Lawrence Frank Free Agency Media Availability | LA Clippers

Lawrence Frank Free Agency Media Availability | LA Clippers

All right, everyone. Thanks for joining. Um, Lawrence was have a quick opening statement and then he’ll take some questions. Thanks, Chris. The um super super excited day. Uh feel very very fortunate that Brad chose to be a Clipper. Um the third time is a charm. We’ve actually tried to trade for Brad two other times during the course of his career. Uh it was a very very thorough process in a short amount of time. Mark Barlstein spoke with damn near every staff member in the organization and maybe including Chuck the Condor himself. Uh as you guys know, Brad is a gifted two-way player who’s a three-level scorer who can create offense for himself and others. Uh he brings additional ball handling, playmaking, and shooting to the group. Areas we wanted to upgrade. Tou can use him in a variety of ways. Uh he’s elite in handoffs. He’s elite in throw and go situations, which we’ve been looking for some more movement shooting. Uh, plus, you know, as you’ve seen over the course of his career, Brad can, you know, very effective coming off flares, pin downs, pick and rolls on the run, catch and shoot, and playing off closeouts. Uh, so we feel very, very fortunate. Obviously, Brad had a number of choices, and we feel blessed that we’ve we’ve built it an organization that’s now a destination organization. And I think when people think about the Clippers, you know, not only do they think about Steve Bomber, Intitu, our players, but they think about winning, which was really, really important to Brad. He wants to win. In the last 14 years, we’ve won the second most games in the NBA. Obviously, we haven’t won championships, which is always the goal, but one of the biggest things for Brad was the opportunity to win and to win big. and uh we feel very fortunate that he chose to be a Clipper. So without further ado, you guys can ask all the good questions. I got one for you, Lawrence. Okay. Is it a good one? Well, that’s to be determined. Okay. And it is me, so you know that’s So I know it’s a high level question. What do you like about the roster you put together and its ability to compete in the real tough Western Conference? Yeah. Well, I think what we’ve done is we’ve we’ve added more versatility within the lineups. Uh I think TU can go a bunch of different directions. You know, going into, you know, the off seasonason, we wanted to add to not just our front court size, but also diverse skill sets that also complemented each other. Um, we wanted to, you know, we saw just in terms of with kind of our problems at times with taking care of the ball, we wanted to add some more secondary playmaking and ball handling. I think we’ve been a we be able to we’ve been able to do that. All this on paper, but I think going back to your question, you know, we have the ability to play Quiet three or at four. We have the ability to play DJ at three or four. We can play John Collins at four and five. Um, we can have 48 minutes of rim protection with, you know, Zoo and Brooke. Um, and, you know, we can have KD as the backup point guard, KD as a starter. I mean, there’s just so many different directions we can go with the group. Uh, and we said even when I go back to kind of our, you know, postseason press conference, we talked about just with a healthy Kawawaii to start the season, we felt like we’re in a better place. And now we’ve we’ve addressed our needs. I think we’ve added to our depth. We’ve added to our size, our athleticism, our positional versatility. Um, so we’re super super excited about the group. Uh, as you and I are speaking, I look to my right and I’m looking at the gym and there’s James Harden working out. So I love I love seeing that. So it’s a very very motivated group. Uh, it’s a group that understands how incredibly hard it is to win. And to your reference, the Western Conference, I mean, it’s I mean, it’s a bear, but that doesn’t mean you don’t keep on trying everything possible to maximize your roster to give our group the best chance possible. Thank you. It was a damn good question, too. That’s a damn good answer, too. Very rarely do the answers match the questions. I understand my limitations. Hey, Lawrence. Um Markstein was saying over the last couple days that um you know it it was a long process for them and they wanted to make sure it was a great fit and and and the Suns kind of gave them permission to speak to teams about uh potential landing spots. I’m curious in the pitch that you guys made to Brad, who was kind of part of that pitch and and what was the pitch to Brad to convince him that this was a spot for him? Well, I think the one thing is it wasn’t a pitch. I think you have to deal in truths that it’s not recruiting. Uh, you know, I’ve known Mark for close to 30 years and Mark is extremely thorough and he’ll read through any Uh, so I think the the, you know, the main reasons that Brad came here, I think it always starts at the top with with our chairman, Steve Bomber, and his commitment to make this the the ultimate destination franchise for players and staff. And Brad wanted to wanted to get a sense for what Steve was like. and