Breaking: JOHN COLLINS IS AN LA CLIPPER! Norman Powell Traded To Miami

Breaking: JOHN COLLINS IS AN LA CLIPPER! Norman Powell Traded To Miami

On today’s show, John Collins is an LA Clipper. It actually happened. We spoke it into existence. Norman Powell is headed to Miami. We’re going to be talking about it all on today’s Locked On. We have a power forward Clippers. Yeah, you are locked on Clippers. Your daily Los Angeles Clippers podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. Yes, sir. You were locking in with the Clips. Thank you for making Locked On Clippers the first listen of your day, your team every day. I’m your host, Darian Vizeri. Born and raised in LA. Been a Clipper fan for 20 years. Been covering the team for 5 years on my own YouTube channel, Dime Dropper, in three years right here on the Locked On Podcast Network. Your team every day. Make sure you subscribe and hit the notification bell for all things LA Clippers. Subscribe to get us up to 8,000 subscribers and you can listen wherever you get your podcast. Today’s episode is brought to you by none other than FanDuel, America’s number one sports book. Open the FanDuel app today or visit fanduel.com to get started. Clipper nation. It happened. On this morning of July 7th, I woke up and was looking at my phone that was blowing up for many different reasons, but one of the main reasons John Collins actually got traded for Norman Pal. The reason why I’m laughing is not because I don’t love Norman Pal. I love Norman Powell. I’m laughing because I literally mentioned this trade. I’ve been mentioning this for weeks. I’ve been saying that’s the pipe dream. Everybody wants John Collins. Everybody wants John Collins. Like, you know, Norm is going to have to go out the door for matching salary. And we didn’t really hear any real rumors about John Collins and like this happening. And then all of a sudden it happened like we actually got John Collins for Norman Powell and it’s exactly what we needed and that’s the main thing we want to talk about here is it’s exactly what we needed. I’m going to talk about Norman Pal in a second but we’ve been saying for the longest time that we need a real power forward. You know what I mean? We need a guy that’s gonna come in and give us that size around Kawhi Leonard that slides him back to his normal position of being the small forward. And I just it just feels so crazy because it’s it’s very rare that you see like the internet kind of manifest a trade this way. And I say that because for weeks, shout out to my boy DJ Primal who I’ve brought on the show just a couple of weeks ago. He’s been on the John Collins train for so long talking about we need a power forward. It’ll slide Kawaii back down to the three. We knew that Norman Bogey were redundant. So we kind of needed to make a consolidation trade and with Norman Powell being on an expiring contract, we knew that he was going to probably have to go out the door and that’s exactly what happened. The official trade is John Collins to the LA Clippers in a three-team deal. We have Norman Powell headed to the Miami Heat. So, I think that’ll be a really good spot for him. And then Kevin Love, Kyle Anderson, and a 2027 Clippers second round pick to the Utah Jazz. Of course, one of those second round picks that we got in the Terrence manovich trade. three UCLA Bruins involved in this deal with Kevin Love, Kyle Anderson, and Norman Powell. But the most important thing is we got our guy, Clipper Nation. We got our guy. We got a guy that’s 69, athletic, can I mean, last season John Collins averaged not and obvious obviously he only played 40 games in the season for, you know, a tanking team, but 19 points a game, 8.2 two rebounds a game on 53 40 85 splits. That’s 53 from the field, 40 from three, and 85 from the line. He can shoot. He’s athletic. He averages two offensive rebounds a game. He can give us more size. So now Kawhi Leonard is not going to have to guard the likes of Aaron Gordon’s and and who’s another guy? Seakams, you know, players like that. Now he can guard a small forward on the wing, you know, and maybe he’ll be able to help more on the perimeter, like be at the nail helping, you know, getting ready to wall off drives. And you can see Kawhi Leonard’s hands and his and his anticipation show off more on the perimeter as opposed to, you know, being in the corner and the weak side rotating at the rim as the low man. Now we have a guy that can also go up and block shots. He averaged one block a game last year. When Zubots gets pulled out of the paint or let’s say Zubots is in drop coverage and he has to step up a bit on the ball handler and they try to lob it over to his man. Now John Collins has the athleticism to come over from that low block and deflect the ball or do something along those lines. So I mean I couldn’t be happier with what