As a big summer for NBA free agency approaches, the LA Clippers are in prime position to contend thanks in large part to coach Doc Rivers.
It was just two years ago when the Utah Jazz eliminated the LA Clippers in Game 7 of the first round of the playoffs, culminating a disappointing year for a Clippers team which had staked its identity around a star-studded roster, and postseason letdowns.
This loss stung more than ever, as a fourth-seeded Clippers team lost to the fifth-seeded Jazz, once again losing a series they led, as they had in every year from 2013 to 2017. But it also was the final game for Lob City, as Chris Paul and Blake Griffin both were expected to opt out of their contracts, and sharpshooting guard JJ Redick was a free agent.
The rest is history: Paul worked his way to Houston, a trade which redefined the future of the LA Clippers, Redick would sign with the up and coming Philadelphia 76ers and Blake Griffin was a “Clipper for Life”, if you define lifespans in months.
That game vs Utah truly ended one era and opened another: An era of complete uncertainty.
The past few seasons had seen the Clippers as a financially maxed out, good but not great team. The kind that used the recruiting power of its location, stars, and staff to bring in aging players to fill out the roster on cheap contracts. Former Celtics were a specialty, as Doc Rivers brought in former players Paul Pierce, Brandon Bass and Glen Davis to ride the bench at Staples Center.
Rivers, at the time still holding total control over the basketball operations of the organization, had also traded for his son, Austin Rivers, a tough, streaky guard who was also young, inconsistent, brash, and not always in lock step with a locker room that was not considered the most harmonious in the NBA. To put it lightly, the 2016-17 Clippers were not having fun. And though teammates and coaches alike were sure to point out CP3’s talent, it was made obvious his locker room presence would not be missed following his trade.
While it wasn’t necessarily a surprise that Rivers continued into this new, uncertain era of Clippers basketball, it also didn’t feel like he was in the long-term plans of the organization. Owner Steve Ballmer and new consultant Jerry West restructured the front office around West, Lawrence Frank, who was promoted from assistant coach to President of Basketball Operations, and newly hired General Manager Michael Winger.
Although Frank had longstanding ties to Rivers as a former Celtics assistant, the overall tone of the organization seemed so hellbent on stripping power from Rivers that it felt like the days were numbered. After all, if Rivers seemed miserable and disengaged coaching a playoff team with three All-Stars in the starting lineup, how would the veteran coach fare, having lost top line talent on the roster, as well as his control of it?
We all know what happened next: The Clippers rebounded and found a new identity, reborn from loss. A team that was once known for disappointment, star egos, and high expectations transitioned gradually over the following two seasons into a tough, deep, team-oriented squad that backed down to no one, overcame hardships and injury, and showed up every day for “the people in the back.”
A franchise once defined by images of failure, of frustrated stars leaving the court in defeat, could now see itself defined by images of grit and not backing down,
Rivers himself is a completely changed man. Freed from the egos and squabbling of the past, the coach would turn in arguably his finest coaching performance in 2018-19, taking a team with zero All-Stars to 48 wins, and a thrilling, possibly franchise-changing playoff appearance against the Golden State Warriors.
Rivers himself would say he was never more proud of a team he’s coached, lofty praise from a guy who has lifted the Larry O’Brien Trophy. Though the Clippers were eliminated from the playoffs, their six-game, David vs. Goliath struggle with the Warriors was the stuff of franchise legend, a testament to why Rivers is a candidate for NBA Coach of the Year, and would be a deserving winner.
This leaves Rivers as an enigma in the NBA. He is, like he called his Clippers players after coming back from 31 points down to the Warriors in Oakland, a cockroach. A survivor. Rivers has overcome playoff failures, a complete crisis of ownership, and losing his front office power, to remain a primary figure in the Clippers organization. While this must be viewed through the lens of the history of the Braves/Clippers franchise, it also speaks to the faith Ballmer and the new front office of the Clippers carries in Rivers.
He is also an enigma in a league that has become so player-driven as to largely render obsolete the era of the big name coach. Teams increasingly look to younger, cheaper, more replaceable coaching options over retread hires, in no small part to a generation of stars seen by some as chafing under heavy coaching.
In this era of players running the show, Doc Rivers is a rarity: A coach players want to play for, and a coach who has played a large part in making the Clippers a destination franchise.
Headed into the incredibly important Summer of 2019, with the LA Clippers having the ability to offer two max contracts to free agents (with a move of Danilo Gallinari to free the second slot up) they also have a coach in Rivers who is one of their biggest recruiting tools.
It feels more possible than ever that the LA Clippers will become champions under Doc Rivers’ guidance, it is simply happening in a different way, at a different time than we all first envisioned when he was introduced as the new head coach of the Clippers way back in June 2013.