Comments on: Reviewing the Clippers 2025 Summer League Roster https://213hoops.com/reviewing-the-clippers-2025-summer-league-roster/ L.A. Clippers News and Analysis Sun, 13 Jul 2025 18:12:46 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.3.19 By: khyber jones https://213hoops.com/reviewing-the-clippers-2025-summer-league-roster/#comment-65330 Sun, 13 Jul 2025 18:12:46 +0000 https://213hoops.com/?p=21206#comment-65330 Watched the Clippers first summer league game, and I was impressed. I don’t think we’ve had this type of talent w/positional size since SGA showed up at SL years ago, but we have more players to actually look at this year.

What stood out to me:

Yanick Konan Niederhauser: Much bigger than I expected. Thought he’d be Chet like skinny, but he’s wide across the shoulders and chest. He’s got NBA level size and strength. His handle and shot form were also much better than I expected. His spacing on offense was good, though a couple of those screens and dribble hand offs looked a bit shaky. Most of all, his motor to guard the perimeter and make a play on every rebound and loose ball in his vicinity. He played against Dante and Moses Brown, 2 guys with size/strength and/or height and did well.

Trentyn Flowers: This dude is so much fun to watch. The talent that translate to the NBA and this old a** Clipper team, is his ability to grab a loose ball or long rebound and zip down the floor to generate points in the paint. He was also very alert off the ball to time shots and follow up for put backs. At 6’9″ with excellent speed, he really can’t be stopped in the open floor unless he screws up w/his own handle. Has the ability to score inside and out, and I just love his pop, enthusiasm and confidence.

Kobe Sanders: Also stood out to me as knowing how to play the game with the size to hang in the NBA and the willingness to attack. He’s a big guard, not as swift as Flowers, but has some gravity and basketball sense to him. He sees angles and attacks. He created space for a mid range jumper. He was very active defensively. This kid has talent. He doesn’t have as many reps as Flowers, but the basketball brain is in this kid and he has NBA size for the position he plays.

Jordan Miller: I’ve been a big fan of his game and his development. He looked stronger, was beating people up in the paint, and got his shot off and get to the rim. There is a professional scorer mentality to him that is a throwback to guys who were a facet of the league in the 80s, 90s, 00s. There are doubters and skeptics of him, but he has more talent than any Clipper rookie, young player I’ve seen in about 4-5 years.

Kobe Brown: We all know his big, ‘bull in a china shop’ type play does translate to the NBA b/c we’ve seen him be effective in that role in regular season games. The shot form may look to some as flukey, but I did notice his shot looked much better during the garbage time phase of Game 7 vs Denver. If he can take and make open shots with confidence and demonstrate the type of quick release and arc/rotation that’s needed at the NBA level, then he can provide value over the course of an 82 game regular season. The lateral quickness on defense looked a touch better.

One thing I’d say in watching summer league games is that the crop of bigs that Jokic has ushered into the league are much more skilled than anything we’ve ever seen. If you’ve seen Yang Hansen and Danny Wolf play in this SL, they’re both demonstrating agility, passing, dribbling that we don’t see from bigs. YCN is also better skilled than the Moses Brown’s of the world. Wemby is a generational talent at the center position and led France to the Olympic finals. The game is rapidly changing as it is now firmly a global sport.

With the changes the Clippers have made in this offseason (which I think are great), the Clippers should view this season as Ty Lue’s last hurrah. With the talent that is coming into this league, the Clippers are going to need to have a coach that integrates this young talent into our rotation. Ty is not that guy and Steve Ballmer has not been that kind of owner. He’s been in win now mode since he bought the team. But this league is rapidly changing and the team is going to have to adapt. We can see with these draft picks and the new CBA that L. Frank does have a decent sense for how these trends are shaping up. Can Lue (and, to a lesser extent, Ballmer) adapt? That remains to be seen.

