Doc Rivers talks Bucks waiving Damian Lillard, acquiring Myles Turner & more | NBA Summer League

Doc Rivers talks Bucks waiving Damian Lillard, acquiring Myles Turner & more | NBA Summer League

Okay, and welcome back. We’re here with Bucks head coach Glenn Doc Rivers. Now, let’s start with obviously the biggest turn for this franchise when Damen Lillard torn Achilles waved and stretched, but you had the opportunity to coach him and he was a guy that tried to tough it out for this team. What’s it like when you lose a player like that and then you lose him from the team? How do you regroup? Well, you regroup. You know, obviously we we’re signing Miles Turner. That’s a the regroup part of it, but it’s still a human game, man. You know, it’s funny. Um Dame was he’s just a great dude. Forget the basketball part. Uh he’s he’s done everything right throughout his career. Uh he’s done everything that you a franchise can ask for a guy in if you’re trying to win. So, he did all the good stuff, you know, for us. And so, you know, obviously we weren’t going to have him this year, uh, coming up with the with the injury, but you don’t just lose the player, you lose the person. And and so that’s that’s a tough loss for your franchise when you lose that. You know, Doc, looking at coming into next year and obviously Miles Turner, tell me how you plan on playing him. How does he fit in your system? He’s a big that can defend. We know he can shoot the basketball. It just seems like it’s a perfect You could You couldn’t You couldn’t have a more perfect fit, you know. Um, he needs to get a little younger. you know, people forget he’s 29, you know, um he’s younger, he’s younger than Giannis, which when you look at it in that in that terms, you know, uh he he he can play multiple positions, obviously the five, but he can also switch on on defense, which he proved he can do that in the playoffs. He can roll and make shots. He stretches the floor, and you need a great stretch player. Poor Giannis, you know, and getting him in the fo was just huge for our franchise, you know, and also, you know, stretching Dame’s contract, which was not easy to do, right? Uh, but it gave us more flexibility and we can sign more guys. And Andre Jackson, year three for him, started a a ton of games. I believe it’s 43 for you last year. It seemed like when you inserted him into that starting lineup, defensively, he gave you so much. Offensively, what are you looking for him for? Well, that’s where he has to improve even defensively, you know, on the ball. I I would put up him up against anybody on the ball. Uh but just learning where to be off the ball, learn defensive rules and things like that. He’ll get that, you know. Uh but it’s the other end, you know, uh as many two-way players as you can get, you have to have, you know, because you can get away with in the regular season, but when the playoff starts, they’ll find the guy that can’t do something either on the defensive end or the offensive end. And the kid puts in the work. I mean, that’s what he does well. You know, Doc, going into this season, what’s the one area? We’re not even talking about a player that you want to see the Milwaukee Bucks improve in. Well, pace. Okay. Playing a little faster. Yeah, we got to play faster. Uh defensively though, we started out slow and then by the end of the year we became a really solid defensive team. Uh we want to pick up where we left off defensively. Uh and you know the second half of the year when I put the ball in Giannis’s hands, you know, and we did it by default. I’d love to say I’m this genius and I thought, hey, let’s let’s play Giannis at the point guard spot. I can tell you when I brought it up with our coaches, they thought I had lost my mind. And when I brought up with Giannis, he thought I had lost my mind. he cuz he’s already has the ball in his hands but like having him bring it up every time it eliminated you know how the whole league right now everybody’s pressuring the ball nobody’s pressuring y nobody and so it allowed us even against Indiana to bring the ball up pressure free you know um the most dangerous guy on our team had the ball already and when you put shooting around that and that’s where the Gary Trench and the AJ Greens like I think both of those guys are going to have breakout years for That’s where that all came into play. So, I want to pick up from that and build on. We have a stoppage in play right now. They’re taking a review on a review in in the G-League. Well, they’re trying to see if they were going to upgrade this foul. Let’s take a look here in Yeah, they’re going to upgrade. He got him twice. Yeah. And And he’s on the other team. Wait, wait a minute. Doc, the official Yeah. Reveal. When we played though, it’s no review. No, it may not be a foul. It might not have been a foul. But yeah, it looks like they’re coming to a conclusion here. And Doc Rivers says, “Yes, that’s going to be Oh, that’s an easy one. You know, I used to be in this seat.” Yes. You know, a long time ago. Well, here’s a question for you because yes, I’m very aware that you used to be in this seat, but now your