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Tag: Patrick Beverley

Derek James: “No Idea What [Anthony Edwards’] Ceiling Is”

October 18, 2022 / / 0 Comments

D’Angelo Russell, Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards mingle with Rudy Gobert, who was famously added to the fold this July (@Timberwolves/Instagram).

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After their 2021-22 season ended with a first-round playoff exit at the hands of the Memphis Grizzlies, the Minnesota Timberwolves retooled by trading for three-time NBA Defensive Player of Year Rudy Gobert, in what many called the most surprising and impactful move of the offseason. They also re-emphasized their commitment to franchise cornerstone Karl-Anthony Towns by offering him a super-max contract extension worth $224 million. To help us assess how Minnesota will fare in the crowded Western Conference, we’ve enlisted the help of Derek James, former Timberwolves beat reporter for various outlets and writer of the By Derek James Substack. He’ll take us through those two aforementioned seismic front-office moves, the continued growth of Anthony Edwards and Jaden McDaniels, and much, much more.

6:26-8:11: “It definitely struck me as a lot when the Gobert trade first went down and seeing all those picks [be sent to Utah] and then hearing Tim Connelly talk about how he feels like they probably maxed out their ceiling last year. … How are you getting even better and taking the next step there? I think that is really where this trade has pushed the Timberwolves. You could see them reasonably having home-court [advantage], at least in the first round. Continue reading

Espo: “There’s No Asterisk” on Suns’ Finals Berth

July 3, 2021 / / 0 Comments

For the third time in franchise history, the Phoenix Suns have secured a berth into the NBA Finals (@Suns/Instagram).

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The Phoenix Suns are headed to the 2021 NBA Finals, and there absolutely should be no asterisk attached to their stellar run, according to guest Greg “Espo” Esposito, host of the Solar Panel Podcast. And why should there be? Phoenix bounced back from a 2-1 deficit to dethrone the defending champions before sweeping the MVP Jokic-led Nuggets. Then, the Suns took down a deep and resilient Clippers squad in a gritty series that could have gone either way. Espo breaks down how the Suns just keep on winning and provides a brief glimpse into their forthcoming Finals appearance against either the Bucks or Hawks.

6:05-6:20: “What you’ve seen is a maturation process for Devin [Booker]’s game. You’ve seen leadership. You’ve seen just the chance for him to finally on the NBA’s big stage, the playoffs, prove that he is not an empty calories guy.”

8:28-9:19: “Having grown up a big Charles Barkley fan, I’ve always taken issue with the ‘If a guy doesn’t win a championship, you have to kind of pooh-pooh his career and his legacy.’ … Basketball is a team sport. Individuals can have big games, but what you’re seeing with the Suns is proof yet again that nobody wins alone. This team is truly a team, and the thought that Chris Paul’s legacy or his career wasn’t impressive until Year 16 when he finally made it to the Finals just seems somewhat laughable. But that’s the storyline. That’s the way things are perceived nationally.” Continue reading

Law Murray: Clips Have “Not Enough Good” Options Vs. Doncic

May 27, 2021 / / 0 Comments

Despite Kawhi Leonard’s 41 points, the Clippers were not able to secure a Game 2 win, as the Mavericks take a 2-0 series lead to Dallas (@laclippers/Instagram).


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In an opening-round rematch from the 2020 playoffs, the Mavericks have stunned many by stealing the first two games in Los Angeles. As the Clippers scramble for answers as to how to slow down Luka Doncic and company’s electric offense, The Athletic’s Law Murray breaks it all down. Is the series all but over? If not, how can the Clippers give themselves a fighting chance? If the Mavs do eliminate them, what’s the likelihood that franchise cornerstone Kawhi Leonard will leave in the offseason? Murray tackles these and many other timely LAC topics.

14:35-15:08: “The Clippers chose a lot of this. They chose their opponent. They chose a lot of the narratives that went into how they got here. They chose health over whatever could have been gained by playing the last two regular-season games. They chose their path. Now they’re in a situation where things are as hard as they can be. Either the Clippers are gonna overcome it and it’s going to be like, ‘Wooh, well, you got through that.’ Or they’re not gonna be around after next weekend. That’s it!” Continue reading

Tomer Azarly: Clippers “Still a Work in Progress”

January 27, 2020 / / 0 Comments

 

Patrick Beverley’s health, along with Leonard’s and George’s, will be critical to the Clippers’ postseason success, says Azarly (FrenchieInPortland/Creative Commons).

