KG and Rivers to the Clippers?

[Andrew]

Talks have reportedly stalled, but it's an interesting situation:

Discussions over a blockbuster deal to send Boston Celtics star Kevin Garnett to the Los Angeles Clippers – with Doc Rivers as coach – reached an impasse on Saturday afternoon, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.

The Clippers are willing to part with center DeAndre Jordan and a first-round draft pick for Garnett – and the rights to hire Rivers – but so far have refused to include Boston's desire for point guard Eric Bledsoe into the package, sources said.

Since the February trade deadline, Bledsoe had been a part of talks for Garnett, and more recently, Rivers, but that changed Saturday morning, league sources said. The Clippers were no longer willing to part with Bledsoe, sources told Y! Sports.

If the deal completely falls apart, Celtics management and Rivers are still committed to his return to Boston as coach.

Garnett, 37, will waive his no-trade clause to leave Boston only if Rivers joins him as coach, sources said. Rivers still needed to talk to Clippers star Chris Paul about his free-agency plans this summer, sources told Yahoo! Sports. It is believed that the arrival of Rivers and Garnett would be the final moves needed to assure Paul to re-signing with the Clippers in July.

[benji]

Also there were suggestions they'd dump Pierce so he could potentially follow to LA.

[_Steve_]

From the Clippers' perspective it's reasonable not to ship off Bledsoe while Paul's future with the organisation is still in vain.
Also read on SI that Clippers might be interested to trade Bledsoe and Griffin for Dwight Howard. I'm still not sure what (D'Antoni coached) Lakers should do with Griffin other than trade him to a 3rd team.

[NovU]

Hot damn. Grey haired Kevin Garnett teaming up with Chris Paul. I think this would have worked really well couple years ago because both excel in toned/settled down slow paced games. Let's just hope today's KG still has some gas left in his tank.

[Patr1ck]

It's all overblown crap. There isn't much happening this off season other than Chris Paul and Dwight Howard, and the coaching changes, so they are coming up with all these farfetched possibilities. Possibly trying to give the teams ideas or influence them in one way or another.

After losing Chris Paul to the Clippers from a Stern trade veto, does anyone really think the Lakers will sign and trade Dwight to the crosstown team?
Blake Griffin is untouchable.
Doc Rivers has a no compete clause(can't coach a different team while under contract with Celtics)and journalists are probably feeding off that old KG trade rumor that they were talking about during the season.
What happened to CP3 and D12 teaming up in Atlanta or Houston? That faded quick with fines, as this one will, but without fines.
I don't see how Paul Pierce will fit in with the Clippers, unless Caron Butler is gone.

How more ridiculous can they get with these ideas?

[shadowgrin]

Clauses in contracts can be repealed or changed with approval from the parties involved in the contract.

I don't see how Paul Pierce will fit in with the Clippers, unless Caron Butler is gone.

Have Pierce and Butler start at either 3 and 2.
Or if Billups returns and is a starter, Butler will be the '6th man' with Crawford. Greatly improve the Clippers bench a lot.
Unless the Clippers are happy with starting Willie Green.

[NovU]

It's all overblown crap. There isn't much happening this off season other than Chris Paul and Dwight Howard, and the coaching changes, so they are coming up with all these farfetched possibilities. Possibly trying to give the teams ideas or influence them in one way or another.

After losing Chris Paul to the Clippers from a Stern trade veto, does anyone really think the Lakers will sign and trade Dwight to the crosstown team?
Blake Griffin is untouchable.
Doc Rivers has a no compete clause(can't coach a different team while under contract with Celtics)and journalists are probably feeding off that old KG trade rumor that they were talking about during the season.
What happened to CP3 and D12 teaming up in Atlanta or Houston? That faded quick with fines, as this one will, but without fines.
I don't see how Paul Pierce will fit in with the Clippers, unless Caron Butler is gone.

How more ridiculous can they get with these ideas?

You might be right.