he saw not just the competitive side but also the caring side. And then okay, for a player like Brad who’s who’s gone through a a tough stretch in Phoenix, the head coach and the point guard are going to be critical. So with Too, he’s known Tou for a long long time. Uh Brad’s a St. Louis, you know, native. Too is from Mexico, Missouri, which is probably like three hours away. Uh, but they had they had a previous relationship and I think that’s that’s one of the great things about Too is his ability not just to get the best out of the players on the court, but his ability to connect with all players off the court. And then for James, it was huge because you look at James’s track record of getting the best out of his teammates. You know, Norm should have been an all-star last year. Zoo probably should have been been an all-NBA player last year. The year before PG had his most efficient, you know, season of his career. The year before that, Joel Embiid was the MVP. Like, there’s direct correlations and you connect the dots that James is a playmaker and his willingness to sacrifice his own scoring in order to get to get great shots for his teammates. So, I think those people, those three were critical uh to Brad’s decision. And you know the great thing about it just in terms of conversation with Mark was Mark would have questions and I said well why don’t you just talk to them and you know we got permission through James agent Mike Silverman he was totally comfortable. So James spent over 30 minutes on the phone with Mark Bartlestein. They’re like there aren’t many players who one we’d be willing to do it and two who would spend the time talking to another agent to explain why the Clippers are the best place for Brad. Um, and you know, and then it goes beyond that. A very important piece is the medical piece. Mark spent, you know, hours on the phone with people like Mackie, Maggie Bryant, who’s the head of our performance, health, and wellness. Jesse Phillips, who had worked with Brad with the Wizards, so he had a high level of comfort there, uh, spoke to, you know, our performance people. I mean, it was, like I said, short amount of time, but exhaustive. Uh, you know, Mark and I would speak four or five times a day, but I think it was all the inputs from people like Steve, Too, James, Maggie, Jesse, uh, and everyone else he spoke to. I mean, Brad would talk to former players. He spoke to former coaches. Like, they wanted to make sure because this decision couldn’t be wrong for Brad. It had to be right. And the same sort of scrutiny that they put our organization under, they did for the other teams as well. And so I think when you go through a process like this and the player has multiple choices and the fact that he chooses the LA Clippers is just another validation of of the great work starting with Steve and the group that what we’ve done not just now but over a course of you know you know 14 years whatever the case may be. And obviously we we know we still have a lot of work to do and a lot of improvements to be made, but it’s awesome that Brad has has chosen to join our group. Lawrence, excuse me. Uh Lawrence, you mentioned James been on the phone with Mark Bstein for 30 minutes. You’ve a couple weeks ago when we talked, you said he’s been huge in drawing free agents to the team. What has that relationship been like to work with him over these last couple years in getting more talent in through the door and getting guys excited to be part of this roster playing alongside of him and the things that he can do for them? Yeah, I mean James along with Kawhai has been an unbelievable partner. I mean you saw first just the structure of his contract. So without James we don’t even have we can’t even get Brad Beal because we wouldn’t have use of the full MLA. So that allowed us to get Brook Lopez and Brad Beal because of the way James structured his contract. Two, the way he structured his contract in year two gives us flexibility that if we want to have max space, we we can choose to do so. Um, but so he’s been great in that sense. He’s also been great in that he’s very very proactive. When, you know, when word was out that, you know, Brad may get a buyout and we were allowed to to talk to Brad, James was the first one. Well, let me call him. Uh, and willing to do anything. Uh, so James, all James cares about is winning. That’s it. And he’s willing to sacrifice parts of his game, how he structured his contract. He does it in every which way. And so, it’s it’s awesome to see. It’s awesome to see his thirst to get better, to try to win a championship, to try to do something for the LA Clippers that’s never been done before. uh and he’s been totally invested and uh it’s great to have players who are who put so much into it, not just with the work they put in the game, but the work that they try to do to attract other top talent to the organization. And I think also James can attest to the fact that when James came here, obviously there was some noise about, you know, what went on in Philly, Brooklyn, and he could attest to how narratives can change quickly if you do the work, you produce, and the organization is about what they say they’re about. So when