Family Dinner Is For Sure Awkward In The Rivers Household Now

And we’re off! Consider this a little primer for everyone to remain at their battle stations for basically the next week plus, because the floodgates are open and things are happening. Now it’s important to remember, this was not Doc Rivers trading his son away. He gave up his GM duties and they hired a guy named Michael Winger to run the basketball operations of Lob City. However, he was definitely consulted and gave his blessing, which is the exact type of awkwardness I crave. Granted he also was in charge when Rivers was given his 3/35M deal, so maybe things aren’t so hostile between the two. Austin was basically out of the league until Ainge saved him and traded him to the Clippers, and to his credit he actually developed into a decent depth guard in today’s league.

So the question becomes, why did this trade happen? Well it’s especially interesting from the Clippers perspective, because they’re now brining in another center. Does this mean they are expecting DeAndre Jordan to opt out? Maybe they are preparing for someone to offer Montrezl Harrell a big RFA offer? The Jordan theory seems weird considering we got this report from Stein earlier today

In terms of money this doesn’t really give either side any relief, as Rivers was in the last year of his deal at $12.6M and Gortat is in the last year of his deal at $13.5M. To me this tells me they felt they had a logjam at the guard position given who they drafted and wanted to roll with Jerome Robinson/SGA while at the same time having some Jordan insurance. Not the worst move in the world when you look at it through that lense.

For the Wizards, it’s a bit more confusing. Are we sure Austin Rivers sees himself as a backup point guard anymore? He started 59 of the 61 games he played this past season, and one look at the Wizards roster says they are not lacking guard depth. Does this mean they have more fireworks planned? It’s no surprise they wanted to move Gortat, him and John Wall clearly hate each other, but now they are a little thin up front given what you think of guys like Ian Mahimi or Mike Scott. I could see them being in on someone maybe like Nerlens Noel or a player like that in free agency, the problem is they already have like $125M committed in salary. Maybe someone like Greg Monroe who is a DC guy given his time at Georgetown, or maybe Alex Len who just got released, perhaps Kyle O’Quinn. The point is they need to do something. At this point it wuoldn’t shock me if they try and move someone like Otto Porter Jr or Oubre but I’m not sure there’d be too many takers for that type of money.

I’d say Rivers provides some injury insurance for Beal/Wall, but this isn’t exactly a guy who’s been able to stay healthy at any point in his career. The 2014 season was his best in terms of GP and that number came in at 76. In his seven year career he’s played over 69 games just twice, so there are just as many injury concerns when it comes to Rivers and his ability to fill in.

So while it may seem like this was an insignificant trade involving mostly insignificant players, in my opinion it’s anything but. We’ll know in the coming days what Jordan ultimately decides, but if I had to guess this is more about Harrell and their new draft picks than it is Jordan.