Clippers, Austin Rivers agree to three-year, $35.7 million deal

With Kevin Durant no longer being a possibility, the Los Angeles Clippers have agreed to re-sign Austin Rivers on a three-year, $35.7 million deal.

While this may anger those that hate the narrative of Doc Rivers keeping his son around, Austin Rivers was one of the Los Angeles Clippers’ priorities in free agency this summer and they were always going do their best to re-sign him. He’s an important player to the team and once Kevin Durant ruled the Clippers’ out of his decision, Doc’s focus quickly shifted to re-signing his own players.

Owning Austin’s bird rights was a vital part of this, allowing the Clippers to exceed the salary cap and offer him more money.

Without those bird rights, keeping him would have been far more difficult after he received such a massive raise in the new market, not to mention signing another free agent point guard would have been even more challenging.

Now, the latter isn’t in question anymore. Brad Turner of the Los Angeles Times has reported Rivers’ three-year, $35.7 million deal.

With a player option in the final year, Rivers can obviously test the market again and could only have two seasons left with the Clippers. Seeing as he has that option, it would be surprising if he doesn’t test that route and when the salary cap rises even further.

So, at just shy of $12 million per year, Rivers’ salary has skyrocketed (like so many other players) from the $3.1 million he made in 2015-16. He improved his three-point accuracy over the latter stages of the season, adds some athleticism and driving ability, and was one of the Clippers’ top perimeter defenders, if not the top option in terms of aggression and consistency after All-Defensive First Team star Chris Paul.

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However, around $12 million per year is still a slight surprise.

It had been reported that he was looking for a raise up to around $8 million per year, although his importance to the team, the new market, and a lack of options clearly helped his case to make even more, placing him on a similar salary as the Brooklyn Nets’ new addition, Jeremy Lin (three years, $36 million).

That being said, with contracts rising all around the NBA and the Clippers’ need to keep Rivers (having his bird rights to help them), some extra money came his way. Now, the Clippers will look to what’s next with Jamal Crawford, who is currently mulling an offer from the team and others.

Next: Kevin Durant informs Clippers he's going to another team

If he leaves, the Clippers will have around $10 million in cap space to do whatever they can to fill out the roster.