LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS MEDIA CONFERENCE

July 19, 2020

Doc Rivers

Press Conference

Q. We were talking to Lou a little bit ago, and I asked him about playing with Reggie in those lineups with the two guards and what the advantages are of him playing next to Reggie, and he said that he could play his natural position. How do you view Reggie's role in the coming run y'all are going to have?

RODNEY McGRUDER: Really exactly that. Reggie can play with the starters, he can play with the second group. You know, getting Lou off the ball has made Lou more dangerous. I thought Lou previous to us getting Reggie was literally doing too much work. He had to bring the ball up, set up the play and then they would get it back to him to score. That's a lot of work. So now Lou is back in his natural spot. He can just run to his spots, we can give him the ball and he can attack.

Q. I know you had to make tough decisions to get your travel party to the size it needed to be, but you guys have such a large organization now for basketball operations. How do you try to take advantage of all those people who are back in LA, whether it's players or coaches, just to make sure that guys can stay involved in the interaction with the party in Orlando?

RODNEY McGRUDER: Well, they still watch film. They're still in all of our coaches' meetings through Zoom. Our staff is just like probably every other staff in the NBA; everybody has big staffs. So there's still a lot of work to do, and a lot of guys can do the work at home.

Clearly we would rather have them here, and I do think it was a tough spot to put the coaches in that they have to leave some coaches back. Having said that, you make the best do of the situation, and I think our guys are doing that.

Q. Patrick Beverley said that working out with Kawhi Leonard changed his life a bit and changed what he thought hard work truly was, and it was because of the repetition. Have you seen that kind of from Kawhi, where the repetition he loves, that he has, is very Kobe-esque or Jordan-esque where it's like once-in-a-generation type thing?

RODNEY McGRUDER: Well, I don't know the Kobe-esque and Jordan-esque stuff other than they were just talented as hell, too, and worked harder than everybody else. Kawhi has that for sure. His work ethic is unbelievable. I think it gets mired when you talk about the game management stuff; people lose sight of how serious he is about the game and how hard he works. I thought it was great for Pat going down to San Diego and seeing what he does. He came back with a whole new appreciation for what Kawhi puts into daily work to get ready for a season.

Q. With the scrimmages coming up this week, what are you guys trying to get out of those?

RODNEY McGRUDER: Minutes. You know, get a little bit better rhythm. We haven't played -- we've scrimmaged, but we haven't scrimmaged to that extent. Again, I think other than the first game, they should call them preseason games, since we're wearing uniforms and have referees. I think that's called a preseason game and not a scrimmage. First game will be more like a scrimmage for sure, though, because I think it'll be 10-minute quarters if I'm getting that right.

You know, what we want is rhythm. That's what we're trying to get out of it, and conditioning.

Q. A question about Noah: Obviously he's had quite a journey to reach this point. What are you seeing from him in the first couple weeks on the court, and what do you guys need from him going forward?

RODNEY McGRUDER: I don't know what we need from him yet. We need him to be a solid veteran player. We need him to be a leader as much as he can lead, to be a great example, to be a teacher to Zu, and then really just to be ready when called upon. I think mentally he's in the right space right now to be ready, so I think he will be.

Q. By the time you get to this initial preseason game, as you're calling it, do you expect to be in full stride by then, or do you think there will be a few more tweaks before the Playoffs actually begin?

RODNEY McGRUDER: Well, definitely we will not be in full stride when the preseason games start or the scrimmages, whatever we're calling them. I don't know if anybody will be in full stride when the first eight games start. But by the time the eight games are over, I think everybody will be in full stride.