Sean Cunningham thinks Nique Clifford has the tools to help the Kings this season

Sean Cunningham thinks Nique Clifford has the tools to help the Kings this season

they’re going to subscribe. If only I knew somebody that worked for a major network that could make that happen. Uh, as we we shift gears and talk to KC Sean Cunningham, who joins us right now. Good morning, buddy. Hi, buddy. How are you? Would you watch cat TV? I would, but I’d feel really bad for the person that has to edit all that footage down to at least the entertainment entertainment parts because I mean, cat’s just going to sit around sleeping and licking its you know what for a good portion of the day. So yeah, that’s not that’s not cool. So yeah, that’s true. You can’t do Yeah, you have to edit that out. And of course, everybody knows 50% of a cat’s life is showing everybody their beehole. So you that’s not going to do anything with a collar camera on. But you know, you got to you’re going to pay the editors. They get to watch cats all day. True. Anything’s worse job. Beat it. Beats digging a ditch. Hey, beats roofing. Beats digging a ditch. There’s people out there driving trucks. The backbone of America, Sean. That’s right. That’s right. I I could I could see that. I’ve seen some of those clips online and and uh I I I kind of like when they all get together with their other cat friends and just kind of Yes. You know, it’s it’s like the neighborhood bar except you know, even some ruckus happens on the street and Yes. Can you see the more intimate moments of cats? That I don’t want to see that. Absolutely traumatizing. I think you’d have to edit that out. Have you ever Have you ever explored the science of the intimate moments with cats? It’s It’s rough, dude. That’s what I’m saying. Okay. It’s uh them and ducks. Oh, dude. Yeah, ducks. All I got to say is this. Think of Thor’s lightning bolt. Yeah, of course. True. Right. Yes. How are you? Yeah. We’ll get Chris just said in my ear, “Get to the Ners.” One more thing before we get to the Niners. I do want to publicly apologize. I will be out of I don’t know if you know this or not. I’m going to be out of town for our naked gun screening. I’ve heard and and in our group text um poor poor job on you to say yes. It came on Monday. Literally just one word text that just says yeah. Yeah. It was also my fault when I said Wednesday when it’s a Monday. Yeah. There’s a lot of miscommunication there. Oh, it’s a Monday. So you guys have fun. without me. I mean, God forbid you wait a couple weeks till I’m back. But that is Jason. You know what? We’re just We’re just going to bring you in on FaceTime and uh that’s what I said in the side text. Yeah, it’s fine. It’ll be 4:00 a.m. my time, but hey, why not? I’ll wake up for it. Uh they’ll understand. We’ll see it again. Uh we’re going to get to the Niners. Are you currently Are you on the way down to Niner Camp as we speak? I am. I’m in a uh I’m in the station vehicle with Michelle Dapper and our intern Jacob. And uh we’re in route to a very what looks to be probably the coldest training camp of 49ers or any of any NFL team that we’ve ever covered because it’s uh lot nice marine layer down here in the bay. I think it’ll probably burn off in Santa Clara, but it it just unseasonable. This is like right up your alley in terms of what you like in weather and just it’s it’s for it’s completely foreign to me uh in terms of covering NFL camps to have it this cool. Are you in the uh who’s driving? Uh well, we have Michelle Dapper driving at the moment because uh Are you in the front? Are you in the front seat? And I Yeah, I’m in the front seat. I’m putting my feet up at the moment. Can you put on speaker real quick? You want to speak with them? Keep driving. It’s going to be very difficult. I just said just put it on speaker. Yeah, just put on speaker. Hi guys. Hold on. There we go. Driving away here. How you doing, Daps? Hi. Good. How are you? I’m good. Miss you. It’s been a long time. Everything good. Everything’s great. Just actually got back from Hawaii. So, uh, vacation now is over and now ready to grind. Uh, what are you looking forward to most out of training camp today, Michelle Dapper of KC3? Uh, I want some warm weather, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. Boo. Are you Hey, are you wearing one of those like Columbia blue parkas they use for the uh reports? What’s that? What’s that jivy corner of the freeway where they always go for snow that doesn’t really exist? Blue Canyon. Yes, Blue Canyon. Yes. Are you wearing one of them? I’m not wearing I’m not wearing one of those big parket jackets. Nope. All right. Yeah. Well, miss you. Don’t be a stranger. Come on the show, too, guys. All right. Talk to you later. Okay. Bye. Bye. All right. It’s Casey. Michelle Dapper. Two for one. Isn’t that great? Yeah. Why’d you say miss you guys? It’s just