most in 2017 which was I think when the Wizards should have made it to the conference finals. They lost that seven game series to the Celtics who were the one seed but still Isaiah Thomas led them. They didn’t really have that same continuity that the Wizards had. be a great series to rewatch by the way. But John Wall and Bradley Beal were actually tied for the scoring leader on that team. So again, like John Wall was seventh in MVP voting and was averaging 11 assists along with those 23 points. So when John Wall got hurt in 2018, he only played half the season. Bradley Beal played all 82 games and averaged 23 points a game and was an all-star. And the Wizards made the playoffs and lost in six to the Raptors. But in the next season, it all started to change because that’s when Wall was really hurt. Again, 32 games. Be played all 82. He averaged 26,5 and five and a half assists and was the real man. But their team was garbage. Right. And my friend Will Johnson always says that Dana Altman told him when he played for him, the uh bad teams Oh, bad teams still have a leading score. So that doesn’t mean much. We know Bradley Beal was a good scoreer. I mean, if you if you don’t know Bradley Beal’s game, if you’re unfamiliar with his game, this is a guy that can score from all three levels. Fantastic pure shooter. Has a step back that’s lethal going to his left, but I would say he can step back going both ways. In pick and roll, he’s pretty solid. Much better than Norm. He’s not exceptional like a James Harden obviously, but like I’d say he’s maybe Kawawaii level. And you know, don’t be surprised if you see Bradley Beal drive hard to his left and then throw that pass with his right hand, you know, that across the court to that right corner. You know, I vividly can just see him and remember him doing that so much. And, you know, this is a guy that really kind of has a bag. You know, he can really score one-on-one. So, that’s just and more so than Norman Pal. Will he be as quick in terms of moving without the ball? Probably not. But, can he move without the ball? Can he come off screens and score and work quickly off the catch? Absolutely. I think the funny part about Phoenix is they actually had that in abundance and didn’t have enough of what we had, which is like a floor general like a James Harden or a guy that posts up enough like Kawhai. You can argue Kevin Durant, but I think Kawhai is more postup heavy than Kevin, which is one of the reasons I kind of like his game a little bit more. But Beal is a better player than Norm to me. No doubt about it. We’re talking about a guy, and look, I did say, you know, good team, all good teams or all bad teams still have a leading scoreer. I don’t know if Norman Pal on any team in the NBA would have the keys to average 30 points a game, which is what the what Beal did for a terrible Wizards team in the 2020 season, but he averaged 30 points a game. That’s not like someone to just scoff at. He had the ability in the NBA to do that. And the crazy part is he didn’t shoot that badly. 45 and a half% from the field, 35 from three, and 84 from the line while being the number one option. So, I I think that’s something to cons to talk about. And then 2021, I’ve talked about this season, he averaged 31 points a game with Westbrook. Uh, and but I thought it was, you know, the least effective 30 I’ve ever seen in my life or any player that’s averaged that. But like, what is that supposed to mean? Every single person I’ve seen average 30 was like one of the best scores of all time. So yeah, I don’t consider Bradley being one of the best scorers of all time, but if you average 30 points a game in the NBA on a playoff team, which they which he did, that’s really good. Now, here’s the thing. He’s kind of fallen off a cliff since then, and his defense has not been the same since when he was with John Wall. He was not really playing defense a lot of that 2021 season. And I’d consider him mediocre at best defensively in that season. At best, and mostly when Westbrook was starting to play well. 2022 was the season that really turned me off with Beal when I kind of lost respect for him because they traded Westbrook and they still had a pretty decent team, but his scoring dropped a lot, you know, from 30 to 23. And I get that they had like Koozma, Spencer Denwitty for a bit, Porzingis coming in, but Porzingis played 17 games. Spencer Denwitty and that was later in the season. Den Woody played four 44 games and I know they get didn’t get along and stuff like that but overall like you still had the keys to the car and he only averaged 23 points a game and his efficiency fell off a cliff. He averaged he shot 30% from three, 45% from the field. It was reported that there was like beef and it was like after he got that contract I think that was the biggest problem is the Wizards gave him that crazy contract that he was just way not like 50 million a year like I think Be’s good but that was excessive. So that