The 30-year-old rookie will be making his NBA debut starting next to former teammate Patrick Beverley in the LA Clippers’ back court.
Per Sam Amick of USA TODAY Sports, the LA Clippers will be starting Milos Teodosic over Austin Rivers in the team’s season opener barring any late changes.
Laker Land update: Barring late change, I’m told Clippers will start Pat Beverley AND Milos Teodosic. Lonzo won’t be only fun PG out there..
— Sam Amick (@sam_amick) October 20, 2017
The lineup change was also confirmed by LA Times Clippers reporter Brad Turner on his Twitter shortly after.
Clippers starters: Pat Beverley, Milos Teodosic, Danilo Gallinari, Blake Griffin, DJ. Austin Rivers comes off bench
— Brad Turner (@BA_Turner) October 20, 2017
Teodosic started the majority of the Clippers’ preseason games next to Beverley after Rivers suffered a strained glute in the team’s first game. Even though Teodosic had been starting, Doc Rivers had reiterated that the team was planning on opening the season with a Beverley-Rivers back court.
Teodosic and Beverley are no strangers to starting beside each other. The two guards used to start together when they played in Greece.
A backcourt of Teodosic and Beverley allows the Clippers to push the ball ahead quickly on offense, which puts the team in a better position on defense. Beverley can cover for Teodosic’s defensive lapses and Rivers can cover for Lou Williams off the bench.
Even though Teodosic has earned the starting nod over Rivers, it remains to be seen how many minutes Doc Rivers will entrust him with. Milos had moments in the preseason where he seemed a little winded so he may not play a huge amount of minutes straight in order to save some of his energy for the latter quarters of the game.
Even though Rivers has been moved to the bench role, one would have to assume that Doc Rivers will stagger the guard rotation and that Austin will see minutes alongside the other starters at some point in the game.
The LA Clippers opener will now feature two rookie point guards facing off as the Lakers’ 2017 draft pick Lonzo Ball is ready to play after suffering a sprained ankle in the preseason.