it’s another all-star level player talking to another all-star caliber player just the both the I guess the validation and the credibility that it goes beyond it because the kind of thing otherwise it kind of comes off as like a a recruiting pitch. No, like this is one player to another and they have history together. Uh and so I thought it was very very powerful and meaningful. Hi. What’s up, law? What’s up, man? Um, so I your statement was interesting to me. Uh, you referred to Brad. Um, I mean, you mentioned a lot of things, but in particular, uh, you refer to him as a two-way player. Uh, and I wanted to know what you meant by that. Uh, and if you could elaborate on, uh, his expectations defensively, what what you see on that end in particular. Yeah, the Rod Thorne, who was my boss in New Jersey for 10 years, was with the Washington Wizards when Brad was there. And Rod said Brad is one of the best two-way players in the game when he was with him. And the and I know you can, you know, you can pick apart someone’s game and you can say, “Hey, this is this is what he was in Phoenix. This is the analytics. This is the film.” The way that we look at players like Brad is what they can be, not what they are. And it’s no different when we looked at a guy like James or looked at Nico or looked at Russ or look at Reggie Jackson. It’s like we all have access to the same data. We have access to all the same games, but it’s also to see what’s inside a guy. What’s inside his heart? What’s inside his head? Uh what does it look like in our defensive system? And so what I what I said is what I meant. I do think Brad’s a two-way player and because I think he’s capable of doing it and he’s capable of being I mean even if you go back to a playoff series in his first year I mean they he was picking up Anne Edwards full court um the but I think with our defensive personnel and the different combinations that Too has the ability to use I think we’ll get the best out of Brad Beal on both ends. Hey uh L I think you have two roster spots left uh one which you think you have to use. What do you anticipate filling that last roster spot while holding I guess holding the other one open? Yeah. Yeah. I think the you know, we’ll continue to look to to reinforce our playmaking and uh and ball handling. I think those are like I said going into the offseason it was about front court size, versatility, and diversity and adding to our shooting and playmaking. I think we’ll we’ll lean into the the ball handling and play making. Lawrence, are you going to sign Bradley Bill? I mean, you signed Brad. Yes, we signed him. Done. You did sign Bradley Bill. Are you going to sign Chris Paul? The uh what I’d say about Chris is he’s a he’s a great player. He’s a great Clipper. He obviously possesses some of the qualities we just referenced about. Uh and uh of course, we’re we’re strongly strongly considering him. Lawrence, a lot of us saw Kawawaii in Las Vegas. How’s he doing? How’s he progressing since the last time I guess you talked to him and we saw him, which was in Denver. He’s doing great. Uh he’s, you know, one, he’s healthy, which that just it’s not just a physical thing, it’s also a mental, emotional thing to to go into an off season without having surgery. Uh so he feels great. Uh he’s been working extremely hard. Uh he has some trips lined up. Uh he’ll be going to Africa at the end of the month. Uh he continues the work. We’ll be sending a coach with him. Uh so he’s super excited about the roster. He’s super excited about the season. Uh and he’s super excited that he’s going to be able to begin a training camp. Lawrence, what are you looking The last time we spoke to you, I know you just mentioned CP directly, but you had mentioned wanting to add to the front court, the shooting, the the playmaking. Obviously, the playmaking is the final area that you guys are are still kind of looking at. Um, at at risk of this being a tailoo question, um, when you look at the current roster makeup and how you’re hoping to round it out, you obviously have James and Brad as two guarantee rotation guards and then Chris and Bogey who were also key rotation guards last season. In your mind, where do you see the fit for a another potential reserve guard given not only the names that I mentioned, but also if let’s say like three guard groups were the viable answer to that question, how that could impact some of the wings that were also key members of the rotation last season. Yeah, I think it’s all about role definition. We’re we’re very very direct uh with any player we bring on board about what their role is uh and to see if if their ability to accept that role and role awareness especially in this next roster spot will be critical because to your point when you look at it is you have 10 quality rotation players right now not to discount some of our other guys but in terms of proven NBA rotation players you know we typically play nine And what we’ve seen is sometimes the problem of having too many guys and how that can impact a team. So we’ve we’ve learned from those lessons and I think the conversations that we have with anyone who’s going to join the Clippers next, they understand it’s a reserve role. They