213Hoops: The Lob, The Jam, The Podcast

Talking New Clippers Nico Batum (!) and Mo Bamba w/ Dan Olinger

Shap and Dan (@dan_olinger) from the Rights to Ricky Sanchez Podcast chat about former Sixers turned Clippers, Nicolas Batum abd Mo Bamba. Nico is a familiar face, but Dan talks about how he played as a Sixer and how he sees him fitting back with the Clippers, and the enigma that is Mo Bamba, a player that looks every bit a backup center but has multiple question marks.

Duration:: 32m
Broadcast on:: 20 Aug 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

Hi, this is Ralph Lawler. Welcome to the love, the jam, the jam. What's up, everyone? It's the love, the jam, the pod cast. I'm Shapon coming to you with Dan. You might guys might remember Dan last year around the beginning of the season. Dan did some pods with us, including the James Harden trade pod. He works for rights to Ricky Sanchez, a great podcast and blog. Does great work there? You have a great draft podcast now, right, Dan? I might as well, we might as well introduce some of the stuff that you do. I know we do it usually this at the end of the pod, but you have a lot of cool stuff going on right now, Dan. And I've generally considered you a pretty solid basketball mind, but I've learned a lot of college stuff from you recently, too, because you're doing a college pod now, too. Now, Dan. Yeah, well, thanks so much, Chef, for having me on. I really appreciate that. I mean, I love talking about every basketball team, even though the Sixers, the one I get paid the most to write about and talk about usually. And yeah, I just started the draft council. Yeah, a podcast where me, my friend on that are talking about all things NBA draft, whether it's leading up to the class for the next year, talking about how rookies and young players in India are doing right now have a really fun episode dropping Tuesday morning that I think people really like it's a another it's another kind of drop like we're going to be doing a ton of mock drafts on the show, which gives us a ton of chance to talk about other players, young guys, whatever. But yeah, thanks for having me on. Yeah, I'm looking forward to that. Honestly, I don't have that much great draft content. I feel like the market like very publicly, at least nationally has been saturated by like the wringer guys who to me are fine, but don't really give me the the sicko fix that I need. So I'm actually going to be checking out that podcast. If anybody does watch enough college basketball like I am, but probably want to hear from dudes that know a bit about college basketball and hoops in general, I would recommend that part. I probably will listen to it soon. Dad, we're we're here to talk about the clippers. We're here to talk about this carousel of clipper, six or flipping that we've been seeing over the last few years. It continues. You know, Nicholas Batum and Mo Bamba are now Los Angeles Clippers, Paul George and Richie Jackson are actually both with the Sixers. Do they still have the Sixers still have other Clippers on their team right now? Probably, right? Eric Gordon was on Eric Gordon was on the Clippers, right? Yes. Yes, he was. Eric Gordon's key member of the bench rotation. Eric Gordon was on the Clippers twice, actually. He was traded for us all and then was traded. He traded Luke Knarr to get him back for a little bit of change while also sacrificing Cam Whitmore in the draft by losing that pick and then going down to the draft by getting Eric Gordon for half a season where of course, Kyle Leonard and Paul George didn't end great, great stuff for the Clippers, but yeah, yeah, Eric Gordon is a is a sister. All right. Yeah, I forgot. Like that's my mind. Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I think Paul's still probably the most notable one that I did. I do remember I tweeted some polling this summer how it's one of my favorite bits that they're just slowly exchanging each other's roster. Yeah. Yeah. As long as Tyrese Maxie doesn't end up in LA, we're fine. It can keep going. I would appreciate that. I would appreciate that. I actually, I would not appreciate that personally, but I see why he would. I'm very excited to see how much you notice just Tyrese Maxie's smile fading slightly from Paul George things in the regular season. I think I'll ask you a few months. Paul was hyping him up on podcast P like the last few weeks. He's already had him on. I was saying it's Paul George. Paul George made a very, very inappropriate outfit to Tyrese Maxie on podcast P if I recall it correctly. Well, I'm not good. You know, I'm not gonna critique a fellow podcaster. So yeah, shout out Paul George for maybe I don't want to talk about Paul George anymore. But we do want to talk about Nicholas Batum. Dan, I was very, very enthused by how excited you were to have Nicholas Batum on your basketball team watching him. I think speaking of the Ringer guys, I think the Ringer guys labeled you a six or sicko that put all of Nico Batum's post entry passes on film and put it on Twitter did not give you enough did not give you credit for it. No, it's it's fine. I mean, I hope when they just put a tweet in the random video, it was not like a work of it. It was a work of art as far as