me. Well, I mean, it’s Chris, too, I guess. Well, it’s just it’s just the Royal League. Let’s wrap up summer league, shall we? You were down there. Uh cuz you go everywhere. Um on the I missed you. You were not there. I haven’t been there in years, dude. Vegas is your town. I hate Vegas. I hate that trip. And you know, I hate Vegas. You know, I I the only times I’ve ever been to summer league is when I abs well well one year my first year when I was excited to go and then every subsequent year when I was required to go for sponsor reasons. I I I would honestly rather hammer a meat thermometer through my ears than than I I don’t enjoy walking behind a giant hair dryer, which is what Vegas feels like that time of year. But there’s good basketball. There’s good networking. I acknowledge that. uh anything uh anything special you learned? You got a chance to sit down with some folk. What was your what was your highlight of the trip from a Kings point of view? From a Kings, because most of my highlights were away from basketball, but uh the from a Kings standpoint, like if you’re a fan and you’re looking for anything positive out of the Kings, I mean, Nick Clifford comes as advertised. I mean, I’m I I don’t know about you, Dave, I didn’t know anything about him. We don’t spend a whole lot of time watching Colorado State basketball. Uh but wow, Ricky, to see Yeah. I mean to see his ability as plugand play even at the summer league level and I’m always someone that doesn’t like to take too much away from summer league because that’s just dangerous but for him to be able to fit in and be able to show the ability to give up the give the give the shine to teammates be able to be just a playmaker kind of a two-way player defensively he’s obviously elite as a rebounder um there’s just so many boxes that he checks in terms of what he can bring to the NBA level, whether he’s a rotational piece or even beyond that. So, it’s hard not to get excited and see how he can fit in with a team that could certainly utilize a lot of his skill level. But, um I think one of the things that’s instantly just noticeable about Nick Clifford is just a personality. Like, I think I kind of get the I mean, from a from a media standpoint, when Tyrese Hallebertton was drafted, he was an instant hall of famer from a media standpoint. Right. You’re right. You’re right. Meek Meek Clifford might be in the conversation. He’s probably not the Tyrese Hallebertton type, but from a personality standpoint, especially coup coupled with that of like Max Reno and just his personality, like you got two guys that are just instantly likable, man. Just just incredibly smart, incredibly um personable. Um so they’re they’re they’re checking boxes in in that standpoint. Guys who can fit in, guys who have personality and can bring something to a locker room standpoint. and selfishly as a media member, they’re going to be in just incredibly enjoyable to interact with. Now, that doesn’t mean they can play basketball, but at least in Meek’s case, I think I think he he brings a skill set that can help out on day one. Um, especially for a team that can can utilize some of like I said, some of his skill set, but um that to me was instantly the the thing that just left off the page and hopefully that it trickles into training camp. Sean Cunningham at KC3 joining us. is on the way to uh cover Niner Training Camp, which we’ll get to in a second, along with his colleague and our friend Michelle Dapper. I I’m glad you brought that up because Sean, you and I have been covering this team and been around this business long enough to know I I’ve been I’ve been fighting my internals when it comes to summer league cuz not only did did Nick Clifford look fantastic, ESPN even had him rated ahead of Cooper flagged as far as the tournament went. first team summer league. I also obviously Max Reo, not just his ability to hit the three, his ability to be active in the defensive passing lanes, but also, you know, there was an entry pass he had onehanded uh from the top of the key, there were just some things he did that were phenomenal. So, on one hand, I want to get excited. On the other hand, and you and I both know this, when you look at the uh the highest rate, there’s a list of the highest rated players in summer league, and I want to say the average age was 24. And the Kings whether it was DaVon Mitchell who was a senior. Uh obviously this year they draft two seniors in Clifford and uh and Reo when when and we’ve seen this time and time again when you have older players 22 23 years old in summer league these 18 19 year old players that the lottery picks they’re they’re not grown men yet. They’re still kids and they still have a lot of work to do with their with their bodies with their weight etc. the these guys like Clifford and Reo and others they’re you know Isaac Jones for example these are maybe