PLAYA VISTA – It wasn’t so much anything Raymond Felton had seen in the last five years of his NBA career. It was more about what he had heard.

Sure, the Clippers were a winning team, but were they a team that liked one another?

It was a question Felton knew he’d get a first-hand answer to after signing with the team as a free agent this summer, and the answer wasn’t exactly what he expected.

“I didn’t know this team was as close as it is,” Felton said before practice Sunday. “This team is actually pretty close. You hear a lot of negative stuff through the years about this team when you’re on other teams. But being here, this team is actually closer than you think. That surprised me.”

Clippers head coach Doc Rivers said that experience doesn’t surprise him.

“I think that’s every guy that comes here,” he said. “… I know what’s true. I don’t need to answer a lot of stuff. That doesn’t mean they get along every minute. Neither does any team, for that matter.”

Still, when players talk about the Clippers, it’s not always in the most glowing terms. Jamal Crawford has had those conversations about his team with friends around the league, and when he says the Clippers are close, he gets a common reaction.

“You get the side eye sometimes,” he said with a laugh. “But we’re in the fox hole together so we know how each other are. We know how close we are. Of course there are disagreements along the way. But we know, overall, how close we are.”

Felton said he’s taken the early weeks of training camp and focused on fitting in with the Clippers family, dysfunctional as it might seem from the exterior.

“I’ve been in the league for 12 years. I know all these guys probably better than they do on the court by just playing against them,” he said. “Off the court, you try to build a relationship with guys, try to get to know them better, and that helps on the court. That’s the biggest thing for me, getting to know these guys off the court.”

ALSO

Doc Rivers said other than Brice Johnson, who is out with a back injury, the Clippers are healthy heading into Monday’s preseason game against Utah at Staples Center. … Alan Anderson, who has been a limited participant at times during camp because of a prior ankle injury, didn’t miss any time in Friday’s or Saturday’s practices, Rivers said.

Contact the writer: dwoike@scng.com