But I can still imagine KG not wanting to stay in Boston nor Celtics wanting to hang onto him for another season. I think some interesting changes are going to be made in Boston. Not sure what Celtics fans think of on this matter though. Where's that Sauru kid when we need his opinion.

[[Q]]

oh god no. please, just no. eff Boston

it would be essentially renting garnett for one or two years before he retires if they fail to win it all. DeAndre & especially Bledsoe are worth more than a year or two of garnett & rivers's services

[_Steve_]

DeAndre needs to develop, therefore he needs a coach that supports his development even if that means to sacrifice potential instant success. If you are looking at how volatile coaches positions are right now - CoY got fired, coaches that set franchise records for wins got fired - I don't know if the Clippers are patient enough to build a contender the hard way...

[Jackal]

Why would the Lakers want to trade DH to the Clippers? In which world is that even a possibility?

Then again with Jim Buss I can't even be sure to know what direction this is headed in. Ah..here's to another shitfest of an off season.

Interesting trade for the Celtics if it happens the way they want it to; Bledsoe & Jordan are a good deal for sure.

[Sauru]

if the deal goes down and the clippers end up with rivers garnett and pierce without having to give up more than jordan and bledsoe than i really like the clippers chances at winning it all the next 2 seasons. i think kg and pierce would be a good fit there and rivers is a much better coach than they are used to. they wont make the deal without first making sure paul is staying. they will not get howard from the lakers

[graybakflip]

Likely wont happen

Adrian Wojnarowski ‏@WojYahooNBA 1m
Within Celtics, this process has never grown acrimonious between management and Doc Rivers. At $7M per season, he remains the coach.

Brad Turner ‏@BA_Turner 40m

Doc Rivers been informed Clippers won’t accept Celtics offer. Rivers prepared to stay in Boston, sources.

[Stress Fracture]

Likely will happen. Boston wants another player aside from Bledsoe to complete the deal.

Discussions over a blockbuster deal reached an impasse on Saturday when Boston general manager Danny Ainge held firm that Bledsoe had to be a part of package that included DeAndre Jordan and a first-round pick, but sources say that Boston has shown a willingness to find another asset to supplant Bledsoe and complete the complicated deal, sources said.

[benji]

Mark Heisler: Specifics dodgy at this point. What I know: Talks warming up. KG, PP now in proposall. #Celtic owners fine w/not paying Doc $7M to rebuild

Dan Woike: I can confirm @Adrian Wojnarowski report that talks between Clippers and Boston have resumed.

Chris Mannix: Sentiment around the league is that Doc Rivers/Boston has reached point of no return, regardless of the outcome of Clippers talks.
Chris Mannix: Said one league exec, "He has made it clear he doesn't want to be there. They know his heart won't be in it. Hard to go back like that."

Baxter Holmes: League source estimates there's a 60% chance Doc coaches Clips, 30% he returns to broadcasting, 10% he returns to C's.

The Clippers are prepared to give Rivers a five-year deal to coach and believe acquiring Rivers and Garnett – who will waive his no-trade clause – will lock up the re-signing of free-agent superstar Chris Paul, sources said. The prospects of bringing Rivers back to the Celtics have become less appealing for Boston, who understand, as one league executive said, "There's no putting the genie back in the bottle. You can't pretend this didn't happen and just go back to work."

[shadowgrin]

I've said it before, Ainge is terrible at handling this stuff.

[Sauru]

i really want them to trade rivers and kg. hell i want them to trade pierce also. i am ready to blow it up and start again

[Andrew]

i really want them to trade rivers and kg. hell i want them to trade pierce also. i am ready to blow it up and start again

To do otherwise would be delaying the inevitable. If they were still able to seriously contend then you might let them have one more time around the block, but as it stands they're pretty much resigned to mediocrity and token Playoff appearances, so it wouldn't be a Krause move to start transitioning into the next era. It's kind of a shame that Pierce won't be able to retire a Celtic, though.