I've considered real ones. No, Dan. But the point of this all is I mean, I am a Nico Batum appreciator, even as he was going to the Sixers. I was pretty vocal about him being a pretty a pretty nice pickup for you guys. But I think that the only way to really appreciate this guy is to watch him on your team. You were able to watch him. I think the biggest thing that Clipper fans fear when it comes to Nicholas Batum, because we're very familiar with him is is Nicholas Batum falling off is did he show, you know, has Nico Batum shown signs of regression? Of course, he got injured. He was, I thought he think he shot like 55% that first month from three when he was a sixer. Of course, I came down a bit. I think the shooting came down a little bit, but he was still doing doing Nicholas Batum things. He was doing them in the Olympics to his guarding point of attack pretty consistently. He was on Steph Curry a lot in that championship game. He was on Jalen Brunson a lot in that sixers first round series. Just the underrated defensive things that I don't think people appreciate about Nico. He was still doing his shot was coming down a bit. You know, I didn't watch every six or minute out there, Dan, but how did you feel watching Nico Batum as the season went on? Did you, did you find much decline in his game aside from shots just not falling? Or what did you see out there from Nico Batum that Clipper fans might want to know as someone he watched him close? I mean, yeah, obviously I've loved the sixers getting in the trade. I wrote about it right away how I think sixers fans didn't understand how valuable he was going to be for them. He had incredible synergy with them being like almost immediately. That was extremely valuable for the team. I feel very confident saying and Joel's now like eight whatever seasons with the sixers. They never had a better four than Batum whenever he was asked to play there. So, you know, I can't. So yeah, when you mentioned the shot, he did start. He shot worse from three, which is to be expected of how hot he started. Like, yeah, the first week, like it was insane. He was hitting every three he took. But there was like, I remember noticing late in the season where his like three point percentage. I don't have the final numbers on it. With like a month ago in the season, there were something where in games with Joel and Bead, Batum was 47% from three versus 32% and the games and Bead hadn't played. So that I thought could have been something, you know, like he clearly he his whole purpose on the team was like to boost and Bead, which is very valuable when the teams constructed around Joel and Bead. He just when the team was worse. And like, it's hard for me to say that he got worse that he's in or dropped off because it just kind of coincide like him getting a slightly less rural coincide of the whole team season falling apart after the whole injury fiasco. People accusing and Bead of like, like trying to like fake injuries, then him trying to play through one getting more hurt. And then like once and Bead hurt his knee in Golden State, the sixth or season was effectively over. So like he then tried to like rush back to get back for the season and wasn't the same. And so unlike Niko's like roll heads shifted up and down. They kind of with Joel more limited, they needed like Kelly Ubray's self creation and scoring a little bit more, which you know, as good as Beadum is. That's not something you're usually asking him to do. The only game where he kind of took that upon himself was the Miami Heat playing game where he this everyone else in the six are struggling. So he just stepped up. But no, like sixers fans very much even when Beadum was coming off the bench, like during the next series, usually one of them to bench Tobias and clothes with butts tomb, clothes of the lion, like butts tomb, Ubray, maxi, laurian and Bead if possible or something of that, like some combination like that. Sixers fans very much appreciate him. I think his best single game defensively of the season was the nugget the win against the nuggets in Philly. I think before like, I want to say I was late December, maybe early January where he is like a point of attack like guarding Jamal Murray, locking him up up and down the court and has the huge block on him at the end of the game. I mean, he's so versatile and defense could be trusted guard point guards because like, and other teams, primary creators or like, if they want to do a roaming strategy, if indeed guarding a bad shooter in Batum, walling up a center, he could do that too. Like defensively, he was pretty insane for the most part really grand that end. The really the only thing is that him and Kyle Lowry kind of had this problem at times later in the season when Joel got was like still limited coming back from his injury was that opponents knew like they would shoot, but they didn't really want to. It would often like like Jalen Brunson be guarding Batum sometimes because the Knicks knew like, well, they're not going to get let Batum ISO on him. They're not going to like we can we can kind of get away with like daring him to score. Again, the Miami games really the only one where Niko punished that. So there is a little bit to like the lack