The Playbook 2019 Q&A | Friday, February 8th at 7:30 pm

[Ranma]

[mkwest]

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

[Ranma]

I was seated in the first row in the balcony with the general audience, but I think I had an opportunity to move down to the lower level with the season ticket holders and so-called MVPs as they took a bunch of us from my row to the lower level presumably to fill empty seats for the camera shots of the audience. Even with that the balcony area was not as populated as the lower level, anyway. This was basically an opportunity to upsell season-ticket holders and sell season seats to newcomers. I saw on the seating chart that courtside seats for next season can cost as much as $175,000. Wow!

I'm sure there will be a video of the hour-long Q&A session but I hope to give my personal summary later. In any case, I took some pictures but the lighting and smoke kept me from getting any great shots, particularly with the featured guests and host.

Spoiler:

[mkwest]

Read on Twitter

[esqtvd]

I've seen a lot of him
you're gonna like Landry Shamet

Read on Twitter

[Ranma]

Prior to the question-and-answer session, there were T-shirt throws into the audience to juice up the crowd and highlight reels of the Clippers' rookies and newcomers as well as 2 audience members being selected to win courtside seats by answering 2-out-of-3 questions correctly. Both won by answering the first 2 questions correctly but each also failed to answer the 3rd question at least without help. The guy didn't know Gallo was the Clippers teammate who's played 8 seasons with newcomer Wilson Chandler (in New York and Denver). The gal randomly answered "C" with a multiple-choice answer when presented with "_______ Law dictates that the first team to score 100 points wins the game." She couldn't even say "Lawler's Law" without help and encouragement from the audience. She must have tagged along with a real fan.

I don't think I'll be able to put things into chronological order, so I'll just lay out my recollection in bullet points.

• Gillian Zucker came on stage to introduce the host and guest. Before she did that, a video of Steve Ballmer's infamous hyping up of the Clippers crowd was played. Ballmer didn't make the event, so Zucker praised his vision and espoused how people who work for him tend to accomplish what was once thought not possible. Clippers Vision, specifically, was cited as an endeavor that was thought to be something that couldn't be implemented 4 years ago. Now it's won an inaugural technological-advancement award for the NBA.

• Rachel Nichols was introduced as host while Lawrence Frank and Michael Winger came on stage as the guests. Jerry West was supposed to be Franks' on-stage partner, but was unable to attend due to a bout with the flu, so Winger stood in for him. Frank's sense of humor is charming as he came out with a big NBA logo cutout to have the Logo present as promised. He even interjected, "Bless you." in the middle of his response to one of the questions from Nichols when a loud sneeze emanated from the audience. Nichols, as expected, was a great host with her polish and on-point questioning. Yeah, I'm sure the questions were coordinated with the organization, but they still put on a good show, nonetheless. Winger did well too, especially as a last-minute replacement. Frank praised Winger for his ability as a strategist and roster builder who's able to see the big picture and lay out pathways to reach objectives.

• Frank addressed the recent trades post-deadline by saying that the moves were made with an eye towards getting premier free agents without naming any names, obviously. He went on to say that few trades are made at the last minute; most moves are made much more in advance by planting seeds throughout the season and at every avenue. Once the season ends, the front office gets to work in laying out scenarios to improve the team for both short-term competitiveness and long-term health with the aim of contending for the championship, not only for a single season, but multiple seasons for sustainable excellence. Winger added that the organization has to do what's best for the Clippers but also respect the players who are currently on the team in reference to being competitive. Frank mentioned how it is gut-wrenching to trade away players like Tobias Harris, who represent themselves and the team well by doing whatever the team asks them to do in a professional manner and being good people, to boot. Frank again referenced Winger for having the organization prepared for any scenario in taking emotion out of the decision-making process since it minimizes the amount of time to debate and contemplate particular moves as they present themselves. This would explain how the Clippers were able to pull off 3 separate trades within 24 hours of the trade deadline. Winger said it's a lot of work in dealing with the minutiae of details in Excel spreadsheets, flow charts and decision-making trees, but he loves dealing with the details.

• Nichols asked Frank for an example of how to pitch free agents in order to lure them to sign with the Clippers. Among the things cited were Steve Ballmer, playing in the most desirable location that is Los Angeles, coach Doc Rivers, and Jerry West as the architect. Ballmer was cited for his enthusiasm and commitment to winning in devoting whatever resources were necessary to reach our lofty goals. Frank took a blatant swipe at the Lakers by stating you can play for a world-class organization in L.A. without dealing with the drama.