not all the way there yet but they’re they’re closer to grown men we see them perform well in summer league and then when they hit you know when they start going up against Draymond Green and Nicole Joic and the big boys uh it tells a whole story that being said do you feel like some of this is going to be able to translate into the NBA you feel confident with these guys or at least with Clifford? Yeah, I mean with Clifford for sure. I mean, you just look at the way he rebounds, looks to push, having a playmaking ability from a from a either a two guard or a small forward standpoint. I mean, there’s moments where, you know, I’m not trying to compare him to Scotty Pippen or Grant Hill, but two guys who acted like point guards with size who could also be two-way players and rebound the ball so well. Um, you can see so many of the comparisons of Josh Hart. You can see, you know, why people have been high on him. Now, you know, he didn’t struggle with his shot. He he may I mean he may have gotten criticized by uh summer league head coach Deesh Mystery for not being too aggressive early on especially in the in that first and second game but he would argue as did I you know after going back and having to sit through something I never like to do which is sit through a second watch of a summer league game but no realizing that it wasn’t that he wasn’t aggressive like he recognized especially in the first quarter of that first game against Orlando that Maxim Renault was on a heater I mean he was absolutely carrying the team offensively. And then you fast forward to the second game against the Bulls where Devin Carter, I think he missed two shots the entire the entire game. It was like 11 to 13. Um, you know, he recognized the moment from his from his teammates and he likes to be able to set up his teammates. And I think one of the things that makes him so unique is and and no pun intended, I mean with his name, but like he absolutely is unselfish and and I maybe that’s because he was brought up as a prototypical point guard in in such as his his youth as opposed and then having to, you know, segue more to a wing player. But I he absolutely has that that DNA of being a point guard so early on in his in his lineage that I feel like that that translates so well, especially, you know, you you’ve seen it, Dave, and you made a good point like in terms of some of these young players. I don’t think anyone’s going to go out there and necessarily based off summer league reddraft Meek Clifford and put him in the lottery as opposed to him dropping into the 20s. Um, but sometime guys can be product of their environment and I kind of think of like I mean Devin Carter is a good example of that. he’s so buried on this depth chart and doesn’t really have a defined position. Whereas somebody like Nick Clifford can come in with what’s around him and and contribute right away because of what’s around him and and and having the ability to possibly play three positions, but certainly plug and play at least two positions. And like I said, that skill set is going to be so invaluable for them. It doesn’t mean it translates to camp. I mean, certainly this is a player who struggled after talking to some of his coaches and so many people around him. It’s pretty well documented what happened with him in Colorado and just him having to battle confidence and and he puts in that, you know, that that whole alter ego of mask on and and becoming a different player on the court. He had to learn how to do that. And I think to your point, being a player that’s longer in the tooth, this will benefit him. And I think hopefully some of those confidence issues are beyond him. The summer league certainly isn’t NBA basketball by any stretch of the imagination, but you can certainly see that if he has a confidence to him and he’s given the opportunity that good things certainly come with the evolution of him as a player. Sean Cunningham joining us. Sean, from a media standpoint, we’ve talked about a little bit on the show. You know, with a new regime comes uh, you know, like you mentioned Nick Clifford’s dealings with the media, new regime when it comes to the front office, you get different dealings with the media. Scott Perry’s been phenomenal to us so far. I know you’ve got a relationship with him as well, but we’ve seen some interesting things happen um this summer that have kind of uh I don’t know, they’ve just kind of stumped me. They’re not normal. Uh like the the Jonathan Kaminga deal. Uh some of the some of the things that that were obviously sourced by very uh reputable and respected uh journalists uh here locally as well as nationally. But then you turn around and you’re getting different messages from the from from the base or at least the sources I know I’m dealing with and you’re dealing with. What have you given any thought as to what’s going on? Is that