Lawrence Frank and the front office has done here. you know, for all the people that want Lawrence Frank gone and criticize him and, you know, I’ve been fairly critical of him as well, but man, he really struck gold on this because it’s it’s just wild how I’ve been talking about two things. We need a power forward and a backup big. That’s the best way we can get the best version of this roster. And right away, here we are in the beginning of July and the Clippers have gone on and addressed both those concerns. Brook Lopez as a backup center. Probably better than anybody I could have thought we could get because I didn’t expect Brook Lopez to be a backup, but now here he is. And in the sense of us getting more athletic, getting a little bit younger, Norman Powell was 32. John Collins is turning 28 in September, so he’ll be 28 by opening night. That’s a very prime age. He’s on an expiring contract. So, in terms of like the financial side of things, we get John Collins, who’s now our third highest paid player, by the way, after Kawi and Harden. He’s making $26.6 million this year, but he is on an expiring contract. So, Utah wanted to get off of him to play their young guys more, but $26.6 million is a lot of money. So, there’s still a little bit of an expectation there, but we didn’t pay him that contract. That’s his third. He’s the third highest paid player on the team. He was acquired with the expanded trade exception of Norm which was $20.5 million plus 8.5 million. So with that being said, we now have 189 million in projected salary and the first apron is at 195.9. So we are still below the first apron which is absolutely huge. But we still have $5.3 million of the non-t taxpayer midlevel to shop for some perimeter shooting or a backup ball handler. And I’ll talk about the obvious rumor that’s in the air with Beal at the end of the pod. But I mean, not only does this give us an answer for we need a power forward, we slide Kawhai down to the three and have a much bigger lineup. Now we have another rebounder, another guy that can crash the offensive glass. But I keep talking about 2027 being the year that we’re going to go for big free agents. Well, don’t look now. But we right now only have $96 million in guaranteed contracts. So, it depends what James Harden has a player option for next year. So, it depends what he wants to do. I don’t see him opting out of that. I would think he’s going to try to, you know, opt into that, but who knows? He has another AllNBA level season. Maybe he wants another contract for more guaranteed years, but he’s got a player option for 40 million next season. But we have a lot of guys on expiring contracts next season. So, not only do we have cap space in 2027, we have cap space in 2026 cuz we’re only going to have $96 million in those guaranteed contracts heading into next summer. So, Norman Pal like part of the reason why this didn’t happen too is cuz he was extension eligible and he wanted to probably get one big contract, but he’s this is going to be his contract for like age 32 to like age 35. So we didn’t really want to pay him that much for that because he would probably want more than two years and that’s going to surpass the timeline of the Kawhi Leonard James Harden so timeline. So the whole goal is keep us competitive, give us the best chance to contend in this Kawawaii era, but also have the financial flexibility to make a big splash for the next era of Clipper basketball. Because internally, and I’ve said it, we talked about it with Joey Lynn, it seems like the Clippers know that they’re not really going to win a championship this year. The way Lawrence Frank’s talking and not using the word championship and being that we have an older core and you don’t see that being the success story in the NBA right now, I mean, look at the Celtics, look at the Bucks, look at the Nuggets. You know, the Warriors were on the older side, but they had a bunch of young guys involved in that. And you know, we’re talking about Steph Curry and them a couple years ago, so they weren’t this old. So, I think that deep down, Lawrence Frank and the front office knows that it’s going to be hard to win a championship like this. But, have they given Kawhi Leonard and James Harden a better chance with these moves? Unequivocally, yes. Is my in my opinion. And are we still in a good position to whatever that next to transition into whatever that next era is going to be of Clipper basketball when we because we don’t have picks. So, we got to have to wait for free agency. And yeah, we’re prioritizing significant cap space in 2027 and 2026. So, before I say anything more about John Collins and what he brings to the table, I want to say actually, you know what, coming up, what does John Collins bring to the table and what are we losing in Norman Pal? But so far, all I have to say is exactly what we needed. A guy that can knock down the three, a guy that’s a big body, protect the rim. He’s not perfect. I’ll talk about those weaknesses coming up. But this is a home run move in my opinion for the Clippers. And we’re having a very good offseason so far. But coming up, the strengths and weaknesses of John Collins, what he brings to the table, and what we’re losing in Norman Powell. I got to tell you a little something about FanDuel. America’s number one sports book. You see, right now, baseball season is in what I consider like the best time of the season. 