Doc Rivers met with the media on Tuesday afternoon. With training camp starting, Rivers touched on a range of topics, including human rights, Covid, and many topics around the team he has. 

On Human Rights

“We have to try to unify this country and still get some of the social things done, that are the most important things, and again I don’t even use the word social justice.” Said Rivers, “I use the word human rights; there are some things that just shouldn’t happen because of the color of your skin. That’s just a human’s right issue, so we have to keep our eye on the ball. We have to stay engaged, the players to have to stay engaged.”

On Ben Simmons 

“Ben is a great decision-maker, you know, is Ben a point guard? You know, honestly, I don’t care. I don’t even know that yet” “But I know one thing; if you can get them in space going downhill, the ball gets to the right place.”

On Tobias Harris

Doc Rivers on Harris “Tobias & I talked a ton since me taking the job. 1st thing we got to get him back to being a quick decision player. I saw him dribbling way too much & Tobias is so darn skilled going downhill, left & right, & we need to get back to taking advantage of that.”

On Joel and Ben

Doc Rivers on Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons “The biggest thing, seeing them in the gym, is their IQs. They are both brilliantly smart basketball players.”

On Shake Milton

Doc Rivers says he’s “had a lot of luck with really good 2nd unit guards; I think we have that. Shake, #1, when I took the job, Shake is where my focus has been; I gotta let him play even freer. Which is crazy, you know, when I told him that he was very happy with that news.”

On Team Balance

“We should be a great defensive team. But, you win with balance. Teams that have won the title have been top-5 in either offense or defense & top 10 in either offense or defense, so you have to have great balance. So that’s what we’re going to strive for. ” Doc Rivers on balance

On Furkan Korkmaz

“Furkan is an extremely skilled basketball player with size, shoots the ball can dribble the ball can play pick & roll, moves. He has a very, very high basketball IQ & you can see that. He’s still young, so I think Furkan is going to be a very big piece of what we do this year. ” Said Rivers

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