Clippings: Marcus Morris also claims he was miscast by Doc Rivers

On Thursday we recounted Paul George speaking out against his former head coach at the LA Clippers, Doc Rivers, and later in the day, fellow Clipper Marcus Morris Sr. added his own perspective to his brief tenure with Rivers. Spoiler alert: Morris feels the same as George.

In fact, after video of his comments dropped on social media, Morris did not try and distance himself from them. On the contrary! He owned them, which is totally fair.

Like George, Morris said the Clippers did not make enough adjustments in the playoffs, which cost them.

“I don’t think we spent enough time breaking down exactly what we needed to fix, and more of just relying on talent and...sometimes we were relying on how good we were on paper,” he said.

And like George, Morris said he didn’t get to play his full game and just conformed to fit in a pinch at the end of the season after arriving.

I think as these candid comments trickle out, it’s pretty clear that there were enough players unhappy with Rivers by the end of the season that the decision to fire him, although somewhat surprising in its timing, makes sense in hindsight. The Clippers appear to be banking on working harder this year under new coach Tyronn Lue and actually putting in the preparation. Again, the proof will be in the pudding.

More news for Friday:

• Ibaka didn’t plan to leave Raptors: Serge Ibaka spoke to reporters Thursday after signing with the Clippers, and you can get the full lowdown on what he said from Sabreena.
• Jokic mad Nuggets don’t get respect: Nikola Jokic had some interesting comments this week, saying the Denver Nuggets that upset the Clippers still aren’t getting the attention they should. “Even now, they are talking about how Clippers lost, they don’t think about how Nuggets won,” he said.
• No widespread marijuana testing: Ben Dowsett reported Thursday that the NBA won’t test for marijuana in players in the upcoming season, aside from past offenders and for “just cause.” I’m assuming just cause won’t really be enforced either, unless players are too stoned to play or whatever.
• Ball boys (sort of) fulfill LaVar’s promise: The Ball brothers don’t get quite as much oxygen these days, because none has yet to actually become a superstar (to be fair, two are new to the NBA) and media outlets mercifully stopped paying attention to their father. But at SB Nation Ricky O’Donnell points out that LaVar Ball’s prophecy of all his sons playing in the NBA could be coming true, with all three now on NBA contracts for the moment.
• Dwight Howard addresses premature announcement: The big man moved to the Philadelphia 76ers shortly after announcing he was returning to the Los Angeles Lakers. He finally addressed what happened, and unfortunately, it was not as wacky as you would expect with Howard.
• Le Batard leaving ESPN: It’s not unexpected, but Dan Le Batard is finally leaving ESPN, taking his popular talk show with him to pastures new. Some context on the departure over at The Athletic from Richard Deitsch.