Zach Lowe Interviews Doc Rivers

We've gotten a lot of stock answers from Doc Rivers this offseason as far as the future goes, and some of those come back here. But there are some very interesting tidbits that come out.

One-on-one with Doc Rivers: on the Blake fight, breaking up the Big 3, Redick giving up golf, being "Glenn," more: https://t.co/SvxqwI4Rr8

— Zach Lowe (@ZachLowe_NBA) May 16, 2016

The entire thing is worth reading, but the highlights for me include:

(Regarding J.J. Redick being good at podcasting)

Doc: 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.

Gotta love JJ.

Lowe: Why didn't Lance Stephenson work out?

Doc: I don't know. I like Lance, actually.

Lowe: He was solid for Memphis.

Doc: 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.

Lowe: I remember hearing he was getting out of the system a little bit.

Doc: 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.

Lance supporters tend to get riled up about Lance's lack of opportunity here, but Doc reaffirms what most of us could see: Lance never really got used to the system, had a ton of lapses, and most flagrantly, never consistently brought it on defense. The defense was always what bothered me the most. I expected him to be much better on that end than he was.

Doc also talks about the Blake Griffin punching incident and its effect on the team, Jeff Green, Austin Rivers's game and recent comments about his dad, the team's success this season without Blake, Paul Pierce's season, the 7 game series his Celtics had against the Hawks, and meeting Dr. J while also being called "Doc." Fun read.