213Hoops: The Lob, The Jam, The Podcast

Zu Extended! What About Terance?

Lucas, Rob, and Shap get together to talk about the new Zu extension, what it means for the Clippers future team building, and expectations for Zu. The trio also talk about when to expect a Terance extension, if to expect one at all. They then close talking about Amir Johnson joining the coaching staff and some chatter about the schedule recently being released.

Duration:: 35m
Broadcast on:: 01 Sep 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

Hi, this is Ralph Lawler. Welcome to the love the jam. What's up, everyone? It's the love the jam. I've got some Chippon coming to you as always with Rob as it going, Rob. Chap, it is going well. I came back from a two-week trip in France. I've been back for a week, but it's still getting over being back here and working and whatnot. But the trip was great. I did not want to come home. And yeah, that's my life. What was your favorite? Do you travel much, Rob, overseas, international? No, this is my first time in Europe ever. Ever. Wow. Yes. And this is my first time truly going international to a place that wasn't like Mexico or Canada since I was like 10. And yeah, I mean, Mexico, I've been to Cancun for a wedding and then Canada. I've just been to like Toronto a couple of times. Did you appreciate my first real international trip since I was a small child? Did you appreciate how much the French hate Americans when you opened your mouth? You know what? That's really interesting. I did not get a single bit of that vibe. Wow. Yeah. Wow. I think it is partially. Just to show throw out there before we turn this pod entirely into my trip to France. If you do ever go to France, listeners, the number one suggestion I can offer you, say Bonjour whenever you go anywhere in France, just saying it will make everybody treat you like 50% better. Learn like 15 basic French phrases. And just by using them, even if you don't know a single other word of French, will make the way nicer. You sound so American right now. Yeah. A little bit of the language of the country you go to. Thanks, Rob. Bonjour. Apparently a lot of Americans do not bother learning that much. Hey, Bodger, man. Lucas is also. How are you, Lucas? I'm good, man. I was just just did Clipper's talk with Adam Oslund, which will probably be out around the same time as this episode this evening, most likely. So, you know, listen to us first, but then go listen to that after. Shout out, Adam. Adam is doing a lot of work, y'all. Yeah, I was saying to him while I was talking to him today, I've been doing this for a little while. And so, I understand what the August grind is like. And I very, very notably have chosen not to do the August content grind this year as listeners of this pod will have already figured out by now. But for him to be doing this series where he's doing these one-on-one pods with all of these different people from the Clipper's media sphere who have different roles and capacities and create content to our journalists or podcasters, right, and bringing them all together, you know, one at a time, day after day for the audience to really get familiar with each other. It's a really cool project and it's a lot of work. It's not something that, you know, that he has to do or that, like, a lot of fan bases. I don't know. I haven't seen anyone else in the NBA that's doing something like this where they're really covering an entire media sphere of a team over this dead period of the season. So, yeah, really cool project that he's doing. Very admirable. The three of us have been on there. We know what it's like to manage a podcast, but he's also doing the video side of that, which is another extra layer. He's done some clipping and stuff. And I know Adam listens to the pod. So shout out to you, Adam. And everybody check them out. All three of us have been on there now. So Rob was actually the very first guest, if I recall correctly, right, Rob? The most special guest, the most prominent guest. And I think the best for first. I think the twins were on as well, right? The twins were also on, and you know, sources. I don't, you know, sources tell me that we may, not guaranteed, we may see the lob the jam contributor Cole Huff on there at some point as well. That would make a lot of sense. So everybody that's been on this pod, the regulars on this pod, will meander over there. And it's a good time. I had a good time on that pod. Shout out to Adam for his great work. We're here to talk about the Clippers a little bit. It's September 1st when we're recording this pod. As you can imagine, not particularly exciting of a time. There was, however, some exciting news, news that we were all sort of waiting for with was a bunch of Zubots finally got his extension. A good chunk of money there, 18.1 million for 2526, which is when the extension kicks in 19.5 for the year after 2627 for 2728, 21 million dollars or 58.6 million three year