In a conversation with ESPN’s Zach Lowe, Clippers head coach and president of basketball operations Doc Rivers discussed a handful of interesting topics, including the Blake Griffin-Matias Testi incident, his relationship with Austin Rivers, and J.J. Redick‘s podcast.
Rivers also weighed in on some of the possible personnel decisions facing the Clippers, and addressed the impact of some decisions that he and the club have made in the past. Here are a few of the more notable quotes from Doc’s conversation with Lowe:
On whether he boxed the Clippers into a corner by saying the team won’t trade its top three players (Chris Paul, Griffin, and DeAndre Jordan):
“I don’t worry about the corner thing, ever. I’m always gonna do what’s good for the team. You don’t ever do anything but that. But I feel like the best thing for the team right now is to keep them together. Can that change? Of course it can change. But I don’t think it will.”
On whether Jeff Green will be the Clippers’ starting small forward in 2016/17:
“We gotta sign him first. … 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.”
On Lance Stephenson and why he didn’t work out for the Clippers:
“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. … 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.”
On whether Rivers is concerned that the Clippers have given up too many draft picks:
“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.”