understand kind of going into camp exactly what it looks like. So there’s no preconceived uh misconceptions. Yet, you also have a responsibility that James did play 79 games. He played the fifth most minutes. And I’ll knock on wood, but the reality is for any NBA team, the, you know, the amount of times you have your top 10 all available, you know, it’s usually 21 to 25 times throughout the course of a year. So, you literally need everyone on your roster to be able to contribute. But to your point, because we do have a lot of versatility, so Brad Beal could, you know, give us, you know, more playmaking ball handling. He will. Chris Dunn can be the backup point guard. Bogey can handle along with James. You just want to put everything on the table and then find the best person who can have total role acceptance and awareness and still if needed to play, can play. Lawrence, when you look at Brad, uh I know that there was some health concerns and and the fit in Phoenix wasn’t entirely great, I think. Uh when you look at his overall versatility, it seems like when when he’s been asked to do less, the efficiency has gone up. Are those things you can kind of draw from when you look at how he’s maybe not going to be asked to do as much on this team and and the he can kind of rise and and the defensive progress will also Well, I think you go back to and not to take any sort of slight at Phoenix, but you know, playing with James is a whole lot different than than what their situation was. Uh obviously he you know, like Brad had great success playing with John Wall. He actually had great success playing with Russ when they made the trade. So, we can look at those situations. He’s elite in handoffs, like elite, best in the league. Uh, and I think that’s one of the things that Tu wanted to unlock is he wanted to get some more movement and movement shooting into the game. Things that we’ve we’ve done in the past. So, I think Brad like we can definitely play his strengths there. He’s, you know, obviously a high high level three-point shooter, catch and shoot three-point shooter. He’s high level attacking closeouts. He’s great at finishing at the rim. He’s great at finishing in the deep paint area. Um, and I think some of the other areas that especially in his Washington days that he was able to explore with not the same level of talent, I think we’ll be able to get a little bit more out of, you know, with his pick and roll play. like it’s different when you have the guys that we have spacing the floor and and the centers that we have that’ll be playing with and we have a lot of different you know whether it’s Zoo whether it’s Brooke whether it’s John Collins and you have that nice balance of defense and offense on the floor I think there’s going to be a lot and look the great thing is you know Too’s an elite elite head coach that just given him different tools and different personnel to experiment with I think over the course of the here. He’ll have us super prepared for for a great playoff run. Lawrence, you had said at the end of the season that your goal, your aim was to get younger. Was this just a matter of of the best fit for your team in signing Brooke and and Brad and John Collins? Did they just fit better than going after a younger player that might not have been a better fit? What’s age? It’s just a number, right? Um, well, look, John obviously I think he’s 27. I think he’ll be 28 to start the year, so he’s in his prime. Brad actually is technically a couple months younger than Norm. Uh, and Brooke is ageless, so it just it’s, you know, 37’s like 17 because I need Brooke to be younger because that makes me younger since I coached him when he was a rookie. Uh I I think ultimately at the end of the day, you’re looking to make your team as as best as you can possibly make it, whether it’s younger or older. Uh the uh and so I think with it, I think we’re going to lean into the experiences. You know, Brooks obviously won a championship. Uh he’s been battle tested. Uh John’s been to the Eastern Conference Finals. Brad is super thirsty, hungry. Uh, so a talented guy with that sort of motivation and chip on his shoulder and we’ll just continue to add the best people possible regardless of regardless of age. Lawrence, uh, I know that we’ve given, you know, we’ve acknowledged a lot about the flexibility that you’ve tried to maintain for your roster uh, going forward. How do you balance that part of things with the fact that, you know, you got a lot of guys who can be free agents next year or the year after? you know, how how do you kind of keep them together rather than splintering off into wondering about what might be next for them individually? Yeah. Well, I think if you really look at it is, you know, John’s on an expiring contract. Some others have options and we just wanted to put together the best roster we could while preserving the financial flexibility. Um, and which includes a path to max space if we choose to go that route. Um, but I think everyone is super super motivated. Uh, I think we have guys in the the right spots in their career, uh, that are just totally focused on putting the team first because they know if we win, usually there’s direct