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00:00Hey, Tomer Azale covers the Clippers for Clutch Sports, and he's on C2C today.
00:05I'm excited to have him on.
00:07He won't even believe this, but, A, I like the Clippers.
00:10I'm a Clipper fan, believe it or not, out here in New York City.
00:15I mean, I like the Knicks, but the Knicks don't beat good teams.
00:18The Clippers do.
00:19So I lived in L.A. for a long time, like well over a decade, and I'm excited about them.
00:28I bet on them yesterday against the Dubs in the chase in San Francisco.
00:33I thought it was very impressive what they did.
00:35I smelled it coming, and it's amazing to me how I have to ask you, like, first of all,
00:42the national narrative and national media and all these know-it-alls that think they're so smart
00:48constantly talk about, I hear it all the time, that, you know, Kawhi's going to go down.
00:55He's going to get injured. He's going to let them down again.
00:58He's not going to play, and they have no chance to do anything.
01:02Meanwhile, I'm from the side of the river that says, screw you.
01:07He's playing awesome ball.
01:10He's a complete badass.
01:12He's healthy, and when he's in that situation, he's undeniably one of the greats in the league.
01:19He's unstoppable.
01:20I thought Beard and him yesterday were exactly that, unstoppable.
01:2539 and 33, it was ridiculous.
01:27I watched them go off on the Warriors.
01:29They put the Warriors in the play-in.
01:31They kicked their ass.
01:34Yeah, that was a phenomenal game to watch yesterday.
01:37First of all, definitely surprised to hear that you're a Clippers fan all the way out in New York City.
01:41They don't get too far out of the East, but that is clear.
01:43No, I mean, yesterday's game was just phenomenal.
01:49Again, it was the fourth quarter that Steph Curry had and the back and forth that he and James Harden and Kawhi Leonard had.
01:55It was just one of those games where it was a game of will.
01:58Like, who wanted it more?
01:59Who could get that extra shot?
02:01Who could create an extra turnover here and there?
02:03And so I think, you know, this Clippers team has been resilient all season.
02:07And from the very beginning, they've said the loss of Paul George is seen as addition by subtraction.
02:12Everyone thought letting Paul George walk was a big mistake, not offering him $50 million a year, keeping a superstar of his magnitude around it in town.
02:20And his departure led to big openings for guys like Norman Powell and Avicii Zubac, who have been phenomenal and I would say probably have exceeded expectations.
02:30I think everyone expected to have a bigger role, and I think they even expected to have strong, strong seasons themselves.
02:36But when you look at just the seasons they've had, where Norman Powell averaged 24 points a game on nearly 50-45-90 before the All-Star break, he had a couple injuries after the All-Star break.
02:47So that kind of hampered him a little bit there.
02:49They've made some trades that affected his role a little bit.
02:51And then you look at Avicii Zubac, who had, I believe it was 59 double-doubles this season, second most in the NBA behind Lex Sabonis.
02:58You know, I had to get five, three or four 2020 games, five games with 20 rebounds.
03:04He's just been a phenomenal center.
03:06He had his first career triple-double to end the final home game in Intuit Dome, the regular season game in Intuit Dome.
03:11So every one of those guys, and that's just Norman and Avicii Zubac.
03:16What they were able to do with the departure of Paul George, though, was also sign a guy like Derrick Jones Jr., who was a phenomenal wing player with the Mavericks last year, helped him reach the finals.
03:26Good two-way guy, good three-point shooter, and showed that this year.
03:30They were able to bring back Nicholas Batum from the Sixers this offseason.
03:33They didn't want to trade him last season, but they had to to get James Harden.
03:36And then they signed Chris Dunn, who, you know, Steph Curry had 36 points yesterday.
03:41He also had eight turnovers.
03:43And if you watch that game, though, Chris Dunn made him work every single possession, going over screens, making him feel him the entire night.
03:51Steph got his.
03:52He got his 36 points.
03:54But, you know, I even asked him after the game.
03:56That was not an easy game for Steph.
03:57They made him work physically every single possession.
04:01And so I think yesterday was kind of an encapsulation of what this Clippers team is, a hard-fighting, connected, deep team around Kawhi and James Harden.
04:11They're no longer just a team that relies on their stars.
04:13They have a casting cast around them.