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By: John Maclean https://213hoops.com/reviewing-the-clippers-2025-summer-league-roster/#comment-65329 Sun, 13 Jul 2025 01:05:26 +0000 https://213hoops.com/?p=21206#comment-65329 Let’s give Sanders another look tomorrow. It was the first half in which I was impressed by. His confidence with his handle navigating into traffic on a couple moves was pretty impressive. He didn’t make the shots, but if he had, it would’ve been breathtaking. Could be another Brandon Boston. We’ll just have to wait and see. My expectations for Yanic were very low and exceeded that very low bar by quite a bit. He’s green in many respects but intuitive in others.

Again time will tell.

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By: JCplusULTRA https://213hoops.com/reviewing-the-clippers-2025-summer-league-roster/#comment-65328 Sun, 13 Jul 2025 01:03:50 +0000 https://213hoops.com/?p=21206#comment-65328 Haha! Yeah! Moses Malone, I wish!

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By: chogokin https://213hoops.com/reviewing-the-clippers-2025-summer-league-roster/#comment-65327 Sat, 12 Jul 2025 21:13:26 +0000 https://213hoops.com/?p=21206#comment-65327 “[Yanic] doesn’t look much different skill-wise to Moses Malone”

…you meant Moses Brown, right?

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By: JCplusULTRA https://213hoops.com/reviewing-the-clippers-2025-summer-league-roster/#comment-65326 Sat, 12 Jul 2025 17:28:44 +0000 https://213hoops.com/?p=21206#comment-65326 I only caught the 2nd half, but here are my thoughts.

Yanic’s screens are garbage for how huge he is, especially vs the competition. His size and athleticism are good, but he doesn’t look much different skill-wise to Moses Malone.

Sanders was meh. Didn’t see anything that stood out.

Christie looks much improved going the hole and taking contact. His shot is still not dropping though.

Flowers is more confident in his 3pt shot, but didn’t make them. He also passed up an open one. His freakish athleticism looks great on offense and defense. Definitely can become a 3nD guy.

Miller was the best player of the Clippers, but that was a given going in. He didn’t show much improvement other than bulking up. His drive game actually looks worse as he tries to force his way to the basket instead of his hesitations and putting defenders in jail he showed before.

Brown didn’t play the 2nd half for some reason.

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By: John Maclean https://213hoops.com/reviewing-the-clippers-2025-summer-league-roster/#comment-65325 Sat, 12 Jul 2025 11:56:34 +0000 https://213hoops.com/?p=21206#comment-65325 lol. Great observation. Not a surprise that miller , Brown and Sheppard had their way in this one. Cam was the most noteworthy of the sophomores to me however.

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By: I'm a Mann I'm 40 https://213hoops.com/reviewing-the-clippers-2025-summer-league-roster/#comment-65324 Sat, 12 Jul 2025 06:35:26 +0000 https://213hoops.com/?p=21206#comment-65324 Yanic is HUGE and active. Still needs to work on the finer details, but definitely intriguing with the way he moves at that size. His offense def a work in progress, but he will be a fun toy for Harden who will make things 1000% easier for him than the non point guards he’s playing with.

Christie made huge gains physically, he looks very much improved because of it. Could def be a rotation guy next year.

I think Sanders could be an NBA guy too. A lot of skill for the size and mid range is already solid. 3 point shot looks ok too.

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By: JCplusULTRA https://213hoops.com/reviewing-the-clippers-2025-summer-league-roster/#comment-65323 Sat, 12 Jul 2025 04:32:07 +0000 https://213hoops.com/?p=21206#comment-65323 I dunno if Miller bulked up or if everyone else is skinny.

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By: JCplusULTRA https://213hoops.com/reviewing-the-clippers-2025-summer-league-roster/#comment-65322 Sat, 12 Jul 2025 04:01:18 +0000 https://213hoops.com/?p=21206#comment-65322 Christie and Flowers blooming.

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By: John Maclean https://213hoops.com/reviewing-the-clippers-2025-summer-league-roster/#comment-65321 Sat, 12 Jul 2025 03:24:09 +0000 https://213hoops.com/?p=21206#comment-65321 Did we actually make two good draft picks? Konan is raw but has pretty good instincts to go with his athletic ability and Sanders looks kind of freakish. I’m pretty high on the latter.

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