season he looked like and I can speak in from watching that game against the us where we came back from a big deficit where I thought Bradley Beiel just looked disinterested and he’s the face of the franchise like that just wasn’t acceptable in my opinion and I heard my Wizards fan friends blasting him so I know that wasn’t just a me seeing that thing and then of course the last season I mean at this point he played 50 games he he shot he averaged 23 points but they weren’t very good you know he was just he’s solid you know be still good but He’s an all-star. He’s an all-star level player. And then of course the Suns where he’s been injured. He missed 50. He missed 29 games both the last two years. I don’t think he he I think he’s fallen down. He’s shown some unprofessional moments that I’ll talk about coming up. But overall, he’s just not an all-star level player anymore. He’s like right I’d say you can maybe still consider him all-star caliber. Allstar caliber. Maybe right under that. So, that’s pretty damn good. And then the price 5 a.5 million. We’ll take that all day. Coming up though, going to be talking about my concerns with the be move, including what it does to our defense. I got to tell you a little something about Monarch Money. I was walking around my friend the other day and he literally said, cuz I was talking about things that I’m paying for that I didn’t even know about. He said, “Do you have Monarch Money? Does the job for you.” And what Monarch Money does is it manages your money easier. Whether you’re growing your savings or planning a big purchase or just purchasing a lot of different, you know, TV subscriptions these days, Monarch puts you in the driver’s seat. Driver’s seat. What was what those that know? No. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code lockedmbba 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, Clippers signing Bradley Beal. And boy, I was going way too long with that first segment. I mean, gez, it’s just like it feels like there is so much to say and I have so much to say about Beal because again, I’m not just a guy that watches the Clippers. Like I’ve watched Bradley Beal very closely throughout his career. I’d say of course the years that I watched him the least were post John Wall, the years I was just talking about. So this is one of my concerns with Before we get to the basketball side, his random when he became like a 30-point scorer, I feel like all like the defensive side of his game really fell off. And that’s natural because you’re the number one option. But it was kind of more the effort level that and you know his body language that kind of was questionable for me just looked like he wasn’t trying nearly as hard as the Bradley Beal that I’d come to know. Not he just felt like he after he got it’s it happens you know it’s it’s but it’s it’s just clear I think it’s just psychology like you get the bag you get a little more comfortable. The he knew the team wasn’t that good. like he’s ch like he’s going out there getting buckets but like he’s not going to kill himself and he was getting hurt too as well that matters but when I saw him go to the Suns I was like okay they are redundant he’s going to have to sacrifice me a third option but if he does this team can have a great offense defensively they’re going to struggle cuz I was I was thinking maybe he can return to being a good defender and to be honest the first year he kind of did he was one of their main point of attack guys defensively but I wouldn’t consider him a good defender anymore. And I don’t remember if the league or the media considered him a good defender in the Washington days. I just remember that I considered him a good defender in the Washington days. So my word isn’t law. You know what I’m saying? Especially high school me. But if you were a Wizards fan or you watch Beal closely in those days, let me know what you thought of his defense cuz I thought he was a pretty good defender in those Wizards days. But I’d say when I watched him in the Sun series against Minnesota where he, Grayson Allen, and Royce O’Neal kind of split their time on uh Ant-Man, he was decent. I could tell he was trying a little bit harder than the last couple years in Washington because obviously he’s on a team where he can and he kind of has to because KD and be uh Booker just better scorers than him. But if he’s one of your main point of attack defenders, that’s a concern. So, I don’t think Beal was too bad when he was healthy in the 2024 season for the Suns. And remember, the Suns were the six seed that season. It wasn’t like they were a joke like last year. But I think them not having a center was a big deal. Them not having a point of attack defender better than Royce O’Neal was a big deal. And the big three missing games because at the time you’re going into it thinking Beal’s like a still an all-star guy. He’s just coming off a season where he averaged 23 points a game. on let me check the splits