of like desire to score sometimes. Like he still makes quick decisions. So it's not you never have like a pen sitting in situation where he's been playing. He's too good of a shooter for that, obviously, but teams can get a way of putting like slightly worse vendors or small guards on him sometimes, but unless like the shot really, as long as the shot is still like pretty functional, he still finished for a good percentage for the season. Like unless his three point shot completely falls off a cliff, I don't really see any way in which Niko is not like a huge positive for the most part next season. Yeah, it's it's funny you say that because I think clipper fans clipper fans last memory of Nico Batum was the beating son series that Kawhi Leonard was injured after a couple of games, Paul, George and play. And Niko wasn't shooting shots. He just wasn't shooting shots almost the entire series. Niko's not Niko's. Yeah, Niko is not Niko Batum in the 2020s is not a player of matters for bad teams, which the Clippers. One's Kawhi and PG were hurt. The Clippers were a bad team. Like I don't think unless you want to push back on that. Like I think that's they were just not good once it happened. Like the Russell Westbrook leg clippers were not a team that Batum has much value to the same way the Joellen B plus Sixers were last year were not anything that Batum could really help his whole value is when you put him on a great team, he like multiplies the value of those players. Now, yes, we're not going to talk about like, you know, the value of the Clippers. I think overall as a team, like how we're feeling about the next year, I do think like, I think it will matter a lot that Kawhi is healthy because I'm assuming or like, I'm assuming you're not expecting a ton from the Clippers in games where Kawhi or Hardin aren't going like in games where he's playing with Kawhi and Hardin. Hardin you should fit really well with like, I think Nico will be super helpful in those games specifically. Yeah, let's take a quick break down and come right back. I kind of want to talk about how you feel about James Hardin and Nico Batum synergy after this. All right, we're back. You know, there's a lot that the Clippers fans already know about Nico Batum and Kawhi Leonard, how they'll fit, particularly how they fit next to each other defensively. Kawhi Leonard had to pick up a lot of different assignments last year because the Clippers didn't have Nico Batum. Of course, Nico Batum is not a great rebound or anything. We already kind of know that and Kawhi Leonard's still going to need to have his onus on that end as really the Clippers don't really have much rebounders at all aside from the zoo and Kawhi, really. That's kind of the big thing there. Mo Bamba, we're talking about in a second here too. How do you see somebody like James Hardin fitting alongside a guy like Nico Batum? Now Nico, we, the Clippers fans assume that Nico is going to come up the bench. I don't think that Nico is going to get a huge share of minutes. I'm guessing he'll slot in his usual, you know, 22 to 25, maybe 22, maybe lower 20s considering his age and the Clippers and how they're looking. The Clippers do have a needed power forward for sure, but I think Kawhi Leonard will take up a lot of those reps as long as he can. What he misses games will see how that goes. But what do you think of this energy between those two Dan as somebody who's seen more James Hardin than I have even though I was blessed for a lot of the James Hardin stuff you were raving about. I saw in the Clippers as well last year, but how do you think those two will kind of work off each other whenever they have it or play with each other? Yeah, I mean, I'm going to talk about the defense really quick first because the offense is probably the more interesting part. It does really help that Batum is so good at guarding like smaller perimeter threats of his physicality and how he denies the ball and how he can really bother them with his length and his like expert positioning because when you can slot the team up to those roles, suddenly Hardin can like just guard bad power forwards and body them with his bulk, which is much better for James. Like James is pretty good at that. I know James honestly, not that bad on defense this past year. He was, I thought he's for James. It was fine. Like from what I know for his career. So I think it's not like as huge a deal as people may get out to me. But like I do think there was some synergy there in terms of a tomb is more slide to take roles that Hardin probably doesn't want of chasing smaller, quicker players. Yeah, so that probably, I think you're right though. Hardin is essentially playing power forward on defense for the most part, which is good. It's good. I think that's a good idea for them. But offensively, I mean, Batum can hit corner threes and there's one thing Hardin is really, really fantastic that is getting guys open corner threes. Like the Sixers lineups of PJ Tucker were viable because like James could find him in corners and stuff like that. So Nico will be helpful there. He wasn't always used too much of a screener, but like so much that also had to do. It's weird because I don't know how much Nico will fit with him when