J.J. Redick to Host Weekly Podcast on Adrian Wojnarowski's "The Vertical"

[QRich3]

Loved the Lawrence Frank one, I had no idea he was such a character

[Dynamix]

Blake Griffin joins JJ for a in depth discussion. Griffin talks about his love of stand up comedy, how it led to him trying his hand at the craft and who was responsible for him breaking into the comedy game. The teammates also discuss how frustrating a season it was for the Clippers and Griffin gives insight to what he did this offseason to get him ready, physically, for the upcoming season.

Blake in the house!

[og15]

I thought they would akwardly discuss the whole hand breaking situation, but they didn't. Good podcast, not sure if it is good or bad that Blake hasn't rested much this off-season, but I guess he rested half of last season, so it's okay.

[mkwest]

Read on Twitter

Here are the topics discussed for the Blake interview

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

[Roscoe Sheed]

JJ didn't really ask Blake how his leg has been. Hopefully he is fully recovered

[og15]

If he had surgery and as he said, hasn't taken much of a break all summer it would seem like he's perfectly healthy now.

2 weeks break, team has been off since mid May or so, which means he's been going at it for 3 months now, so I'd hope he'd be healthy if he's doing that, right?

[og15]

Matt Barnes story about Mo Cheeks, sheesh, that's awful

[Ranma]

Dan Woike, Orange County Register (9/20/16)

Redick said he advocated for Barnes' return to the Clippers, where he started 118 games over three seasons, speaking to Rivers after the season.

"It was an interesting situation," Barnes said on the podcast.
...

"I apologized. He apologized," Barnes said. "We pretty much buried the hatchet."

Barnes said Rivers told him "there's a spot here for you" at the beginning of free agency, and the two were supposed to meet for dinner.

"I was very excited to be coming back to L.A.," he said.

But before the two could get together, the Clippers re-signed Wesley Johnson using their mid-level exception. Barnes reached out to Rivers to see if he was still part of the Clippers' plan, but Rivers said the Clippers had run out of money.

"Ran out of money or just give it someone else?" Barnes asked with a laugh.

Matt Barnes Says He Was Planning on Coming Back to the Clippers

[nickhx2]

Matt Barnes story about Mo Cheeks, sheesh, that's awful

could you elaborate?

[og15]

Starts at 20:30.

Barnes was traded from Sacramento along with Webber to Philly. He was getting no minutes, so he hired Chris Webber's shot coach and was working with him after practice, etc.

He said Mo Cheeks was just awful and he just doesn't like him even until now.

In practice, fast break 3v2, Iverson passed the ball to Barnes, then Barnes pulled up for a 10-15 footer, banks it in and Mo Cheeks stops practice and says "what the - - - are you doing", and Barnes says "what's wrong, I made it", Cheeks says "that's not what you do, you pass the ball, get off the court".

So Barnes let's it go, his teammates tell him to shake it off, etc. Two days later Barnes is shooting after practice, him and his shooting coach, no one else, then Cheeks walks by and says "what are you doing?" Barnes says "I'm shooting" and Cheeks replies "well you're not going to get to shoot here"

Then he said that a week later Cheeks said something again and he went after him and Webber had to hold him back.

Fast forward to Barnes on the Warriors, they are playing Philly, he had told his teammates the situation and he told Don, and Don Nelson tells him he can play as much as he likes as long as he stays out of foul trouble. So he went off that night, hit a couple of three's, after the first couple, Cheeks was heckling him saying it's luck, etc, then Barnes kept hitting and talking back to Cheeks, said he hit about 7 three's, barely missed, but Cheeks keeps going and his players and assistants and such are telling him to sit down and stop fueling the fire, etc, so it was kind of Barnes' vindication.

Here's the fact check:
http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/200612260GSW.html

25 pts, 45 mins, 8/9 FG, 7/8 3PT

I just don't understand what coach wouldn't want his players to work on their game and improve, why would you discourage that? Such a ridiculous thing.

[og15]

Dan Woike, Orange County Register (9/20/16)

Redick said he advocated for Barnes' return to the Clippers, where he started 118 games over three seasons, speaking to Rivers after the season.

"It was an interesting situation," Barnes said on the podcast.
...

"I apologized. He apologized," Barnes said. "We pretty much buried the hatchet."

Barnes said Rivers told him "there's a spot here for you" at the beginning of free agency, and the two were supposed to meet for dinner.

"I was very excited to be coming back to L.A.," he said.

But before the two could get together, the Clippers re-signed Wesley Johnson using their mid-level exception. Barnes reached out to Rivers to see if he was still part of the Clippers' plan, but Rivers said the Clippers had run out of money.

"Ran out of money or just give it someone else?" Barnes asked with a laugh.

Matt Barnes Says He Was Planning on Coming Back to the Clippers

Yea, we essentially chose Johnson over Barnes. Barnes is better or at least has been, but Wesley is fairly younger, and for a multiple year deal, I can understand that decision.

I suppose there's also some hope that Johnson doesn't necessarily "improve" in terms of his level as a player, but more so adjust more to the role and can maybe at best be an average to above average overall contributor.

He can certainly shoot better from 3PT as we've seen in the past and maybe just commit further to that defensive complimentary player role.

[og15]

Redick had CP on for this week, great podcast. They talked about a lot of things, the history of their relationship, CP being an emotional guy, CP actually not being a trash talker on the court, CP working on his emotions and the refs lol, CP's mentality as a player, he talked about people always saying he should be consistently aggressive etc, and some talk about legacy and getting past the second round.

It was a very good one.

[Dynamix]

Read on Twitter

[Dynamix]

Read on Twitter

[Ranma]

Read on Twitter

[Ranma]

Read on Twitter

Zach Lowe, ESPN.com (12/3/16)

On the team plane late Sunday after a dismal loss to the Pacers -- the second of three straight -- Chris Paul strode to Blake Griffin's seat for a chat about what had befallen the mighty Clippers.

The talk was brief, and happy. "We'll be fine," Griffin told Paul, the two men recalled to ESPN.com. They had to play harder, and trust in their system. Paul agreed, and the two chuckled about how uncomfortable the same conversation might have been even just a year ago.

"It used to be, if we lost, everyone might be, 'It's his fault! We need to change this and that!'" Paul said.

"There's no finger pointing now," Griffin added.

There is some disagreement as to how ugly things got in the Clippers' locker room during low points in this half-decade of unfulfilled contention. But there were bad times, especially when Griffin and Jordan were younger -- and in Paul's eyes, perhaps not ready to win. "We won 17 straight in [2012-13]," Paul said, "but the spirit wasn't right."

"We had rifts," Griffin recalled of that team.

Paul is always yapping at teammates; a basket microphone caught him telling DeAndre Jordan to "wake the ---- up!" early in that Pacers loss. Eight-plus months of that can grate on anyone. Some with the team miss Matt Barnes, because Barnes was the only player crazy enough to tell Paul -- in profane terms -- to stop talking.

"That's me," Paul said. "I gotta be who I am. I try hard to say stuff in different ways to different people."

It's Now or Never for CP3, Blake and the Clippers