featured-image

Rivers Talks Johnson Advice, Clippers’ Offseason On NBATV

LOS ANGELES – Clippers head coach and president of basketball operations Doc Rivers didn’t care about the lack of points or rebounds in Brice Johnson’s Summer League debut.

As Rivers told NBATV Thursday at Orlando Summer League, it was the way Johnson let his start affect him that needed adjusting. After a game the first-round pick described as one of the worst of his life, Rivers gave Johnson a call.

“We had a good phone conversation after the first game,” Rivers said. “The only thing I told him, I didn’t like he showed everybody he played poorly with his body language. I told him, ‘Just get to the next play.’”

Rivers said he told Johnson he’s going to be a brilliant player, but he needed Johnson to play harder and more focused.

“’You’re going to have bad games,’” Rivers said to Johnson. “That’s one of the things I teach my guys all the time – you’ve got to be willing to go 0-for-40 to be a good basketball player, and go out there and play. No one’s mad at you for missing. I’m mad at you for thinking about the missing.”

Johnson vowed after the game that person would never show up again. Whether or not the talk with his head coach helped, Johnson responded with 23 points in both his second and third games and 19 points in his fourth game at Summer League, looking far more comfortable offensively.

“It’s just a learning step for me, and I’m just trying to play as well as I can,” Johnson said. “I know it’s going to be a little tougher once training camp comes around.”

Here’s more on what Rivers said during his halftime conversation with NBATV:

On Kevin Durant going to Golden State: “Clearly, they were the favorite last year, the year before, and they’ll be the favorite this coming year. But, there are a lot of good teams, including us, that feel they can make noise.”

On his team’s mentality this offseason: “At the end of the day, we looked at our team, assessed our team last year, and it was hard to assess it because we had so many injuries. Blake (Griffin) missed half the year last year, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen what happened in the playoffs happen to us, when you lose Chris Paul and Blake in a five-minute span. So, we wanted to look at it again and see how that team looks.”

On promoting Lawrence Frank to executive vice president: “Lawrence has been around forever. He knows the game as well as anyone. He may be one of the hardest working guys I’ve ever been around, and I thought I needed that in the front office. I needed someone to lead the front office, him and (general manager) Dave Wohl will do that together, and I just thought it was time. I think it was time for Lawrence. I think that’s his next progression. He had decided that’s what he wanted to do, and I thought it was time.”