extension, very much deserved. I really had, you know, Rob virtually no notes on this. I think Zoo is worth that money. I know it was kind of the max available for his three seasons. But I mean, I think Zoo is worth this. I think Zoo is even more worth this with Paul George leaving that offensive they can see that hopefully we'll reallocate to Zoo a bit. We've seen how important he is on defense. So I don't really have too much to say, aside from I'm excited that we have some of Zoo's prime years still on this team. So what did you think about this deal, Rob? How, as far as the dollar signs attached to it and Zoo's potential these next few years with the Clippers. I was apparently so optimistic in my write up on two on through hoops that Commodore DH Pat asked if I had had some really good Indian food before writing this article. I love that you're just associated with Indian food. Oh yeah, Rob. Rob, how was the Indian food situation in France? Oh my God. There were actually quite a few in Paris. I did not eat any though. So I mean, that was a that's a long time for you without Indian food. I think I had it the day before we left and maybe the day when we came back. So great. Great. Great. Great. Look, the people want to hear what they want to hear. That's fair. I'm on the side of the people that I'm sorry. I'm this. Nobody wants to hear about me. You are such a tyrant. Difficult doctor. Anyway, let's talk about you. Let's maybe the fans of the pod can send me to India. So can I experience some? Yeah, India, not England, Rob India. Yeah, though I would not say no to both. But anyway, yeah, I mean, the zoo signing it's it's honestly tough to find downside to it. It's a very reasonable deal. I wouldn't go is to say he's like severely underpaid. I think this is really probably about what he's worth. Maybe like slightly underpaid on the front end when it's a little bit lower. But like this is really what like starting centers are getting in the NBA. And that's what he is. Like he's not an amazing starting center. He's not one of the 10 best centers in the league, but he's somewhere in like that 10 to 20 range, depending on what you value and team context and everything. He is a good starting center. And those guys are making above MLE money that MLE is now about 15 million a year is zoo not a top 10 center in the league. I'm not saying I'm not saying higher like the top five, but maybe like eight through 12. I have to look at the roster. So this is this is so timely because this is what Adam and I did for like 30 minutes today. And I we know I'm not going to repeat the whole segment that we did on that podcast, but we both landed. I think and this is probably where I would have ballparked it. I think zoo is in the 10 to 15 range 10. That's fair. Is that fair, Rob? Yeah, I mean, I would say like I said 10 to 20. I mean, I would put him 10 to 15. It depends like on team context, what you need from a big man, but I think I think the absolute highest you could put in his 10th. Like we Adam and I went through like name by name, the centers in the NBA, the absolute highest you could put him his 10th. And I think very reasonably, there are three or four other guys right there that you could move him into 11th, 12th, 13th. Once you start getting to 14th, 15th, 16th, I start probably disagreeing a little more strongly. Yeah. So like he's a above probably a slightly above average, I eat good starting center. That's the kind of money these guys are making. So I don't think this contract is like he's going to be hugely underpaid like he was on his previous deal. But this is a very fair, reasonable deal. I think just in terms of the overall timeline, it lines up really well. He's 27. This three year deal adds on to the one year he already had. So his total deal is about four year 70 million. That will cover him through his age 32 season, which is going to be the rest of his prime. Like he's a guy whose game should age like okay, but like he'll be starting to decline probably by the time he's 32. So the Clippers will have him for the remainder of his prime years. He, you know, has shown no signs of slipping. I would disagree with a little bit with people who've say he's improved over the past couple of years. I think he's really been more or less the same level of player of the past few seasons. But that player is a quite solid valuable player. There are no issues with signing that guy to a three year, just under $60 million a year deal. So yeah, I mean, I don't six, not 60 million year, three year, 60 million total. It's really hard to find flaws with it quite honestly. Like again, I don't think it's like one of the best deals in the NBA. But it is a very fair contract. And it's a guy who like just considering the overall context, see somebody we know plays well with the Clippers best player who's quite Leonard. We already saw last year like some flashes of some really good chemistry with him and the team second