Shaq and Nate Are Biggest Surprises

Rivers said that his two biggest surprises in camp were Shaquille O’Neal and Nate Robinson. He said that each had a “phenomenal” camp, and then spoke quickly about each player.

You could tell that Rivers was overly pleased by the Shaq’s performance by listening to one simple sentence: “The last two days he’s been with the first team.” Yup, that means Shaq has, at least to this point, supplanted Jermaine O'Neal as the team's starting center.

He continued on to say that Shaq is "in very good shape,” and that he believes the Big Shamrock is on a mission to prove to everyone that he can still play, and play well, in this league.

Robinson has also drawn some rave reviews throughout camp, and Rivers continues to note that the 5-foot-9 sparkplug is impressing him with his heightened maturity on the court.

“He kind of knows… he knows when to be Nate and when to be a Celtic,” Rivers said, alluding to Robinson’s newfound ability to control his humorous personality. “I think that’s really, really important for him, but it’s very important for our team.”