on 51 36 and a half 84 splits again yes his team was 35 and 47 that’s not horrific by the way that was when they were kind of in that middle ground where they’re not choosing a direction to tank so be was decent you know is I mean the defensive rating was 21st offensive rating was 22nd I mean I think be at that point was just a good bucket getter star level player and then of course as I mentioned you go to last uh yeah the 2024 season he averages with the Suns and remember he misses 29 games and the big three missed like they did not play with each other much but when they play with each other they were good so be first season averaging under 20 points in a long time averaged just 18 for the Suns that first season with them but he shot 5143 81 splits so those are really good splits and in the playoffs it dropped a little bit 16 and a half points three rebounds four and a half assists on 44 43 80 splits. The only thing I’ll say about that 204 series against the Wolves is having him as one of your main point of attack guys is not going to be a serious team. And he quit in game four. Like straight up quit. Like he he just fouled out. I mean it was kind of a joke what he was what he was doing. He fouled out. He looked like he didn’t even care. Uh the way it he wasn’t disciplined. You know, when you have when your season is on the line and you’re just fouling like that, it was he got frustrated. It was very clear. He got frustrated and then that was just not right. And then this past season, yes, he was involved in some trade rumors because the Suns were like, “We got to trade this contract.” And it’s just we don’t need Beal. We need something different. Teams didn’t want that contract. So that’s why it led to them buying him out and doing this, you know, stretch provision. They didn’t want him. and his basketball character again just like the the when he was kind of dogging it in the season, he was giving weird quotes in postgame, he just didn’t look very and he kept saying things in the post game after losses and just not doing anything different. So I was just like he seemed so comfortable and satisfied like he doesn’t really care about winning so much. So that’s where I was a little bit questioning him. So this is where my concerns are with the Clippers. A little bit of that. And by the way, before we people are gonna say, you know, people like you said that about James Harden. I said that about James Harden in the playoffs that he sometimes showed low effort in the playoffs and not with Houston, more so the last couple years. I never said that from a in a regular season basis that James Harden didn’t seem like he was serious about winning. First of all, James Harden and Bradley Beal, like there’s levels to this stuff. James Harden is a different stratosphere of player all time than Beal. You know what I’m saying? Just totally different. when I reference, you know, the 30 plus point a game guys that want, you know, those are the best scores of all time. James Harden is one of those guys. So, totally different level of expectation. Harden stuff is in the playoffs that people have criticism of him in the regular season. Dude, he’s consistent. He’s available. Beal, he’s being questioned in the regular season about like, does he even help teams win? I don’t think anybody would say that James Harden does not help your team win in the regular season. But what happens is in the playoffs, it’s a different conversation terms of big games, elimination games, and just the way your team has to be played around built around Harden. Different conversation. But no, no good, you don’t have great no good team has ever been built around Bradley Beiel ever. I don’t think he’s ever been the best player on a playoff team. You can argue 2018 he was. So maybe just 2018. He was not better than Russ that season. Hell no. I watched the games and he was not. James Harden has been the best player on a team that was one game away from going to the finals and probably would have won it. So, there’s different levels to this and even now there’s different levels to it, but I don’t think James Harden James Harden for the most part backs up what he says. You know, Bradley Beal, I was a little skeptical of that. But here’s the thing. The Clippers have shown that they can get guys to buy in. Ty Lou has shown he’s a players coach. Seems that people love being a Clipper these days. Yes, we did Westbrook a little dirty. That wasn’t a tie thing. That was a fully a Lawrence Frank thing. We Tai has done a great job getting guys to buy in. He has hardened resigning. Kawi’s resigned multiple times. Reggie Jackson and Nico Batum had their careers revived. It didn’t work out for John Wall because John Wall just isn’t it crazy if we had John Wall Beal and Gortat now. That’s crazy. But but John Wall just wasn’t that he was he thought he was a lot better than he was. I don’t know if Bradley Beal thinks he’s that much better than he is. But here’s the thing that