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New customers can bet just $5 and get $150 in bonus bets if your first bet wins. Open the FanDuel app today or visit fanuel.com to get started. That’s FanDuel. All right, so the Clippers have acquired Jon Collins in a three-team trade. Uh, as far as John Collins, you know, here’s what I have to say about him, right? So, for those wondering, I don’t know much about John Collins. Like, I haven’t watched him play that much. Well, I’ll I’ll be honest right here, right? I haven’t watched John Collins play much the last two seasons since he’s been with the Jazz, for sure. I haven’t been watching the Jazz the last two years. I don’t know if anybody, if you’re not a Jazz fan, has. He spent his first six years at the Atlanta Hawks. When he started his career, the first three years, he looked like, at least I think I believe I believe this, and I think some Hawks fans did as well, there could be a star player in there. 22 and 10 to go along with two blocks were his averages in the 201920 season before he violated the league’s anti-drug policy and missed the rest of the season. Of course, Atlanta wasn’t involved in the bubble, so they didn’t get go out there. But he was averaging 22 and 10 on 58 40 80 splits. So there was no reason to believe like, oh my god, he’s doing that in year three like he might be a star. And then I watched him pretty closely in the 2021 season. I mentioned this on my Dime Dropper live. I went live earlier to react to the move right away. But in 2021, I was fresh out of college, unemployed. COVID is in its peak and I watched like half of the Hawks games, like lit literally half of them. And what I always felt like was that John Collins had the ability to score in the mid post, to catch the ball and isolate from the mid-range area like some of the great scorers like I saw in the 2000s, but he lacked consistency doing that. The team lacked consistency throwing him the ball there. And he also seemed to lack that aggression and hunger to score a lot. And I thought maybe Trey Young’s is holding him back. Maybe it’s just too much Trey Young heliocentric pick and roll. But just to mention that 2021 season, Collins’s numbers dropped, but he averaged 18 and it was but it was the first full year they had Capella. So they had him playing at center in 2020. But the guy is 69, so like no way is he a center even in the modern NBA. But here’s the thing, he can be deployed in small ball lineups, which is another reason why Tyoo wants him. Could you imagine a Collins, Kawawaii, Nico front court and then you have maybe like Chris Dunn or Hard like you can take your pick. We have so many options now with the front court. It’s an amazing It’s an amazing I don’t even want to say it’s a problem. It’s just an amazing luxury to have now. So really happy with that. But as far as 2021, John Collins played 63 out of the 72 out of the 72 games. He averaged 18 points, seven rebounds, and a block on 56 40 83 splits. So, insanely efficient. And I thought what I noticed there was defensively he’s hit or miss, right? He He’s good at what he does, which is being a secondary rim protector, being able to make athletic plays and help on helpside defense. You know, that’s where I think he’s going to be really valuable, replacing Kawawaii in that kind of role where we have to be attentive about him. And what I don’t know, having not watched him play in a couple years, and you never really notice notice this stuff defensively till you have somebody on their team on a nightly basis, now that he’s playing the four in a switch one through four scheme, teams are going to try to go at him and see if he can stay with, you know, elite players one-on-one, sliding his feet. That’s where I’m not sure how great he is from my memory of that 2021 season and watching every single playoff game he played in 2021, 2022, and 2023, which I did and playing. I watched every single game of his playoff career and I covered him on Dime Drop. You can go back and see what I was saying. It just felt like some nights you got a really active John Collins that was all over the place. Then other games where you’re like, eh, he was just there. And so it’ll be interesting to have that magnifying glass on him. I think off ball and defensive IQ is something