[NovU]

It's kind of a shame that Pierce won't be able to retire a Celtic, though.

What's unfortunate is Pierce not really leaving on his own term but it feels more like he's being deserted after being a face of franchise for his entire life. Each team has a somewhat distinctive franchise culture that they like to promote. And I think the Celtics has a shitty one.

[Andrew]

Absolutely. From all accounts, it doesn't seem like he wants out, but is more or less accepting (or at least doing his best to come to terms with) the idea that the Celtics are moving on and he's become a commodity to help jumpstart a rebuilding era.

It can be argued that the notion Pierce should retire a Celtic is purely sentimental and that there's no room for that when looking at the bottom line: putting together a team that can compete and not paying big contracts to aging players for mediocre results, mainly because those big contracts make it difficult to put together a competitive roster in the first place. There's a time and a place for sentimentality, with teams having to consider the future and make tough decisions to set up their next move or for other business reasons, so the Celtics' position is understandable.

At the same time though, the way they're treating Pierce sends a message to prospective free agents. If a team is willing to casually toss aside the longtime face of the franchise when transitioning into a new era, what kind of trust can you place in the front office? It's a situation that needs to be handled delicately and it remains to be seen whether Danny Ainge is capable of that.

[Sauru]

just because you are not hearing pierce demand a trade does not mean he wants to stay in boston. rivers is leaving no matter what and its very likely that garnett is also done in boston. so with those 2 gone and allen having already bolted to miami do you guys really think pierce will want to stay in boston instead of making another championship run or two?

you think its shitty for boston to trade him? whats worse trading him so he can compete or forcing him to work his ass off to try and make the 8th seed?

[NovU]

It's shitty because the players are leaving the Celtics without a smile on their face. Perkins left with tears on his face. Ray left with a bitter laugh. Kevin Garnett has nothing positive to say probably. Pierce is all upset at the moment and he's been the Michael Jordan of this generation's Celtics. I am not saying the Celtics aren't better off without them but things could have been handled much more delicately.

[Sauru]

how could they have handled the allen situation better? he left. they offered him more money than he is worth now and he wanted to chase a ring. thats not on boston thats on ray. garnett has said nothing but good things about boston. he is at the end of his career and wants to only continue with his coach. cant blame a guy for not wanting to build another relationship with a new coach just before he retires. the perkins situation is one where the entire team was against the move. what made the trade worse is green had to sit the season out. now with a healthy green last season the celtics may be the defending champs right now. with green and bradley there is no doubt in my mind that they would have won it all last year. so even though perkins being traded was something no one liked at first it turned out to be a great move for boston and i am sure none of the players would bitch about it now.

as for pierce i have yet to see anywhere that he is upset

[Andrew]

From this report:

"I don't think they will (bring Pierce back)," Dickerson said Sunday on CSNNE. "And I know that the company that Paul Pierce hangs around in, they do not believe – and I don't think Paul Pierce believes – that he is going to be brought back next year at $15 million. I know for a fact that people around Paul Pierce have pretty much resigned themselves to the fact that he's played his final game in a Boston Celtics uniform. Again, Paul wants to stay – obviously for $15 million, but he wants to finish his career in a Celtics uniform."

I recall him expressing similar sentiments at other times in recent years. If he wants to stay and be a part of the transition, that's admirable. If the Celtics want to move on, that's understandable, but it's a situation that should be handled delicately if they're looking to trade or buyout a player who wants to retire a Celtic (and has probably earned that right), even if that means being part of a mediocre team.

Anyway, seems the deal has fallen apart. Seems like Rivers will be stepping down in Boston.

[Sauru]

rivers dont have much choice but to leave now. the guy pretty much has forced bostons hand here. he is doing this season what ray did last, get out and get to a team with a shot at winning it all

[[Q]]

what if the clips take Courtney Lee's contract? are there any scenarios where they be able to keep bledsoe?