As a coach, Doc Rivers’ reputation is unassailable. He won a title, and took old and hurting Boston Celtics teams further in the playoffs than anyone thought possible. On the Clippers, he’s presided over an unprecedented period of success for the franchise. As a GM, however, his record is not as spotless. Blessed with one of the most talented cores in the NBA in Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan, Rivers hasn’t been able to use the rest of the roster to take them to the next level.
One of his primary failings has been that he seems uncomfortable bringing on players with whom he has no firsthand experience, preferring instead to continually bring former Celtics or notable former opponents to LA, most recently dealing Lance Stephenson (a rare non-retread for Doc, but a failed gamble nonetheless) for Jeff Green, whose young Celtics years were under Doc. This insistence on familiarity was roasted to perfection by Amin Elhassan on the ESPN show NBA Tonight on Thursday.
It’s one thing for the wiseguys of NBA Twitter to joke about stuff like this, but to put it on the Worldwide Leader (and in genius flowchart form) is next level. Doc is not going to be happy about this, but when he brought another familiar face into town, he opened himself up for this treatment. For real, though, that burn about Doc’s son Austin is savage.
