Doc Rivers diving into his work with Clippers

[mkwest]

“I learned a lot from that situation [in 2007], and what we learned was the most important part of that was the chemistry part,” Rivers said. “As important as Kevin [Garnett], Ray [Allen], and Paul [Pierce] were, I thought Leon Powe and Glen Davis were huge for us. Obviously, [Rajon] Rondo was big, but so was Sam Cassell, James Posey, P.J. Brown, and Eddie House. We don’t win it without them, not only because they were good players but they were the right type of people in the locker room. So, learning that and figuring that out, clearly we’re trying to do that in Los Angeles right now. We’ve still got some holes to fill, and it may take another year to do that, I don’t know.”

Rivers said he has spent a good portion of the summer breaking down game video and trying to learn about his new players. He said he already had analyzed 42 of the Clippers’ 82 regular-season games, and was going to do the same with the final 40 regular-season and six playoff games.

“We have to play catch-up in that respect,” Rivers said. “I have to figure out why they were so good at times and why they struggled at times. They were a streaky team last year and we’ve got to figure out how to be more consistent.”

“DeAndre, in my opinion, should be, and I think he will be, on the all-defensive team,” Rivers said. “And I think he has a chance to be defensive player of the year. But he has to commit to that, and I think he wants to. And I think Blake should be one of those guys, as well. He should be a two-way player even more. I think we have the chance that we can help him into that, as well.”

Gary Washburn, Boston Globe

[willywazza]

As any coach should.

[TheNewEra]

hopefully everyone comes in early

[TheNewEra]

hopefully everyone comes in early

[mttwlsn16]

hopefully everyone comes in early

[QRich3]

hopefully everyone comes in early





On a serious though, I don't know if he's trolling us or he's really that sure that Deandre is gonna be an all-defender this year. Meanwhile, our bench doesn't have one big man who has any business being on a NBA team's rotation and Doc doesn't seem at all worried about it. I guess he's convinced DJ can play 38+ minutes at a high level and Blake can play some C. I've been trying to convince myself of all that and I wanna be hopeful, but I wish I was half as sure as he seems to be...

[Devils Advocate]

hopefully everyone comes in early.

I didn't want to break the chain.

[playaloc916]

hopefully no one comes in late

[mkwest]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/ChrisBHaynes/status/365914005413429248[/tweet]

[og15]

As any coach should.

Byron Scott would be playing golf, not watching 42/88 of last season games, his video coordinator can do that

It's good to see, and like I've said before, I really think the best thing he can do is to bring out the defensive potential of DJ and Blake. Blake doesn't have the ability to be an anchor like defender, but he has the mobility and athletic ability to be a high impact defensive player who covers a lot of ground, similar to what Lebron does on defense for Miami.

hopefully everyone comes in early





On a serious though, I don't know if he's trolling us or he's really that sure that Deandre is gonna be an all-defender this year. Meanwhile, our bench doesn't have one big man who has any business being on a NBA team's rotation and Doc doesn't seem at all worried about it. I guess he's convinced DJ can play 38+ minutes at a high level and Blake can play some C. I've been trying to convince myself of all that and I wanna be hopeful, but I wish I was half as sure as he seems to be...

I keep getting this idea that he's going to give Blake about 37 MPG, DJ about 34 MPG and play Barnes as a PF in small lineups.

So we could see this type of rotation:
Paul (35) / Collison (13)
Redick (27) / Crawford (21)
Dudley (27) / Barnes (11) / Bullock (10)
Griffin (24) / Mullens (14) / Barnes (9)
Jordan (32) / Griffin (12) / Hollins (8/DNP)

9 minutes at PF is a lot for Barnes though. The reason I think this is like you said, he doesn't seem worried about the backup big men, but you also see that he said "We've still got some holes to fill, and it may take another year to do that", so maybe he is to trying to rush in filling the gaps. The other reason is that he keeps talking about playing Bullock, and if you look at the players, it doesn't make sense as to where minutes would come at SG/SF. So in order for Bullock to play, one of the SF's will have to play a bit of PF.