Zoo is on the court because like there is some interesting stuff you can do with Batum as a ball screener. I think with like his ability to pick and pop or if he's being guarded specifically about like the other team's worst defender, if they're trying to hide them, if you can potentially get switches or put those guys and coverage against Hardin like, that would be very helpful. But when you have like a big grab to do, I was probably needs to be the screener there with how the spacing works like that probably does change a little bit. But you know, Nico will make quick decisions like that he's going to like find creative ways to get her. But he will definitely be one who does not like, if you think Hardin needs the ball in a possession, Batum is very good at knowing when the best players need the ball and getting it to them. So I think it's a very, very helpful skill. I think like you say like Nico's probably like around 20 to 22 minutes game. I would not be shocked at all if they like closed games in like a five out setting with Nico on the court, like just being the Swiss Army knife that he is trusting space and trusting his decision making like that wouldn't shock me at all. I know this is what we were talking about, but also I feel like it's meant worth mentioning that one game last year where the Sixers were giving Nico a DNP until they needed some inbound the ball versus a full court press and specifically something in for that. That's why they didn't rule him out because his whole job was just to throw the inbound pass at the end because Tobias Harris immediately threw a turnover and they just said, I remember that a good game. Yes. And Nico in the locker room saying this is what I do afterwards. So like, yeah, like also that in the back pocket if you want it to. All right. Well, you talked a little bit about some five out configurations with Nico Batum. I definitely can see that being an option. I wonder what the Clippers will do with their backup center minutes now because they also decided another gentleman from the Philadelphia San Francisco. There's Mo Bamba, former lottery pick, wingspan like you wouldn't believe an athlete like was supposed to produce some memorable basketball memories, but has not done that. You know, Mo Bamba, Dan, I was talking about this on previous podcast and I've talked about this with Lucas and Rob and everybody. Mo Bamba is a seven footer. Incredible wingspan has being pretty well from deep for a few years now here. Last year he shot 39.1% from deep. In Orlando a few years ago, he shot pretty well pretty consistently, 38 plus pretty consistently on decent volume for a few years there. You know, he's a pretty good rebounder, pretty good rebound rate, pretty good rebound percentage rate, decent blocks per 36. If you look at it there, but you know, he's not a very good shooter from the field for a guy who just shoots nothing but threes and around the rim. You know, he doesn't really, he doesn't really come towards one on a points per possession as a roller and more importantly, just every fan base I've ever talked to that's watched Mo Bamba. I just can't believe what a bad basketball player he is. Obviously, he's not been getting minutes on an NBA court. It's to me, Dan, for a guy that fits that, you know, five out type of shooter and rim protector type, it's crazy to me how bad he is. How was Mo Bamba this bad? Well, I think it, I mean, I was playing first, too, which is, I mean, I was a solid guy. So I probably should probably set up this. He's not a bad person. No, it's not. Yeah. But Mo is, it's the thing where five out, you can really put a quotation for it, because yes, he's a center shoots threes, then part makes it five out. But like, is it five out in a way that defense will ever respect it? No, because they know if Mo ever dribbles the ball, it's not gonna nothing's gonna happen. Like, you have to be able to create with the ball in your hands a little bit. Like, we finally saw someone like, I think a good example is for years teams, like the Pacers could quote unquote play five out with Miles Turner, but teams are always respected. He's gotten so much better on offense as like a handler and being able to tack closets. And now they actually can do that, because teams actually kind of feel the impetus to worry about Miles Turner of the ball's hands. No defenses ever were even though has the ball in his hands. Like, he shoots. Like, I think I even posted a flowchart once and should Mo Bamba be in the game? And it's just like option one is like, is he making his threes? If no, nope, if yes, sure, keep him in for three minutes, like, it's really just on offense down to like, is he maybe the only time like he ever worked in something else offensively is when Kyle Lowry somehow unlocked him as a role, a lab threat for a bit. But I thought that had a lot to do with Kyle Lowry being like a genius passer. And like, having some creative ways to get in the ball. Like, I think there was a quote, Mo, I think there was a quote where Nick Nurse said that Mo Bamba came up to him after a game and said he really needs to play with Kyle. That really helps him out a lot. So having a really good distributor point guard, which we'll probably help out. So like, I