PLAYA VISTA – If Doc Rivers had it his way, he would leave his players alone in the summer.

“Let them vent, be happy, unhappy whatever,” the Clippers coach said. “When they get back, they’ll see what we’re trying to do, and they’ll either like it or not.”

And this summer, Jamal Crawford needed to vent.

Taking to his Twitter account, Crawford’s disdain wasn’t exactly hidden.

Asked if he was still on the Clippers, Crawford said, “I think.”

Asked if he’d be back with the Clippers, Crawford responded by saying, “I’m not a (free agent), wish, but I’m not … So, (you) gotta ask Doc.”

Sometimes, the tweets were more vague.

Crawford tweeted “Actions speak louder than words” on the morning the core of the team was in Houston to meet with free agent DeAndre Jordan. Crawford wasn’t at the meeting.

He wasn’t happy. He was venting. And, Rivers let him be.

For a while.

“Some guys,” Rivers said, “you do reach out to.”

The two men eventually spoke over the summer, and had another conversation shortly before the opening of training camp, an important conversation that solidified things between the two.

Crawford saw the vision. He saw his place on the team. And, he bought in.

But, it took some selling.

Over the offseason, the Clippers added Lance Stephenson and Josh Smith. They re-signed Austin Rivers. And, with the addition of Paul Pierce, there was a chance the new Clippers bench would have a lot of people who would want the ball in their hands.

Crawford saw it, too.

“I just didn’t know how it was going to fit,” Crawford acknowledges. “You basically have five people in the second unit who can all handle the ball and make plays. There’s only one basketball. How’s this going to work?”

The basketball questions mixed with another round of trade rumors, shaking the ground under Crawford’s feet. Wherever he went over the summer, it seemed someone would ask him about his future with the team.

And all that uncertainty took a toll.

“I have a family. My kids are in school. They’re comfortable,” Crawford said. “This has become a second home, especially for them.”

And Crawford, despite the tweets, wanted to be a Clipper.

“I signed here. It’s what I wanted,” he said. “I think when you show emotion, it can slice both ways. But if you show emotion, it’s because you care.”

Rivers and the Clippers banked on Crawford’s emotions calming down, especially if the two men could have the right conversations.

Right before training camp, conversations with Rivers helped get Crawford 100 percent on board.

“It was seeing everybody and seeing that no one was trying to stand out. I mean, if you end up standing out, it’s OK. But, it’s like, let’s move it to the next guy,” Crawford said. “It’s just about getting the group together. It’s obvious. Everyone brings something to the table.

“ … After being with the guys, talking to the guys, talking to Doc, this can easily work.”

As of now, it hasn’t.

The Clippers bench has been turnover prone, out of sync on the defensive end and unable to find a rhythm offensively during the preseason. And no one seems that surprised.

With so many new pieces adjusting to new roles, growing pains were almost assured, if not expected.

“It’ll come,” Rivers said. “I’m not that concerned about it right now. There’s spacing. I don’t think people really understand how hard it is for a new group of guys to play well right away. It takes time.”

In early scrimmages, the group gave the starters headaches, working them to the wire with a simple formula – find the hot hand.

“It takes a certain level of maturity. There could be stretch where a guy gets hot for three or four minutes, and then, we’ll have to work it back around and find someone else who can get hot,” Crawford said. “ … We pretty much know who the scorers are in the group. But if a guy gets it going, you go to him. If not, you play within the framework of the team.”

And that’s where Crawford and the Clippers bench are right now, a week before the regular season. They’re learning the framework of the team.

Before practices officially begin, the bench players and new Clippers play 5-on-0, drilling the team’s offensive sets.

“It’s the monotony of doing it over and over again and eventually, it becomes second nature,” Rivers said. “There are no shortcuts to it.”

Just like there weren’t shortcuts to getting Crawford back into the fold this summer. He had time to vent. He had time to talk with Rivers. He had time to buy in.

Rivers has to keep selling all of them as the season goes on – starters and reserves. For now, they’re saying the right things.

“One thing I do know is everyone is good with it during the summer,” Rivers said. “I haven’t yet … met a player a who didn’t want to win a championship. I’ve never heard that. Every single guy (says), ‘Yeah, I want to win a championship.’ In the summer every single guy, ‘Yes, I’ll do whatever the role.’

“Once the season starts and you see what your role is, it’s always just growing and changing. But, you do have to sell. All the time.”

The pitches will change over the course of the season, as a team goes through its normal ups and downs.

But for Crawford, it’s the belief that he and his teammates are firmly united on a single goal – an NBA title – that keeps everyone in line.

“I’m so far in,” Crawford said. “No matter what it is – touches, minutes – everyone’s going to have to sacrifice something to go where we want to go.

“And I know that, whole-heartedly.”

Contact the writer: dwoike@ocregister.com