Doc Rivers lost his lead assistant and the guy in charge of his offense in Alvin Gentry to Golden State when the Warriors agreed to give him a $300,000 pay raise.
Now it looks like the Clippers have lost the guy in line to take over that No. 2 chair — Tyronn Lue is leaving the Clippers to be the lead assistant for David Blatt and the Cleveland Cavaliers, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports.
Blatt is a very experienced international coach who players have liked playing for but also has the reputation of a taskmaster. He needed a younger coach with a more recent foothold in the NBA to be by his side, he found that in Lue.
For Lue he gets a couple things. One is a step towards his own head coaching job in the next few years — and he gets to work next to one of the most innovative offensive minds on the planet. The other is a nice little pay raise, reportedly up to $1 million according to Brian Windhorst of ESPN.
Doc Rivers has a lot of contacts around the league, he’s going to need to reach out to a few to replenish his staff. But he’s not going to have much trouble. Mo Cheeks is already one name circulating.