{"id":18998,"date":"2025-07-18T13:20:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T13:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/18998\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T13:20:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T13:20:12","slug":"clippers-rookie-yanic-konan-niederhauser-showing-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/18998\/","title":{"rendered":"Clippers rookie Yanic Konan Niederhauser showing growth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

LAS VEGAS\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Yanic Konan Niederhauser<\/a> received the pass near the half-court line from a Clippers<\/a> teammate who had just stolen the basketball. The 6-foot-11 center maneuvered down the court, his long strides allowing him to use just two dribbles before he took flight outside the circle and threw down a thunderous dunk over helpless Lakers<\/a> defender Cole Swider.<\/p>\n

The crowd inside Thomas & Mack Center went into a frenzy, including Clippers owner Steve Ballmer<\/a>, who leaped out of his courtside seat, pumped his fists and yelled.<\/p>\n

At that moment Monday night, Niederhauser displayed his agility, speed and ballhandling skills. It was another step taken in his progress while playing in the NBA Summer League<\/a> on the campus of UNLV.<\/p>\n

The Clippers had used the 30th and last pick in the first round of the NBA draft to select Niederhauser out of Penn State because they saw potential.<\/p>\n

That exciting, and in many ways unexpected, play was an encouraging sign for the Clippers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t see Mr. Ballmer because I was in the moment,\u201d Niederhauser, laughing, said late Monday night. \u201cThat\u2019s the guard skills I was talking about and I had a couple of fast breaks these last few days and I passed the ball away. Now I said, \u2018Naw, man. I can go up by myself.\u2019 I told myself I was going to dunk it and I did.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his first three games in the NBA Summer League, Niederhauser has shown different skills.<\/p>\n

It was his defense and rebounding in the first game, against the Houston Rockets in which he blocked four shots and collected 10 rebounds. Though he missed all four of his shots and scored just one point, Niederhauser found other ways to contribute.<\/p>\n

It was a little bit of everything in his second game, against the Milwaukee Bucks in which he had two points, three rebounds, two steals and one block.<\/p>\n

It was his offense in the third game against the Lakers in which he scored 10 points, grabbed two rebounds and had two steals.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe just sticks with it,\u201d Clippers assistant and Summer League coach Jeremy Castleberry said. \u201cNo matter if it\u2019s going good or bad, he sticks with it. He\u2019s trying his best to do everything we ask him to do. And just like I said after the last game, he continues to get better. From the last game [against the Bucks] to this game [against the Lakers], he was a little bit better than he was last game. He\u2019s getting the dunks, catching the basketball, finishing it, being a rim-protector, consistently running the floor. Like, you can see the progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Niederhauser was born in Bern, Switzerland, a town of about 135,000 an hour from Zurich. Even so, at 15, the Clippers\u2019 international scouts became aware of Niederhauser when he played on the under-16 Switzerland national team. At that time, he was a 6-1 guard.<\/p>\n

Niederhauser had a growth spurt at 17 that pushed him into playing center position. He said he was 6-5 when he broke his knee and was forced to sit out for a year.<\/p>\n

\"Clippers <\/p>\n

Clippers center Yanic Konan Niederhauser elevates for a shot over Lakers center Christian Koloko during a Summer League game in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

(Garrett Ellwood \/ NBAE via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like out for a whole year and once I came back, after a whole year of sitting out and I get back on the court, now I\u2019m 6-11,\u201d he said. \u201cYeah, in one year, I had to change my whole game from being like a forward\/guard to being a center. So, yeah, I had guard skills. That\u2019s why sometimes I be dribbling the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

Niederhauser laughed, agreeing those guard skills helped him make that electric dunk against the Lakers.<\/p>\n

His size, weight (242 pounds) and youth (22) are all part of the package the Clippers like.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think there\u2019s plenty of upside,\u201d Clippers general manager Trent Redden said. \u201cYou know, the famous draft word, obviously. But for a guy that\u2019s his age, he\u2019s still learning and growing into his frame that he hasn\u2019t really had his whole life. We just haven\u2019t had a guy that size at that position in a backup role that\u2019s young that we can feed into and give to our developmental staff.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a kid growing up in Switzerland, Niederhauser learned to speak four languages \u2014 Swiss, German, French and English.<\/p>\n

His parents, Dominique and Nadege Niederhauser, made sure their son was well-versed.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince I was a baby, I was speaking all those languages,\u201d Niederhauser said. \u201cMy mom, she speaks French. She\u2019s from the Ivory Coast and that\u2019s where I learned French, and my dad speaks mostly German and so that\u2019s how I learned my German.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now that Niederhauser is with the Clippers, he\u2019ll have tutors to teach how the NBA game is played.<\/p>\n

He will be able to learn from centers Ivica Zubac<\/a> and Brook Lopez<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lopez is 37 and a 17-year veteran who signed with the Clippers this summer.<\/p>\n

He mentioned how he played with great players like Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Giannis Antetokounmpo. Now it\u2019s up to him to pass on knowledge to Niederhauser like others passed on to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m absolutely ready to get on the court, help him out and help him adjust and become a great player in this league,\u201d Lopez said.<\/p>\n

Niederhauser is soaking it all in while in Las Vegas, from the games to the practices to the conversations he\u2019s had with Clippers coach Tyronn Lue<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been giving me advice. I can just tell that he has a lot of knowledge,\u201d Niederhauser said. \u201cI\u2019m loving this. I\u2019m in a great situation with experienced players to learn from. I\u2019m just taking time to learn and get my experience. Everything is new to me so I\u2019m just trying my best to soak everything in and just get better every day.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Yanic Konan Niederhauser received the pass near the half-court line from a Clippers teammate who had just…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[8260,17590,17587,5460,15207,17588,6306,17591,355,17586,13544,17589,3585,99,11651,13646,2394],"class_list":{"0":"post-18998","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-brook-lopez","9":"tag-center","10":"tag-clippers-teammate","11":"tag-game","12":"tag-growth","13":"tag-guard-skill","14":"tag-lakers","15":"tag-last-game","16":"tag-nba","17":"tag-niederhauser","18":"tag-point","19":"tag-rebound","20":"tag-size","21":"tag-sports","22":"tag-summer-league","23":"tag-switzerland","24":"tag-year"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}