Quick Hits from Doc

by **bobheckler** Tue Sep 25, 2012 12:11 pm

Wow. Doc must be energized, he's giving a lot of interviews before camp even starts, this one with ESPN's Greg Payne. I love his comment about "the KG effect" on Darko. Welcome to KG's crucible, Darko. It's like nothing you've ever experienced. Be prepared to cry. A lot.

http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/celtics/post/_/id/4697468/quick-hits-from-doc

BOLTON, Mass. -- Quick hits following Celtics head coach Doc Rivers'
pre-round press conference at the Celtics' Shamrock Classic golf
tournament on Tuesday.

On expectations for Darko Milicic:
"I don't know. But I like that he has size. What we want Darko to be is
just to come in and fit a role for us, and not push all these
expectations that he's had on him his whole career. I think his first
concern should be our team instead of trying to establish himself as the
second pick in the draft thing. I think that probably hurt him over his
career."

On whether Kevin Garnett will help Milicic:

"I think [the "KG effect"] can either make you great or crush you. It's
going to be one of the two. It's not really an in-between with Kevin,
and in a good way. I like how he goes about his work, obviously, and how
he approaches the game. I think if you're willing to learn, you can
only get better playing with Kevin."

On Rondo taking another big step in his development:
"Yeah, I'm all for it. I'm all for it. He's gotten better and better,
obviously, and now he's one of the better point guards in the league. I
think what he wants to be is more consistent all the time, just a guy
that is a dominant player every night. I think that's his next big
step."

On Jared Sullinger potentially finding a role in the rotation:
"Well I'm hoping. I always say, they all look good when they play against
each other, the young guys. Then when the old veterans come in, that
tends to change a little bit. But I'm anticipating for him to play. Now,
whether he earns it or not, that'll be up to him."

On why Jason Terry was such an important offseason target:
"We wanted a scorer off the dribble. We do it every year, right after the
season, I always sit down and write Danny a long letter about needs, and
that was my number one need. I didn't think we had enough guys who
could score off the dribble. Rondo can score off the dribble, but we
needed a guy who can score and be a knockdown shooter at the same time. Courtney Lee is very similar as well, so that was very important for us."

On having a strong core of guards:
Obviously we won't talk about [Avery Bradley] for a while, but when he comes back, I don't know if anyone has a
better guard core than us. We're going to have to wait for that. But in
the meantime, it'll be those [Rajon Rondo, Jason Terry, and Courtney Lee] that can all play multiple positions,
which is great. I've always thought that's the way I would love to coach
and I'm going to have the opportunity to do that."

On Kevin Garnett playing center this season:
"He'll still be a five. I don't think Kevin cares as much as he says. I think
Kevin just wants to win. If I told him he had to play point and we would
win the title by him doing that, he would give it a try. I just think
that's who Kevin is.

bob

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by **Sam** Tue Sep 25, 2012 4:03 pm

Bob,

Doc's the ideal coach to squeeze the very most out of having a lot of options. It's not as easy as it might seem because there's not a lot of time for experimentation with loads of combinations. But he has the knack, partly because he seems to do a great job of developing general expectations in advance and then being receptive to tweaking them as appropriate.

Sam

Quick Hits from Doc

Quick Hits from Doc

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