The general manager aspect of Doc Rivers' tenure with the Los Angeles Clippers has been uneven as he tries to build a supporting cast around Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan.
The Clippers have cycled through a number of small forwards in particular.
"We have a good core. The problem team-building with our core is we have three max players," said Rivers. "I don't think people understand that. I think since I've taken the job, even before then, we need a 3, we need a 3, we need a 3. Yeah, we all know that but we also only have the minimum to try to go out and get a 3. I think it's been actually miraculous what we've done with just having minimum contracts.
"One thing I've learned with teams like ours, if you have a good team, you can convince guys to take the minimum. The problem is you're going to keep losing guys. Every year we do it. Every single season we sign guys to the minimum and then we lose them to higher contracts. Cole Aldrich is the example from this year. But we're an old school version of a team.
"Things have changed. The Big 3 (in Boston), put them together, bam, we won. In Miami, put them together, bam, they win. Golden State is going to try to do it this coming year. There are teams that still poke through. Dallas did it. They kind of had their team, they had the nucleus and finally they poke through. That's what we're going to try to do."
