Doc Rivers' executive order in L.A.
— -- Doc Rivers' relationship with Danny Ainge was often characterized as a partnership. The Boston Celtics' head coach and president of basketball operations would work together -- on personnel moves and hires and the like -- but Ainge retained final say.
Now with Rivers serving as both the chef and the guy that buys the groceries for the Los Angeles Clippers, he dismisses the idea that there is any discernable difference between his old and new arrangements. Except for the most important part.
"There really is no actual difference in the two roles except when you do disagree," said Rivers, who is in his second season as Clippers head coach and president of basketball ops. "And Danny and I would disagree at times. At times he would say, 'I need to do this, can you go with me?' Or, 'You know what? I'll go with you.' And it's almost the same.
"[Clippers executives] Kevin Eastman, Dave Wohl and Gary Sacks -- it's no different. They'll come in and say they like a deal, and I'll say 'I don't like it.' They'll sit there and say they really like it and, 'You should do it.' One day, I'll go with you and one day I'll disagree. The only difference now is if I really disagree, I get my way."
Rivers might have said this with a wink and he'll continue to maintain there's no substantive difference, but he fully understands that ultimate authority is an enormous privilege -- and he's not going to apologize for that. It's no big deal but, yeah, since you asked, I have veto power.
The job of NBA general manager has advanced mightily over the past decade. As the salary cap has evolved from a polite restraint to a gnarly beast, taming it has become an essential task for every front office. In many respects, ignoring this reality of long-range planning might have as much to do with the state of the Los Angeles Lakers and New York Knicks as anything else. Players still win and lose basketball games, but the guys in control of the machinery that assembles those players have never been more important.
It's in this environment in July 2013 that the Clippers acquired Rivers from the Celtics in exchange for a protected 2015 first-round draft pick and the three years and $21 million that remained of Rivers' contract. Though he absorbed a fair amount of criticism for his disinterest in coaching during a rebuilding process in Boston, Rivers was installed not only as head coach, but as senior vice president of basketball operations. Team president Andy Roeser, who had counseled Donald Sterling for 30 years, would still be the primary conduit to ownership, but Rivers would effectively own the general manager title, and the final say.
A little more than a year later, Rivers' contract was replaced with a new one worth $50 million over five years. He also traded a notoriously penny-pincher in Sterling for a rabidly enthusiastic and deep-pocketed Steve Ballmer. More than his resources, Ballmer meant Rivers no longer had to rely on Roeser as the filter between him and the owner. After enduring a spring wherein they were at the center of a gross public spectacle and lost a gut-wrencher of a conference semifinal to the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Clippers were on top of the world -- and Rivers was the man in charge.
Still, given his lack of experience, onlookers around the league have their fair share of questions about Rivers: The Executive. Does he respect the fact that management is a skill set unto itself, a craft honed not just by years of observation, but by a breadth of day-to-day experience over that same duration? Does he feel the work fundamentally matters? That the thoroughness of information-gathering can vary and that the specific processes employed by each of the 30 teams aren't created equal? Or is Rivers with those who believe the fortunes of a franchise ultimately reside with the head coach, his staff and the 15 players in the locker room?
"Let me say this: As a player -- and I was a player once -- when the deal's down, do you think the players actually think it's the coach and the players, then management, or do you think the players think it's the coach and the management?" was Rivers' rhetorical question. "I mean, come on. It's always the same. It's the same with even contracts. When a player doesn't get his contract, do you think he blames Danny Ainge or do you think they blame the coach? Most of the time, they blame the coach more because they think the coach didn't go to bat for them. You can tell them all day, 'Listen, guys. It was ownership. The only problem I have now is it's tough to blame ownership. You could say ownership didn't want to pay you last year. Now, it's hard to say. Now you have to say, 'I think ownership would pay, but we don't want to pay'"
In Rivers' view, if and when the Clippers make trade calls on the likes of DeAndre Jordan or one of their wings, any blowback from the locker room was going to land at his feet anyway. But there's a collective belief that a general manager serves as an organization's long-term planner while a head coach feeds the competitive instinct of a franchise to win every night. It's the interplay between these two forces that allows a team to achieve a healthy balance. You actually want a head coach who is focused entirely on a 7:40 p.m. tipoff, just as you want a general manager who cares more about July 1 than tonight's game.
"When you're both coach and general manager, the challenge comes into play with checks and balances," said Mike Dunleavy Sr., who held the dual role for the Clippers officially in 2008, and effectively for a few years prior. "Once you take that job, you have to act in the long-term interest of the franchise. The rule of thumb is, 'If you owned this team, would you do this deal? Would you take this risk with your money?' It's always easy. You have to have other really good people there with you. You have to value their opinions, not just as sounding boards. Checks and balances."
To check him in the front office, Rivers installed longtime assistant coach Eastman as vice president of basketball operations, and league veteran and graybeard -- and also former Boston bench assistant -- Wohl as general manager. He retained Sacks, who assumed the vacancy at the top of the Clippers' executive ranks when former vice president of basketball operations Neil Olshey departed for Portland, though Sacks has effectively been demoted after finishing second for the 2012-13 executive of the year award.
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