concerns me. From all the reports, he’s coming in with the expectation of starting and we’ve essentially made him that g like guaranteed to start the season. And that leaves us with a lineup of Collins, Harden, Kawhai, Beiel, and Zoo. Who’s out there going to that that’s going to guard the best player to start games because we know Kawhai is not going to do it. And if he does, people might say, “Well, we have Been Harden now. He can.” I want Kawhai to be the number one guy offensively. And I think that’s the approach we’re going to take, especially because we don’t want to put more of a burden on Kawhai. That was why we got John Collins. So that’s kind of out. So you’re essentially going to be asking Beal to guard the best player on the opposing team for the first couple minutes. Now coming up going to be talking about can we if we can get away with that and what are the alternatives and possibilities that can happen if we do that. All right. If you think this is going to be the last episode on Bradley Beal and the move and what this leads to, you’re tripping because I feel like I need an hour to talk about this. By the way, I did go live after the move on Diamond Dropper to talk about it as well. So, I guess you can say there’s multiple levels of content there. We’re going to be bringing it on Locked on Clippers all week long. Listen, I think one of the biggest reasons we were a top three defense and we won 50 games and I mentioned it incessantly over the course of the last season was our point of attack defense and what bringing in Chris Dunn and Derrick Jones Jr. means and meant. And I don’t know when the term point of attack became so popularized, but if it was 10 years ago, I’d say perimeter defender. It’s just that now because back 10 years ago, you would have the point guard guard the point guard, the shooting guard guard the shooting guard and the small for you know like that positional. Now it’s positionless. So it’s just who like Lou Dort is mostly guarding point guards. You know what I’m saying? And you know that’s what it is. And you’re defending so many pick and rolls. So Chris Dunn and Dererick Jones Jr. are those guys and they were incredible and last year they started a lot of games together and then when Kawhai came back we were starting one of them but we had at least one guy in the starting lineup to do the job of guarding the team opposing team’s best player yes we have John Collins who’s a bigger secondary rim protector and that’s a four next to Zunau yes we have a full season of Kawhi Leonard so that might mitigate some of the concerns. And we do have Jeff Van Gundy who I think will get the best out of Collins and Beal defensively, but you’re not going to make Jon Collins and Bradley Beal like a great one-on-one defender against guards and screen navigation like getting over screens. Like that’s not he’s not a miracle worker. You know what I’m saying? He’s not like a trans he’s not going to have the ability to transform you as a as a person, as a human. We can we can get the most out of them, I think, but that’s not an elite perimeter defense, point of attack defense. That’s you’re hoping that you can score enough points that it’s not a big deal in the beginning of games in my opinion cuz now you have three guys. Let’s say we’re playing against the Thunder. I’m just throwing it out there because the first thing that came to mind. SGA sees Bradley Beal. He sees food. He’s going to say, “All right, let’s go chat. Let’s let’s run some pick and rolls. Uh or let me just ISO this fool.” And he also can choose Harden and Collins to to get in that pick and roll. So, I don’t love that. Truthfully, I don’t like it at all. I don’t want to take away what this identity of this team is, which is defensively. So, if we had Bradley Beal coming in saying, “I’m going to be the sixth man and I’m okay being the sixth man.” I would be doing cartwheels right now because that’s amazing that he would be a sixman of the year candidate. You know, you could argue he might be the best sixth man in basketball. He’s going to still close games most more often than not. You better believe it. But, but I don’t know. He didn’t have great body language partially because he was getting traded though or he was in trade rumors and he knew it but he didn’t have great body language when he got put on the bench and he kept saying I’m a starter in this league. I know I’m not a bench player. So he clearly has that ego because he’s been a star and I don’t want the same to happen what happened to Westbrook where we promised him a starting spot he gets pulled and then he’s a malcontent because Russ wasn’t happy and he got emotional and started playing badly. That’s just a fact. in the Dallas series. He was playing emotionally and badly and it’s part it’s partially because of he was a starter yanked be I just don’t like that we’re making guarantees to him because if he came off the bench it would be so great now there’s going to be people