While the Celtics have been on a steady incline over the last five seasons in Eastern Conference, nearly the opposite has occurred for Doc Rivers out West since leaving town. The head coach lost his front office responsibilities with the Clippers this offseason amidst a second-straight, first-round departure from the postseason. The early exits were largely a byproduct of a flawed roster that Rivers assembled around his star trio of Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, and DeAndre Jordan.
The Clippers tried to shake things up within their core this summer to address the disappointing stretch of finishes. They brought in Jerry West as a consultant and named Lawrence Frank as a top executive. They traded away a star in Paul (per his request) to the Rockets for a mix of role players (Patrick Beverley, Lou Williams, Sam Dekker, Montrezl Harrell). They doubled down on building around Griffin and brought in a new mix of offensive talent in Milos Teodosic and Danilo Gallinari. This should have been a fresh start that would allow Rivers a chance to hone in on his coaching responsibilities instead of wearing too many hats.
Things started splendidly back in October as the Clippers won their first four games, three of them in convincing blowouts. Since then, it's been nothing but bad news in Hollywood. Two veteran additions with histories of physical problems (Teodosic and Gallinari) have gone down with injuries. The team's best backcourt defender (Beverley) has been sidelined for the last couple weeks as well. Without them, the Clippers have quietly slid toward the basement in the Western Conference, losing their eighth straight game on Saturday night against the Charlotte Hornets.
At the moment, the 5-10 Clippers have the fifth-worst record in the NBA despite having the sixth-highest payroll at $119 million. Billionaire owner Steve Ballmer is flirting with paying a luxury tax bill for the fourth straight season at that kind of money, and he's not going to be happy doing it for a lottery team, which means something is going to have to change with the Clippers soon. Whether it be the trade of a big name (Jordan) or a coaching change, a shakeup will come if the losing continues.
This is not to say you can put all of the struggles on Rivers. Injuries matter in this league, and losing three rotation pieces on a squad with limited depth on the bottom of the roster has been a challenge to manage. Without Beverley, the Clippers have regressed into one of the worst defensive teams in the league over their nine-game losing streak, while settling in as a middle of the road offensive team. Without Paul, more of the offensive onus has transferred to Griffin, and it hasn't gone well (career-low 41 percent shooting thus far). Lou Williams, at age 31, has been their second best offensive scorer at 17.7 ppg, not necessarily a good thing for a team with a $119 million payroll.
The biggest problem that Rivers has is the Clippers are losing all of these games with their top two stars, Griffin and Jordan, in the lineup. They are losing a lot of games to teams they should beat (vs. Memphis, vs. Miami, vs. Philadelphia). They've allowed 104 points or more in all nine of their latest losses. They are built to try to outscore teams, but they don't have the firepower to do it, and I'm not sure that changes when Beverley or Gallinari come back. (Tedosic is expected to be out awhile).
When the formula isn't working, something has to change, whether it's the scheme, talent, or voice in the locker room. The Clippers tried changing the collection of talent last offseason, so the next most logical switch would be a new coach, barring moving on from a soon-to-be free agent like Jordan. Either way, tensions will be high in Los Angeles over the next few weeks. Rivers will get a chance to keep things together as he starts getting some of his injured pieces back, but the clock may already be ticking on his tenure in LA.
Around the NBA
- Sixers cut into their 2018 salary cap room more this past week by agreeing to a four-year $62 million extension with swingman Robert Covington. The move makes sense since it allows them to give Covington a big raise this season, but Philly is down to about $25 million in salary cap room for next summer. That's enough to make some noise, but it also makes them less of a threat for a guy like Marcus Smart.
- The Knicks cut Mindaugas Kuzminskas in order to make room for Joakim Noah on the roster as he returned from suspension. The forward is an intriguing piece, but the Celtics aren't shaking anything up with this roster right now with the way they are playing. Boston should have their sights set on better talent to fill the 15th spot on their roster down the road.
- D'Angelo Russell will miss the next several months for the Brooklyn Nets after undergoing knee surgery, but the Nets (6-9) are still playing respectable basketball without him, as the Celtics saw on Tuesday night. Brooklyn only has the eighth worst record in the league through 15 games.
- Meanwhile, the Lakers have dropped four of five since coming to Boston with a 5-5 record a couple weeks back. Their offense remains in the bottom five of the league.