Doc Rivers is stoked for this season

In spite of all the recent drama in Clipperland, including the DeAndre Jordan saga and rumors of internal strife, Doc Rivers still manages to stay upbeat.

Doc spoke to Clippers.com's Rowan Kavner at last week's City Year charity event, and took some time to speak about the upcoming NBA season. Doc said that he was happy to be working with Paul Pierce again, and was very happy that he chose to come to Los Angeles instead of returning to Boston. He also acknowledged that last year they lost in "the worst way" to Houston, and planned on using it as motivation for this years preseason and regular season.

He also talked about the preseason trip to China, and its effect on choosing to have training camp in Irvine:

"Because we’re going to China, we didn’t want to get on a plane and go anywhere.

"We just felt like getting away as a group is still nice, and to me, we get to get away twice. We go to Irvine and use their facilities, and then we get to go to China and the plane flight alone is forced together, so all that is good for us."

Doc also cleared up rumors about Jamal Crawford, while remaining undecided on his starting small forward come opening night.

Rivers said he still hasn’t decided who will start at small forward, but that’s never bothered him since he’s always been more concerned about which players finish than start.

Unlike past seasons, he’ll have a variety of options at the position after adding Pierce, Smith, Johnson and Stephenson. He said he could start different players at the spot on different nights.