Doc Rivers Q&A's with Zach Lowe & Adrian Wojnarowski

[mkwest]

Q&A: Doc Rivers on the Clippers, being Glenn and more

Chris and Blake are both great passers who can control an offense. They overlap in that sense. But as Chris ages, does Blake's passing become more valuable -- like, he can take an even larger creative load, right?

Yeah, first of all, Blake is still young. Blake is gonna keep getting better. Blake missed a year because of the punch, and his leg. He just had a lost year. It's funny how easily we forget how good Blake is. You can't forget that. Before Blake went down, he was having an unbelievable season.

Have you listened to J.J. Redick's podcast?

I have! He's good.

He's annoyingly good at it.

I hate to tell him that. We kid with him. J.J. Redick is like -- he's golden. He's a guy that every team should have. He's a professional. He's serious about his job. He told me something I never thought I'd hear an NBA player say. He went out to golf at the beginning of the year, and when he swung one time, he felt a twinge in his back.

I asked him how he played. He said, "Awful." I asked when he was gonna play again. He said, "When I retire. I will never golf again before that." I asked why. He said, "Because I felt something in my back, and it's not worth the risk. I'm a basketball player, and I have to stay committed to that." And when he says that, he actually means it. That's J.J. Redick in a nutshell.

Are you worried you've given up too many draft picks at this point to infuse the team with young talent?

Yeah. I am. I think we had to because of the cap situation we inherited, but we're starting to get some back. The best thing to happen to us is we get the Brooklyn pick at the start of the second round. That's a big deal for us. So now, I think we have a chance to get healthy, get picks and keep building our team.

Zach Lowe, ESPN

They also talk about the Blake/Matias incident, keeping the big 3 together, Austin's comments regarding their relationship, Green, Stephenson, and more.

[Ranma]

Okay. We had a first-year head coach win the championship with his 1st NBA team last season and now a rookie NBA head coach just took Game 1 from the aforementioned record-breaking championship team in the Western Conference Finals and Doc is still shoveling that bull about discarding picks because of salary cap problems he "inherited". Please. Our problems are of his own doing. Nobody told him to package a 1st-round pick to compensate for his buyer's remorse on Jared Dudley after putting his knee through the grinder. Nor did anyone tell him to trade a future protected 1st-round pick for the privilege to overpay for an inconsistent Jeff Green.

Again, we have two new head coaches taking their respective teams to new heights while Doc is moving us backwards and whining about being in a bad situation per his implication. Not to mention Dwane Casey, the coach we passed over because Vinny Del Negro schmoozed Sterling's socks off, is taking his Raptors team to its 1st ever Eastern Conference Finals appearance. Again, Doc has failed to improve upon what VDN accomplished in the postseason, which has us being stagnant, while new blood has made rapid progress by comparison.

[nickhx2]

was pretty irked by all the "problems" he inherited. doc can gfh.

[Ranma]

What gets me is that Doc is saying somewhat positive things about the draft now with his citing the acquisition of Brooklyn's 2nd-rounder as being "a big deal for us". Contrast that to his comments and actions prior to last season when he found it difficult to even buy a 2nd-round selection before finally being able to purchase the 5th-to-last pick in the entire draft to pick Branden Dawson 56th overall in 2015. It really took him that long to realize how valuable draft picks are despite playing and coaching in the NBA for how long now?

What sickens me is that Doc is probably now making more of an effort to hit on draft picks because he wants to show Ballmer that he can retire from coaching and still "earn" his big paychecks as GM in his role as President of Basketball Operations. Ballmer is so clueless that he'll probably buy into that.

[TucsonClip]

The line about getting picks back and worrying about not being able to build trough youth was maddening. You can literally see his decision making in real time, in two separate answers.

First he discussed how he wanted to play smaller earlier in the season, but the big lineup was playing too well to split the rotation. Well, of course they are going to play well, youve had one of the top 4-man units the last three seasons. The whole purpose of experimenting with lineups early is to see what you have before setting a rotation.

