Clippers GM Doc Rivers has some work to do, because his offseason moves last summer tied the hands of Doc Rivers the coach come the playoffs. This is a team on the cusp, it just needs a couple pieces to be a scary contender.
Now Rivers feels he can go out and do that. He can follow his vision for team building. (Whether Lance Stephenson should be part of that vision is another question.)
Owner Steve Ballmer is writing the checks and giving Rivers freedom on the basketball side that owner Donald Sterling did not before. Here is what Rivers told the Los Angeles institution that is Fred Roggin (on the Beast 980 sports talk) about life under Sterling.
“This is really only my third year but you can make a case this is our second year if you know what I’m saying. If I someday wrote a book and told you a couple of the trades we had in the first year that we didn’t do because of other reasons, you would fall off your chair.”
Rivers should sit down with Mike Dunleavy and Elgin Baylor over some beers and swap stories on how Sterling killed smart plays, or let great free agents go, or just generally cut his basketball people off at the knees.
It never hurts to remember what a terrible sports team owner Donald Sterling was. He was (and is) and worse human being, but he was a wretched owner. Sterling killed trades that might cost the billionaire a little money, or traded away players he liked. Remember, one time his courtside seats, Sterling heckled Baron Davis — and Davis was his starting point guard.
And when you’ve got a person like Sterling as the owner who has a voice on roster moves, well, you get what you exepct.
Now, let’s move on from talking about him and start complaining about the Clippers new logo. As if that’s a real problem.