best player, which is now James Harden. He has been on the team. He's the longest tenure player on the team. By all accounts, he's good in the locker room. He's a guy everybody in the organization really likes, which has value offering some stability as a guy who's been your starting center or at least a key piece in center for the past half decade and having him for the next half decade can really help with just like knowing kind of one set part of your roster and kind of fleshing out around that. So yeah, I mean, it's just a really good deal. Like I don't, I think there's some people who are like a little bit overly optimistic about like zoo is still getting better. And I'm like, I don't know about that. But he might score more of the season. We can talk a little bit more about that in a bit because of increased opportunity. I don't know if he'll be better, but his numbers might go up. But yeah, even if it doesn't, this is a very good deal for a very good player and a guy who is a linchpin to what the Clippers have been doing. Yeah, let's take a quick break and then we're gonna get Lucas's thoughts after this. All right, we're back. So Lucas, how do you feel about this number? How do you feel about zoom? Zoo who also infamously has nothing behind him. That's like an established NBA player as far as far as the actual center position, a traditional center. And what are your expectations for zoo now that he's gonna have a full season with James Harden without Paul Georgia and maybe maybe more touches here? Yeah, I think in the in the long term thinking about this contract, it's a really it's a low risk proposition for the Clippers. The salary cap is going to keep skyrocketing. The last year of this extension, the NBA salary cap will be 187 million. So I shop you had the breakdown of like what it is year by year. What was the last year? The last year is 21 million. So he's gonna be making 21 million to be your starting center, probably at that point, you know, the tail end of his prime, but still he's not he's gonna be what 30 or 31 that year. And the cap will be 187 million. So he'll be making a one ninth of the salary cap to be, you know, a solid starting center in the NBA. So it's very low downside for the Clippers. I do think, you know, we hear these rumbles of 2026 max cap room. And this certainly doesn't take that off the table, but the Clippers will have to make a series of choices. If they want to have max cap room in 22 months, they'll have to make a series of choices in the next 22 months that will be pretty painful. And this was a compromise on that saying, yes, this is gonna eat into that 2026 room, but for 20 million dollars for the players who is for his prime, it's worth it. You're gonna have to ask that question about Tansman, you're gonna have to ask that question about Norman Powell, you're gonna have to ask that question about James Harden, right? And then you're gonna have to start asking that question about all of these other guys who break out, you know, the guys who maybe you find found on a cheaper deal this year, who have a good season and you try to re-sign them, that going for someone with the mid-level exception next summer and thinking, how many years are we really going to give them? Are we willing to eat 12 million dollars into our 2026 space to sign someone now? Lots of difficult questions that the Clippers are gonna have to make decisions on in order to reach that point where they have max space in 2026. It's gonna involve some painful decisions in the short term, and they did not make that painful decision now. They invested more into, and I think it's a good deal. In terms of the what you expect from Zoom next season, the big thing for me is the minutes. How much is Ty going to play him? How you mentioned, you know, with Mo Bomba is the only other option, with we've talked about the power forward minutes equation of how many games and how many minutes are you getting from those two guys in Kawai Amiko? Where is the front court depth? I think they're gonna need to lean on Zu a lot. So then it comes down to conditioning, right? And can he scale up his not just his minutes, but his touches per minute, and maintain his efficiency without having big drop offs like we've seen sometimes with his energy and body language. If Zu can be that like, I think Zu should be a 32 minute guy this year. And if he can be a 32 minute guy, I think he can probably average 16 and 12. And that is like a really that's probably a high end outcome. That's like he's able to maintain a minute slow that he's never maintained before. And he's able to increase his workload offensively and maintain his efficiency. That's like a really high end outcome for him 16 and 12. But you know, if you go 16 and 12 this year, you go, man, it's good. The Clippers locked him up for under $20 million a year before the season started. So, you know, I think he's he's clearly clearly the Clippers third best and third