First-round pick
BOSTON — Doc Rivers will be the next coach of the Los Angeles Clippers if the NBA approves the rare but not unprecedented trade of an active coach, a Boston Celtics official said Sunday night.
The deal would bring Boston a firstround draft pick in 2015, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the transaction is pending with the NBA office. Rivers, who had three years and $21 million left on his contract with the Celtics, must also reach an agreement on a new deal with the Clippers.
The tentative agreement wraps up weeks of haggling over the deal and frees Rivers from presiding over the dismantling of the team that won the franchise’s record 17th NBA title in 2008.
Trades for coaches have occurred about a half-dozen times in NBA history, most recently in 2007, when the Heat received compensation for allowing Stan Van Gundy to go to the Orlando Magic.
The Celtics and Clippers also have discussed sending Kevin Garnett to Los Angeles in a package with Rivers for draft choices, center DeAndre Jordan and point guard Eric Bledsoe. But NBA commissioner David Stern nixed those talks this week, saying teams aren’t allowed to trade active players for a coach.
A deal for Garnett still could happen, but the teams would have to convince the league it was a separate deal. The 37year-old big man has a no-trade clause in a contract that will pay him $23.5 million over the next two years, but it is believed he would waive it to be reunited with Rivers on the West Coast.
Boston also could cut ties with Paul Pierce, the longest-tenured member of the team, who is due to make $15.3 million next season; he could be bought out for $5 million. Pierce will be 36 by the 2013-14 opener and showed signs of slowing down this season, when he averaged the fewest minutes of his career.
Rivers took over the Celtics in 2004 in the midst of the longest title drought in franchise history and — with thanks to the New Big Three of Garnett, Pierce and Ray Allen — guided them to the 2008 championship. They returned to the NBA Finals two years later, losing to the Los Angeles Lakers in seven games.
But the Celtics have regressed steadily since then, twice failing to get past the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference playoffs. This season, they finished third in the Atlantic Division — they had won it five straight times — and lost to the New York Knicks in the first round.
That convinced many that it was time to rebuild, a process Rivers was reluctant to supervise. If the Celtics unload Garnett and Pierce, that would leave them with point guard Rajon Rondo as their only established star.
Rivers had the second-longest tenure of any NBA coach to San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich, compiling a 416-305 record in Boston that was the third-most wins in franchise history.