Glenn “Doc” Rivers was a pretty decent basketball player. Not a great player, but he did ok, earning one All Star appearance (scoring nine points), averaging between 10 and 16 pointsover seven of his ten seasons, averaging 11.3 assists per game, albeit with a 38.3% field goal percentage during one particular season. He’s never going to get his jersey retired and he was never on an NBA championship team, but he was all right.
As a coach, Rivers inherited an Orlando Magic team who had won 66% of their games, up until Doc, who then “led” them to 41, 43, 44 and 42 wins during his four full seasons at the helm. After starting the 2003-04 season 1-10, Doc was shown the door.
Nonetheless, Rivers was handed the Boston Celtic coaching position, and guided the Celtics to 45, 33, and 24 wins, respectively in his first three seasons. But, Doc had future hall of famers Ray Allen and Paul Pierce on those three Celtic teams and in 2007, Boston added future Hall of Famer Kevin Garnett to the squad such that with the aforementioned Allen and Pierce–coaching three future hall of famers–Doc got out of the way and the Celtics won the NBA championship. Rivers couldn’t match that success any other season, and by 2013 with Allen gone and Pierce and Garnett aging, Doc was once again a .500 coach.
Nonetheless, in the land of retread coaches known as the NBA, the Clippers came calling. With a team that included Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan, Doc won 57 games in 2014, losing in the second round of the playoffs. Doc’s Clippers got consistently worse each year, winning 56, 53, and 51 games over the next three seasons. In 2013, then new Clipper owner Steve Ballmer rewarded Doc for his “successes” naming Rivers President and General Manager of the Clippers to go along with his coaching job.
While President and GM, Rivers made three trades, none of which worked out. His first deal was to send Eric Bledsoe to Phoenix for Jared Dudley and J.J. Redick. Burned by that one, Doc then dealt the serviceable pair of Matt Barnes and Spoencer Hawes to Charlotte for Lance Stephenson. Not to be undone, this past August, Doc dealt Chris Paul for Patrick Beverley, Lou Williams, two sacks of coal, and a partridge and a pair tree.
So, Clipper fans rejoiced when the clueless Steve Ballmer caught a clue and forced Doc to relinquish the President and GM roles. Clipper fans must have expected that things couldn’t get any worse. They were wrong, boy were they wrong. This week, the Clippers parted with Blake Griffin, getting the Avery Bradley (and his expiring contract) along Tobias Harris and a lightly protected first round pick, as well as a reasonably useless second round pick. Although Doc no longer had the final say on all trades, he certainly had some say and a considerable amount of influence.
“[The trade] came out of nowhere and it came pretty quick,” said Rivers, during a pre-game press conference. “We hadn’t been talking about it that long. Everybody [in the front office] was involved. Nothing really has changed about how we discuss trades at all. We all discuss it. That’s how we do things.”
Avery Bradley will be a free agent this summer, along with Lou Williams. Both can be expected to leave. Tobias Harris is a serviceable NBA player: He’sa really good fourth best player on a team. The trouble is, right now Harris is the Clippers second best player, and if/when Jordan moves, Tobias will be the best the Clippers have. That is, unless the team dumps him too.
Sure, the Clippers couldn’t win with Paul, Griffin and Jordan. Was that the players’ fault? Or, perhaps, did Doc have a lot more do to with this than those three stars?
From a fantasy standpoint, Griffin will have little change in value. Bradley and Harris will have increased values for the rest of this season. So, fantasy players can rejoice. Clipper fans, if there are any remaining, won’t have the same feelings.
Years ago, Ron Harper likened playing for the Clippers to being jailed. Fans came to games with “Free Ron Harper” signs. De’Andre Jordan must be wondering if those signs can be resurrected and modified. “Free De’Andre” has a nice ring to it.
As a former Clipper fan, I never thought I’d utter these words, but here goes. “I miss Donald Sterling.”