most important player for this upcoming season. Yeah, I agree with generally all of that. I am curious to see how his minute load will be this season, especially when you consider that Kwai Leonard is really the only real reasonable power forward. The team really has on the team that's a rotation based guy. And you really just need some size and Zu a couple of years ago, two seasons ago, or so Zu got a lot of minutes early on had the month that is unforgettable for Clippers fans, had some great lines. I think he almost had that 2020 game that year to at home and had a really great month, but got hurt as the season went on and just minutes came down. And I feel like the times that Zu is at an increased minute load, you know, you've kind of seen him break down a bit and hasn't been the most positive. The team will not be as good as it was in previous seasons. Like, what will happen if the team is like 500 and under to start the year? How will that affect Zu's body language? What if a Kwai Leonard injury happens early on the team is just bad? Like, there's just a lot of question marks as far as Zu's minutes and his and sometimes his motor, you know, for lack of a better word. But all that considered, I mean, I think this deal is great. Like you mentioned the cap spiking as the years go on that last year will look completely reasonable. And the slight the slight raises he's having every year will be totally fine with the cap increases. And I'm looking forward to seeing what Zu has, you know, full season of James Hardin with maybe more offensive responsibility. I think we saw Zu, you know, take a bit of a leap, you know, what, you know, I think what Rob said about him getting better and better maybe was the case the years before James Hardin. But I think seeing Zu play alongside James Hardin very effectively was a question that we did not have answered until last year where we saw them play together. And he was able to kind of make catches that they were finally placed in the right pocket for him on rolls and makes him passes and really master that five to nine range game or so and be good with those floaters and this little jump hooks. And I think some of that stuff was really seen as as a positive to James Hardin where other, you know, otherwise you might be worried that James Hardin needs a lob threat to be an effective guy because he's not a guy that has the burst of the rim. I think Zu being so effective in that five to nine is was really good to see with him alongside James Hardin. So I think he answered that question last year and now it's just going to be a matter of how consistent he can be. And if he can also maintain his defense while if he gets an uptick in offense, you know, because he's been the Clippers backbone for years defensively. He's an elite rim protector, smart defensive player in general on that end doesn't really reflect on, I don't know, whatever the amount of blocks he gets. He's just a great rim deterrent. And I'm excited to see what Zu has because I think he's really, really good. I think most, most NBA fans kind of recognize that he's good by now. He's not like a big secret. I think people that hate on him now just have weird allegiances with other players or what have you. I think Zu is generally appreciated quite a bit more than he was a few seasons ago. And I think he'll be continued to be appreciated. I think he's gonna have a nice season. I'm looking forward to it. And I hope he plays well. I hope he keeps it up. I hope he can handle the minutes because I think the minutes will be maybe coming to him. So yeah, I do think it merits consideration to here, Lucas. And I might as well turn this over to Rob. You know, Zu played really well in the playoffs last year. Got an extension is a homegrown guy. For the most part, aside from being a linker initially, he's had most of his young seasons here. Terrence Mann is a real homegrown guy and does not have an extension yet played really well in the playoffs last year. Defended look at Doncic extremely well, is getting maybe slotted a little bit more reasonably as like a wing, a three type, less of a point of attack guide at the Clippers up Chris Dunn and Derek Jones Jr. to kind of take up all that role, which I think is maybe the better role for Terrence to have. But he's not extended yet Rob. He's the other guy that's extension eligible. And the Clippers have all these other guys who were defenders. I can't shoot. You know, there's a little bit of consideration here is like, well, how quickly are we going to be to extend Terrence, who's also kind of a non-spacer type. But he kind of does things a little bit differently than those other guys. And you know, if ever he would have an opportunity to shine, you would imagine Rob that it would be this year. You know, alongside a guy like James Harden that will take away those on ball reps. But well, he'll have some opportunities to maybe show if he has something in his quote unquote