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Tomer Azarly of Clutch Points joins the show to discuss the state of the Clippers just past the season’s midway point. Enjoy these clips/Clips:

Time stamps may vary due to dynamic advertising:

7:04-7:42: “I just think it’s a work in progress. It’s a team last year that had an underdog mentality all season and now you add two superstars from two completely different programs in Kawhi and PG, and it just takes time to incorporate these guys. We haven’t even talked about the fact that they have one game healthy all year. That was the Laker game on Christmas Day. The following game, Trez missed because of the flu, and then Pat went out with the wrist injury. So they’ve only really had one game healthy, one practice the day before that healthy. We’ve really yet to see what this team can be. So I don’t think it’s time to overreact yet, but this team is still a work in progress.”

15:47-16:46: “Their numbers while [Ivica] Zubac is on the court have been pretty close to phenomenal. They’ve been a really good defensive team when Zubac on the court because he not only blocks shots, but he changes shots. He’s a really big guy inside. He takes up a lot of space. I’ve been saying this all year: play Zubac more. Get him more minutes. For whatever reason, the Clippers are not getting him more minutes right now. Maybe they’re showcasing Trez more. Maybe they feel like they can outscore teams and sort of be OK defensively, with Trez on the court. But I do think a bit of their defense always comes back to Zubac and having him on the court because inside, statistically, like blocked shots, he hasn’t been a crazy force, but he’s been a shot-changing force at the rim for the Clippers.” Continue reading

Will & Grace Co-Creator David Kohan: “This Is the (Clippers’) Year”

July 31, 2019 / / 0 Comments

David Kohan could not believe when he awoke to a record number of text messages congratulating him on the Clippers’ acquisitions of George and Leonard (13th Vision/Twitter).

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David Kohan, along with his friend Max, created the long-running hit comedy series Will & Grace. But the Emmy Award winner is also one of the biggest Clippers fans we know, and boy was he excited to preview the upcoming season in Clipperland, one which he believes will be “the year.” Boasting the likes of Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and a deep supporting cast, the Clippers are primed for a breakthrough season. Coincidentally, Will & Grace just made a big announcement of its own: the show will be ending after one final season. Following the Clippers discussion, David touches upon that as well as his sister’s stellar TV series, Orange Is the New Black. Some special clips (Clips?) have been excerpted below:

4:15-4:26: “I thought for a second when Chris Paul was joining the team, ‘Well, this is about as good as it’s gonna get as a Clipper fan.’ But I was wrong. This is about as good as it gets.”

7:36-7:43: “Suddenly, it felt like we were frontrunners, and I’ve never felt that way as a Clipper fan before.”

11:40-12:07: “More than anything, If Jerry West is there, I feel like he’s a magician. There’s no greater architect of a team. There’s no one whose imprimatur means more than Jerry West. … His instincts are always right. It’s uncanny to me. So, it’s like, ‘In Jerry we trust,’ right?” Continue reading

Jovan Buha: Leonard, George “Can Be Best Perimeter Pairing Since Pippen, M.J.”

July 11, 2019 / / 0 Comments

Kawhi Leonard brings his stifling defense to Los Angeles, where skilled perimeter wing Paul George will also be playing in 2019-20 (Chensiyuan/Creative Commons).

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Last Friday night, Los Angeles residents, among people in others places such as Las Vegas, felt a 7.1-magnitude earthquake. Within nearly two and a half hours, the Clippers had pulled off an earth-shattering pair of moves that would bring both Kawhi Leonard and Paul George to Los Angeles, not too far from where either superstar was born and raised. For the occasion, The Athletic’s Jovan Buha appears On the NBA Beat to discuss how the long-suffering franchise positioned itself for such a major offseason coup, how dominant these Clippers can truly be after the earth-Kawhiuake, the question marks surrounding Paul George’s shoulders and much, much more.