son is in this. How about that? Yeah. So, who’s going to be the better broadcaster? All standard doctor. Well, this is what I’ll say. I always told Austin I was going to be a better basketball player. I think he’s going to be a better broadcaster. I will say that he’s comfortable. He’s comfortable. He’s comfortable. He’s so uncomfortable early. He’s already comfortable and he’s opinionated, but he understands like he celebrates basketball. Like that’s what I like about him. You listen to us like podcasts, he always celebrates the game, which is I think is really important. You know, doc, a guy, a kid I want you to talk about, Kevin Porter Jr., it seems like once he got to Milwaukee, we know his talent. We know situation with him is that he been trying to find it seemed like with you, he felt comfortable. You put the ball in his hand, he defended, he scored. What can you talk about him, his next steps? Yeah, of all the guys on our team, I think he’s going to have the biggest jump. and he had a big jump, you know, with him early on when you watched him with the Rockets even, you know, that everyone looked like it was the N1 game, right? And you know, when he first got to us, he was still kind of doing that and, you know, I was a point guard, so we had a lot of discussions about it, but I will tell you, he listens. Um and in the second half late in the year he started becoming a point guard you know going downhill making plays instead of dancing understanding sometimes you’re just pulling the ball to see if something else happens instead of trying to score and once he start doing that his whole game open up the biggest surprise with me and and Tyoo told me this when we got him he could defend I always tell him that that’s what we still got to work on like we want him to be competitive cuz there’s nobody in life that’s not good that competive and and so he has that gene which is good. Speaking of competitive nature, do you guys remember playing against each other? I was too old, man. Like, let me tell you something. Doc was one of those point guards where if you reach, you got popped, you know? Yes, absolutely. But never a flagrant one, right? No, we didn’t. I mean, we had hand checking, grabbing and everything. But I will say when I was in college, everybody told me to look at Doc as a big point guard. Yes. Because you know as a big point guard all the little guards want to get up under you do and pick you up full court but just be physical as a point guard when you’re big. You have to be and big with speed. I always tell big point guards play with play downhill because all of a sudden that guard becomes small you know I didn’t like seeing these little guys like Mugsy Bones. Those guys just give me nightmares. I used to hate seeing them. But back in our day every guard was big. Like the guards were big you know it was more physical. So, Vinnie, what do you suppose your record was against Doc? Uh oh. I think you know. I don’t know. We didn’t We didn’t play that many. 10 times. What was the record? Doc won nine out of 10. See that? This makes my day. This ain’t no good partner right here, Doc. Hey, you know what? You know why I had to give you that one? Because once a Nick, always a Nick. This a New York guy right here. I know he’s known with the Hawks and coaching and broadcasting, but that’s why I had to give you, you know, I still get the uh the letter every year. They send months and they always I still get it. I get it all the time. Somehow it works. You see, this kid is a New York kid and he I know all he talks about is New York, man. And we love point guards. Doc is from Chicago, the Midwest. He’s not a New York point guard. Yes. But you know what? We adopt him. Zeke, we have him, too. We claim him. No, no, no, no, no. Y you can’t take Midwest. Oh man, Sean Town’s finest one. Glenn Doc Rivers, head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks. Uh great to have you on. Thank you. I got one more question. Go ahead, sweetie. Tell me about your son coaching. What what what have you what do you like about him, Doc? You know, he’s always he’s always been a coach his whole life. You know, I have a picture of Austin winning the state championship and Spencer sitting next to the coach with a chalkboard in his hand. Uh he was in eighth grade. Okay. That’s all I say cuz the time the age difference, he wasn’t on the high school team at the same time. No, his senior year also senior year, F was a freshman. Okay. But he’s uh even my son Jeremiah, he’s always been on the on the bench. Uh he’s always like like coaching. He wanted to be a coach. So he’s going to be fantastic. He better be. A lot to live up to. The doc in the house. Wondering Glen Doc Rivers. Thank you for hanging out with us. 3 minutes to go here in the first half between the Bucks and the Nuggets. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

Bucks head coach Doc Rivers joins the booth during their Summer League matchup with the Denver Nuggets to discuss why Milwaukee waived Damian Lillard, how Myles Turner can compliment Giannis Antetokounmpo and more.

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