guess, yeah, it was hard and obviously would fit that role. Like, he needs as someone who's so limited, create creating the ball of hands like his strength is so lacking his feel for the game. He's one of the worst passers I've probably ever seen. Like, it sounds mean, but he really can't pass. So that part is just not not anything to do with it there. So like, you probably need to have harden out there with him in order to get some value out of him. Like, if you know the plus pastor, I think it becomes really hard for Mo to impact the game super positively. On offense, defensively, like, it's why Nick Nurse played in more than Paul Reed sometimes just like Mo is gigantic and tall. Like, that part is true. He does block some shots just by being huge. But it's like on both ends it becomes so predictable because on deep when other teams are guarding him, they know he's just popping for three and unless he hits one, like, it's not really their concern. He's not going to punish them any other way. And on defense, like, he can only can only really hang back near the paint and block some shots. He's not super intuitive, like rotating over his he'll get blown. He gets blown by the perimeter players very easily because he doesn't have the strength. He doesn't have physical mass to really bend his knees in a way where he can contain them. And doesn't like he doesn't he while he's got super long arms, he doesn't leap quickly off the floor like his jumps take a long time. He doesn't have a quick rise. So there are easy ways to play around and like, ultimately, if he is your backup center, like, there are ways you can make him work, especially. And again, if he's hitting his threes, like it's you can have some plus minutes with him. That's perfectly fine. But it really is just hard to completely trust him sometimes. And the the you can it's very, it's a very cliche thing to say, but like, the theory of what Mo Bamba is makes a lot is a lot better than what he actually is a player, which is a guy that defenses don't particularly care about. And while his defense is good enough that he can at least block some shots and that would be a total negative. And then he does not make enough. He does not stop enough threats on that other end to really make up for it. Let's take another quick break on my back wrap up about Mo and some closing thoughts for this. All right, we're back. Dan, you know, you seem to be hinting at it a bit. Is Mo Bamba even a backup center in this league? Like, do you feel? No, he's an NBA player. You can't be that tall and be able to shoot a little bit and not like he's still an NBA player. Like, because there's the other the other option for the Clippers is Kai Jones. That's why I'm saying he's better than I'm pretty sure he's better than Kai, or at least definitely more trustworthy than Kai right now. I would definitely say in say we go fast forward all the way to playoffs next year, I would much rather have like in the non-Zoo watch minutes. If I'm the Clippers, try a five ball, a small ball five out lineup. True five out. I would prefer that probably to Mo in a playoff game unless unless the other team are doing has such a freakish size matchup that you can't handle that you really need to have the tall guy out there. I mean, that was usually the sixth justification for playing in the West in the West that might be possible, you know, if the Clippers are playing somebody. So I'm I'm I'm a little skeptical. I'm I have some optimistic. I'm a little optimistic about Mo showing some things. I think the Clippers will have no choice but to give them some minutes here just with how bad their their depth is behind Zoo. But I'm really curious of what what what he has to show because I mean, honestly, all that I've seen from the little bit of film that I've seen from him is as soon as he catches the ball, it's just it's just kind of an adventure. If he puts the ball, if he dribbles the ball at all, unless he's catching you directly above the rim, then there's really not much to do aside from him. Like you said, shooting the three or dunking. He he will have James Harden. The Clippers did bench James Harden, you know, as early as the team has benched him in first quarters to get him second union minutes. So he had run a second unit on James, James has always been like he did that the six or two which is James James's whole thing like I mean, just I talked about hard. I'm probably is pro hard and still is any sixers person out there. I know most most of the hard hard hard. You can find four random dudes on the street who can hit a three and he can get you like an average offense. Like it's hard. It's hard to have a bad offense when James is like captaining it. So there's stuff like that. But I like I would. I know he's not from the Sixers. But you know, Derek Jones is a Philly high school player like I would be more like I would be more interested in the Clippers doing stuff like Oh, closing the game with like Harden, Kawhi, DJ Jay, Petume and I don't know, Terence Mann or something like that. Like, yeah, like I would much prefer that to ever like, like Mo is good enough at center things. And at least has been around the NBA lineup that you probably can start him in like game Zubotch misses. But