LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS MEDIA CONFERENCE

August 11, 2020

Doc Rivers

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Doc.

Q. With this last week of seeding games, what are your priorities? What do you want to see most in terms of resting players, et cetera?

DOC RIVERS: Health (laughter). I would say health. Then again, I know it's a boring answer, but continuity as much as we can get it. Nice to have as many of our guys, even if it's not in the games, but in some of our practices.

Q. You've mentioned how real life has impacted players. In your experience, when you've had players deal with grief, what kind of impact does it have on the team? Can it bring them closer together?

DOC RIVERS: Yeah, it always does that. It's never a negative thing, I can tell you that. I mean, the only negative part of it is the grief part that the individual player is going through. But close teams always come together in these moments. When Trez gets back, you'll see some of that here, as well.

Q. Obviously Trez is a very important part of your team, crucial to what you do. You found a good lineup with Zu and JaMychal. How do you plan to incorporate Trez? Is it going to be a little different because of the way guys have played so far?

DOC RIVERS: No. I mean, Trez is possibly the sixth man of the year award winner. When Trez gets back, we're throwing Trez right back out there.

Q. All year, what have Kawhi's leadership qualities been like, particularly the last few weeks in the bubble?

DOC RIVERS: Really his leadership is by example. Obviously he talks a lot on defense, does a lot of things there. I just think his work ethic, the way he approaches the game, how businesslike he is, gives your team a calm almost.

I think that's been very effective.

Q. Conversations about social justice. Certainly outwardly the conversation has grown. In your time in the game, have teams internally talked about politics and social issues more in locker rooms than when you were a player?

DOC RIVERS: Yeah, no, it's always hot times. There are certain times when I was a player where something happened that the conversation came up. Then it usually faded away.

I think this one is here to stay, hopefully. But there's so many more players involved now than ever before. There's so many of our young players speaking out, taking leadership roles.

What gives me a lot of hope is that it is the players. I mean, us coaches are always involved for the most part, and we're doing our thing, trying to educate our guys as much as possible. But I think what's been more impressive in this one is how willing the players, not only want to get involved, but they want to lead. If we're talking about our future, our younger people are our future. The fact that they want to lead now has been very impressive.

Q. Looking into the Playoffs, it looks like you are pegged for facing the Mavericks. You admitted as much a couple days ago. How soon do the Mavericks come into your practice? Are you still just trying to develop the continuity?

DOC RIVERS: I think that will come right when we know it's officially them. Things can change drastically over these next two games. We're not focused on anybody but the next game right now.

Q. Assuming Trez passes his four-day quarantine, can we expect him to play on Friday? What is the value of getting him as many reps as possible as soon as possible?

DOC RIVERS: It's as much about Trez as it is about our team. It would be kind of nice to have our normal rotation at least one time in the bubble. We have to be the only team that has not had their normal rotation one game this entire bubble stretch.

It's been tough in that way. But hopefully we can get it for one game.