that say well dime Darian it’s not like Derrick Jones Jr. and Chris Dunn are off the team. They’re not off the team, but so what’s the plan? Like we’re going to probably play Beal the first couple of minutes, probably pull him at like the six minute mark or something like that. Yeah, probably like the six minute mark and then when Harden takes a rest because like last season Harden played the entire first quarter and third quarter. I would prefer him not to do that anymore. Let’s play the first 10 minutes and then we get Beal running that second unit and getting his minutes in that uh second unit. And you know, Kawhai came out earlier than Harden most likely. So then you have Beal and Kawhai playing with each other. Sounds really good. The only thing is we still have Bogey on this team. And with Beal, you’re just going to get less Chris Dunn and Dererick Jones, which is and and Collins. I’m saying with Collins and Beiel, you’re going to get less of Derrick Jones and Dunn, which is fine if you’re looking at it from an offensive perspective, and we did need more offense, but you’re sacrificing a lot of defense and you’re potentially playing these guys a lot less. And then here’s what I don’t like as well. If they’re both coming off the bench, that means they’re playing together more. And I don’t love the lack of shooting with them together on the floor. Although Brook Lopez being our backup big mitigate some of those concerns, but by the way, Brook Lopez was dope. I’m going to do an episode on him as well. I got to meet him and finally tell him like I used to think he was one of the most underrated players. His response was hilarious. But yes, we have Brook Lopez and like ideally you we’re playing with Bogey, you know, Dererick and Chris, but I’d rather them be staggered in different units. Personally, I think that’s what makes the most sense, but be coming in and starting puts that, you know, it makes it a question mark. So, it’s all going to come down to Ty Louu at the end of the day and the coaching staff. And by the way, just like being around them, we have a really solid coaching staff in terms of like names. Like Jay Larenga, Dante Jones played in the NBA, was a starter on a conference finals team. Brian Shaw is a champion multiple times in the Lakers, you know, Larry Drew, like he’s had a long history in the NBA. So, I mean, we got a star-studded crew to be honest with you. and it’s on them to really put it together and figure out how to use Beal. And I just don’t love this the the guarantees that are being made. Now, some people were bringing up, what about John Collins coming off the bench? He’s our third highest paid player making $26 million and we brought in a power forward to make life easier for Kawhai. So, I don’t know if he’s gonna be benched. Now, here’s the thing. There are games that Kawhai’s not gonna play where you just slot Derrick Jones Jr. right in there or or Chris Dunn right in there. There’s gonna be plenty of those games, especially with Beal as well. You’re gonna slot one of them right in. But in the playoffs, I don’t know about I said this before and I’ll say it again. No serious team in the NBA. Max Stress is the lowest bar and he’s definitely better defensively than Beal. And they have Moy behind him with Jared Allen. It’s not like like John Collins is good, but he’s no Evan Mobley or or Jared Allen. No serious team starts doesn’t have a point of attack defender that’s great or very good in their starting lineup. With Beal, we’re getting maybe slightly above average. No matter what kind of help defense you have behind you and Zoo and John Collins, if we’re talking championship, uh, no, I don’t think that that’s that can do it. If we’re talking be very good, oh yeah, we can be very good. We’ll have enough offense that it won’t matter and we’ll still have those guys come off the bench. I’m talking about championship. A lot of times I should probably specify that because then it sounds like I’m being much harsher on the team than I am. It’s super hard to win titles. Like I think I speak from that lens a little too much maybe or like I just don’t say it enough. But it’s really hard to win titles. Really hard. So for me, yeah, to be a serious title contender, you need a guy that’s elite starting defensively. Now, of course, my issue with or the thing with us is Derek and Chris offensively just may not be good enough. I think Derek is better than Chris offensively, but you saw in the finals against the Celtics, he was broke, but he had a good enough three-point shooting season last year where you can say he’s worth the shot. And he does a lot of other good things like he attacks close outs. He’s stupid athletic, can have put back dunks. He’s actually a good cutter. So, like he has good, you know, the traits offensively that besides that he’s not like there are other things to him than just not being a very good shooter. He’s not a horrible shooter, I don’t think. especially inside the arc. He