just a media thing? Is there is there multiple things happening? I know I’m kind of curveballing you here, but I also know you know what I’m talking about. Yeah, I mean I think there’s certainly, you know, any journalist there’s responsibility to uh to to vet out a lot of the chatter and the noise that’s out there and and certainly conversations are happening a lot and I think Scott Perry isn’t all too different from Monty McNair and the Wes Wilcox regime in the sense that they want to know the market level market value of all their players and they’re going to have conversations that’s ultimately driven to make this seem better. And I think when you’re a team like the Kings who, let’s face it, they’re not good or very just mediocre, I think, as being a more kind way of saying it, you’re going to you’re going to do your due diligence and you’re going to you want to know what the market value is for every player on your team. That said, I think they’ve identified things that they would like to do, but I feel like they’re in a position, and I think this is I think Scott Perry has has almost said as much, where making the moves that you’d like to make to ultimately bring in talent to make your team better. Saying goodbye to some of those pieces doesn’t necessarily make you better in the in the now. And I think that’s a battle that they’re constantly having to wrestle with, which is they don’t want to do a full reset. They don’t want to do a rebuild. I know that’s like a four-letter word for that organization, but can you retool and compete? And I feel like there is a genuine curiosity with what is existing on this team from a talent standpoint to see what it looks like with a prototypical point guard in in the likes of Dennis Shruder. somebody who can approach the game as a distributor, as a playmaker, but also somebody who is trying to set up so many of these talented scoring pieces on the team. I think that is genuinely a curiosity that they have is how is how it can all fit and knowing that, you know, saying goodbye to maybe some of these pieces that has been rumored about to make yourself better. Well, I always say it takes two to tango and in this case in the NBA with all these aprons Yeah. and in and this new collective bargaining agreement, you almost need three or four teams to make some of these things work. And so, um, you know, I just I feel like they’re going to have constant conversations. I think Scott Perry is going to be very uh transparent with his players about that, but also being fully capable and comfortable with the fact that they can quote unquote run it back with what they have with some pieces that they feel can help the now and help some of these pieces to where if they have to make a trigger move, be it before the uh before the the the mid-season trade deadline or even upwards of next season, like it’s never fully done. So, it’s always constantly evolving the team. So, I I I feel like he’s going to leave no stone unturned. But, it’ll be interesting to see when and if he pulls that trigger, what that move looks like because I think, you know, right now they’re trying to address opportunities to get better, but also they have a roster that they have to fill out. So, um, some of these questions and and obviously staying under luxury tax and some of these decisions that have taken place might be frustrating, but um, certainly it they’re all they’re all you understand what they’re trying to do, and that’s remain under the luxury tax because let’s face it, no team uh should go into the luxury tax, especially if you’re battling uh with a playin style play in tournament record, if you will. You’re not a top five team in the West. So you if you’re in the luxury tax when you’re around the 7 8 9 10 seeds um that’s just irresponsible. Before one last thing on the Kings before we switch to ners would it be fair to say yes or no that the the the big storyline when it comes to the depth chart with the Sacramento Kings in the offseason is they need a true point guard the Dennis Shrutder thing and all that. That’s probably been the number one thing, right? Yeah, 100%. And I and and it’s he and and Scott made it he he slipped on the first broadcast by saying, you know, he was asked, you know, what does this team still need? And he went with point guard even after signing Dennis Shruder, right? And I I think he might feel that that could be on the roster. Maybe it’s the likes of Malik Monk who statistically comps out very similarly to what Shruder does and maybe even somebody like Nick Clifford who can who can fill in there. They’re probably not. I think they’re still kicking the tires on Russ Westbrook, too, by the way. I agree. Yeah. Yeah. And you and and you could throw Malcolm Brogden and whatever else in that scenario as well. But um when I asked him literally a day after those conversation that that that