Why The LA Clippers Won’t STRUGGLE Without James Harden

Why The LA Clippers Won’t STRUGGLE Without James Harden

On today’s show, I’m going to let you know why games without James Harden won’t be as big of an issue this season. 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 Network. your team every day. Yes, sir. You were locking in with the Clips. Thank you for making Locked On Clippers the first listen of your day. Your team every day. I’m your host, Darian Vizer. Born and raised in LA. Been a Clipper fan for 20 years. Been covering the team for five on my own YouTube channel, Dime Dropper, and three right here on the Locked On Network. Your team every day. Make sure you subscribe and hit the notification bell so you know every single time we post a video and you can listen wherever you get your podcast. This episode is brought to you by Game Time. Game time is the best place to get great deals last minute on tickets. Just download the Game Time app and use the code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase. All right, ladies and gentlemen, in this episode, we’re going to be talking about why James Harden won’t be a guy where if we don’t have him this year in a game, we’re just completely screwed. And I think that’s because of a healthy Kawhi Leonard, the addition of Chris Paul, and Bradley Beal. So, we’re going to be talking about why I believe that those three guys are the main reasons. Let’s begin with the first, a healthy Kawhai Leonard. Last season, throughout the course of the regular season, James Harden was our best player. James Harden was our only allNBA player. And we knew going into the season it was going to have to be a James Harden borderline carry job in terms of the offense. We really didn’t have anyone else that can really run the offense except for I guess you can say Kevin Porter Jr. coming off the bench for the majority of the season. He hadn’t really proven anything on a winning team. Now, of course, he actually ended up playing better than probably I and other fans gave him credit for. You know, I thought I was I was pretty harsh on him because I just didn’t think his game translated to playoff basketball, but he had some really good moments with the Milwaukee Bucks, too, after the trade. But I’m still not fully sold on Kevin Porter Jr. being a part of a rotation that actually is a championship contender. James Harden was really the only guy that could was a highle creator on our team last year. So without James Harden, we’re lucky he only missed three games, we really just didn’t have a replacement for him. And the minutes without James Harden just weren’t very pretty. But one of the biggest reasons for that was that we didn’t have a healthy Kawhai Leonard. At the end of the day, Kawhi Leonard is the best player on this team. And having your best player healthy for the majority of the season, which last year we did not have, makes a difference. So, the simplest reason why we’re not going to be as, you know, James Harden or death this season, is because Kawhai’s going to be ready from day one, barring some, you know, injury in training camp or something. We’re gonna have Kawhi Leonard healthy and that’s going to make us not only play a slightly different way as Tyoo confirmed during our draft party, but it just takes pressure off of James. It takes a load off of James to the point where, you know, now even if James does load manager, we do choose to rest him some games and that’s not his MMO at all. That’s one thing I respect about him. He always wants to play. We have Kawhi Leonard that we can, you know, he can obviously run some pick and rolls. It’s not his best skill being a pick and roll ball handler, but it’s not like he can’t get good looks in pick and rolls. And then of course, just having an isolation specialist, a guy that can create his own shot at the highest level on the team throughout the course of the season, that should really make James Harden’s life easier. But in the context of if we don’t have James Harden, we’re not going to be dead in the water this season because we have our best player back. So that is a really, really special thing. And I’m hoping that Kawhi Leonard can stay relatively healthy as well. So, James Harden last year, as everybody knows, 23 points a game, six rebounds, nine assists, a steal and a half per game on 4135, 87 splits. Now, I expect those numbers to be a little bit down this year just given the talent increase that we have, given Kawhi Leonard being back. But having Kawhi Leonard back, I mean, that is the biggest thing, you know, and as I mentioned, it doesn’t just apply for the games that Harden is out, for the games that he’s there, you know, you have your best player back. You have a guy he can throw it to in the mid post that you can get the ball to and say, “Go score for me.” So, the biggest reason why we are going to be fine, and look, I’m not saying that our offense looked great even with Kawhi Leonard on the floor and James Harden off of it last year, but I think, and there’s guys I’ll talk about later in the