Doc Rivers says he has a lot more work to do to spruce up his roster

Lance Stephenson at Thursday’s news conference/Staff photo by Scott Varley

 

Doc Rivers, coach and president of basketball operations, on Thursday wanted to make sure everyone knew he is by no means done trying to spruce up his roster. Rivers played host to a news conference to introduce Lance Stephenson, acquired in a trade Monday that saw the Clippers ship Matt Barnes and Spencer Hawes to Charlotte.

Speaking to a large group of reporters at the team’s headquarters in Playa Vista, Rivers – though a bit vague – indicated as much.

“Well, we need to add players,” Rivers said. “Obviously, we just gave two for one, so that means one more. We still have a lot of work to do. I don’t want to say what
positions, I think it’s pretty easy to figure out. But we’re going to look for the best players. We don’t really care about the position as much as others. We feel like we have to get deeper, we have to get more athletic, we have to add toughness, we have to be a better defensive team.

“Offensively, we were not broke last year. Defensively, we were in the middle of the pack, even though in the second half we were really good. But we want to be a consistent defensive rebounding team that can score.”

The Clippers allowed 100.1 points this past season, 16th in the league.