bag, Rob. But what do you think about this, this Terrence extension that is looming a bit here? And do you think that gets done anytime soon? To be frank, I'd be I know there's been some rumors that it will get done. I'd be a little surprised if it was, but I don't know what his market would be. Because that's the thing with Terrence like zoo has been in the NBA for longer. He's also had like two kind of above minimum deals, even though he was still under paid on both. I think he had a three year for $18 million deal and then three for 31. Terrence has only had one season above like the NBA minimum, because he had a four year deal as a rookie. And then now he's finishing up a two year $20 million deal. And he's going to be, you know, after this year's up, he's going to be 28, I believe. Like he is going to be right in the middle of his prime. He's only going to get one chance to get a big contract probably. And that is this upcoming one. So, you know, does he, does he or his agent decide like, Hey, you know, I don't know what the maximum he can get is. It's probably almost exactly the same as zoo, honestly, because I think his salary is similar to zoos. Like, this would be a gigantic increase in career earnings for Terrence, like a three year $60 million deal, basically, like this would, you know, compare to his current earnings, which is 16 million. It's obviously, you know, an exponential jump. On the other hand, like, if he has a really good season and he hits free agency next year and he's not encumbered by the Clippers extension, you know, NBA, CBX extension stuff, could the Clippers or another team pay him even more than that? I don't, I don't know what the Clippers are offering. I don't know if a deal like that is on the table. Zoo is better than Terrence and is also, frankly, more important to what the Clippers are doing than Terrence. I'd be honestly a little surprised if they offered him that large of a deal. But I also, yeah, I mean, his agent would know generally what his market is. I have no idea, like, do teams view him as like a guy who could start for a real contender? Do they view him or is like, sort of a key bench guy for like a really good team? I don't know. So I would be a little surprised. I think it's just complicated. But if the Clippers come with like a three or $50 million extension, it would be, I would probably imagine be pretty tough for Terrence and his agent to turn down because it would be just a huge raise and just, you know, that's, you know, life security type of money, probably. But yeah, I don't know. I don't think there have been as many rumors. The zoo thing was really like, this is going to get done. The Terrence is like, they're talking about it. There's a chance it does. I'd be a little bit more surprised. But, you know, maybe, maybe they get it done. Yeah, Lucas, let's take a quick break of them and get your thoughts after this. All right, we're back. Lucas, we've talked a little bit about Terrence Mann and his extension and not just his extension, but his importance and his role in the team. Where do you stand on Terrence as of now? And how important do you think it is that the Clippers get this done sometime soon? I mean, is there any concern that Terrence will just come back and kind of show out and the numbers will get kind of driven up a bit here? Or, you know, or is there an idea that Terrence might not need to be extended anytime soon, just kind of play things out and see what his worth is? And where do you stand on the whole on the whole Terrence situation? I think Terrence is really holds a fun place for most Clippers fans. I mean, the jazz game, just him being home grown, seeing him grow. I would say that maybe Terrence has the most emotional attachment, you know, as any Clippers player might be to fans. I mean, I know people are attached to Kawhi Leonard, but Terrence really grew in front of our eyes. So I'm curious how you feel about the immediacy to an extension or if it even needs to happen anytime soon? Yeah, I mean, I agree with you about, you know, Terrence kind of being the home grown player that fans would have the strongest attachment to. I don't necessarily think that extending him, you know, right now, like, has to be a pressing issue. You don't want him to feel like you don't want him or like you don't respect him or you're not going to make him an offer. So you engage in conversations. But, you know, I think I had originally said that 16 million average for Terrence and 18 million average for Zoo and Zoo got 19 and a half. So maybe Terrence gets 16, maybe he gets 18. I agree with Rob that Zoo is better and more important to the Clippers and Terrence. I also think that the middle class of centers tends to get squeezed a little bit more. And the middle class of wings, you know, there's more money tends to get thrown towards teams trying to get wings. And there seems to always be adequate centers sitting around, right? So just because