episode are going to help Kawhi Leonard as well. But just simply put, when we’re talking about the context of throughout the season, you know, Kawhi Leonard only played 37 games. So those other 45, we didn’t have him. And it was a lot on James Harden. And credit to him. He did such a spectacular job leading us. He earned his allNBA selection. He really had to me his best season since 2020 2021. I would even put it over the 2023 season in which he was great. You know, he helped Joel Embiid get an MVP that season with that lethal pick and pop combination. But Kawhi Leonard being back, I mean, yeah, that’s why for me it’s no excuse with James Harden in terms of getting burned out or working too hard, you know, and I think there’s a lot of Clipper fans that have seemed very low on Kawhi Leonard’s ability to create his own shot or create shots for others. And yeah, Kawhi Leonard’s not the best passer in the world. He’s not as good of a passer as some of the guys that maybe he’s compared to all time in terms of small forwards, right? But, you know, we’re talking about a guy who still has averaged as many as five assists per game in his first two seasons with us. And I don’t see him averaging that many with James Harden on the team. Last season, he averaged three, but I see him averaging four assists per game. That’s what he averaged in 2023 and 2024. So, four assists per game. And plus, assists aren’t the only way to judge passing ability. You are not a better passer than someone strictly because you average more assists than them. I think passing is very much an eye test thing. It’s very nuanced in terms of the way you evaluate who a better passer is than somebody. Although I will say Magic Johnson has the highest assist per game average in NBA history. And I strongly believe he is the best passer of all time. But yes, Kawi Leonard being healthy is the number one reason why I believe that even if we don’t have James Harden in games, we are not dead in the water the way we were last season. But coming up, maybe an even bigger reason why we’re going to be fine without James Harden. We have another pick and roll Mount Rushmore guy on this team this year. Going to be talking about the impact of Chris Paul coming up. I got to tell you a little something about game time. We’ve all been there waiting to see if we’re going to go to a game last minute. You don’t know who can come with you. You don’t know if you’re going to go alone. You don’t know if you even want to go. 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Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code L K D O NA for $20 off. Download the Game Time app today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. All right. So, talking about why we won’t be dead in the water this season without James Harden. You know, somebody I didn’t even mention in that first segment. If it’s a Zubots, you know, we talk about Kawhi Leonard being fed and being able to get his own shot. We need to totally change the way that we approach games to start the season in terms of what we consider if it’s a Zubots as a shot creator. Cuz yeah, you don’t think of bigs as shot creators in the sense of like oh setting other guys up or you know running pick and rolls obviously unless you’re Nicolola Yokic. But when we’re talking about generating our own shot, cuz that’s what Norman Pal wasn’t great at or isn’t great at, if it’s a Zubots is now a guy that you can dump it down to and he can score one-on-one against just about anyone in the league. And by the way, last season, just to prove my point, we were 0 and3 without James Harden. 0 and three. So we didn’t win a game without him. And again, we’re lucky that he don’t that he played 79 games. So, we got to be prepared for him to play less this year. And if I’m being honest, I would prefer him to play around 70. You know, get some rest days. And I’m not pro resting. I just think James, the way he plays is so taxing the way he chooses to play, which is a lot of having the ball in his hands and running the offense and a lot of dribbling that he needs, you know, some games off. And it’ll be hard to convince him to do that, but we’re playing for the long haul. We want him to be rested in the playoffs. We want him to not have the, you know, he’s out of gas conversation like we talked about in game seven. But Zubots is a guy that now we know cuz it kind of was like something that manifested over the course of last season where we got more and when I say we, I mean the coaching staff became more trusting of it Zubots in the post. Right. I’ve talked about at length and on this show. I’ve beaten it like a dead horse. I Zubots took his game to another level offensively when he added that left-handed jump hook to his repertoire about two years ago. Now you can turn over either shoulder. You’re pretty unguardable in the post. There aren’t that many guys in today’s NBA that can turn over their shoulder in the post, which is a very underrated skill that we don’t talk about enough when it comes to skill sets because teams used to just hug Zubots’s