Doc Rivers and the Los Angeles Clippers are currently in their second summer of change, and by now it’s clear that a full-on rebuild is underway for Los Angeles’ other NBA franchise.
Rivers may no longer be president of the Clippers but is still active in basketball matters beyond just being the team’s head coach. While last summer’s offseason included a sign-and-trade that saw Chris Paul leave the organization, this summer has featured another star leave the team in free agency, as DeAndre Jordan made a move to the Dallas Mavericks after the team explored trade options for him throughout the season.
Another notable move was the trade of Rivers’ son, Austin. What’s left in L.A. now is a team undergoing a bit of upheaval, but despite some earlier rumors that he was unhappy with the situation with the Clippers, it seems that Rivers is excited to help the franchise rebuild.
Steve Bullpett of the Boston Herald spoke to Rivers while the two were at Summer League in Las Vegas and the former Celtics head coach complimented what’s happened in Boston while comparing his situation in Los Angeles to what Boston did after his team won the title in 2008.
“Yeah, but we’re rebuilding in a little different way,” he said. “And, you know, it’s easy to rebuild when you haven’t won, you know what I mean? We won in Boston, so rebuilding there is tough. We haven’t won crap in LA, but we’re trying to.
“The goal is to win, and once you win — if you ever do — then I don’t want to rebuild anymore. Then you go to the next one. That’s the way I look at it.”
It will be a very different Clippers team that Rivers coaches this fall — the team will try to get a pair of rookie, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jerome Robinson, assimilated, plus Patrick Beverley will return after missing most of last season due to knee surgery. Still, there are reasons for optimism for a franchise in search of an identity after losing a number of contributors in the last year or so. Based on his comments, though, it seems that Rivers is committed to seeing things through in Los Angeles for as long as the franchise will have him.
