Doc Rivers, Clippers reach agreement

Bill Simmons’ draft night hijacking of Rivers’ decision to step away from the rebuilding Celtics and join the well-assembled Clippers brought about the negative reaction from Boston fans. In an interview with USA Today’s Sam Amick, the new Clippers coach didn’t quite take the bait to defend himself. Asked if there were any misconceptions about the process of him leaving Boston, the coach held back except for one point.

That comment isn’t completely unfathomable. All along, Celtics general manager Danny Ainge said that while Rivers wavered on returning, both parties were fulling willing to go all-in on Rivers returning up to a day before the change was made. That was after talks between Boston knowingly releasing Rivers to sign in Los Angeles had failed multiple times.

Gentry will also bring a working knowledge of the Clippers organization to Rivers’ staff. He spent 2000-03 as the head coach in Los Angeles, and ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne reports Rivers sought out Gentry soon after he agreed to take the job himself.

Gentry was also an early candidate in the Clippers’ head-coaching search.

“I’ve done that gig. I’m done with that,” Ainge said, adding that he has only had time to compile a few hot names in his head.

Any questions as to why Ainge hasn’t planned to replace Rivers can be answered by Ainge’s surprise. After the Celtics’ season ended on May 3, Ainge didn’t believe rumors of Rivers’ apprehension to return to a rebuilding project in Boston. Five days later, Rivers met with Ainge to express his uncertainty but Ainge never thought it would end this way.

After Rivers inked the deal, the Celtics announced a receipt for a first-round pick being sent from Los Angeles as compensation for Rivers being allowed out of his contract with Boston. More interestingly, Rivers’ compensation agreement states that the Celtics and Clippers cannot engage in trades until after this upcoming season, according to CBS Sports’ Ken Berger.

Rivers is expected to hold a press conference on Wednesday, and Celtics general manager Danny Ainge will speak with Boston media Tuesday evening.

That completed an arduous process that included multiple delays in trade talks between the Clippers and Celtics, compromises in those trade talks, NBA-involved disruption about the legality of the talks and a dead period in the last few days as Rivers was assured of the plan moving forward.

Rivers wanted control in player personnel moves in Los Angeles, and the Boston Herald reported Tuesday that the last few days of relative silence -- after the NBA approved the Rivers deal -- were because he wanted to make sure things were “air tight” with Clippers owner Donald Sterling. Rivers said the Sterling-owned Clippers was the only team he asked to be traded from as a player.

The deal that hit a million snags has hit its million-and-first: Doc Rivers and the Los Angeles Clippers have not officially agreed to a deal, as contract language is still being negotiated, reports ESPN. Thus, the trade that should supposedly give the team the right to sign him as their coach has not officially been approved by the NBA.

ESPN had initially reported that the trade, which will send a 2015 first-round pick to the Celtics for Boston’s agreement to waive the non-compete clause on Doc Rivers’ existing contract, had been passed by the league office on Monday. But it seems the wording in Rivers’ contract has caused a hold-up, and the deal is still not technically in the books.

That is why you don’t trade unprotected firsts in shrugworthy trades like salary cap dumps.

As it turns out, Doc also happens to be a pretty good coach, so there’s benefit beyond keeping CP3. For a pick that should be in the 20s, this is a good haul and not really comparable to the Baron-Mo-Kyrie disaster.

Rivers is a tremendous coach who grew into one of the elite in his profession during his time in Boston, but few coaches are irreplaceable. The bottom line in this league is talent. The Celtics have access to more talent than they did when they finished the season on such an unsatisfying note. While it stings a city that came to love him, if Rivers’ heart wasn’t in a rebuilding process, what’s the point of having a $7 million coach?

Meanwhile, this was a deal the Clippers had to make. The risk of losing Paul is too great and Rivers is a perfect coach for a team with championship aspirations.

The teams await league approval on the deal, which is expected to pass as legal under current league terms.

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The parties now await league approval on the deal. The Clippers will trade their unprotected 2015 first-round draft pick in exchange for Rivers and have agreed to terms on a three-year, $21 million contract with the coach.

Rivers had indicated he no longer had interest in joining the Clippers and the deal was reportedly dead on Friday. Danny Ainge and Rivers were expected to hold a press conference on Monday to discuss their future. Rivers was deciding between returning to Boston or pursuing a career in television.

The Clippers have agreed to send their unprotected 2015 first-round draft pick in exchange for Rivers and have submitted the trade to the league. They are currently awaiting approval from the NBA, though it is expected to be legal under league rules.

Discussions had cooled between the sides earlier in the week, but Paul expressed to the Clippers that he wanted Rivers to be the coach of the Clippers going forward. If the league approves of the deal, this would likely seal the Clippers’ future with Paul.

Rivers has agreed to a three-year, $21 million deal to coach the Clippers, Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski reports.

Wojnarowski first reported that talks between the two teams were back on Sunday after the league raised concerns Thursday about the proposed deal involving both Rivers and Garnett.