04:15And, you know, when Kawhi is Kawhi, we've seen what can happen.
04:20Yeah, so Dunn was perfect from the floor yesterday.
04:23And there's nothing like a guy giving you an 11-piece where he's 4-for-4 and 3-for-3 from deep and then plays great defense.
04:30That's worth its weight in gold.
04:32I have to tell you, like, I watched the Beard play here in New York with the Nets, right?
04:39And I honestly think he's kind of playing like he did in Houston.
04:43He's always been, to me, one of the greats.
04:47And he's always had that laissez-faire, like, you know, I don't care, man.
04:51I'm just a baller.
04:52I don't want to talk to you.
04:53Just give me the rock.
04:54And I'm going to go to the 10.
04:56And I think he's been utterly fascinating to watch play in Los Angeles with this team.
05:02Because while all these other cats everywhere are, you know, load management, which I think is soft to begin with.
05:09I don't even want to hear it.
05:10Where I come from in the park, we just call that the guy never plays.
05:14He never plays.
05:15He doesn't need any management of anything.
05:17Agents, television time.
05:20I don't care.
05:21My man, this guy goes out and balls out every night.
05:25And what he does outside and inside and to get his teammates involved and to get to the 10 and the clutch shots in the clutch and in big moments, getting the right guy to pill to put it in the hole, it's sickening.
05:37It is sickening.
05:39Yeah.
05:40James Harden is a guy who he's kind of the last of a dying breed where you have guys who just love to play the game and love it so much that they don't really care about the media portion of things.
05:50Or everything outside of it, the social media, none of that.
05:52They just want to play ball.
05:54Like James Harden suffered a pretty, I don't want to say severe, but it looked like a bad ankle sprain or foot sprain here towards the end of the season in March.
06:01And ended up not missing a single game after that.
06:04They had a day off.
06:05They went to New York.
06:05He played against the Knicks.
06:06They beat the Knicks and the Nets in back-to-back games there.
06:09Easy.
06:09And he's just a guy who, you know, like I asked him about it.
06:12I was like, look, you had every reason to sit out.
06:15Like the team needed you to be healthy for a playoff run.
06:18You sprained your foot a little bit.
06:19It didn't look great.
06:20And he's like, look, I love to play the game and this team needs me.
06:23I can't afford to sit out right now.
06:24And you also never know from a fan perspective who's coming out to watch you, who wants to watch you, who's traveling from overseas to watch you, from Europe, whatever, across the country.
06:31So he's a guy who loves to play the game of basketball, and I think he's shown that.
06:35I also think that, to your point, he's playing a lot more like Houston, James, but I think he also kind of took a backseat in Philly and in Brooklyn.
06:46Not to say that he can't be that guy, but when you have guys like Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving or a guy like Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey, like, you don't necessarily need to be that guy the whole time.
06:54And I think that's one thing we saw from him over those years is that, look, I'm capable of giving you 40-point playoff games.
07:00He did that twice in the postseason for them when Joel was out.
07:03Hey, Tomer, hold that thought, brother.
07:05My man, just excuse me, respectfully, hold that thought.
07:08I want to keep going with you.
07:09I don't want to lose you.
07:09I still want to ask you some more questions about the playoffs.
07:12Hang on.
07:13So we were talking about Harden with Tomer Azarley, covers the Clippers for Clutch Sports on Coast to Coast here.
07:21Respectfully, sorry about cutting you off.
07:23I had to.
07:23So let's finish that thought on Harden.
07:26Obviously, as he goes and Kawhi, they go.
07:31And listen, I think Zubats has played the best ball of his career, without a doubt.
07:36I mean, fundamentally, he's taken his game to a whole other level.
07:39Like, he kind of used to be a doughboy, but I think now he's kind of turned into a man and a badass.
07:46He's, like, figured it out, and he's become a real problem.
07:50I like to call great players that I play with problems.
07:54When I play with dudes that I don't know, and I'm playing pickup, I'll go, listen, bro, this guy's a problem.
08:00You have to guard his ass, or he's going to work you.
08:04He's a problem.
08:05I think Zubats has become a problem.
08:06But I think as those three go, they go.
08:10Yeah, 100%.
08:13I mean, Zubats this year, I saw a stat the other day.
08:16I think he had the most hook shots in a season since, like, Shaq in 2000.