I can’t even I can’t even explain about him because I feel like, you know, you don’t know that till you watch him every night. But I feel as though he’s definitely going to give us something that we needed. We needed more athleticism and size and he gives us that. He’s going to have some crazy lobs from Harden. I mean, John Collins and Derrick Jones Jr. I’ve heard some people say Lob City’s back. I’m not going to go that far because Lob City was literally like we we ended up taking it for granted after like year two or three about what kind of dunks we were seeing on a nightly basis from Blake and DJ. But this is going to give us some element of that back. I mean, we saw some amazing uh highlight plays and dunks from Derek last year. John Collins being added to that mix is going to be great. But I think the big key for him is going to see his defensive IQ, his attention to detail, and can he slide his feet well enough in that starting lineup when he gets targeted. But I’ll tell you this right now, I would much rather have him sliding his feet than Norman Pal. And so as far as the 2021 playoffs, if you remember, that was his best postseason in terms of success. The Hawks made it to the conference finals, beat the Knicks in the first round, beat the Sixers, and our good old friend Glenn Rivers in the second round. But in that postseason, he didn’t play as well. He averaged 14 points, nine rebounds on 55, 36, 83 splits. So, still really efficient overall. His three-point percentage dropped a bit, but 14-9, I mean, that’s not bad, you know? That’s not bad. It’s just it dropped a little bit, but it’s playoffs. You know what I’m saying? if you’re going to play against better defenses. And then the following season, this is when I started to hear Hawks fans complaining a little bit about him, that he had kind of regressed or he wasn’t getting better. The 2022 season, they had that conference finals hangover where Clint Capella famously said, “It feels like we’re not as motivated to play games. Like it we’re not trying as hard.” Which was because he it’s like when you get back to the conference finals, it’s like you get bored. I just thought that was an insane quote. I don’t that’s that’s me paraphrasing it, but John Collins in 2022 missed 28 games and he averaged 16 points, eight rebounds, and a block on 53 36 79 splits. So again, really solid efficiency, but his percentages dropped by about 3% in each shooting category there. And that’s when I remember Hawks man saying like, “Ah, we may have to move off of John Collins. Like he might not be good enough for what we need.” But this is when I was playing devil’s advocate for him. I was like, honestly, he can do more than just be a pick and pop guy. You can you should try to feed him the ball more so he could take some pressure off of Trey Young. Then they go out and get Deontay Murray and they make it to the playoffs again and he averaged even less points. So, he’s just regressing now. 13 points, just 6 and a half rebounds on 51. And this is what what really stuck out. His three-point shooting every single year has been 34% or higher. But that particular season and he played 71 games and started 71 games. He shot 29% from three. So that’s part of why Hawks fans were like, “Yeah, get him out of here.” So very strange. And then in this playoffs, they went six games against the Celtics in which he averaged, and those were his last playoff games to date, 11 points, four boards, one block. Four boards is not enough on 434 83 splits. So, not the best shooting splits and that was the last bit of playoff experience he’s gotten. So, he did seem to kind of peak early in terms of what we thought he could be as a player. I would say if we had to put it all together, 2021 was his best year because he was doing 18 18 and seven on a good team that was in the conference finals. And yes, he’s had a little bit of regression since then statistically, but to me it’s like he’s in this stage of his career. Okay, we knew we in the beginning, maybe he could be a star. Okay, he’s not a star. He’s because when he went to Utah, it was the same thing I said about DeAndre Aiden going to the Lakers. When DeAndre Aiden went to the Blazers, I was like, “Okay, no excuse that you’re on a win now team. Now it’s time for you to cook and show everybody that you actually have potential to create your own shot.” I said the same thing about John Collins. And you know what he did? Well, he averaged he shot 53% from the field, 37 from three, and 79 and a half% from the foul line. In his first year with the Jazz, he averaged just 15 points a game and eight and a half rebounds and shot just one more shot on average than he did with Atlanta. So for me, that’s when I realized, yeah, John Collins is just a role player. But maybe he could be a very good role player for a team that needs him in that