8:23-10:52: “I think for the Clippers to be able to get Doc [Rivers] to basically take a demotion and not have to fire him, not have him quit, I think that was huge, because Doc still has a lot of cachet around the league, he’s still regarded as a players’ coach, he’s still someone that people want to play for. … [They] completely revamped this front office, and that really changed things for the Clippers, because every single move they’ve made over these last two years has been so calculated and has really put them in this position to do what they just did.”

13:04-14:22: “The Clippers have just continued to flip players for more assets and more players, and then they just cashed in on this Paul George-Kawhi Leonard situation. It was a historic price, what they paid for Paul George…but I think the context you’ve gotta look at it in is it’s not like they traded for Paul George only; they traded for Paul George and Kawhi Leonard. Had they not gotten Paul George, they would not have gotten Kawhi Leonard. … Yes, there is risk into the mid-2020s, but if the Clippers win a championship or make the Finals over the next two, three years, I think that’s clearly worth it.” Continue reading

Clippers Basketball “Transports” Will & Grace Co-Creator David Kohan

October 24, 2017 / / 0 Comments

Patrick Beverley, who was acquired in the Chris Paul-centered blockbuster trade with the Rockets, is David Kohan’s favorite new addition and he tells us why (Pkantz/Creative Commons).

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David Kohan, best known for co-creating the pioneering hit comedy series “Will & Grace” is actually a huge Los Angeles Clippers fan, attending games as early as the late ‘80s. In this episode, Aaron had the opportunity to talk with David about both the return of Will & Grace after 11 years off the air and his beloved Clippers. We’ll hear about a wide array of topics, including how David processes the loss of Chris Paul, his take on Blake Griffin’s newfound 3-point stroke and why Patrick Beverley is our guest’s favorite new addition. Some non-Clippers areas covered include why the show has returned, what, if anything, is now different with the program and when David might collaborate with his sister, Jenji, who created “Weeds” and “Orange Is the New Black.” Some clips, pun intended, are excerpted below:

*But, first, two quick editor’s notes:

  • Early on, when David is referencing the 2016-17 Clippers’ hot start through 10 games, Aaron remarks, “14-1 or something like that.” In fact, those Clippers began 10-1 and 14-2. So he was close, but no cigar.
  • Between the interview recording and release, rookie point guard Milos Teodosic’s foot MRI results were revealed. He’ll be sidelined indefinitely with a plantar fascia injury.

4:31-4:50: “There was something about last season that felt joyless. In fact, that should have been what it said on the T-shirts: joyless. This year so far, in the two-game sample size, they seem looser and freer. It seems more fun.”

10:30-11:54: “The thing that I will miss about Chris Paul is he was the guy that, in any crunch-time situation, he was the one you trusted the most. I trusted Chris Paul as a scorer, as a defender, as a team leader, as the guy who was going to make the right decision more than anybody else on the team by far. So it was scary initially when he was traded. Continue reading

Jovan Buha: Blake Griffin Will “Surpass Paul as Best & Most Important Clipper Ever”

July 7, 2017 / / 0 Comments

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ESPN.com’s Jovan Buha joins the podcast to analyze the Los Angeles Clippers’ tumultuous 2017 offseason, highlighted by the departure of Chris Paul and the re-signing of Blake Griffin. Developments from the last couple weeks have raised so many questions. Fortunately, Jovan can reliably provide compelling answers.

Enjoy these clips (pun intended; puns are always intended here):

4:14-5:03: “He [Paul] obviously wants to win a championship, wants to make the conference finals, get that monkey off his back, and I think for him, surveying the scene, I think Houston and San Antonio both had more upside. The Clippers, with their cap situation, were most likely going to lose J.J. Redick no matter what and still might end up losing Luc Mbah a Moute, who actually ended up being a bargain signing for them with the bi-annual exception. So I think just looking at it from that perspective, the Clippers were basically going to return the same team as last year minus their two starting wings. And if I’m Chris Paul and we just won 51 games and lost in the first round, that’s not very attractive to me.”