Mullens and Hollins are low minute backup / situational guys, so he might be planning to use them that way. I'd personally prefer 12 MPG of Blake with Barnes at PF to either Mullens or Hollins playing because I think even at C he'll defend better than them, and he rebounds better already and is far superior on offense to both.

[QRich3]

On a serious though, I don't know if he's trolling us or he's really that sure that Deandre is gonna be an all-defender this year. Meanwhile, our bench doesn't have one big man who has any business being on a NBA team's rotation and Doc doesn't seem at all worried about it. I guess he's convinced DJ can play 38+ minutes at a high level and Blake can play some C. I've been trying to convince myself of all that and I wanna be hopeful, but I wish I was half as sure as he seems to be...

I keep getting this idea that he's going to give Blake about 37 MPG, DJ about 34 MPG and play Barnes as a PF in small lineups.

So we could see this type of rotation:
Paul (35) / Collison (13)
Redick (27) / Crawford (21)
Dudley (27) / Barnes (11) / Bullock (10)
Griffin (24) / Mullens (14) / Barnes (9)
Jordan (32) / Griffin (12) / Hollins (8/DNP)

9 minutes at PF is a lot for Barnes though. The reason I think this is like you said, he doesn't seem worried about the backup big men, but you also see that he said "We've still got some holes to fill, and it may take another year to do that", so maybe he is to trying to rush in filling the gaps. The other reason is that he keeps talking about playing Bullock, and if you look at the players, it doesn't make sense as to where minutes would come at SG/SF. So in order for Bullock to play, one of the SF's will have to play a bit of PF.

Mullens and Hollins are low minute backup / situational guys, so he might be planning to use them that way. I'd personally prefer 12 MPG of Blake with Barnes at PF to either Mullens or Hollins playing because I think even at C he'll defend better than them, and he rebounds better already and is far superior on offense to both.

I could see that, maybe if we end up signing Odom and he's engaged like last year he'd take Mullens and Hollins minutes so they can be relegated to garbage time only, while giving us the possibility to pair him with either Blake or Deandre.

I was taking a look at Rivers' Boston rosters and realised that even in their better years, they never had a deep big man rotation. Even the title team in 2008 relied heavily on a very raw Perkins backed up by undersized PF's like Leon Powe or Glenn Davis, and they've had a few fringe-rotation big men like Pollard or Mikki Moore, which we could equate to our Hollinses and Mullenses. They did always have over the hill but tough veterans like PJ Brown or Rasheed that could give them 5 or 10 minutes of intense and tough defense in the playoffs, which we don't have, and specially, they did have Kevin Garnett who can hide a lot of the weaknesses of your big men on defense, if not void them completely.

We don't have that but I can see how Doc might think he can use Blake in a similar role Garnett had in those years. Obviously he's nothing like KG and probably will never be even close, but I can see Blake being used in that kind of defensive anchor role, not necessarily protecting the rim but always moving and putting big pressure on the ball handler, at least for a few minutes a game. He's gonna have to really step up his game to be able to do that though.

It's good to see, and like I've said before, I really think the best thing he can do is to bring out the defensive potential of DJ and Blake. Blake doesn't have the ability to be an anchor like defender, but he has the mobility and athletic ability to be a high impact defensive player who covers a lot of ground, similar to what Lebron does on defense for Miami.

Yeah I always thought that as well, maybe he can't block a lot of shots but if he can use his physical gifts to force double teams and quick helps, and still be able to get back to his man or rotate and close out really quick like Lebron does, he could be one of the best defensive players in the league. He's gonna have to work a lot on his instincts and decision making under pressure to be able to do that, but with more experience and a lot of repetition I can see him being able to do something along those lines.

[og15]

Yup, but seems like Odom might be returning, so that is certainly a sigh of relief . I like the possibilities with Odom.