Doc Rivers loses front office job, will still coach Clippers

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Doc Rivers loses front office job, will still coach Clippers

Postby Andrew on Sat Aug 05, 2017 1:15 pm

Clippers coach Doc Rivers no longer in charge of basketball operations

Los Angeles Clippers head coach and president of basketball operations Doc Rivers is losing one of his titles.

According to Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, via ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and later confirmed by the team, Rivers will still have a say in front office and personnel matters, but he will cede control of basketball operations to Lawrence Frank, who moved to the front office as the team’s vice president of basketball ops in 2016.

“I’ve owned the team for three years now, and I really better understand what an owner’s responsibility is — and it turns out that running a franchise and coaching are two enormous and different jobs,” Ballmer told ESPN. “The notion that one person can fairly focus on them and give them all the attention they need isn’t the case. To be as good as we can be, to be a championship franchise, we need two functioning strong people building teams out beneath them. There needs to be a healthy discussion and debate with two strong, independent-minded people.”

The Clippers had seemingly been moving in this direction in an unofficial capacity ever since Frank took over as the VP of basketball operations last summer. Balmer told ESPN that Rivers put Frank “in charge of the non-coaching aspects of the front office last year.” The franchise also hired Jerry West as an adviser in June. The shift in responsibilities for Rivers had long been rumored, and is now official. Pat Riley made it work too, including the championship in 2006.

The move is also long overdue. Rivers had too much on his plate, and his performance in both of his roles had been underwhelming. With Frank capable of running the front office, it made little sense to keep Rivers inundated with split responsibilities. Ballmer also mentioned that a squad that could be welcoming as many as 10 new players — and one that lost its former franchise cornerstone, Chris Paul — will need Rivers’ undivided attention.


In some cases, giving the head coach front office power and thus control over their roster has worked out. Gregg Popovich had a decent run in dual roles that included the Spurs' first championship, before he ultimately relinquished the GM role to R.C. Buford. Stan Van Gundy has made a couple of decent moves in Detroit, and Tom Thibodeau has had a really successful offseason in Minnesota.

Doc's run holding down both positions with the Clippers has been a little more suspect; underwhelming, as the article put it. I'd say the Chris Paul situation was the straw that broke the camel's back, despite what Doc's kids may say in his defense. I still say where there's smoke, there's fire, in regards to that situation.
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Re: Doc Rivers loses front office job, will still coach Clippers

Postby [Q] on Sat Aug 05, 2017 3:40 pm

All that money and talent they've had has been squandered, so it's fitting that he lose his job. The fact that he couldn't figure out how to utilize that talent in all those years is a bit of a waste of prime years from CP3 and Blake
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Re: Doc Rivers loses front office job, will still coach Clippers

Postby Andrew on Sat Aug 05, 2017 7:20 pm

Absolutely. The alleged nepotism is just the final straw, he's not lived up to the hype from his success in Boston.
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Re: Doc Rivers loses front office job, will still coach Clippers

Postby Sauru on Sun Aug 06, 2017 10:12 am

Andrew wrote:Absolutely. The alleged nepotism is just the final straw, he's not lived up to the hype from his success in Boston.



austin could have coached that team to a ring
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Re: Doc Rivers loses front office job, will still coach Clippers

Postby Andrew on Sun Aug 06, 2017 11:24 am

Well, let's not lose our heads here. :lol: But yeah, they made him look really good; perhaps better than he really is.
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Re: Doc Rivers loses front office job, will still coach Clippers

Postby benji on Sun Aug 06, 2017 3:35 pm

It's worth noting, that Pop never had the near unchecked command that Rivers and some of these others do, all the guys who have spread throughout the league handled the day to day, he just had more of a say than a coach normally does and final decision.

SVG and Thibs have similar situations. Former NBA GMs both work on the Pistons and Timberwolves staff, Jeff Bower and Scott Layden respectively hold the title of GM and handle all the day-to-day. SVG and Thibs just have that final say and a larger overall say which they probably would anyway as successful coaches. (Unless they were on a team where the owner and GM hated their coach?) Even before he formally became one in Miami, Pat Riley was increasingly getting extra say as he won, which is why he eventually decided he could do the GM job too. (And it worked until he had to rebuild, which is often the problem here, the "coach" needs the "GM" to think longer term and sometimes say no. But Pat would sign 35 year old veterans and deal away draft picks, etc.)

Well, technically owners have the final say.
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Re: Doc Rivers loses front office job, will still coach Clippers

Postby air gordon on Mon Aug 07, 2017 2:21 am

You could legitly place blame rivers one year for not "winning". The other years either Paul or Griffin would be injured
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Re: Doc Rivers loses front office job, will still coach Clippers

Postby Sauru on Mon Aug 07, 2017 8:22 am

air gordon wrote:You could legitly place blame rivers one year for not "winning". The other years either Paul or Griffin would be injured


they still would have lost though. its better they got hurt, gives them a good excuse
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Re: Doc Rivers loses front office job, will still coach Clippers

Postby air gordon on Tue Aug 08, 2017 2:40 am

Better to say that than the lazy argument of rivers didn't utilize the players he had blah blah
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Re: Doc Rivers loses front office job, will still coach Clippers

Postby [Q] on Tue Aug 08, 2017 3:09 am

He should have kicked Blake Griffin's ass for taking long 2s the same way Woodson had to for Josh Smith's 3s
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