Clippers' Future Hinges on All-Star Performance & Cohesion
The Los Angeles Clippers will rely on star performances from their young guys along with team unity, looking to avoid frequent trades to maintain success.
Video Transcript
Again, I think the future for the Clippers is totally reliant on the guys they have in-house.
Luckily for them- Yeah Darris Garland, the Toe, has all-star potential, okay?
Keenon Wagler has potential.
Bruh, Brandon Ingram has shown all-star level play.
You're gonna have to get that all around.
You're gonna have to have a rookie of the year type year from Wagler.
You're gonna have to have all-star years from your two cornerstones for this to not be a complete, utter dumpster fire.
That's your future, are the guys you have on the roster right now.
And if you don't think you can compete with them, and you're talking about trading everyone, you're now again hurting your fan base.
'Cause instead of having a 30, 40 win team, you're gonna hit the 20 win, 15 win area if you're gonna start trading guys off with no prospects for the future.
So I think right now what you see in that locker room, that's a band of brothers, okay?
That's Saving Private Ryan.
It's a, it's a war movie and, and, and it's, and it, it's us or it's nobody, period.
That's a high school team for the next four years.
We all gonna know each other by the end of this 'cause ain't nobody going nowhere.
I think, I think moves can still be made.
And now I'm, I'm, I'm looking at it from the outside.
I, I agree with you.
As much as we can pile trash on top of it.
I agree.
But you got Chris Dunn still available, you got Derrick Jones Jr.
Still available.
Things can be moved around in-house to make things work, and you don't, you don't have to necessarily do a complete fire sale.
You can do it year by year.
Well, my question to you is Okay, my question to you is the le- everybody knows that this has happened.
You know the punishment.
Yeah.
You know what happened.
So if I'm a playoff contender and I'm asking for Chris Dunn, I'm not giving you a first round pick for that.
I already know you desperate.
You desperate for anything.
Well, but so is the- I'm not giving- so is the contender.
Thank you.
So if a call is being made to me, regardless of how Chris And then, then I'll take it a step further.
The players in the locker room that you're saying is a band of players or a band of thieves together, if they're playing at an extremely high level, the calls are gonna be made regardless.
So now you're gonna have to bow down and pay what you gotta pay because he's playing all, he's playing out of his mind this season.
Yeah.
So if I want him to be on a contender team, you gotta pay what you gotta pay.
But if I'm If, but if these guys are playing at all-star level, if I'm the Clippers, why would I trade them?
Derrick, the Toe is young.
Keenon Wagler is young.
Brandon Ingram is, i- is, I think he's late 20s.
Yeah, he's late 20s.
He- So these are young guys.
So move, move them for what?
Now the Chris Dunn- The veterans Rui, Rui Hachimura.
Those, those.
Yeah.
If you're gonna have, if you're gonna have these two guys have all-star years, it'll be because Rui's playing well.
It'll be because Max Strus is playing well.
'Cause you need parts for all this to work.
Sure.
So therefore to me, if they get off to a good start, that's the best thing that could happen.
I'm not trading anybody, 'cause at some point you have to think about the fans.
Yeah.
And you do have to think about the fans, but I also think that the Clippers at this point are going to be desperate to offload a lot of these assets they just got.
Like Max Strus is not stick- sticking around, Rui's not sticking around.
Like, they're gonna find a way to move off of these guys as we head towards the trade deadline.
