Doc Rivers 2014 Basketball Clinic Notes

Doc Rivers – Coaching: the Most Important Things I Do”

– When you steal a play, make it work for you.
– Lesson from the Sterling Thing: Whatever we did, we had to do it as a group.
– I’m going to do whatever you tell me to do. I’m here to serve you. We just need to do it together.
– Protect protect protect (the players).
– One voice as a team.
– Make sure that none of the players became part of the story.
– We’re always coaching on the fly. Trust your instincts. You’re right more than you’re not. Don’t let fear turn into inaction.

Doc Rivers: Most important things I do:
– Set the table. Build your organization. Know what you are about. You cannot do it alone. You have to get everyone to buy in (before we even get to the players). Get them to understand that everyone must work together. Have a vision what winning looks like for your organization. Have a vision as to what a championship looks like for an organization. Winning can get in the way of winning a championship. There’s a difference between being a winner and winning.
– Know your culture.
– Clippers example: Didn’t want to look at Lakers fans. Made the arena his arena. Took down Lakers memorabilia.
– Coach’s job is to get the players to play the best at the same time they are buying into what we are doing.
– “Our players learn that they can be stars by buying into their role.” Be a star in their role. Talk to them about their importance. The other guys saw that DJ bought into their role, and it helped them buy in. Chris Paul cut his dribbles in half. Trust me on that. Jamal Crawford took two charges. Jamal Crawford made a defensive play and then he was pointing over to the bench like he made a three. Bought in.
– Blake Griffin’s bad body language. Doc got on him. I don’t want your teammates to see you with bad body language. Blake Griffin doesn’t like anybody interfering with his job. He works out first and then does the other stuff.

Doc Rivers Recap:
1) Organization
2) Culture
3) Players

JJ had huge value in game 2 of the season when James Harden had to chase him around the gym.

Don’t make a lot of changes. Add to your core, add to your system.

Wants separation between players. He wants stars to separate themselves from the pack so that the other guys buy in. Chris Paul vs. Jordan Farmar. Normally Jordan is sitting on the bench thinking he is better. Get your best players to be great quick. Austin Rivers at Duke. “I need him to get good quick.”

Everyone is a winner when they get to do whatever they want to do. Is that player willing to do something else to be a winner. “If I took the best thing that you do away, how would you help the team?” “Kevin would you sacrifice for this team to win?” – Kevin Garnett was willing to not play anymore if it meant that the team would win. Showed them 12 players on the All Star team that said they wanted to win, but he told the big 3 that “they only wanted to win as long as it was comfortable for them.” He made them agree to be uncomfortable if they REALLY wanted to win a championship. Players will buy in even more if you can get them to sacrifice. They’ll give you more if they have sacrificed for the team. Ray Allen gave up half of his shots from the year before. His time touching the ball was cut by 62%. Paul Pierce gave up 25% of his shots. Kevin Garnett gave up 25% of shots. All players played a career low in minutes and not one time did they complain. Then everybody else falls in line. Ray Allen committed to defending. When the stars play their role, then everybody else buys in.

Every year in the NBA finals, in the middle of the finals you can see the team that “got it.” The team that comes together is the team that wins.

“We blew the game… the refs blew the call, but we blew the game.” Our discipline totally changed. Didn’t get back on defense. Didn’t execute.

If you see it as a coach, you have to stay on it. You can’t let it go.

Have players understand what their shot is. Any time you have your shot, take it. Play within the system, but allow the players to be free. He never told players “bad shot” this year because he didn’t want them to start thinking too much.

Execution is the key to winning.

How many times do you have a chance to be a football team? He’s a stickler about ATOs. Every timeout you get a chance to re-organize. Everybody on offense moves at the same time. Football culture is extreme attention to detail and coordination. Every day they would draw up plays. He has players draw up plays in practice. They get pissed when a guy messes up and then they know how we feel.

3 things when evaluating players:
– Are they willing to play their role?
– Competitiveness
– Character

Doc Rivers: Assistant Coaches
Not yes men
Loyal
Have opinions

If you can take away easy baskets, you’ll have a chance to win the game.

After Day 1, they stopped talking about the championship. We all know what we’re here for. Now let’s focus.

Plan your practices around the players to get around 8 hours of sleep.

Doesn’t give rah rah speeches about the game, gives rah rah speeches about the team goal.

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Doc Rivers 2014 Basketball Clinic Notes