	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 26, 2016

Doc Rivers

Los Angeles, California

DOC RIVERS: Hello, everyone. I am looking forward to a great -- if I anticipate all the questions and get them right, can that mean there's no questions and I can leave? (Laughter). I've anticipated seven of them. I'm not going to say them, but I know seven that will be asked. Don't disappoint.

Q. What excites you the most about this upcoming season in preparation for the Larry O'Brien Trophy?
DOC RIVERS: I think seeing you guys again is what excites me the most. You know, that's the part that I look forward to the most.

I don't know what excites me. I just like our team. You know, I think we had a good summer, and that sounds great, but now we have to work on the floor and get all the different pieces together and then make them work together. But I'm excited by the talent we have on the team. I think we're in a good place mentally. Physically we're healthy. So that's what makes me excited.

Q. You've won an NBA championship in Boston; what's it going to take for this team to win an NBA championship, and what does it take?
DOC RIVERS: Well, I think every team has its own journey. I don't think there's one way to do it. If you look at the champions over the last 20 years, they all did something different. They all played differently. If you looked at the way Cleveland played and the way Golden State played, those are two completely opposite teams, at least the way they play, and yet one of each won a title the last two years.

We're going to go on our own journey. There are things you have to do. We have to rebound better than we've rebounded last year on the defensive rebounding, and the offensive rebounds don't affect us as much, but we were not a good defensive rebounding team, and that's something we have to do better if we want to win.

We have to stay healthy, obviously, and we've just got to keep growing as a team. Our regular season record over the last three or four years says that we're one of the better teams. Now we have to back that up in the Playoffs.

Q. Paul today announced that this would be his last season.
DOC RIVERS: Yeah.

Q. He kind of talked about taking stock of things. Based on your history with him, will you take extra stock of things over the course of the year? Will you kind of view it as a farewell tour for you guys' professional relationship?
DOC RIVERS: Yeah, I mean, obviously that's separate than us trying to win the title, but Paul has meant a lot to me, obviously. When you win a title with someone, just like him and KG and the whole group, you're connected with that person, those people for the rest of your lives, and you should be.

You know, someone asked me what will Paul leave as a legacy, and I told -- I think more kids should actually watch Paul Pierce play than some of the other players because of the way he plays. Paul is not going to be in a lot of highlights, but when you watch how he played, and fundamentally how well he played, I think that's actually what kids should really watch is how he did it without using his athleticism that he actually has.

Q. How are you guys going to use him differently this year, or are you going to use him differently?
DOC RIVERS: We're going to play him at the 4 probably more than the 3. We did that last year, as well. But other than that, not much, no.

Q. Chris, Blake, free agency. Is that going to be a problem, or do you know?
DOC RIVERS: Well, you never know. But no, we're not -- honestly, I'm not focused on that. I know that's going to be in the future. But right now we're focused on the now. I have to focus on the team right now and where we're trying to go, and obviously that will take care of itself. That's more my focus. I know it's going to be a discussion. I'm not going to answer it all week, all year, but I get it. It's part of the discussion, but our focus will be the season.

Q. Is it going to have an impact on the team chemistry?
DOC RIVERS: No, I don't think it'll have any impact at all chemistry-wise. I think both of those guys love where they're at, and they both want to win a title, and we're going to try to help them do that.

Q. Has the team yet had any conversations about any potential political statements coordinated as a team?
DOC RIVERS: Yeah, yeah, we've had that. I think that's still in discussion. You know me well enough, obviously we've talked about it. It's a very relevant and important issue. Whatever we do, we'll do as a group, we'll do together hopefully, but I'm happy that we're having those discussions. I think they're important discussions, and I love the fact that we actually are talking about things other than basketball. I think that's all good.

Q. Specifically when you've had these conversations, what are you grappling with specifically?
DOC RIVERS: Well, we're not grappling with anything, honestly. I think the group -- what we've discussed so far is just the issues. Not the results because none of us are smart enough to figure that out. The conversation that we're all having I think is an important conversation.