left shoulder and then he would just travel or not know what to do. So now we have a guy that we can dump it down to in the post and he can get his own shot or what we’re seeing more of now is draw double teams, which is exactly the whole point of what the pick and roll does. Cuz what the pick and roll does is you set a screen, someone’s got to help unless they’re going under the screen. And James Harden, he’s such a good shooter that teams obviously will go over the screen in which case somebody whoever is guarding the roller needs to step up, which that puts two on the ball. And you know the basic math, what happens when you have two guys on the ball? Somebody is open. And that’s the whole point when you post up. If it’s a Zubots, you’re going to draw two on the ball. Now, if he can make the right reads out of that double team and we can space the floor well. I thought sometimes we had really poor spacing last year on some of these double teams. That’s something that definitely will get better with the addition of Bradley Beal and Brook Lopez. Although when Zoo is in the game, I don’t see too many minutes of Brook Lopez. But the whole point is to get two on the ball. If Zoo can make those reads out of pick out of the post, then we’re getting good shots. And I think now going into this season, we know he can do that. You know, this is a guy who got a triple double at a game I went to last season. You can check out that vlog right from the wall. He showed us he could do it. So now the coaching staff should have more confidence in him to do that. So if Harden is out, more Kawawaii, more Zoo. But I honestly think we should still go through Kawhai and Zoo a lot even with James Harden to just lessen his load. But I think the main reason why we’re so fine without James Harden in certain games this year. Now again, same thing I said about the Kawhi Leonard episode, why are we going to be able to survive without Kawhai? I’m not talking about the highest level to do what we want to do, which is win playoff series. We need James Harden and we need Kawhi Leonard. You take one of them off this team, we’re not winning a series in my opinion, especially Kawhai. But CP3 does a lot of what James Harden does well even now. Does he have the scoring ability of James Harden? No. Did he ever? No, not to that level. Does he now? Of course not. He’s 40. But can he still generate a good look and pick and roll for your team? Without a doubt. Nine and seven last year. The Spurs offensive rating would have been, I believe, it would have been top half of the league in minutes that Chris Paul or was top half of the league in minutes that Chris Paul played. CP3 is a pick and roll god. I’ve talked about this before on this show. I think James Horn and Chris Paul alongside John Stockton and then I don’t know who takes that fourth spot are the best pick and roll players in NBA history. And if you’re wondering like what makes them so great at it, the first thing is you have to go over the screen with the guys I just named. One of the reasons why we didn’t generate the same kind of offensive advantages in pick and roll and Westbrook was our point guard is because teams consistently go under the screen. So then you’re not needing that guy who’s guarding the roller to step up. you go under the screen, invite him to shoot. James Harden and Chris Paul, they’re good enough shooters. You have to go over that screen. So then it forces a defender to step up. But it also really just depends what coverage they’re running, right? And what teams love to run these days is the drop coverage, which is where they’re big drops to protect the rim and you rely on your point of attack defender, whoever’s guarding the ball to navigate and get around that screen. the guy that’s the big the big man that’s guarding in drop coverage might have to just take a step up though towards the ball handler to eliminate that shot right away. But what drop coverage does is it invites teams to shoot mid-range shots. Why is that? Because the most efficient shots in today’s NBA are layups and open threes based on the math, especially corner threes. teams want semicontested or just twos in general, mid-range twos, because again, like the whole mid-range is a lost art thing. I think it’s a lost art in terms of like being emphasized at all levels and and leaguewide, I believe that less people are shooting that shot than ever before. But if you look at the great players in our league, look no further than our best player and then the best player on the team that just won the uh championship in SGA. You need that mid-range shot for multiple reasons, but one of them being in pick and roll in drop coverage, it’s there. And James Harden chooses a slightly different approach in drop coverage. He more so goes for that floater. And sometimes he’ll take that mid-range nowadays. But I think it’s interesting that James Harden is on that pick and roll Mount Rushmore for me. And he’s in in his best years, he wasn’t shooting the mid-range. That just goes to show how great James Harden was at the