correlation to guys, you know, getting paid. Uh, if we underperform, that usually has a correlation. Then you don’t get rewarded. And our guys have been in the league long enough to understand like this is all about the team winning and putting all our focus and making the team first. Laur Lawrence, um I I want to ask if if you go back a year ago and the complications of the Second Apron and the limitations that that had for roster building going forward and you fast forward to a, you know, to now and you look at the way that you guys have been able to retool, you know, the roster on the margins, get all these guys in and out via trade, free agency, it was this kind of I don’t want to say the vision that you had a year ago when, you know, the decision with PG and everything, but was this kind the route that you thought could play out in roster building because you then got under the second apron and all these mechanisms were open for you. Yes. I think in the sense that like when PG decided to go to Philly and we weren’t willing to go, you know, to a to a fourth year. Um it it created all sort of optionality for us. And when you’re in the second apron, to me, you have to be a final four team, a legit final four team because you have no flexibility. And especially in our situation where we we don’t own our own draft for a little bit, um it was going to be even more incumbent because we weren’t going to get, you know, you know, highlevel young, you know, young talent in here that and we’re always going to be competitive. We’re always trying to win. So, how are we going to improve the team? Well, you better lean in that that group was good enough. So, making the decision we made now, it opens up when you’re not an apron team and the ability to make uneven trades. Your point, the ability to have your mid-level. Our focus last year was we want to get back to our core identity, hard playing, competitive, tough, defensive-minded. And so, you know, bringing in DJJ, bringing in Kristen, bringing in Nico, um, and you know, that we felt like that is our true roots of the group. Now, to your point, if you’re in the second apron, guess what? There is no Bogdanovich trade. You know, there is no Brook Lopez, there is no Brad Beal, and there is no John Collins. And all those are possible because you have the flexibility because you’re not an apron team. Uh, and I think to get back in the second apron, you you you have to be extremely extremely confident that you’re a Final Four team. And I think now we’re we’re reaping the benefits and of good fortune because Brad Beal was never a target. Like we we never thought Brad Beal would be bought out. Brook Lopez, like we were overjoyed and overwhelmed to be able to get Brooke. like Brooks, a starting center, who two years ago was second in the league in in defensive for defensive player of the year award. You know, John Collins has been a target for a couple years. So, you never quite know who exactly it’s going to turn into, but you have to put yourself in a position where those guys become options. And that’s the same position that we’re in going into next summer. It’s just optionality. And we’re lucky because of Steve, because of TU, because of our players, because of our market, because of the in it dome, because of our winning tradition that players from other teams want to be here. And we have to be in an ability to at least have a chance to obtain them. And you know, I think that’s just the lesson of of h having those competitive advantages along with the optionality and flexibility to give ourselves a chance. Lawrence, just to follow up on that, have you found more of a Hold on. Just we’re actually running out of time on this Zoom and we can blame Cooper. We love Cooper. He can’t figure out how to add more time. Godamn. So, we literally have four more minutes. So, let’s make this the last question, please. Sorry. Uh just to follow up on that one, uh have you found players and agents around the league that there’s more of a willingness and understanding under this restrictive kind of CBA to to take more team friendly deals and kind of work together more? Not that there wasn’t before, but under these guys, it just seems like much tougher to work with nowadays. Well, I think each year is different. Um this year there was only one team that had max cap space in Brooklyn, and they’re, you know, they’re they’re in a different building cycle. Next summer will be different. there’ll be significantly more teams with significant cap space. Um the apron system is has has you know we knew going into the PG and Kawaii negotiation that it was going to change the game and you have to adapt and you have to make some hard hard decisions and I think you know it’s like Boston the decisions that they’re making they don’t want to make those decisions um but because of unfortunate circumstances with Tatum they have to uh and I think you’ll see the league overall just you you have to adjust and you know we were kind of the first test case But there’ll be many others along the way where where you’re going to have to make some tough both flexibility decisions and also financial decisions.

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