Without going into it too much, we're having conversation about the subjects that everyone else is having conversations about, and that's probably why protests work, because of that.

Q. How do you view and see the Kevin Durant decision, because on one hand on paper, it kind of creates more of a gap between you guys and the Warriors, but on the other hand he comes off the Thunder, maybe they take a step back, Houston lost Dwight Howard, so how do you guys see that from your perspective?
DOC RIVERS: I don't look at it. Anyway you just said, I don't agree with any of that. I mean, really, we like our team. I can't go into their team, Oklahoma's team. That's not for me. I like our team. I think we can play with anybody, and we don't feel like there's a gap.

But that's all we have to prove, and I think everyone has to prove that. I know history very well in this league, and there's been a lot of superteams put together, quote-unquote, superteams, and I know the history. I feel comfortable where we're at.

Q. When you formulate relationships with your players like Paul Pierce who's retiring and then obviously KG who just pretty much retired, you've said that you offered him a spot before retirement. Where do you see KG being? Do you see him coaching, in upstairs management? Where do you see his future?
DOC RIVERS: I think Kevin can go anywhere he wants to go. I think he has a lot to give to the game. Guys after they retire, sometimes they want a break, sometimes they want to give back their gift, and sometimes they just want to get away from all of us. I think we're going to see that in time what Kevin wants to do. I think he's smart enough to do any of the things that are jobs in our league.

I think time will tell whether he wants to do one of those things or not.

Q. The significance of DeAndre winning a championship, an Olympic gold medal, and how can that help you, the whole team, as well as him individually and how that works out?
DOC RIVERS: Well, I know winning helps winning. You know, and so I think it's -- D.J. had a great summer. I thought it was probably, in my opinion, so far at least the most important summer of his career. I think seeing the work ethic of all the other players, being around them all those days, feeling what winning feels like, giving himself up for a team in a short period of time. I think all those things were great for D.J.

I expect him in some ways to be the most improved this year because of the summer he had.

Q. I know that you coached Paul Pierce when he was with the Celtics and you're coaching him now and this is his last season. What preparations or changes are you guys making with the team, and how are you feeling about the changes that are being made?
DOC RIVERS: Well, I love the preparations we've made. I think, again, this is the deepest, most talented group that I've had since I've been here, and we understand that there's a lot of other deep and talented basketball teams around the league, and I think that's why this year should be great. This should be a great basketball year in general.

You know, with Paul obviously you knew retirement was coming soon, and I think I like the way he's doing it and I like the way he's approaching it, especially mentally, so it'll be a good ride. I'm glad I'm on the ride with him.

Q. Considering how last season ended and what could be coming up after this season with Paul retiring and some of your key guys going into free agency, is there a different feel than before coming into this season? Is there a different sort of sense of urgency or anything like that where you feel like there's --
DOC RIVERS: No, I don't think there's any more urgency than last year or the year before. I think if you drove to San Antonio, or flew, they would probably give you the same answer, or Oklahoma, Golden State. I don't think your urgency changes. When you're in the discussion of one of the teams that possibly could win it, there's an urgency, and if you don't have the right urgency, you won't win. So I don't think it changes because of anything else other than we've not won, and we want to, and we want to prove with this group that can happen.

Q. After watching Austin play last year in the Playoffs, and the team, how will that affect you guys coming into the upcoming season?
DOC RIVERS: Well, I can tell you we don't want to have that happen, where Blake and CP are not playing in the Playoffs. But I thought our bench did respond, and they tried. They played excellent overall. I think last year our bench was third in the league in scoring. The much maligned bench actually had a hell of a year last year, but we want to be even better. I thought Austin's growth through the Playoffs and through the season was great. I think the guys we've added with Marreese and Raymond and Brandon, we've added some good veterans to our bench, as well, and that's something I really look for. Alan Anderson is tough. So we've added what we needed to add to our team with the resources that we had, and so I think that's another step for us to becoming the team we want to become.

DraftScripts by ASAP Sports

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297