rim. How good his three-point shooting was and how great his passing was. And also his floater game. The floater is something he’s brought back the last two, you know, with the Clippers, honestly, with with Philly and with Brooklyn. He wasn’t really shooting it anymore, which is very weird. But CP3, you know, everyone knows and Clipper fans know the best when he’s coming off a screen and he’s invited to take that mid-range, that shot is money, especially going to his right. That right elbow or he turns his body in the air and, you know, that squares to the basket. I mean, how many points I would like to see what percentage of Chris Paul’s points all time came on that right elbow mid-range against drop coverage defense. I mean, it is a he’s just a killer of drop coverage with that shot. And of course, you know, going left, he’s not as strong, but if you give him enough room and he can step into that shot, he can take it all day as well. So, that’s why and besides that, that’s the scoring aspect of it all, but he’s also got a good floater, CP3. And this applies to Harden as well. Their pocket passes are just pristine. the timing of when they throw them, the amount of weight they put on them so it’s easy for the roller to catch, the way that they just find a way to get it in the pocket because, you know, you got long arms and hands if they’re defending it well trying to get in there. They just do a great job of timing that pass and making the defense think that they’re going to shoot and just dropping it off at that right moment. You know, they do a great job of using their eyes to not telegraph plays. Young hoopers, the eyes mean a lot. You know what I’m saying? I got away with it when I was a kid cuz I had glasses so people couldn’t see what I was looking at the time. Uh to some degree I noticed that it was really funny when I got contacts. I was like damn people are starting to see my passes more than before because I had glasses. So I had to just disguise them a little bit more with my eyes. So but CB3 and James Harden are exceptional at that. And of course they’re just both great at making reads. You know, sometimes it’s not the roller that’s going to be open. Good defenses are going to take options A and B away. So you’re going to force a corner shooter or someone on the wing, you know, someone on the perimeter to be open. And CB3 and James Harden do an amazing job making those passes. So Chris Paul is a better pick and roll player than anyone we had last year. So in games that James Harden doesn’t play, we just have Chris Paul start and boom, we still got our own pick and roll maestro. And when he’s out of the game, same kind of deal. You got the pick and roll god Chris Paul and he’s just so good at using his handle to manipulate the defense in that pick and roll. He’s so it he makes it look easy but it’s really not as easy as you think. He’s just he’s just so confident with his handle in the pick and roll and just in general with his handle. But he just does such a great job of reading what the defense gives him in pick and rolls. Usually it’s going to be drop coverage which I think is stupid against Chris Paul. But at the same time, if you blitz, you know, you’re putting two on the ball and then zubots and whoever it is, you have so much space now with modern spacing that those fouron-ree reads, you’re getting a wide open shot most of the time. And again, teams would rather have a mid-range jumper off the dribble than an open corner three. That’s what teams want to do, unless they know that there’s a shooter that they want the ball to go to. So, that’s my big thing. Chris Paul being the pick and roll god that he is is going to let James Harden hopefully have some rest days and it will let us have a safety net for when he doesn’t play. But coming up going to be talking about a guy who people don’t think of as shot creator, but he’s going to be a real help for us when it comes to creating shots if James Harden doesn’t play and even games that he does play. All right, so talking about how we’re going to survive in games without James Harden given that we went 0 and3 without him last year and we just didn’t look like the same team with him off the floor. Hence the reason why he averaged 35 minutes a game and at age 36. We do not want James Harden playing that many minutes. The guy that I think is going to really help that we didn’t have last year is Bradley Beal. You know Bradley Beiel everybody thinks of as a scorer. He can move off the ball. He can come off screens. He can do that kind of thing. But he’s a much better shot creator both for himself and others than Norman Pal. And you know, he’s a guy that can come off screens, drive and kick. He’s not the best passer in the world, but he’s a better passer off a live dribble than Norm. And just in general, I don’t think Norm’s a very good passer for an NBA player. But that’s going to really help us in my opinion because again, you know, James Harden needs some other guys to take some pressure off of him in terms of shot creation and Bradley Beal is going to be able