Then he talks about how he is worried about the dealing away of picks and not building complimentary pieces via the draft.

The common theme? Shortsightedness. Win now and worry about the future when it becomes the present.

[og15]

Yea, I have to agree that I don't really like when Doc goes off about the "bad cap situation" he inherited. It makes it seem like it was just totally out of their hands in terms of making moves, but the thing is that it wasn't at all. There were means to avoid some of that, so I'm not going to pity him and the front office for the "bad" situation they inherited. Dudley was supposedly traded to make room to sign CDR and Ekpe Udoh, one was waived, the other never played. In the end they were also still end of rotation players. The alternative to losing a draft pick and Dudley would have been to keep Dudley, keep the draft pick and add two undrafted players who will make like $700k each or less.

Is Jeff Green the starting small forward if you bring him back?
We gotta sign him first.

It seemed like he was getting more and more time with the starters in that Portland series.
Yeah. We don't need a superstar [small forward]. We have superstars at other positions. We need guys who are complementary players. Jeff is terrific in that role.

Hmm...that is interesting to say the least.

I know NewEra is a big Lance fan, so here's some stuff on Lance:

He was solid for Memphis.
He played great for Memphis. He wasn't a great fit for us. Defensively -- that's where I was more disappointed, and shocked. I look at that body, and that athleticism, and I think: That's a prototypical great defender. And he's not that.

I remember hearing he was getting out of the system a little bit.
A little bit? [laughs] Yeah. But I'll tell you one thing -- he's not a bad kid. He gets cast as this malcontent bad kid, and Lance was never that. I thought he was funny. The guys liked him. But Lance wants to score every time he touches the ball, and he's not that type of guy.

It was obviously no surprise that Doc was not huge on Lance's game, though it seemed like all-around the organization, guys didn't have any issue with him. If you listen to JJ's podcast with Crawford, they talk about all the new bench guys, and how Jamal fit into that. It basically solidifies what a lot of us said in the off-season. Jamal and Stephenson don't make sense together.

Some of us thought Doc planned to trade Jamal by bringing in Stephenson. They have different styles and strengths/weaknesses, but they are the same in the sense that if you're bringing them off your bench, they are both guys that need to "control" the unit. Both of them together was just never going to work which is further solidified as we hear / read all these comments. We see Lance really embracing getting to control the ball and score more with Memphis.

[QRich3]

Yeah, I know a lot of you are just looking for blood in any of his comments, but as usual I wouldn't try too hard to read anything into Doc's comments. He's just doing his usual cheap politician act. Draft picks will be very valuable or not valuable to him depending on the moment, and how it helps spin things in his favor. If he wants to downplay expectations late picks will be just that, late picks with not a lot of hope (he said just this like two weeks ago), and if you're asking him how much he needs picks to build depth, he'll tell you what you wanna hear and make a big deal of Brooklyn's 2nd, like in this interview. Neither of those comments reflect anything about his actual plans for the team.

I didn't like that he threw Lance under the bus so joyfully though. I agree with what he says about Lance's defense, but you can't be saying that stuff and expect future free agents not to think twice before coming here.

[og15]

Didn't think of the part about dissuading FA's because of his comments, but I hope that isn't the case.

It's going to be a bit of a wait to find out what the team is really trying to do. Obviously this rarely ever goes perfectly, but I'm just hoping we avoid some not so pleasant things like giving Jamal or Green a long term contract. The thing is that Jamal wants to play 5 more seasons and he'll likely be looking for something decently long. I don't really think the Clippers should do that, but I don't know, I can't really say it won't happen.

[nickhx2]

if there is one big concern i have about doc, it's about how much he has thrown players under the bus over the years, and how it might affect future free agents.

convincing guys to take less money before immediately dog housing them, this stuff with lance, his general lack of accountability, etc. yes these are grown men and they are certainly the ones who sign the contracts in the end, and they are also the ones who play. but the optics are still pretty bad.