08:20He's really developed a low post game, and I talked to him the other day about this, and it's like, it's something that I've had in my game.
08:26I've just never had to show it because we've had guys like Paul and James and Russ and Kawhi.
08:30So I've never had to go out there and be that guy.
08:32But this year, they've really called upon him to go be that guy.
08:35And, yeah, to your point, like, Kawhi, James, you know, James, Norm, and Zu did a great job of carrying this team until Kawhi was ready to come back in January.
08:44And even then, Kawhi needed some time to get back to himself, find his footing a little bit, still sitting out some back-to-backs here and there.
08:53But once he got back to himself, I think it was a new kind of game where you have to find out, how do we have Kawhi and James and Zu and Norm clicking?
09:02And then also, we just traded for Bogdanovich.
09:03We just signed Ben Simmons off the buyout market.
09:05Like, how do we get all these guys to fit together?
09:08We're like, it's not everyone needs to get their numbers, but how do we bring this into winning basketball?
09:12So, again, I think the offseason additions they made with Nico Batum, Derek Jones Jr., and Chris Dunn, three very good complementary guys, role players who know their roles, don't really care about numbers.
09:23I think all that contributed heavily as well.
09:24So, I think they have a complete team, and I think this is probably the most complete team these Clippers have had around Kawhi over the last probably five or six years here, where they have the depth, they have the star power, they have the big man, they have the shooters, they have everything top to bottom.
09:38So, just got to stay healthy.
09:41So, look, you know, fair enough on Simmons.
09:44I'm just going to say this.
09:45Like, we've already been down the road with this cat here.
09:49I don't deny back in the day, north-south, he was the dominant big that, you know, could handle the rock and finish and dish and do his thing.
09:58But when he, you know, he's been, he's got a bad rap here.
10:03He got a bad rap here.
10:04He never did anything ever, you know.
10:07And so, I think people soured on him.
10:10I hope he finds some kind of happiness out there because he didn't have any here in Brooklyn.
10:15I can tell you that much.
10:16All of his rhetoric about Lycan being in Brooklyn, he was tripping because he never did anything here.
10:20But I'll say this.
10:22I agree with you about everything else.
10:24Jones, Dunn, I agree about everything.
10:27I don't trust that dude as far as I can spit.
10:30But I want to ask you this question.
10:32Now they got a real problem on their hands in the Joker and Porter and Gordon and Murray and Brown.
10:41And, you know, I will say, you know, they don't have a coach, but they got a kid that has been around it his whole life with his daddy.
10:48And I won't deny his dad was a legit men's pro coach.
10:52I thought Rick was, you know, legit.
10:54And I think the kid learned something.
10:56And one thing he learned, it's pretty obvious to me, is let this guy, Joker, do whatever he wants.
11:02Give him the clipboard, the ball, horses, beer, his brothers, let him have from-row seats.
11:08Do whatever it takes to make the players happy.
11:11Because I think Mike was a D, and they hated his guts.
11:16They got sick and tired of him cussing at him.
11:19How did the Clippers beat this monster, Joker?
11:21I mean, look, I think, if anything, we've seen that just giving the ball to Jokic isn't a bad idea.
11:27Three MVPs, NBA championship.
11:29Look, I think the Clippers, they have a good formula in place with a Zubats now who's more mature and just a better overall player.
11:37I think they have, again, the good role players.
11:39You can throw a Jamal Murray with a Derrick Jones Jr. or a Chris Dunn.
11:44I think Nikola's going to get his.
11:46And I think that's just something that everyone has to accept.
11:48Like, you're not going to stop Nikola Jokic.
11:49I think the biggest thing, and I'm talking to Ty Lue about this before, is how do you keep him from getting those 12 assists, those 15 assists, where he gets everyone else involved, where he finds guys for corner threes or back cuts, like those things.
12:00If you can cut down on the assists that he gets and keep his players, his teammates, not as involved, I think that's really the formula to being Jokic, because he's going to give you 30 a night.
12:09There's no denying that.
12:11I think they should kidnap him and take him to a barn in the woods, in the mountains.
12:19I think they should feed him and tie him up and get him cable TV and not let him out until the Clippers win the series.
12:25Tomer, great stuff.
12:26I loved having you on the show.