to do that. In terms of numbers, you know, last year Bradley Beal averaged 17 points a game, but he averaged four assists a game. So talking about a guy and that would be good for fourth on the Suns behind of course Book Tus Jones and KD. But it just really helps to have another guy that can do that for us. You know what I mean? Cuz with Norman Pal, I mean I’ll be honest. We look at the stats for the Clippers last year. Norman Pal averaged less assists than Zoo, less assists than KPJ, less assists than Bogey. Yeah, only two a game, 2.1. Bradley Beal has much more capabilities or has a lot more capabilities to make reads in the pick and roll. So if James Horn doesn’t play, we have a starting lineup of Chris Paul, Bradley Beal, Kawhi Leonard, John Colin, Zoo Beal just gets more on ball reps. Problem solved, you know. And again, I think the biggest thing, and I probably should have led with it, but I just I think healthy Kawawaii just means more and I want to give Kawhi’s due props because of who he is. But having Chris Paul, I just think that’s the biggest safety net for Harden not playing games because pick and roll mount rush more guys like they’re that good when it comes to this. But Bradley Beal is another guy that if you play drop coverage, he can come off screens and just pop. You know what I’m saying? He’s a money off the dribble mid-range guy. Norman Pal is not really that. You know what I mean? So Brad Beal, I think he’s going to really help in that regard. So we really, and I got to give Lawrence Frank and Trent Redden a lot of credit. They went out there and checked off all the boxes. If this guy’s hurt, well, we got this. If this guy’s hurt, well, we got this. Well, you know who another guy who was indispensable last year was a Zubots. Should I do an episode on what we’re going to be able to do with him without him, I should say? I don’t think so because it’s really simple answer. We have Brook Lopez now. And so when Zubots doesn’t play, Brook Lopez slides in. He’s a starting caliber center. Maybe you can say not on a championship team anymore, of course, but he is definitely good enough to start in the NBA. And he is coming off our bench. He’s never been a bench player in his entire career. So, we have the depth. We have the options when guys go down. And a guy I haven’t even mentioned having a full season of this in this episode is Bogey. Bogei is another guy who we brought because he can handle the ball a little more than a Terrence man. He’s not the best pick and roll ball handler, but he can do it to a some degree. He can get his mid-range against drop coverage, you know. So, Bogey is going to be a help as well. So, yeah, we have the options. We are totally equipped to not be in a desperation situation without James Harden. But don’t let me get it to don’t twist my words and say that I think we’re good to win a championship or go far in the playoffs without Harden. I wouldn’t even bet on us winning a series without him. But yeah, it’s just nice to know that we’re not going to be James Harden or Bust this year. And I think Harden’s got to sacrifice for all these guys as well. His stats going to have to go down. His touches are going to have to go down. His time of possession is going to have to go down for what’s best for the team. And I think it’s also on the coaching staff to limit him as well because, you know, Harden Zubot’s pick and roll is probably our most efficient action in the regular season, but in the playoffs, we know that teams can funnel the ball where they want in that action. So, we need to have other guys get rhythm and really play through Kawaii. But yeah, that is my opinion on how we’re going to be able to compete in games that James Harden doesn’t play. You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram at Dimeropper Pod. Subscribe to my own YouTube channel, Dimeropper, for even more LA Clipper NBA and LA sports content. And Lockdown Clippers is free and available wherever you get your podcast. Make sure you subscribe and hit the notification bell so you can get us to 8,000 subscribers before the season starts. The age-old and you can obviously listen wherever you get your podcasts. The age-old proverb continues. Go Clippers.

Los Angeles Clippers fans, brace yourselves! Can the team thrive without James Harden? This burning question takes center stage as we explore the Clippers’ newfound depth and versatility.

Kawhi Leonard’s health, Chris Paul’s pick-and-roll mastery, and Bradley Beal’s shot creation abilities reshape the Clippers’ offensive landscape. Discover how these key additions, along with improved roster flexibility, could be game-changers for the team’s performance. From Leonard’s playmaking potential to Paul’s elite court vision, we break down the factors that make the Clippers less dependent on Harden’s presence.

Tune in for an in-depth analysis of how the Clippers’ front office has addressed potential weaknesses and positioned the team for success, with or without their superstar guard on the floor.

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