We expect Austin Rivers to support his dad as the head coach of the Los Angeles Clippers. Blood runs thick here. And the two have done pretty well for the Clippers’ franchise during their time in Los Angeles.
It still has not equated to as much as a conference finals appears for the Clippers since the elder Rivers took over as the team’s head coach in 2013.
This has led to speculation that the Clippers themselves might be in store for a massive overhaul during the summer. If you ask the younger Rivers his opinion on this, he seems to passionately believe the team is close to championship contention. In fact, the backup guard didn’t mince words in a recent interview with TMZ Sports.
“We still feel like we can be an NBA championship team,” Rivers said while indicating the team was a “piece away” from being champs.
Rivers then went on to indicate that it would be “idiotic” to break up the Clippers’ current core.
There’s a couple flaws with this argument.
First off, the obvious. Los Angeles remains miles away from the Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference.
Sans the team adding a Kevin Durant or Stephen Curry from Golden State, that will likely remain the case next season. Put it this way. Los Angeles lost all four of its games against the Warriors by a combined 86 points during the regular season.
Secondly, it might not be the Clippers’ decision as to whether this thing is blown up. While Doc Rivers has denied rumors that he might depart for the Orlando Magic, there might very well be some truth to that.
Meanwhile, the likes of Blake Griffin, J.J. Redick and Chris Paul are all slated to become free agents this summer. Retaining all three while adding another top-end player seems extremely unlikely.
Rivers may want to go to bat for his teammates and his coach. That makes sense. But there’s a whole lot more in play here than simple emotions.