• Frank also talked about how rare it is for an owner to be so involved that he was part of the interview panel with the 15 draft prospects the Clippers were allowed bring in. Jerry West was also a part of that panel. Speaking of the draft, Frank cited how a prospect in particular stood out to him during the most recent draft process. Out of the 15 prospects brought in to interview, only Landry Shamet brought a notebook. Frank mentioned how Shamet was actually engaged and directed questions to Ballmer, Doc and West. One question, in particular, stood out to Frank. Shamet asked the Logo what it took to be great and West, as he tends to do about such subjects, energetically answered that question while Shamet was writing down the words of wisdom. Obviously, it's no coincidence that the Clippers ended up trading for him as he represents the type of player with the right mindset the organization covets. Frank talked about having that competitive element in one's DNA as something the organization actively looks for, which follows up on what Winger said earlier about opposing teams knowing that they've played the Clippers by how nicked up they are afterwards from a hard-fought confrontation.

• When the discussion found it's way to free agency, there was mention of 10 max-salary slots available for this upcoming summer with possibly more opening up later. That would be more such slots than actual max-worthy free agents. Frank touched upon how great Tobias was for the team but navigated his way into communicating that it was necessary to give him up in order to pursue elite free agents while acknowledging that Tobias would possibly receive a near-max offer without saying that he didn't deserve such an offer. In order to distinguish the Clippers from the rest of the pack of suitors, Frank went on to say that the Clippers purposely put together a competitive team in avoiding the tank to provide elite talent with the necessary support for them to be at their best. Even elite players can't do it by themselves.

That's as much as I can recall. If I remember anything else, I'll either add it to this post in an edit with a note saying as much or put it in a separate post.

[Ranma]

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

[mkwest]

Great write-up Ranma!

Clippers add longtime Cavs exec Trent Redden as assistant GM

Redden worked with Winger in Cleveland, where he rose in the executive ranks as a well-regarded talent evaluator who worked under Danny Ferry, Chris Grant and Griffin. He will complement Winger, who has established a reputation as an expert strategist with a steady administrative hand and strong negotiating skills.

Kevin Arnovitz, ESPN

As I read your post, I thought about the deadline, the draft, Lee Jenkins, Morris' comments after the game and more. I may be on a high right now from the excitement of tonight's game, but the Clippers have put together a nice little squad in the Front Office. I don't know how they pulled off some of these deals. Somebody posted about Jerry West being a jedi (i.e. master of jedi mind tricks) and that was my exact thoughts during the trade deadline. This guy is a jedi.

When I first saw the Harris trade, I had to make sure it wasn't a troll account. I'm seeing all of these picks, plus the rookie? I would have been cool with that right there, but they were far from finished. Trading Bradley for 2 expirings? I thought for sure we'd have to eat that guarantee. Thank you Memphis Flipping Muscala for Zubac and Beasley...I was a little concerned about Beasley at first (and that ended up being irrelevant), but the Lakers gave up Zubac for Muscala? The FO is killing it. I don't know if they're planning on keeping the picks or packaging them for the right player, but I completely trust them. We can benefit either way and it's great to have real assets again.

Players that were traded all seemed to be pleased with their new situations. Obviously Harris, Boban and Scott are walking into a potentially great situation with an Eastern Conference heavyweight. Bradley is happy to be closer to family. Guys don't appear to be pissed off this time around.

Morris made his comments about seeing other teams fighting for each other, sacrificing for the good of the team, having fun and genuinely rooting for each other. That has been a goal for this team and as a fan it is something that is very easy to root for. Maybe the Celtics were affected by trade talks or maybe it's just personalities of their collective players. We have players that know this team is hoping to strike oil in free-agency and that likely means that they'll be moving elsewhere. With that being known, they still support each other and play selfless for the most part. The team has invested in attempting to identify certain qualities in character when evaluating talent and it seems to be paying off.

If the FO continues to roll on like they have been, I'll be a little concerned that they'll start being poached. I guess it would be a good problem to have.

[MartinToVaught]

I don't necessarily buy that trade rumors are the reason for the Celtics' chokejobs. The trade rumors didn't stop them from racing out to those big leads to begin with, after all. The Celtics were also losing to crap teams like the Knicks and the Magic long before Davis asked for a trade.

Honestly, this year's Celtics remind me a bit of our Lob City teams. They have a lot of divas with egos who don't enjoy playing with each other. However, the silver lining for Celtics fans is that they have a far better front office and coach than those Lob City teams had.

[esqtvd]

• Nichols asked Frank for an example of how to pitch free agents in order to lure them to sign with the Clippers. Among the things cited were Steve Ballmer, playing in the most desirable location that is Los Angeles, coach Doc Rivers, and Jerry West as the architect.


...

In order to distinguish the Clippers from the rest of the pack of suitors, Frank went on to say that the Clippers purposely put together a competitive team in avoiding the tank to provide elite talent with the necessary support for them to be at their best. Even elite players can't do it by themselves.

Sounds familiar.