specific role with better talent around him than Trey Young. He got his experience on a worse team. And look, this past season 198 and two and a block on 53 40 85 splits. So his free throw percentage was a careerhigh last season. His three-point percentage was top three in his career. And his field goal percentage was very good. He’s shot 50% over every se he’s shot over 50% every single season of his career. So efficiency-wise, if he can knock down 37% or more of his open threes, I mean, we aren’t going to have the movement of a Norman Pal in that starting lineup, but he is still going to give us shooting. He’s going to give us a lob threat in short roll situations with Zubots catching the ball in the middle of the floor and John Collins diving. I mean, oh my god, lob city indeed. It’s just our team is going to be so much bigger in the starting lineup with 67 Kawawaii with long arms, John Collins at 69, and you got Zoo and James Harden’s a big guard. I love it. I love the look. So, this is John Collins’s opportunity to be the PJ Washington for us, the Aaron Gordon for us, that missing big power forward that’s going to show that in the right role, he can be a huge role player on a team that has championship aspirations. That’s the truth about John Collins. But coming up, gonna be talking about Norman Powell and what we’re losing with him leaving. All right, so the Clippers trade an expiring contract for another. Norman Pal with his $20 million contract was going to be the most likely to be moved because Bodonovich just got to LA and he’s got an extra year on his deal. But John Collins brings that size, that athleticism that we needed at the four spot, slides Kawhai down to the three, gives us a secondary rim protector. I’m not going to sit here and say he’s great defensively, but I know he’s better than Norman Powell. I know he’s going to offer more than Norman Powell on that end of the floor. And I would say he’s solid. I wouldn’t say he’s great and I wouldn’t say he’s bad, but I think given our scheme, given our point of attack defenders, and given that we have one of the best rim protectors in the league, it was just an alldefensive player. I think we can go from me saying he’s solid to me saying he’s a good defender. He’s good at what he does. Is he going to be a lock down one-on-one guy? No, he’s not going to be that. But is he going to be better than Norman Pal when teams try to attack him one-on-one? That’s where I think he will be. So, I mean, it’s just a home run move. And then offensively, when teams go small, he’s a guy that can either crash the offensive glass or he, as I said, I thought for a second in the beginning of his career, he had potential to be a star because he can catch I mean, he’s not a great ball handler, but he can catch the ball in the mid post and work or post up a smaller guy, like a much smaller guy if he gets deep enough position. So I I think on mismatches we can look to throw him the ball too. It’s just another guy that we can throw the ball to. So that is huge. And then you know what teams want to do nowadays with Kawhai is throw their bigger forward at him because he’s not the quickest. So they just want a guy that Kawhai can’t post up. But now if you put your big your four man on Kawhi Leonard, then we have John Collins to take advantage of that smaller guy on the offensive glass and hopefully one-on-one. I mean, I want to see John Collins be aggressive on switches. You know what I’m saying? Taking advantage of size. So, that’s all I have to say about John Collins. His splits last year were good, albeit on a bad team. But he, this is an opportunity for him to be that PJ Washington, that Aaron Gordon for this team and make life easier for Kawhi Leonard. Now, we got to talk about we lost Norman Powell. You know, Norm was so great this season. I know he didn’t play very well in the playoffs, but what he was able to do for us with Kawhi Leonard out next to James Harden, I mean, I was, you know, talking about him being or hey, and James Harden being the best scoring back court that this franchise had ever seen in their years in LA. And I honestly might have to stand by that. I think throughout this season, you know, you had two guys that had an all-star case. And that’s how good Norman Pal really was he legitimately had an all-star case this season. And I mean, it’s sad to see him go, but I think we all knew that something was going to have to give and we were going to have to make a consolidation trade and get rid of, you know, one of Norm or Bogey. And this is Norm has been sacrificed and I have to say like he, you know, he was thankful on Instagram for Clipper Nation and I just have to say like we’re losing some scoring for sure, but we’re getting Kawhi Leonard back for a full season. So you got to think about that. We’re getting Kawhi Leonard back for a full season