NBA News: Multiple team execs believe Doc Rivers & Clippers headed towards divorce
What's the story?
Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report talks about the Los Angeles Clippers and the potential departure of even more long-term mainstays within the organization in the offseason. Within the article, NBA executives predict what may happen with Doc Rivers
In case you didn't know...
The cornerstones of the group known as Lob City began to depart Los Angeles last year starting with the trade of Chris Paul to the Hoston Rockers in June last year. Eight months later in February, Blake Griffin was traded to the Detroit Pistons.
The heart of the matter...
Going into the final night of the regular season on Wednesday, the Los Angeles Clippers are officially eliminated from the playoffs, and likely to finish tenth in the Western Conference. Though they have a winning record, the Clippers will miss the playoffs for the first time since the 2010-11 season.
As Pincus mentioned in his article, there are many tough decisions ahead for Clippers owner Steve Balmer and his team of executives. The names that were brought up in the article include head coach Doc Rivers, center DeAndre Jordan, and guard Austin Rivers (Doc's son).
Rivers was removed from his front-office duties a year ago, and with only one year left on his contract, there is speculation that the team may look elsewhere next season. Pincus mentions that Rivers should get an honorable mention for NBA Coach of the Year because of the losses of Paul and Griffin to go with injuries to several key players, yet they finished over .500.
The NBA executives believe that the Clippers and Rivers will part ways since the championship window has closed with those departures of Paul and Griffin, and potential destinations for Rivers could be the Orlando Magic or New York Knicks.
What's next?
Wednesday, April 11th will mark the end of the 2017-18 NBA regular season. Once those games have concluded, the playoff schedule will be released.
Author's take...
It was a great run for Rivers in Los Angeles. He helped make a franchise that rarely made the playoffs a contender, but they just never broke through as they never got past the conference semi-finals.
It is definitely time to hit the reset button in Los Angeles, but under the ownership of Balmer and executive leadership of the legendary Jerry West, I do not see the Clippers going back to the laughing stock of the NBA.