LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS MEDIA CONFERENCE

July 14, 2020

Doc Rivers

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Doc, how you doing?

DOC RIVERS: What's up?

THE MODERATOR: We'll start with questions.

Q. Doc, what and where has your best meal been in the bubble? What is the process of getting food like since you went through quarantine?

DOC RIVERS: We've had a lot of good meals. I don't know. We order a lot from out for the most part. But, you know, again, we're not really focused on meals and stuff like that. We'll let everybody else kind of make a big deal about that.

Q. Doc, your message during the whole quarantine was win the wait, making sure players were mentally as well as physically prepared for this moment. I know you have had only a few practices, but what have you seen from the players in these last few practices?

DOC RIVERS: I know conditioning-wise I think overall we have shown to be in really good shape. It's still obviously not like basketball shape. I've been pleasantly surprised there.

The mental part is a tough process. You have to go through it. You're living outside of your house, just different conditions. I think that is an area that everyone is still just trying to process and grow and get set for.

I do think we came here with the right mindset, but I still think we just got to go through a lot of this and get our mindset.

Q. Doc, Terance mentioned you have been able to do some five-on-five. As you guys are cognizant of not ramping up too quickly to risk injury, how have you structured practices to get guys reps so they can get back to game shape?

DOC RIVERS: Well, we really haven't done much different than a normal practice during the season where you would do more skeleton work and less play.

We're all ramping up our play. I mean, listen, everyone keeps talking about injury. There's nothing you can do about that. You practice, then we're going to have scrimmages just like every other team. You hope you get through it. That's the only way you can prepare for the season, is by playing.

The reason teams are slowly ramping up is because we have more days than usual. Usually you have four or five days in training camp. We have two plus weeks this time. It allows us to kind of take our time, build them up.

But make no mistake, there will be no team that doesn't scrimmage or play in practice. You have to do that. Hell, I could step on someone's ankle while getting on the bus. You just don't know. You just have to hope that you're healthy.

Q. Doc, when you guys have been able to, what do the guys look like? Look like they haven't played in four months?

DOC RIVERS: They look really good. Are we sharp? No, of course not. But we're good. We're picking up stuff. We don't need to, like, install things. We need to review things.

We are going to add a couple new wrinkles to some of the things we do. Overall the retention has been amazing. That's helped us because that means we can move on to something else, and that's been very good for us.

Q. Now that you guys have been in the bubble for almost a week or so, what are some of the things you can do now that you're here to keep everybody mentally focused for the next three months, not want to leave, get anxious about trying to leave the bubble?

DOC RIVERS: Probably stay away from them (laughter). Hell, they don't want me around a lot. That would probably be the number one thing.

The other thing, there's a lot of things to do. It's not normal life. Again, there's just so much talk about it. Like our guys, honestly, we talk about it. Let's just do our jobs. After we're done practicing, live your life to the best that you can live it here. That's what we're trying to do. We're trying to just live our life, have our best Disney life.

That's what we're doing. There's restaurants the guys can go to. Guys have gone fishing, there's bowling, movies. There's a lot. There's just no dates right now. You're doing it alone or with the group (smiling).

A lot of guys brought their bikes. I brought my bike. It's yet to leave the room. But the thought is nice. Hopefully someday I get on it. There's golf.

We got a lot to do. It's still not normal, but that's fine with us. Again, we're going to live the best Disney life that we can.

Q. Given the size limitations to your traveling party, are there any things that you find yourself or other coaches doing that maybe in a regular environment you wouldn't have to do just because there are only a few of you guys down there?

DOC RIVERS: Yes, it's probably everything. We've cut our staffs in half. That's really tough, especially from the coaching perspective. Not bringing all our coaches, very difficult not to do.

We do Zooms every day obviously with the guys that aren't here. But everybody has to multi-task. Everybody has to pitch in from Dennis to me. There's nobody above doing something different. I think everybody's willing to do that.

Q. On the mental preparation, how much do you rely on your veterans? You mentioned leaving these guys alone. How much do you rely on them over the last couple months and now? How do their leadership styles differ from each other?

DOC RIVERS: You always rely on your veterans. Having said that, there's nobody or no one that has gone through this. This is new for all of us. I think this is one of those things you do together. You take advice, you listen to the veterans.

But this is one of those things for the entire league, it's the first time. I don't know how many conversations I've had with veteran players where I'm walking to our meal room where you see another veteran player from another team. We look at each other and say, Who would have thought?

This is where we're at, man. We're all going to figure it out. Let's just stay healthy. That's obviously the first key. If we can do that, when the games start, I think it will be similar. It will get back to normal life in some ways because then it becomes a competition again.

THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Doc.

DOC RIVERS: All right, guys. Take care.