and more of it to Zubots from day one. I think that’s the answer. Yes, it’s in different ways. We don’t have a very solid movement shooter. A guy that was getting to the free throw line frequently and of course quick trigger three high percentage, but in the playoffs he wasn’t hitting shots. When Kawhi Leonard came back from injury, he never quite found his rhythm with Zubat Harden and Kawhai all playing. And so it was the right move for me. I think you’re giving up your scoring a little bit, but for me, we’re getting what we needed more. Norman Powell on a championship contending team is like a sixthman kind of guy. I don’t know what’s going to happen in Miami. Is he gonna start alongside Tyler Herro? That wouldn’t be a good defensive back court, but it would be a great scoring backcourt. Or is he going to come off the bench as a bonafide six-man with Tyler Herro and DaVon Mitchell starting. So that’s going to be something that they have to decide. You can go to locked on Heat and hear what they’re saying over there with Vermile and Wes Goldberg. But what I have to say here is that for those of you that are saying like how could the Clippers give up Norman Pal? He was so good for them last season. He was great for us last season before Kawhai came back. And then when Kawhai came back, it was like, eh, he’s maybe not getting as many shots. Doesn’t seem as in rhythm. And then he and Harden in the back court in the playoffs, they showed defensively that that’s kind of a, you know, below average backcourt defensively. So, we’re getting a big forward. And now we have a starting lineup of Harden, Collins, Zoo, and Kawhai. And then that fifth spot again, I think it should be between Derrick Jones and Chris Dunn. Everyone’s talking about Bradley Beal coming to replace Norm. And I talked about Bradley Beal in the last episode. And now that we have some I said we’re not going to talk about Beal unless we make a move. So now that we’ve made the move, here’s what I have to say. I am totally okay bringing in Bradley Beal to be that backup point guard. That would be amazing. Have him be a sixman of the year candidate. When Kawhai’s out and load managing, Bo just slots right into the starting five. I think it would be perfect. And we have And if he if he agrees to getting paid 5 million because the rest of his contracts being stretched out by Phoenix. I mean, Bradley Beal on $5 million, that’s a bargain. That’s a bargain. Bradley Beal is still pretty nice. I mean, I saw some people pushing back in my comment section about Norm’s better than him. But I genuinely think you’re not watching the Suns like I am. And I and I think Beal in terms of character, in terms of like how serious they’ve been in their roles the last couple years. Yes, absolutely. Unequivocally, Norman Pallet had a better season last year. He’s been better in his role the last two years just based on expectations. But I still think Be’s better at basketball. Like I still think he can create his own shot better. He can defend a little bit better and he can playmake a little bit better in pick and roll. So for me, I would like Beal, but not under this condition. And I’m going to make an episode on it next. Bradley Beal should not be starting alongside James Harden with Kawhai Collins and Zoo. And the reason why I say that is because we made our entire identity last season on defense first. And what Derek Jones Jr. and Chris Dunn did for our team was give us two better point of attack defenders than what we had with Terrence man. And it made it so much easier for IT to Zubots. And it kept us in games even when our offense was mediocre. Who’s going to guard the best players to start games if we bring in Beal and start him? Kawawaii. Beal. I saw what Beal looked like as the best point of attack defender against the Timberwolves. He was trying his best. But if he’s your best point of attack defender, I mean, you saw what happened. They got swept. He cannot be your best point of attack defender in 2026 in the starting lineup. And some people are like, “Yeah, it’s just a sacrifice we’re going to have to make.” No, it’s not. Why are we sacrificing the entire identity of our team? And I get it. Some people will be like, “Dude, Dererick and Chris Dunn will still play. What are you talking about?” It’s not about that. It’s about starting. I I think it should be a prerequisite for any serious team in this league right now, in any era, to have one guy that’s designated mainly in this era because back in the day, you used to match up against your position. So, let’s like say like the last eight years, the positionless era. let’s say last about it’s gonna be like 10 years at this point. You need one guy that’s gonna go out there and guard the best part on every other team, the guard, the best ball handler. And that’s what Chris and Derrick Jones Jr. did such a good