[illastrate]

This interview shows how good Zach Lowe is. He was able to get Doc to open up more than he would with any other interviewer, where you would say run of the mill answers. Though Doc did his usual spin job, I was surprised to see him actually admitting that he gave up too many picks. Now let's see if he can actually get smart and obtain picks.

[Method28]

I honestly feel Doc is a lost cause as a GM. Balmer has to step in here before it's too late (if it's not already. )

Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk

[nickhx2]

i dunno if he is. he's gotten somewhat better as far as who he added last offseason, (and i still think the jeff green trade was godawful).

but the fact of the matter is he put himself into so much of a corner, no offseason, no matter how amazing, can undo the 3 years worth of trashcan work he's done to the team.

[og15]

Well his GM is Dave Wohl, I don't know his history as a GM, but what Doc should have done is hire someone with good previous experience and track record as the GM. That would have allowed them to avoid some of the mistakes they ended up making.

Coaches and GM's just like players can grow and learn, they aren't static, so Doc and his crew are likely better at the whole front office experience than they were in 13-14, the issue is of course that they created some situations that have made their jobs more difficult.

[QRich3]

Wohl had the one year as GM of the Heat, but that was 20 years ago and his most notable move was to steal Pat Riley from the Knicks to replace him. But yeah, Doc mostly chose him cause he was one of his old loyal assistants in Orlando and Boston, just like he got Eastman promoted with no previous FO experience. Doc's problem, at least compared with other president/coaches like SVG or Pop, is that he doesn't want his FO to challenge his opinion and offer counterpoints based on research, he wants yes-men that confirm his gut feelings. Which are mostly bad.

If Ballmer had the balls to hire a guy outside of Doc's circle to do Wohl's job and confront his opinion from time to time, everything should be a lot better long term, even if Doc retained final say as POBO. But it seems Ballmer is content with treading water, so I wouldn't put too much hope on it.

Edit- here's an old article about Wohl's Heat tenure as a GM, which doesn't paint him as bad as he's been here.

[mkwest]

Thibodeau Continues To Learn From Doc Rivers

“He’s been unbelievable for me,” Thibodeau said. “Obviously working on his staff in Boston, winning a championship together, I’ve learned a ton from him. He’s a great friend.”

“His willingness to share with other people,” Thibodeau said, “I think that’s what makes him so special.”

“It’s a lot more than just coming by,” Thibodeau said. “I talk to him all the time. We talk on the phone, we bounce things off of each other. But, when you’ve worked with somebody and you get to know them well, I probably talk to him as much now as I did when I worked for him. He’s been a great resource for me.”

“He’s given me great advice on that [role as president of basketball operations] as well,” said Thibodeau, who learned the importance of a head coach understanding the managerial side watching Rivers interact with Celtics general manager Danny Ainge in Boston. “He didn’t have the title in Boston, but he had tremendous input. He and Danny had a great relationship together, so I learned a lot from that as well.”

“Any major decision, I bounced off him,” Thibodeau said. “I have absolute respect for the things he’s done and the things he’s been through.”

Rowan Kavner, Clippers.com

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[Ranma]

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[mkwest]

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Good interview. I'm glad that Barnes had a 2nd opportunity to play for the Clippers. Like many, I couldn't stand the guy, but that changed after getting to see him in a different light as a member of the team. There's teams that I would hate to see him play for, but I can't hate on him anymore. I'm a fan.

It was good to hear his take on certain issues and situations that he's been involved in over the last year.

[og15]

I don't know, seems like the trade was more about moving Hawes than getting rid of Barnes, might hedge just been coincidental that it happened close to after their dispute.

The fact that the trade happened right after free agency started just means they were already discussing it before, and there were likely cap related reasons as to why they waited

[Ranma]

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[og15]

Pierce needs to make up his mind, what exactly is he waiting for?