Five Worst Moves Made by Doc Rivers the GM

Nov 18, 2013; Los Angeles, CA, USA;Los Angeles Clippers center Byron Mullens (0) and Memphis Grizzlies small forward Tayshaun Prince (21) jostle for rebounding position during the second quarter at Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY Sports

5 – Thinking Byron Mullens could be a rotation player

This, ladies and gentlemen, was the precursor to everything we’ve witnessed during the Doc Rivers regime.

Mullens wasn’t an “end of off-season” signing to fill out the roster. Rivers intentionally targeted the power forward/center because he believed Mullens could be the third big on a potential contender, as seen here by Arash Markazi of ESPN:

"Mullens, 24, was an early target for Clippers coach Doc Rivers this offseason after Rivers watched Mullens put up 25 points, 18 rebounds and 4 assists against his Boston Celtics in February. In that game, Mullens hit 62.5 percent of his shots (10 of 16) and was 80 percent from behind the arc (4 of 5)."

Can you believe that? One game overpowered hours of footage that easily painted Mullens as a stretch big who couldn’t stretch the floor (31% career three shooter), couldn’t defend and couldn’t rebound. Mullens wasn’t a young big who failed in one situation because of an inadequate opportunity — this is how the Charlotte Hornets acquisition of Mullens played out and as a rotation player, the situation didn’t play well, leaving the Clippers over 2800 minutes of time to look through the Mullens-Hornets experiment to see whether he did or didn’t fit the teams plans.

They didn’t.

Instead, Doc Rivers put all of his stock (and a two-year, $2 million deal) into a one-game sample size that just happened to be the best of Mullens’ career.

The end-game? Mullens, alongside a future second-rounder, was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers to clear cap space for the eventual Glen Davis/Danny Granger signing.