Zoo is a better player than Terrence and more important to the Clippers and Terrence doesn't necessarily mean that Terrence couldn't go get more on the open market from another team than Zoo could. That being said, you know, you look at like, continuous Caldwell Pope at 22 million a year, signing this summer, Terrence definitely isn't at KCP's level as like a surefire starter, elite at his role, championship level player. But maybe Terrence is in kind of bet on himself mode. He's going to have a big opportunity this year. And if he claims it, he could become a really important player for this Clippers team with more touches and more shots and could end up, you know, pricing himself. I don't I don't want to say out of the Clippers range because the Clippers have will have bird rights on him next summer, but could end up trying to put himself into a price range above what the Clippers can offer him in an extension and more so into a larger above $20 million a year deal that they would have to look at in the free agency. That feels like a lot for Terrence. But again, that's contingent on him having a big breakout year. So as long as the conversations are healthy, as long as they're engaged, as long as Terrence doesn't feel like they don't want me anymore, you know, and both sides understand each other. And the Clippers have, you know, an offer on the table that's 16 million a year or whatever. And Terrence is saying, I'm going to roll the dice and see if I have a breakout season. I think that's that's totally reasonable. You know, we talked about, I just mentioned with Zu, if Zu has like a 16, 12, 32 minute a game season, this extension does start to look like a real bargain. And maybe Terrence decides instead of locking up money now, I'm going to roll the dice and see what I can, you know, he knows he's going to get an above middle level exception contract next summer, regardless. So would, so Zu would have as well. But yeah, I, and that's what I'm saying, I don't think there's necessarily a ton of urgency here. I think as long as they're engaged, it's fine. All right, there's some other clipper news that have happened as happens. This is the last time we all chatted. And the last time we did a pod, Amir Johnson, who most people who have been watching the league for a while, probably remembers well from the Detroit Pistons and Toronto Raptors. He was last on the Jimmy Ignite as a player and then he became a coach until that program belly up, belly it up a little bit. And now he's going to be on the development staff for the Clippers should be cool. Amir's been a vet for a very long time as a big man and could teach some good tricks to a guy like, you know, Kobe Brown, who's a similar height and size as he is. So would be cool to get some stuff from Amir. I don't know if you guys have thoughts on Amir Johnson or the schedule, you know, the schedule came out. The Clippers, I think, have the most are tied for the most back to backs in the NBA at 16, I believe was the number. I'm not doesn't fix all. Yeah, I'm not a big schedule person. You know, I'm glad that they don't have any matinee games. That's great. But personally, like, I'm just not really a big schedule person. I think being a hot ticket, being a national televised team has a big deal to, I think they're trying to prevent people of games from being back to backs if you're nationally televised. So I think a lot of that will have some correlation on the lesser numbers for some bigger name teams. So the Clippers getting back some a couple of back to back to backs, you know, is a bummer. To me, the other way around, they want the Lakers and Warriors to be successful. So thus, their schedules are a national team. So that the new rules will help them. That's how it works. Thank you, Rob. You're welcome. But yeah, do you guys have any thoughts on Amir Johnson or the schedule? I know our brother POD, the over at Clips and Dip, I know they talk about schedule stuff a lot, other PODs talk about schedule stuff a lot. We tend not to care that much about that sort of thing. Rob, maybe maybe you have some hot takes on the schedule, a second what you just said? No, it does not matter. The schedules balance out like, yes, some teams will have slightly harder or slightly tougher schedules. But like, there's nothing you can do about it. There's no control that the Clippers or any other team has over it. You just played the schedule that's in front of you. I cannot muster really any sort of takes outside of just the simple fact that everybody around the NBA has been saying for forever, which is that the NBA should just lengthen their season by an additional three weeks so that they can get every team's back-backs down to like, maybe not zero, but down to like four or five or something. They could do that by just extending the season. A few more weeks. The reason they won't is because everybody in the NBA, they're all rich and can go wherever they want and