The LA Clippers Are A DISASTER…

The LA Clippers Are A DISASTER…

The Clippers have lost eight of their last nine games. The Golden State Warriors can’t decide if they want to be good or not. The Raptors have won eight of their last nine. And the Nico Harrison story somehow keeps getting worse. All of that and more in today’s edition of Rusty Buckets News. For our first story, the Clippers entered the year with one of the biggest scandals in recent years looming over the team’s head. But despite their ultra veteran roster literally being historically advanced in age, the basketball was still at least somewhat expected to be pretty good nonetheless. Their preseason projections had them being a potential 50- win team. And me personally, I did believe that was a realistic ceiling for them, especially given that the Clippers pretty much always find a way to be a 50- win team year after year after year in spite of all of the Clippers shenanigans that are always going on. But today, their hopes of contending this year already seem over. They might not even be playoff caliber. Kawhi Leonard’s latest injury has been labeled as significant, and his return could take a while. Lawrence Frank said that Kawhi Leonard did not just sprain his ankle, but he also suffered a significant foot sprain. He is seemingly making good progress because he will be on the road trip with the Clippers, but they will have a better overall feel for his availability next week. Their biggest addition, Bradley Beal, who was playing pretty damn awful to begin with, is now out for the season with a hip fracture. Derrick Jones Jr. strained his MCL and will be re-evaluated in 6 weeks. Chris Paul has also been unplayable despite not actually suffering any injury. His injury is just being 40 years old. He has received multiple DNPs. Coach’s decision, which it’s quite likely, I’m pretty confident that has never happened before in his NBA career up until this point. Don’t get me wrong, Chris Paul was not all that great on the Warriors or the Spurs, but he was sure a hell of a lot better than this. And it’s actually really depressing to see for me as someone who is both a massive Chris Paul fan, but also someone who has a lot of nostalgia for Chris Paul, specifically in a Clippers jersey. I was hoping that there would be at least some of that magic still present here. It very much is not. The team’s record has been extremely disappointing as they sit with just four wins to 10 losses with their losing streak ending by beating the Mavericks in double overtime on Friday night where James Harden had a 41point triple double just to turn around and lose to Boston in the next game. An incredibly mid Boston Celtics team at that. The Clippers are currently 23rd in both offensive and defensive rating. In a league where there are five plus teams blatantly tanking. Last year they were third in defensive rating and still middle of the pack and offensive rating. They were able to hang their hat on being one of the best defenses in the league, but that defense has entirely fallen off. John Collins has been the only real bright spot for someone who will be here long term. Plus, there was also a really good game from Jordan Miller versus Denver in there where he went five for seven from three. James Harden has actually been having his best season in years. Probably his best individual season statistically that he has had since he was wearing a Houston Rockets jersey, putting up 266 and 8, 10 more points per game than just two seasons ago. And he’s doing all of that just to lose more than he did in his first two years in LA. This has just been a complete disaster. The Clippers always burn me for believing in them, but it is not ever this early on. Like I said, the Clippers consistently are a good, at least highseated, midseated playoff team year after year after year. They’re going to make it every time. Now, are the Clippers going to do good in the playoffs when they actually get there? Hell no. But they at least actually get there. This time around, though, I don’t even know if they’re going to be a playoff team. Even if they are, they certainly will not be among the top dogs in the Western Conference. Onto our next story. Following their 126 to 102 blowout loss to OKC last Tuesday, the Warriors had some weird quotes in the locker room with both Draymond Green and Jimmy Butler calling out the team for their lack of effort. Since then, the team has won three straight and they are now 9 and six on the season, good for seventh in the Western Conference. Jonathan Kaminga came off of the bench for the first time this season the following game versus the Spurs where he then went down with a knee injury. The Dubs went on to beat the Spurs not just once but twice. Once on Wednesday and then again on Friday with both games ending in dramatic fashion, especially that Friday game. They finished the week with a win over the New Orleans Pelicans. Coach Steve Kerr also said that Kamingo will no longer be in the starting lineup even when he returns from injury. So, seems like the whole uh happy moment, Jonathan Kaminga, oh my god, he fits into the system thing, that’s kind of falling to the wayside. Don’t get me wrong, even in his lesser games, he has still fit the Warrior system better than at any other point in his career, but he’s down to like 32% from three. So, the spacing issues still persist. And the Bplot for the Golden State Warriors is after like I think over a decade with New Balance or Under Armour, same [ __ ] difference. They’re both who the hell is wearing those shoes. Stephen Curry is a sneaker free agent wearing some Kobes prior to Friday’s Spurs game, but not during the actual game. And following