PLAYA VISTA – The path was forged before Doc Rivers took control of the Clippers. The team was going to be built around Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan and any supplementing was going to have to be budget-conscious.

It’s the reality of the NBA and its salary cap, a mechanism preventing someone like Steve Ballmer from walking into a meeting with Kevin Durant and plopping down a pair of cash-stuffed canvas duffel bags.

Without cap room – again – this past summer, and more importantly, without a championship trophy, the Clippers needed introspection.

“Every summer, the organization tells the players, these are the things you need to work on and get better. Well, who’s telling us anything?” Rivers, the team’s coach and president of basketball operations said. “We’ve got to tell each other.”

The results of those conversations were unveiled Friday, with 18 new names listed on a press release in a major bolstering of the Clippers basketball operations staff.

When the Clippers open another season with their annual Media Day on Monday, none of these new hires will take the stage. But they’re exactly the kind of changes the Clippers needed to make to try to take the next step as a franchise.

“Our goal is not just to be the best team; it’s to be the best organization,” Rivers said.

In addition to adding two new assistant coaches (Pat Sullivan and John Welch), the Clippers rounded out an infrastructure that was lagging behind the rest of the league – one of the few remnants of the Donald Sterling era.

“In every department, we were understaffed,” Rivers told the Southern California News Group. “… I thought we made do with what we had and did a pretty damn good job of it, knowing that if we get help, we can do a better job.”

With Ballmer more settled into his role as the team’s owner, Rivers thought the time was right to approach him, not that it was an easy sell. Despite being worth north of $27 billion, Ballmer doesn’t spend for the sake of spending.

“This is what I love about Steve. Steve is not a blank check. Just because he’s the wealthiest owner in team sports, it does not make him a blank check,” Rivers said. “Steve makes you work, makes you explain. You have to actually show why on each thing.”

Along with Lawrence Frank, who was promoted to vice president of basketball operations directly under Rivers earlier in the summer, the two men researched and prepared a detail presentation to Ballmer, explaining why the Clippers needed, for example, a director of player programs (Dee Brown) and a director of pro player personnel (Johnnie Rogers).

The Clippers got the go-ahead to add reinforcements across the board, bulking up a thin scouting department, adding a performance scientist/biomedical analyst and a sports performance psychologist.

“We had to catch up and we needed someone willing to do it,” Rivers said. ‘Steve was ready to do it – well, after those talks.”

From there, it was about talking to existing staff, some of whom found themselves working for people in departments they used to run.

“It takes a lot of guys being secure with change,” Rivers said. “Some guys had to relinquish their power. (General Manager) Dave Wohl was a great example. (Head athletic trainer) Jasen Powell, he had to allow Mark (Simpson) to come in and run the whole department and take instruction from someone else. Everyone’s willing to do it. I think we’re on a great path.”

Despite their salary-cap limitations, the Clippers were still able to retool their rotations. Using exceptions and salary cap rules to their advantage, the team was able to re-sign Jamal Crawford, Austin Rivers, Wesley Johnson and Luc Mbah a Moute.

And despite the massive jump in player salaries during free agency, the team was able to add a group of veterans who accepted the league minimum – Marreese Speights, Brandon Bass, Raymond Felton and Alan Anderson.

“I think we brought in the right veterans,” Rivers said. “We brought in a bunch of veterans who are over themselves and ready to win.”

Now, it’s on Rivers to figure out the right mix.

He must figure out how to implement all the new information available, the improved analytics, the medical data.

“I’ll have more input than with my eyes. That should help drastically,” he said.

While the core of the roster is the same, the organization’s way of thinking had to change. People had to be willing to adapt, to accept the new blood the franchise needed.

And if not?

“The status quo was not good enough for me,” Rivers said. “… Anybody who wasn’t on board with a change of thought had to go. I basically said that to our organization.”

Contact the writer: dwoike@scng.com