it is definitely if like you really need a close. I would probably lean to trusting the other players like that. If unless you have some else to say but Mo, I do think it's interesting with how good like Niko's post entry passes were last year. If the Clippers could try and run more design plays for Zu to get like post touches. I mean, I really believe in Zu as a play. I have come around to like Zu is one of the most underrated players in league. So I would like to see if the Clippers could kind of like, you know, find some creative ways for Petume to enter the ball with him. Man, you've come to the right podcast. Well, it's been low hanging fruit for a very, very long time that Zu in the post has been easy offense for the Clippers in a team that has needed some of those touches, especially now with Paul George gone. I'm hoping that the Clippers do give Zu some touches. I mean, from five to nine feet, I think he shot the best percentage of anybody in the league, even better than Nikola, you'll catch last year, which was really a nice compliment to harden. But also just in general, a guy that can get some post touches, the Clippers ran a lot of posts play for him in that first game against the Mavericks. Everybody surprised and and got really good results. Zu was the second best player on the Clippers last year, behind harden and the playoffs. Now, sentence and a lot of people, you know, would be surprised to hear, but a lot of Clippers fans know that Zu is a pretty, pretty capable offensive player. And he's going to be needed to be put in positions more so now for the scene, which honestly, frankly, is not very good offensively anymore. Zu getting touches down low and Nikko being the guy that get gets some of those touches too, would be nice will be it'll be interesting to see how they stagger those minutes a bit. The Clippers a couple years ago did this thing where Robert Covington essentially took backup center minutes. You know, you're I'm curious if the Clippers will revert to Nico just as full on backup center. If Mo Bamba, you know, struggles early on here, or maybe they just go straight to that. I do think it's go well. I do think heavy backup center minutes is probably a little too much for us for Nico, especially because he's so good on the perimeter. Yeah, you start to lose some of the things he does best. It's more like a trick card like PJ Tucker. I mean, you could still like, he still will fight guys inside. So that is something DJ DJ like has like some interesting rim protection like with how high you can get up like you have some interesting ways to construct this. But now I just do like, yes, there's so few other centers in NBA who are just as physically strong as him. And if you just get one of those like who isn't and beat or yokech or whoever, like, yeah, just set up a post up for me, like he can probably drop set them for a layup or free throws like, I'd be surprised if he couldn't. Yeah, he's he's been great. And this could be a big season for zoo. He's also extension pending. He could be playing out a little bit for his extension this season. If he doesn't sign one already, honestly, frankly, I'm a little surprised that Clippers have been already agreed on to an extension of a zoo. They might do that soon before the season starts. He's eligible now, but this will be a big season from a full season with Hardin. He'll have more touches in the offense, I would guess. He's likely going to get more minutes and probably as many minutes as he can handle this season. We'll see kind of where he lays at the end of the year. I do kind of wonder if he gets a little bit of most improved player buzz if he starts well enough. We'll see. It's hard for it's hard for like most improved player like somebody just watch maxi when it's like it's gonna it usually goes to a perimeter player who starts scoring a lot more like maxi deserves the last year. But it's I think just do like being good. Like I'm gonna do averages like 25 and 12. He's probably not getting it unfortunately. Oh, you were you were in a Kobe guy for most improvement. I mean, obviously you're you're following the six times. I'm very biased like Kobe like I like I thought maxi deserved it. That's how much you've proved. But like, you know, if you told me Kobe White deserved a winner, like I can't say like that's wrong. Like Kobe also improved the sun. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, Dan, any any closing thoughts? You know, Harden, we might as well mention Harden a little bit. Harden will be expected to level up a little bit as a second option to clear cut second option. He was last year anyways, but even more so a guy that we're hoping can as from the Clippers perspective can have some of that scoring punch. You know, Dan, you saw James Harden down the stretch in the playoffs and how teams kind of dared him around the rim to make them pay. He did have that incredible game for where he had like seven floaters in the fourth quarter. And he did make the Mavericks pay. They again, dared him to do that floater stuff again later in the series. And he was not able to replicate it. I think my question for you also, we know James Harden is a brilliant passer. I know he's going to get guys open looks, guys