Austin Rivers believes the LA Clippers are one of only a few NBA teams with a chance to win a championship, and says he took less money to return in free agency because of it.
Austin Rivers receives an awful lot of hate from NBA fans, including some LA Clippers supporters. He’s pegged as a “daddy’s boy” just because he plays for his father, Doc Rivers, and that he isn’t a good player, holding a job because his father has given him one. According to some negative critics, that’s the case.
The younger Rivers showed clear development last season, though, in particular on the defensive end as he became one of the Clippers’ top few perimeter defenders and their best defensive guard outside of Chris Paul.
It took until a one-eyed, bloody and bruised performance in the Clippers’ playoff elimination this year for Rivers to receive more respect. Playing some of the better basketball of his career with 21 points, eight assists, six rebounds and no turnovers after taking a heavy elbow from Portland’s Al-Farouq Aminu, Rivers was nothing but impressive.
Rivers fought on because he wanted to win, and he believes his team, outside the daunting threat of the Golden State Warriors, has a realistic chance to do that this season.
Dan Woike of the Orange County Register has reported that Rivers said he even took less money in free agency this year to return to the Clippers and their chance to contend:
"“I took less to come back here… I’m not taking this for granted. I was on a team where it was very bad. There are only four or five teams in the league with a realistic chance to win this year, and I think we’re one of them. I’m not taking this for granted. I know if I go somewhere else, I might not ever be on a team like this again. A lot of people go their whole career and never play on a team like this.”"
Woike added that there was interest from the Houston Rockets, Brooklyn Nets and New York Knicks, all before Rivers accepted his three-year, $35 million deal from the Clippers on July 8.
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We can’t know what offers Rivers received and exactly how much other teams were willing to pay for him, so whether or not he took less to return to L.A. isn’t certain. Even after his performance to conclude the playoffs, though, it’s hard to see teams would be really offer much more than the $11 million Rivers will be making from the Clippers in 2016-17, increased salary cap aside.
Along with believing the Clippers are one of only four or five teams with a chance to win the 2017 championship, Rivers touched on how he improved defensively to earn a bigger role with the team. He knows he’s important and has been on the rise recently, and that could have only helped his decision to stay in the same environment:
"“Sometimes, you have to play games with yourself. I was like, if I can become a good defender, I can play more minutes and actually get back to slowly work on my offense. I’ve been able to do that. I’m always going to play defense because that’s what got me to where I am now. But, it’s the offense that’s going to take me to the next level. And, that’s always who I’ve been anyways.”"
Offensively, the LA Clippers will hope to see the improvement that Rivers has spoken of. He shot 39 percent from three after the All-Star break last season, so increased efficiency from deep and improved shot selection will be two immediate areas to for him to focus on.
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Now that he’s about to begin the season in which he’ll start earning his $35 million, Rivers may finally start earning more respect as the solid role player that he is.