job of. So if you take them out, I know you’re like, “Hey, we have more interior defense now with Collins and Zoo.” You still need a guy to get over screens. You still need a guy to get over screens. Be can help get helped by JVG 100%. But did Jeff Vanney make Norman Pal and James Harden good defenders? No. You still need to be a good defender on your own. So for me, if Beal is a sixth man with Bogey, Derek, Chris, whoever comes off the bench, and then Nico, and Brook Lopez, that’s one of the best 10-man rotations in the NBA. In the NBA. I just think our stars are old. But it’s a really solid team that could definitely win a playoff series. Further than that, I don’t know because of the B. I don’t know how, you know, the bodies. James and everyone keeps saying, you know, Harden needs to, you know, get an easier workload and this and that. Sure, but everyone says this every team he goes to. Do you guys not understand that he likes doing this? He likes the ball. He doesn’t like playing off ball. I hate when people try to make it seem like he like, of course, he could use another ball handler, but he likes it. He called himself the system. So, I would like Beal, but I think our biggest thing is to keep our defensive identity. That’s one thing I loved watching the Clippers do last season is defend. Our offense wasn’t that pretty, but I think our offense is going to get prettier. We have Kawhai coming back. Everyone’s talking about we need the offense. What about Kawhi Leonard? What about the best player on our team? What about Zoo giving him the ball more from day one? We Why don’t we don’t need Beal starting next to Harden? That’s in my opinion. And I I’m telling you, I’m pro getting Beal, but not Beal and Chris Paul. Why do we need all these guards so then Tyoo can play a bunch of guards again? We don’t want that. We just got bigger. Let’s stay big. I would love Beal as a six-man. Is he willing to do that? If he’s not, like why do we need to get him then? You’re in no position to be making demands making $5 million. Dude, that’s how I feel about it. And then, you know, I’ve talked about it. Beal has exuded a lack of seriousness. And and don’t tell me, “Oh, the Clippers will make them serious.” Why should you not be serious in Phoenix when you have Kevin Rand Deon Booker with you? He was part of the problem. He wasn’t as big of a problem as people thought because his fit just wasn’t good with the team. His fit would be better with the Clippers. And there would be much less expectations. But you need a point of attack defender or else you know what? We’ll be a good team. We’re not going to win anything serious though. We’re going to start out games in trouble and you’re going to say, “Why is every opposing guard cooking us?” Yeah. So that’s my condition. But in terms of the John Collins thing, I’m ecstatic. I also want to say thank you to Norman Powell for all the community work that he used to do. He was such a good Clipper. Three and a half really good years. a six-man of the year candidate in the years that he was coming off the bench. Last year, an all-star candidate. I’m proud to say his best year came with the Clippers. And he was just, again, I got to, you know, talk to him a little bit one time at at the meet the player event. He would sign everything for fans. He was just a true class act. And if you’re a Miami Heat fan watching this, I think you guys got a a great player, but an even better dude. And a guy that’s going to compete for that jersey. and every time he plays, the one thing I’ll always say about Norman Pal, he’s never shying away from taking shots and being aggressive. So, Norman Pal, we love you, bro. I can’t wait to give you a deserved ovation if I’m able to be at that Miami Clipper game next year and um thank you so much for everything you did. I really appreciate it and we will miss you very much. Truly, sincerely. Love you, bro. But John Collins era has begun. John Collins era, but excited to have John Collins, man. And uh again, I’m going to be in summer league this weekend. And by the way, your boy got credentialed for the first time. Thank you. Locked on. Thank you, NBA. We’re going to be official media this weekend, son. So that’ll be an interesting experience for me. Of course, you know where to find everything. Dimeropper. You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram, Dimeropper. And of course on YouTube for all the stuff I’m doing on Dimeropper, which I’ve been picking it up lately. So please check that out. And of course, for all things Clippers right here on Locked on Clips, subscribe and get us up to 8,000 subscribers cuz I’m trying to pass up the Nets boys and the Spurs boys. Sorry guys if you’re listening. That’s what we try to do here is pass all you up. The age old proverb continues. Go Clippers.

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