Los Angeles Clippers head coach Doc Rivers has claimed that he will avoid overusing Paul Pierce this season.
Pierce elected to sign with the Clippers in the hope of challenging for the NBA title after leaving the Washington Wizards, but Rivers is still unsure how to use the 37-year-old swingman.
"Paul will be great. Paul, I don't want to overuse him. I know that," Rivers, who coached Pierce when the Boston Celtics clinched the title in 2008, told reporters. "So, I don't even know how we are going to use him yet. I want to play him at [power forward] a lot. What I want him to be is healthy in the playoffs. So however we can figure that out, that's what I'm going to try to do.
"I don't know how we're going to do it with Paul. Like, I don't even know if I'm going to start him. It's going to be interesting. I think it's going to be great. I just don't know yet. We have a lot of [good] players, which is great."
Pierce averaged 26.2 minutes per game in the regular season for the Wizards, before averaging 29.8 minutes per game in the playoffs.
Callum Mulvihill