an 11-point game versus the Thunder, he then had 46 and then 49 against the Spurs and then he only needed nine to get past the Pelicans. It’s been kind of a weird back and forth with Steph where in that 11-point game, people were calling him washed and then he just exploded in back-to-back games versus the Spurs. It seems like you’re either getting a bad game from Steph or just an absolutely extraordinary one right now. So, the Warriors, I don’t know. I have been very mixed on this team going into the year. I made a video before the season started about how I was skeptical about them being a contender level team, but I thought that they would still be a good team. And thus far they have been a good team, but I don’t know. It feel it’s felt like they’ve been a bad team and a great team and it has evened out to being a good team, but like it’s been a very inconsistent product with them thus far. I’d love to know what you think if you are a Warriors fan in the comments down below. How have you felt about them thus far this year? Following our last week’s main story, Nico Harrison getting fired was not just because of the Luca trade and the poor start to the season. He was reportedly encouraging Anthony Davis to return early from his injury last season despite being warned that AD was risking serious further injury, literally taking a chance on his Achilles keeping it together. And just just so you know, uh for the people who are like, “Oh, Nico Harrison actually had this five head brilliant strategy where he knew he was going to get the first pick in the draft.” No, he was trying to get Anthony Davis to play so that they could make the playoffs so that he would look less like the gigantic [ __ ] idiot that he is. The team owner, uh, Patrick Dumont said that he wants to have final say on when AD comes back from his most recent injury. Meanwhile, of course, we highlighted this last time, but it still remains just the most ironic twist in NBA trade history. Anthony Davis looks extremely out of shape, more so than he ever possibly could have. And naturally, there have been trade rumors starting around both Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving as the team continues to struggle. Michael Finley and assistant GM Matt Ricardi will take over running the team in the interim. But there is also whispers of Jason Kidd being the potential replacement for Nico Harrison in the front office, which historically speaking, I am not a fan of coaches being the general manager as well. almost all of the time that ends up being the bad idea cuz there’s a lot of conflict of interest there. And like yeah, you can have instances like for example signing D’Angelo Russell when Jason Kid wants [ __ ] nothing to do with D’Angelo Russell, but there’s also times where coaches are either too attached to their players or way too willing to throw them to the curb. It can just be a bad thing, especially like I think of Tom Tibido when he was the coach and GM of the Timberwolves. However, given the [ __ ] that Jason Kid has had to deal with in the last year, I can’t exactly blame him for wanting to just have a outright dictatorship over this entire franchise. Like, yeah, give it to him. He has earned it. But now it’s time for Watch. Uh, we’re looking at the games that I have watched this week and my overall watch guide. If you have not watched the first couple of episodes of the new show, I have been tracking the games that I am watching this year to hold myself accountable to make sure I am not forgetting to watch any team for too long. I will say uh the Timberwolves, I have not watched a Timberwolves game. Uh I need to watch more Timberwolves games. I still have watched two from this month, but uh I didn’t watch them at first cuz Anthony Edwards was out. He’s been back. So, apologies Wolves fans. I will be catching up on some Wolves games. I also have not watched the Cavs much, but everybody else I’ve at least got to four games. If you were not aware, my goal is to get to uh to watch one out of every five games that a team plays at the bare minimum. So, I’m well ahead of schedule on that for basically everybody besides for Minnesota and Cleveland. Uh but as for the games that I have watched since the last episode, which would have been on the 11th, I watched the Magic versus the Knicks. Orlando getting a really nice win there. Uh Denver versus the Clippers. Another uh Clippers loss right there. Wizards and Rockets. Blazers and Pelicans. That game was just like a I haven’t watched the Pelicans or the Trailblazers. So, let me just knock this out with both of them. Uh similar situation for the Jazz and the Hawks. Hornets Bucks games is actually surprisingly more interesting than you would expect. The Warriors Spurs, I only watched the uh the one game unfortunately I don’t think. Was that the Friday game? Yeah, I think that was the Friday game. Lakers Bucks ended up being kind of disappointing because the Bucks weren’t really ready to play. Giannis did great, but the rest of the team was kind of meh. Celtics lost for the Clippers that we mentioned. Uh the Wizards Nets game again, like, okay, I have to watch I have to watch these teams. Let me check in on them. Uh and Michael Porter Jr. had a really good game in that one. So, that was fun. Hornets Raptors. That game was last night. That game was actually again really really fun. The Raptors have been absolutely killing it. And Pacers versus Pistons. That was another I have to watch the Pacers. And then uh Jaylen Durn had a [ __ ] phenomenal game. And I’m blanking on the name of their point guard right now and it’s pissing me off. So let me just search it real quick. Uh it’s Danish Jenkins. I do I feel like we should