After the past week and a half of drama that was the Doc Rivers saga, it appears it all has come to an end.
According to ESPN's Jackie MacMullan and Yahoo! Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski, the Clippers and Celtics have agreed in principle on a deal that would allow Rivers to become the next head coach of the Los Angeles Clippers. For compensation, the Celtics will receive an unprotected-2015 first-round pick back to Boston.
Rivers will essentially have the same deal as he did with Boston, which is three years, $21 million.
The two sides have been at this for a better part of two weeks now. After the talks alternating between on and off for the better part of last week, both L.A. and Boston have finally come to an agreement.
The talks began with a swap of big men. The Celtics were to send center Kevin Garnett to L.A. in exchange for DeAndre Jordan. However, in an interview on ESPN Radio on Thursday afternoon, NBA commissioner David Stern ruled out any such deal due to restrictions under the new collective-bargaining agreement.
Under the new CBA, which was signed in November 2011, a coach cannot be included in any transactions. With that in mind, the two sides tried to make two deals for one: Rivers would be released from his current deal with the Celtics -- Rivers had three years and $21 million owed remaining on his contract -- and sign with the Clippers while the Garnett trade would follow.
Throughout the entire process, the Clippers have been hesitant and stingy with their demands. They refused to take one of Boston's mid-level contracts -- Jason Terry and Courtney Lee were named that popped up -- refused to give up two first-round picks, refused to include Eric Bledsoe in any deal, and were gun-ho about only giving up one second-round pick for Rivers.
On Friday, according to Yahoo! Sports, Doc Rivers' agent told L.A. that he was no longer interested in the job and that he was going to decide between returning to Boston for a tenth season or take a broadcasting job. Multiple sources have confirmed that the aforementioned move by Rivers was a ploy to get the Clippers to change their minds on compensation.
According to multiple sources, this deal revived over the weekend for one reason and one reason only: Chris Paul. Paul, an unrestricted free agent, wants to play for Doc Rivers. One source said that it would be a "guarantee" that Paul would re-sign with L.A. Paul has been frustrated with the process all along, and he pushed ownership to change their stance on compensation. And it appears ownership has listened to Paul's demands.
As for the Celtics, they felt that the best way to rebuild was to use their two most valuable assets, which were Rivers and Garnett. However, league officials believe that any deal for K.G. is on hold in light of Stern's comments. Garnett has two years and $24 million remaining on his current deal. Garnett has said in the past that Rivers is the only coach he wants to play for, so it will be interesting to see what happens with Garnett.
The other important domino for the Celtics is Paul Pierce. As you all may know by now, the Celtics have until June 30 to either buy out Pierce for $5 million or keep him and his $15.3 million contract on the roster. According to reports, Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge has been shopping Pierce and looking to get compensation in the form of a first-round pick for Pierce. So far, Ainge has been unsuccessful.
The Celtics will hold a press conference tomorrow at noon where Rivers will explain his decision for leaving Boston.
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