Austin Rivers Has Agreed To A Two-Year Deal With The Clippers

Austin Rivers
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Comfort and familiarity are major factors that contributed to DeAndre Jordan leaving the Dallas Mavericks at the altar for a return to the Los Angeles Clippers. After adding former Boston Celtics pupil Paul Pierce to the fold, too, it’s clear that one of Doc Rivers’ chief offseason goals is to keep his team’s familial atmosphere intact.

It should come as no surprise, then, that restricted free agent Austin Rivers has agreed to a two-year deal with Los Angeles. Via Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports:

Free-agent guard Austin Rivers has reached agreement on a two-year, $6.4 million contract to re-sign with the Los Angeles Clippers, league sources told Yahoo Sports.

The 22-year-old was acquired by his father’s franchise from the New Orleans Pelicans in January. Due to the Pelicans’ rare decision to decline the fourth-year option on Rivers’ rookie contract, he was an unrestricted free agent this summer.

After sorely disappointing in the Big Easy, Rivers came close to carving out a niche with the Clippers over the regular season’s second half and throughout the playoffs. He managed double-figure points on six separate occasions during the postseason, including a 25-point explosion against the Houston Rockets in Game 3 of the Western Conference Semifinals.

Though he’ll never live up to his status as a top-10 pick or high school megastar, Rivers still has ample time to emerge as a viable NBA player. Lance Stephenson will do a fair share of playmaking for Los Angeles when Chris Paul is off the floor, allowing the Duke product to spend more time off the ball than he did last season – the situation in which he’s easily most comfortable.

If Rivers can make the strides from beyond the arc next season that he made at the rim in 2014-15, he could become the consistent reserve scoring option the Clippers have long lacked beyond Jamal Crawford. And while that may not be enough for the many who will always call him a “bust,” it’s still a far better trajectory than where Rivers seemed headed before he was traded to Los Angeles.

[Via Yahoo Sports]

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