If the Clippers and Celtics are able to strike a deal, the league will have questions regarding any other activity between the teams. The head office appears prepared to challenge any trade that would send Garnett to the Clippers within weeks of a Rivers trade, but what about a few months down the road?

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It was first reported Friday that Rivers was no longer interested in the opportunity to coach the Clippers after discussions between the teams stalled stalled again. At that point, rumors pointed to Rivers and the Celtics discussing their future with the Clippers out of the picture.

NBA commissioner David Stern has also made his presence felt as the teams negotiate, questioning the legality of a trade as a side deal of a larger transaction and stating the league would “know how to deal with that.”

Clippers president Andy Roeser has spoken with Scott’s representatives about contractual figures since Friday.

Top Los Angeles front office members are expected to present a case for the top candidates to Clippers owner Donald Sterling on Monday, and a decision is to be made soon after. The Clippers are using the weekend to plan around any failure to land Rivers, who has been their top candidate. Likewise, the Celtics are expected to have a news conference on Monday regarding Rivers’ situation.

Chris Sheridan has a report about a purported near-fight between the two, and cites it as the reason for Rivers’ exit strategy. That seems like an awfully cute way by someone to pin this on a player who is already known as tempestuous while letting Doc largely off the hook for his wanderlust. (Also, what sparked the supposed near-brawl? Was Rondo dropping an “f-bomb” on Doc? Like that hasn’t happened before?)

Regardless, Doc isn’t willing to stick it out with Rondo, arguably the best player Boston’s had since 2010. That says more about Rivers than anyone else. He has a moody star, yes, but a player cut from a similar cloth to him, a player who thrives on boosting the production of his teammates, a fearless, heady point guard who has never backed down from a challenge. And what does Doc do? He backs down from the challenge.

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The Celtics initially called a press conference featuring both Danny Ainge and Rivers for Friday at noon, but soon postponed it until Monday. The Clippers weren’t offering a first round pick for Rivers on Thursday, but following the announcement of the press conference early Friday, rumors persist that the Clippers could may have put a lottery-protected 2015 first-round draft pick on the table for Rivers.

The leverage battle between both sides has made it unclear as to what either organization is looking for or is willing to offer. If the the latest from Wojnarowski is true, though, it appears discussions have remained fruitless and could come to an end if Rivers indeed no longer has interest in joining the Clippers.

For now, the Celtics have put their announcement on hold. They’ve created a new negotiating window that lasts through the weekend, and Sterling has another opportunity to haggle over the appropriate compensation for releasing Rivers from the obligations under his five-year, $35 million deal with the Celtics. By the time Monday comes around, Boston may be ready to announce something completely different than what they had planned to say on Friday. That’s how you drive a bargain with Donald Sterling and the Clippers, I guess.

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According to a report from Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, the Nuggets offered a first round draft pick to bring Rivers to town approximately 10 days ago. At the time, the Celtics were not prepared to discuss letting Rivers go. Nuggets CEO Josh Kroenke and general manager Danny Ainge briefly discussed a deal, but nothing came of it.

Rivers currently has three years and $21 million remaining on his contract with Boston.

The Clippers are threatening to end discussions regarding the potential blockbuster that previously hit another snag on Thursday.

The Celtics were asking to receive Jordan and a pick for Garnett, but were also looking for a another draft pick for Rivers. ESPN reported Thursday that the Clippers were first concentrating on landing Rivers before further discussing a trade for Garnett.

Moving forward, the Clippers must first agree with the Celtics on an appropriate amount of compensation for letting Rivers walk and then somehow convince the NBA that whatever trade for Garnett -- and whatever the return package might be -- is not related Rivers.

Rivers is highly sought after by Los Angeles because it is believed free agent point guard Chris Paul will re-sign with the Clippers if they can land the coach.

The trade had its legality reportedly questioned by the league on Thursday morning. By Thursday afternoon, the commissioner went on ESPN Radio to note that the deal isn’t going to get done if the teams are just going to try to circumvent the league’s established rules regarding transactions.

“If we know what the parties really want to do is just one deal and that they’re going to break it into two for the purposes of trying to avoid the restrictions that the Collective Bargaining Agreement places on them,” Stern said, “... well, we know how to deal with that as well.”

That deal sounds fairly reasonable, but it’s apparently illegal by NBA standards due to the fact that Rivers can’t technically be involved in the trade. To get around that, the Celtics are asking the Clippers to include the first-round picks in exchange for Boston releasing Rivers from his current contract -- the “contingency” that is illegal under NBA rules.

The league obviously already has issues with this deal (considering Stein reports they sent correspondence to each team letting them know), leading Sports Illustrated legal expert Michael McCann to opine that it’d be impossible for the two teams to go back and argue that the deal is separate now that it’s been reported as a two-part trade since it was reported on in the media.

When trade rumors featuring the Clippers and Celtics surfaced last week, Del Negro was initially named as a potential “stop gap” solution for Boston. His low price tag opened him up to consideration, but his iffy relationship with Jordan may foreclose the option. Woj says Ainge likes Del Negro, but he may not be “the right guy at the right time for Boston.”

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