Clippers Not Focused On Who Ends Up Starting At Small Forward

Rowan Kavner LOS ANGELES - Matt Barnes will stick by whatever head coach Doc Rivers decides, whether he ends up starting or not.  Barnes, Reggie Bullock and Chris Douglas-Roberts have each started a game at small forward this preseason, and the ultimate decision is one Rivers isn't sweating. He said the player ending the game in the crucial minutes is a lot more important than the one starting.  "Matt may start," Rivers said. "Honestly, what we're looking at, I can tell you in a coaches meeting the three spot has not come up once. We're looking. Someone's going to start and someone's going to finish. For me, it's more about the finish." In Barnes, Jamal Crawford and Spencer Hawes, the Clippers are in a unique position with three players capable of starting most places who could end up coming off the bench in Los Angeles. And they're all fine with that.   "I don't know if I'm starting or coming off the bench," Barnes said. "But I trust Doc, and what I do know is I'm going to be playing, and that's all that matters." Rivers said it takes a certain player to accept coming off the bench. He categorized them into two groups.  "There's one that's the old veterans like Matt," Rivers said. "They want to come off the bench. That's when they've figured it out. It saves them, it makes them fresher, they're smarter, they can actually watch the game and evaluate the game.  "Then there's that extraordinary group of guys who clearly could be starters and actually still prefer coming off the bench. There's a group of guys like that." Rivers referenced former Celtics Kevin McHale and John Havlicek as examples, but that group of players also includes Crawford, the reigning Sixth Man of the Year.  "Jamal can start anywhere," Rivers said. "He could start here. But he prefers coming off the bench. I don't even get that. I don't even know how they do that. I came off the bench my last year and a half and I thought it was hard, so I have an appreciation for it, and maybe becauseI was so old it took me 10 minutes to warm up and by the time I warmed up I was back on the bench." Rivers said that doesn't mean players who come off the bench lack hunger or desire. Players such as Crawford and Barnes know their minutes will be valuable whether they're announced in the starting lineup or not.  The same goes for Hawes, who knew the situation he was getting into when he came to a Clippers team with Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan.  "Spencer came here knowing he could clearly be a starter on half the teams in the NBA or more, but he knew that playing with Blake and DJ and being the backup big would be good," Rivers said. "I think he's probably still trying to figure that role out, but that's what he wanted.  "I've got to figure out another way of getting him more minutes. I think we've got to get Spencer on the floor more with Blake and DJ, and I don't think we've done a very good job of that." Crawford and Hawes will head into the 2014 season knowing they'll start each regular season came watching from the bench. Barnes' role is more unclear three games into the preseason, but neither Rivers nor Barnes seems particularly concerned with the small forward situation.  "I pay no attention to it," Rivers said. "It's not a big deal to us. It's really not. It doesn't matter. I guess it does, you get to run out when they have the lights on. Other than that, I'm more focused on the three spot as a whole. I'm not that concerned with it."