therefore like to have extensive summer vacations, to which I say boo-hoo, but they don't listen to Robert Falman. Yeah, Mr. France over here doesn't think other people should get to have vacation. That's correct. Only me. Anti-laborer Rob Falman. Bonjour. Bonjour. Bonjour now. Amir Johnson, it seems like a cool dude. I have zero other thoughts. Yeah. Good for him. I guess. Yeah. I remember him seeing like a cool guy. Glad he got another gig. Maybe the one time Rob calling somebody a cool, good guy is fine. Yeah, because it's an assistant coach. It's not not signing him to play. Yeah. Wesley Johnson, also a cool guy. I had no less about that, but Amir Johnson, I think was kind of famously like a really, really good dude. But no, I have zero thoughts on how much impact he will have. Good stuff. Lucas, any thoughts on the schedule or Amir Johnson, or any just layover clipper news that's been happening in the dead of the summer? Yeah. It's crazy. You can spend $2 billion on an arena and get more back to backs than you had the year before. But yeah, I mean, Rob's right. You just have to play the games in front of you. It's why I've always really been annoyed by the complaining about the matinee games, because like guess what? The big time games are Sunday matinee games on ABC. So if you're a real contender, if you go to the NBA finals, you're probably going to have to play Sunday at 1230 on ABC at least twice. So this idea that like, oh, the clippers shouldn't be expected to show up to play matinees and it's unfair that they have to play matinees because they share, but it's just always was stupid to me. But they have no home matinees this year. So at least we won't have to hear people use complaining and using that as an excuse anymore. But yeah, overall, it's just going to be what it's going to be. There are stretches of the schedule that will be a little bit easier, softer opponents, more home games, more rest days than there are stretches that it has more travel, higher density of games. When they come back from the all-star break, I think they have a pretty prolonged stretch of extremely dense schedule. And that will definitely, I think the clippers, probably just looking at the ebbs and flows. If they want to say avoid the play in and finish in the top six, I'm just thinking they probably need to not just be in the top six that they all start break, but be in the top six with a little bit of a buffer because the density of games and the back to backs and the lack of rest days in the month of March are going to make it hard for them to, with their age and with Kawhi status, everything, it's going to be hard for them to make up ground on anyone. So they're going to need to kind of be playing defense, get a little bit of a buffer and hold on through that last stretch of the season. That's my one real takeaway. And as far as like assistant player development coaches go, you know, the big thing is I'm just glad that the organization is investing in hiring people into these positions. How much support staff you have is really one of the areas where there is not like mandated competitive balance around the NBA. There's no limit to how many scouts you can hire. It's just about how the organization wants to function, how much funding the owner is putting into it. So yeah, seeing them go after like Amir Johnson, who seems to be kind of a big name in this circle and had a pretty, you know, I think a position that people would want in the Julie Ignite program now, you know, being able to bring him in, I think just generally seems like a good data point in a good trajectory in what we already know is a pretty established history of Balmer doing really good, a really good job of investing in building out the basketball side of the organization. Yeah, yeah, I think that pretty much covers it. At September, training camp will be at the end of the month and media day will be at the end of the month and, you know, Clippers will be back to playing basketball pretty soon here into a dome will have basketball games. Finally, they've been playing, you know, there's been a lot of music going on and into a dome. Olivia Rodrigo Bruno Mars to name a few Kim Diehl and the Breeders open for Liva Rodrigo, which made me really happy. I've heard cool things from people that have gone to those shows as far as the sound and the atmosphere and I'm just really looking forward to seeing a basketball game there. So there are things to be excited about. We're going to have some features coming up here soon for you guys this September as far as having some guests on some people that you know and should be excited for. So I'm excited to have those people on. And of course, as always, thank you for listening. Leave us a nice five star review, whatever platform this is on, five stars, five stars, we'll be up some nice words too. We'll read them on the air. And as always, Go Clippers! [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]