maybe add a system where we track the date that I watched the game because I also watch a lot of games like weeks behind when they were actually played and such cuz I watched like 30 games this weekend it felt like just so that I could really flesh out this chart. Uh but yeah, that’s that’s the games that I’ve watched this week at least from the last week. Now let’s catch up with the standings. In the Eastern Conference, the Detroit Pistons have taken the top spot with a 12 and2 record. I believe the Pistons could be a little bit better this year, but my god, they have really surprised. The Cleveland Cavaliers are 10 and five. Weirdly feels disappointing for them, but Darius Garland’s missed a bunch of time. Toronto is 9 and5. After starting their season 1 and four, they have now won eight of their last nine games. So, Toronto is looking like a far bigger threat than originally anticipated. Atlanta is 9 and5 in spite of the fact that Trey Young has not played. I believe they have a 4-ame win streak. Jaylen Johnson is looking like he has a whole lot more upside than I originally expected. New York has been 8 and5. I’m actually finding it shocking how much that I have been able to watch the Knicks while still simultaneously having very little thoughts on them. The Philadelphia 76ers are also 8-5. Miami is 8-6 and Chicago is 7-6. after their very hot start to the season, they seemingly have fallen back down to earth. And uh why do I even allow myself to get my hopes up? Milwaukee is 8-7. Orlando is 7-7 as are the Celtics. Uh Charlotte 4-10. That’s been really disappointing to me because I feel like Charlotte actually has the pieces to be a decent team. Uh part of that has been LaMelo Ball missing time. That’s been really disappointing to last two games with him. Brooklyn is 2-1 and Washington is 1-2 while Indiana is really in the mud at 1 and13. Just the bottom three teams in the East are just disgustingly bad. The OKC Thunder are 14-1 in spite of the fact that JDub has still not missed any time. Denver recently just had their third loss to the Chicago Bulls, but they have been absolutely killing it. Yokic is putting up absurd numbers. Houston is 9 and three. They have the best offense in the NBA. They just had a really really nice game versus Orlando. I need to watch that game definitely because that I watched the last like 5 minutes of the fourth quarter and overtime. But I do want to know what the context of that was. The Lakers sit at 10 and four. The Spurs are 9 and4. Minnesota is 9 and5. Golden State 9-6. Phoenix 8-6. Portland, after starting the year pretty good, has been on a little bit of a skid lately. They are now 6-7. Haha. Utah is 5-8. Memphis 4-10, Clippers 4-10, Mavericks 4-1 11. They’ve actually been slightly better ever since. Crazy concept. They actually put a point guard in their lineup. And the Sacramento Kings are 3-1 and the Pelicans are 2 and 12. Just some disaster classes at the bottom of both conferences. But hey, at least the Pelicans managed to get two wins. As for some games worth highlighting, the Pistons defeated the Wizards 127 135 in overtime where Cade had a really big stat game in every sense of that because he had 4612 and 11, but he also set the record for the most missed shots in a game with 31 at least the most since the merger. Worth mentioning uh someone tallied up how many points he would have scored if he hit every shot. He shot 119 points worth of field goal attempts. Just absolutely [ __ ] absurd. Uh CJ McCollum also had 42 points in that loss. He’s been very up and down this year. Detroit has won 10 straight games for the first time since the 0708 season, most recently versus a downtrodden Indiana Pacers team. Game I mentioned a second ago where Jaylen Duran had probably the best game of his life while Kade Cunningham was sidelined with a minor hip injury. Two of their wins in that 10game win streak were without Cade Cunningham. One of them was against the Pacers. So that is the case, but one of them was against the Chicago Bulls, who were seemingly decent. So that’s interesting. It was Duran’s first game back from his own injury, last appearing in a game in that Wizards game from last week. In just 29 minutes, he went for 31 points and 15 rebounds, doing a lot more ball handling than usual while only getting one turnover and shooting 12 for 13 from the field. If you want to hear more thoughts on the Detroit Pistons and how big of a surprise they have been this year, I did a video on this channel a couple of days ago that absolutely [ __ ] bombed. Uh, in my experience, Pistons videos just do not do well, which is really depressing because they’re a fun team and they’re they’re they’re a very enjoyable watch. Go watch the Pistons and go watch that video. But anyways, for some other big performances, Kyle Kosma had 29 and 10 versus the Hornets. The same game, rookie Con Canipple had 32 in his first pro game in his hometown, Milwaukee, where he apparently had 2,000 of his family and friends in attendance. I don’t even have 20 family and friends. What the [ __ ] We will probably start doing a rookie report segment here in a bit as well. I just wanted to let them at least get one month of uh you know the season under their belt before we’re actually really diving into their performances because obviously there’s a lot of poor performances earlier but there’s also a lot of really hot ones like Khan Canipple has been really surprising to me and uh we’re going to do a rookie of the year race one month in video this week as well. So be on the lookout for that. None of those guys played well enough to earn the NBA’s player of the week as that goes to Denver Nuggets center Nicole Joic and Atlanta Hawks forward