that will be dared to shoot because the Clippers have much less shooters on this roster now with Paul George gone. Definitely got less guys that can move on the move and catch as a movement shooter types. But James Harden is a scorer. You know, Dan, do you think the days of James Harden being a near 20 point per game guy are out of the realm of possibility, despite the Clippers need further? Do you think that's what do you think James Harden could end up as far as not not just a stat line, but his production this year? Because I think if James Harden had like a 20, you know, a 20 and 10 type of season, this would be a team he could do it with can he be that guy anymore? You think after after watching him a little bit the Clippers and how is he slowed down as an offensive player through the years? I mean, 2010 like he again, he did 2010 just a season at half like in 2023, the sixth or she was 20 and 10 like 21 and 11 actually, like it's I don't think he's physically declined enough to the point where that's not possible. I'm like, yeah, without Paul George no longer there, I'm pretty certain that they're going to be expecting him to take up a lot more of that role. I mean, it's hard like when once you like don't have the same burst that he used to on the ball, like with his crossover he can't get by guys easily doesn't exist. Obviously, vertically is much more limited than he used to be even in the window, you lose your threat there makes it harder for you to get your threes off. Like, you know, it all compounds on itself. He it's obvious. He's he was one of the at his peak. He's one of the greatest scores in NBA history. And he's I don't think anyone thinks he's that anymore. But I definitely think like 2010 on like really great efficiency is certainly possible for him. Again, I'll be interested to see how like how much more the Clippers lean into his ball screen of the game, like how he pairs with Kawhi still like just always say that I mean, it's really hard for me to ever think James Harden is going to be a bad offensive player like the series against the Celtics that was up and down with the Sixers a few years ago was it was a really weird thing to selflessly that eventually worked. But like when they were like literally playing him from behind and like daring him to shoot at the surface, Rob Williams, it was a whole whole weird series of how that matchup worked out like six or the six or Celtics like player by player matchups have always been bizarre anyways, like, so there's a shock with that series got pretty weird. But no, I think James will certainly be able to still put up really great numbers this season unless like barring like another big injury, then like that probably really problematic for him. And I do like I did mention earlier, I think pretty much if you want to get value of Obama, there is some definite value in staggering those two together. So James is there to captain that second unit. Yeah, for sure. Believe in that. Dan, we talked a little bit about some of your work earlier to start the pod. Anything else you want to play on the way out, you know, you're always welcome back on this pod in an honorary two and three hooper as far as I'm concerned. Anything you want to play over over there, Ricky or anything else that you're doing? Thanks, chef. I always love hopping on the show. That was a favorite to do. Yeah, you just follow me on Twitter at Dan underscore Olinger. Well, always writing about the Sixers there. And now usually we'll be talking about the NBA draft posting clips about players as probably be talking much more about the Sixers than the NBA as a whole as we get closer to the actual season. No, not sign I recently did. But if people were interested still high on the Olympics, I did do a feature story on a Olympic rower, Nick Meade, who is actually a huge Sixers and Ricky fan who was able to get in contact with him that way. He was just a huge Sixers fan. He also has an Olympic gold medal. That one was one of the flagbearers of Kayla Becky, which was pretty cool. So getting to talk to him and learn more about like how it's funny. You're talking to a gold medalist and he really just wanted to talk about like the 2018 Sixers. So that was pretty cool. So if you check that out, that's also I think if people might enjoy that story, that's one that, you know, I realize 99% of the people listening to probably Clippers fans. But if you want to store a story that written that isn't specific, like to Sixers, I think learning more about Nick and who he is actually a pretty one of the better things ever written for them. So yeah, oh, cool. That sounds awesome. All right, then. Thanks so much for coming on. And thanks everybody for listening. We're going to have Tim Keto on the pod in a week and talk about Derek Jones, you know, a little bit Tim who was on a couple of pods during the Mavericks series. It's great work at the athletic or excited to have him on. And pretty soon we'll probably do another part on on Krista. And so thank you everybody firstingly, it was a nice five star whatever platform this is on five starts by starts really helps. And that's where it's to read them on the air. And as always, go Clipper. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]