28:57-30:20: “I thought they added depth, they added versatility, they added some youth, and they added assets. At the worst, Lou Williams and Patrick Beverley can both be flipped easily if you want to flip those guys…In the macro sense, the Clippers lost the trade because they lost a top-10 player and they went from a fringe contender to a playoff hopeful.” Continue reading

Keith Smith: Clippers Face “No-Win Situation,” Celtics Target Hayward

June 30, 2017 / / 0 Comments

Chris Paul’s exit further complicates the Clippers’ and Blake Griffin’s looming decision of how to handle his unrestricted free agency (Keith Allison/Creative Commons).

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Though the free agency period does not officially begin until July 1, the landscape of the NBA has already shifted dramatically after the draft, a few franchise-altering trades and a couple front-office shake-ups. To help us sort through all the madness of the last week and predict the remaining changes to come, we’ve brought on Keith Smith, who covers the NBA for Real GM and Fan Rag Sports, and has been presenting detailed analyses of each team’s offseason plans on his show, NBA Front Office. With Keith, we break down the ramifications of the blockbuster trades that sent Chris Paul to Houston and Jimmy Butler to Minnesota, discuss the fallout of the Knicks and the Cavaliers severing ties with executives Phil Jackson and David Griffin, respectively, and, of course, try to forecast the eventual landing spots for Paul George, Gordon Hayward, Blake Griffin, George Hill, Paul Millsap and all of the other high-profile free agents and likely movers this offseason.

7:03-7:30: “One of the things that’s really funny about the Blake Griffin question is you can see it going one of two ways. You can see Blake Griffin saying, ‘Forget it. We can’t replace CP3. I’m not gonna be able to win here now. I want to move on. I want to get out of here and go somewhere else.’ Or you could see Blake Griffin saying, ‘Finally, it’s my team. I have it to myself. I don’t have to deal with this guy yapping at me all the time, and we didn’t necessarily get along great.’ So that’s where it becomes really tricky.”

Continue reading

Salman Ali: Rockets Enjoying “Perfect Synergy” Throughout Organization

April 7, 2017 / / 0 Comments

Now with a singular focus on basketball, James Harden is recording an MVP-caliber season, leading the Houston Rockets to the third-best record in the NBA (Keith Allison/Flickr).

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The Rockets embody one of the best storylines of the 2016-17 season. After badly underwhelming a year ago, the front office adeptly moved around pieces, Mike D’Antoni was brought in to lead the team and James Harden has taken his game to unparalleled heights. As a result, Houston enjoys the league’s third-best record. Salman Ali, Managing Editor for Red Nation Hoops and host of the podcast with the same name, visits to discuss all those topics and more including how various role players are thriving and what Houston’s chances are against the rest of the Western Conference’s elite teams. Before the episode blasts off and we journey through the cosmos, you may prepare by scanning some of the highlights below:

0:50-1:26: From Salman’s perspective, just in time for the postseason, Harden is looking more like himself as he recovers from his wrist injury:

“I think the Rockets did a good job at sandwiching that rest day to where he’d get a full five days of rest. And let’s be real, that was a rest day. It was listed as a flu, but we kind of know it was because he didn’t want to sit and the Rockets had to say it was a flu day, so I think they did a good job of finding ways to sit him. His shooting stroke looks good. He’s getting to the rim, and he’s not tentative when he gets there, which is a problem that he had last week. And he’s not grimacing after shots, which was a big issue. Through the TV, you could just see that that wrist was bothering him, and now it looks a lot better.”

7:08-8:17: Even before the season, our guest began to notice that Harden was training his focus on the Houston Rockets to an extent he never had before. The adjustment has benefitted the team immensely:

“He seems really invested. Obviously, the bigger, high profile thing that Harden did this year is he signed that big extension to stay with the Rockets. To me, that showed a huge commitment to the franchise that may not have been there last season. Let’s be frank. He did not try as hard as he could have last year, and I think that reflected in how poor the Rockets played…he’s treating basketball as his job as opposed to something he’s doing on the side. That’s a really, really important distinction to make. Calvin Watkins of ESPN sat down with Travis Scott. He’s actually a local Houston rapper. He was talking about his opinion of James Harden, and he basically says, ‘James Harden doesn’t even want to go out with me anymore. All he does is he wants to stay inside and play basketball.'”
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