Jaylen Johnson. As I mentioned, dude, Jaylen Johnson has been ridiculous without Trey Young. As for some other nominees, in the west it was Steph, Luca Ant Shay, James Harden, Lowry Markin, and Alprin Shenun. And in the East, it was Giannis, Scotty Barnes, Jaylen Brown, Danish Jenkins, Carl Anthony Towns, and France Vagner. And now for rapid fire. The NBA is overhauling the All-Star game with a new United States versus the World format featuring two teams of American players and one team of international selections. Player selections will no longer have positional requirements for starters or reserves. with the top five vote getters becoming the starters and the next seven becoming reserves. To ensure the correct 16 Americans and eight international players split, Commissioner Adam Silver will appoint extra players if the voting results do not meet those minimums, which I don’t know. I’m interested in this format, but I also find it kind of whack. This means that Silver will add American players if there are fewer than 16 or international players if there are fewer than eight to fulfill the new format’s requirements. LeBron James was assigned to the G-League and now assigned to the Lakers. His return is imminent and he recently said that this is not his first bout of sciatica. He is listed as questionable for today’s game against the Utah Jazz. So, he might very well be making his debut like literally hours after this video goes up. The Sacramento Kings are rumored to be interested in finally blowing up this roster. If you want to hear my thoughts on what a potential Demon Sabonis trade would look like, you can go check that out over on Little Rusty Buckets. Darius Garland returned for the Cavaliers just to immediately get injured again. Kobe White and Josh Giddy are back for the Bulls. They lost Sunday night in a double overtime game versus the Jazz before ending the Nuggets win streak last night. The Pelicans fire Willie Green and named James Berago, the interim interim head coach. Uh, Willie Green was a bad coach, but there’s also a lot of terrible [ __ ] with the Pelicans right now. So, I don’t really think that’s going to be a fix. I don’t even know if I would call that a band-aid solution. The investigation into the NBA is picking up steam as teams are turning over phone records and other materials to the NBA’s hired third-party law firm. Per the athletic league sources say the NBA is barreling towards substantial changes to team rules for reporting player injury statuses as part of the fallout from the ongoing betting scandal. And finally, the Grizz get Zack Edy back. Things are looking up for about 5 minutes until Jarant gets a calf injury. Actually, I have one more thought on that uh league rules and injury stuff. Uh this is something that has always been odd to me about betting on games. Why don’t we just if a player gets injured, the bet is invalid? I know that would mean the betting companies get to scam people out of less money, so that’s why it’ll never happen. But like I feel like the parlay being like, “Oh, this guy’s going to score 12 points and he gets hurt in the first quarter. Okay, it should just be void then.” But uh no, that’s not the answer that would be right. That’s the answer that would make less money. They face um the Grizzlies face off against the Wemilus Spurs tonight on national TV who will miss a couple of weeks with a calf injury of his own. I’m actually really worried about that one because just calf injuries historically that’s the first thing you hear before Achilles. So I’m kind of superstitious about that now. And like I’m hearing that they’re trying to get him back in three to four weeks. I don’t care about his awards. I don’t care about any of that [ __ ] Do not rush that man back in any capacity. He’s 7 foot seven. You got to be delicate with this [ __ ] With that out of the way, we’re going to run through some of the top plays of the week while I go ahead and thank you so much for watching these videos and thank the patrons for supporting the content on this channel. Unfortunately, without taking gambling sponsors, it makes making money in this particular industry extra extra difficult. So, any dollar that is contributed really goes a long way. So, thank you so much to all of our patrons. And if you would like to join the Patreon to get an access to a Discord as well as some early content, then you can click that link down in the description. You can either join for $3 a month or you can do a year-long payoff for $24 for $2 a month to save yourself some change. Uh, also shout out to Cheeky. If you want some soap, that link has probably popped up a few times on screen. And yeah, as for my personal play of the week, forgive me for it is yet another Victor Webbyama play, uh it won’t be the play of the week for the next couple of weeks since he is out. So, you can forgive uh you’ll you’ll have more opportunity for other plays. But seriously, everything this guy does is just my favorite thing. And the context of this alleyoop dunk on Draymond Green with all the trash talk that was happening before and after. To me, if there is any play to encapsulate what basketball is all about, it’s just the [ __ ] talk, the competitive energy, and seeing just one of the most wild things you can possibly imagine. That is why I love the NBA. But that is all. Thank you so much for watching and goodbye. Rocks the rim. Fire on the play.

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0:00 Intro
0:17 Clippers
4:01 Dubs Rolling?
6:26 Update In Dallas
8:29 WATCH WATCH
11:11 East Standings
12:48 West Standings
13:58 Big Games
16:26 POTW
16:55 Rapid Fire & Highlights

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