statement that he meant thinking that he might go down that same path of saying point guard saying what is it that this team needs and his answer to me was time together. Ah so it was a little bit of a pivot there. Um I I I do think they want point guard depth for sure but certainly they’re very heavy at the guard uh at the guard spot right now. Well, and so I was thinking about this a couple days ago cuz it has been the through line. They need a point guard. They need a point guard. They need a point guard. Okay, fine. Even though you’ve got pseudo point, you know, Malik Monk, Shruder now, Devin Carter, you you’ve got Nick Clifford, Keon Ellis, you’ve got guys, oh, by the way, you have a center that averages seven assists a game. Moving on from that, I I got to be honest with you, Sean, and and and maybe talk me off the ledge, but I’m starting to get PTSD here from training camp last year, sitting across from Monty McN going, “What the hell are we doing at the four?” And I don’t even remember what was it, Anthony McDaniels or Antonio, whoever the hell it was. Jaden McDaniel. Jade McD. Yeah, whatever. Fle, you know, who whoever. And I I know their thought process is, well, you know, that’ll get D. Rosen and and and and and Lavine on the floor. We’ll go with the point. We’ll slide Keegan to the four. But dude, Keegan’s not a four. I don’t think he’s a four. I’ve never thought he’s a three. That’s where he’s best at. I think I think we’re we’re doing this point guard stuff. And by the way, I I I don’t think we’re going to be good this year, so ultimately it doesn’t matter. But Jesus, how is the four not the big point of need for this team? By the way, there’s no depth at the four. Yeah, and I agree with you. I mean in terms of having point people will say point guard you know easily the most most important position in basketball but in NBA basketball having a stretch forward that’s also offers some rim protection is not only a unicorn you could you could you could argue that it might be more important because it’s so much it’s literally been that that that mythical unicorn that you cannot find for your team especially with the pieces that you have around it. And if you’re going to have somebody like Demon Sabonis, finding that unicorn is almost paramount. Yeah. Compared to the point and to hear that you need a starting point guard as well, like finding those two things is almost impossible. So, completely agree with you and you know, obviously, you know, shooting is at a premium and having Doug McDermott back that’s nice and all, but we’re talking very end of the bench type type roles. I mean, I don’t with respect to Doug McDermott and some of these pieces that they’ve added, um, you know, Drew Eubanks, Dario Charich, if he’s still on the team come training camp or even survives training camp with the addition of of having someone like Isaac Jones around, like these are guys that in my mind don’t necessarily factor in to the rotational piece from a consistent basis. So to me, I still feel I know they’ll argue, hey, it’s positionless basketball, but they very much need to define some positions on this team because you have so many combo guards and you have some players that are able to play multiple positions, but they’re kind of the master of none, right? Like there’s not the you’d rather have somebody who’s more of a defined four. And maybe what they’re getting to is having Demon Sabonis more of a defined four as opposed to a five. I know he’d prefer to play that way. I just don’t think that they’re built that way. Yeah, but even if Deon Sabonis is your stretch four, he’s no ri protector. How far are you away from uh training camp? You still about an hour out? Yeah, about an hour. We’re We’re We just passed Walnut Creek, so we’ll see how things go. Can you do me a favor? Yeah, I can do Yeah, absolutely. Hey, uh so we because you talked way too much and it totally wasn’t my fault. Um we’re it’s break time. Uh can can I call you back in four minutes and we talk about camp a little bit so I don’t let everybody down? Is that okay? That you’re you can absolutely do that. Oh god, I love you so much. I’m going to tickle you when I see you. All right. Thank you, buddy. We’ll call you in a second. That’s Sean Cunningham. We’ll take a break. We’ll come back and uh I don’t want to let you down. We’ll get into some training camp stuff with Sean in the second part of our hour with Sean Cunningham right here on Fact House Sports. On the move? Got somewhere to be? Take Sacramento Kings basketball with you. The second.

KCRA 3’s Sean Cunningham joined The Carmichael Dave Show with Jason Ross to share his observations from Las Vegas, explain why he thinks Sacramento Kings rookie Nique Clifford can make an impact at the NBA level, dive into the current state of the roster, and much more.

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