had some moments of like making random off the dribble mid-ranges last year where I was like, “What?” And then in transition, he’s a demon. So, it’s it’s just my dream would be if Beal was a sixman. That would be my dream cuz I don’t think we should bench Collins. The whole point of bringing Collins in was make it life easier on Kawhai. So, I’m a little concerned with that. We have Harden, Beal, backcourt, and Collins. Like, there’s three guys you can attack. Now, Collins is not a bad defender, but I just don’t think he’s going to be able to guard the guards. And I think we’re going to switch one through four to start games. So I just hope we’re not digging ourselves holes in the beginning of games with the lack of defense that we have in our starting lineup. That’s my only concern. And if be pouts if he gets benched cuz Tyoo, you know, he’s a trial and error coach. He’ll try something and then so that’s going to be the challenge. But hey man, hopefully we can get it right. We’ll let the coaches that are much more qualified than me do their thing. But if you’re just talking about adding Beal to this team to a 10-man rotation, home run, dude. Home run. And it’s insane to see how many people want to be Clippers. Like, yes, the John Walls and the Rondos and the Boogies. Actually, you know what? Boogie and Rondo were on that 21 team. Like, I don’t think they played no role. I think if you’re in that locker room, you play a role. And and plus Boogie and and see uh Rondo, I almost said Chris Paul. Rondo did have some moments that were good in the playoffs, by the way. Like Rondo didn’t end up having a good postseason, but games three and four of Dallas, he was like switching on to Luca and doing a good job. So that’s a thing. We had Paul Pierce, I know it didn’t like he did nothing, but that was pretty surreal to say he even wanted to be a Clipper. And this is all possible because of Balmer. Like this is all possible because of Balmer. Harden is still an all-star level Harden. You know, Westbrook wanted to be a Clipper. John Wall wanted to be a Clipper. It’s crazy. Am I forgetting anyone now? Bradley Beal. We literally had John Wall and Bradley Beal and John and Beal and Westbrook like and Harden, Paul George, Kawhi Leonard, Brooke Lopez. It’s insane. Yes, we’re getting them a little too late. Some of those flop, but it just again I always talk about keeping these in perspective. Like these people want to be part of the Clippers organization. Like we were nobody wanted to be a part of the Clippers organization before. So Balmer’s like goated. Could follow me on Twitter and Instagram. By the way, the Chris Paul thing, that’s another conversation. I don’t want Chris Paul anymore. Like, we’re good. We’re set. We got enough guards. We got 10 guys. But the thing is, I’m hearing that it’s going to happen. And that brings a whole another set of problems. I like this 10 guy rotation. I just don’t necessarily like Beal starting with this team, but I love this 10-man rotation. I think if you have Beal as a six-man, oh my god. Like, this team is I don’t know if we’re a I don’t think we’re a championship. Well, here’s what I’ll say. I don’t think we’re going to win the championship because I have my own doubts about some of our stars. But in terms of like contender, that roster is a contender. We’re just old. But like we are one of the best teams in the league with that 10. I think that’s a really good team barring injury, which is a risk with Kawawaii and Beal. But and maybe that’s why we’re going to get Chris Paul. That’s just I just We’ll talk about that later. You can follow me. There’s so much to talk about. You can follow and and by the way, takeaways, this is a good move. I’m concerned about the point of attack defense and I don’t think John Collins’s coming off the bench. You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram at Dimeropper Pod. Subscribe to my own YouTube channel, Dimeropper, for my live reaction to or not, well, you know, right after getting be and all my summer league content, which was the best time. And of course, lockdown Clippers 5 days a week. The age proverb continues. Go Clippers.

Bradley Beal joins the Los Angeles Clippers. Is this the move that propels them to championship contention?

Die hard LA Clippers fan and Host Darian Vaziri breaks down Beal’s $11 million, two-year deal and its implications for the Clippers’ roster. He analyzes Beal’s career trajectory, from his 30+ point-per-game seasons with the Washington Wizards to his recent stint with the Phoenix Suns. Vaziri explores potential lineup changes, weighing the offensive firepower against defensive concerns. The discussion covers how Beal’s addition impacts players like James Harden and Kawhi Leonard, and whether coach Ty Lue can maximize this star-studded roster.

Tune in for an in-depth look at how Bradley Beal could reshape the Los Angeles Clippers’ championship aspirations.

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