Philadelphia 76ers: Doc Rivers and Chris Paul aren’t exactly best friends
Maybe a Chris Paul-Philadelphia 76ers trade doesn’t make sense after all.
For much of the 2019-20 season, there was one player above all others who captured the hearts of Philadelphia 76ers fans the world over: Chris Paul.
Now yes, technically Buddy Hield deserves at least a little consideration for that title, but he isn’t a 10-time All-Star, a four-time assists champion, a six-time steals champion, a nine-time All-Defense member, and a nine-time All-NBA point guard so hey, I’d probably give Paul the nod.
So naturally, when the Sixers signed Paul’s former Los Angeles Clippers head coach to a five-year contract to lead the team into the mid-2020s pairing up the duo once more felt like a match made in heaven, right?
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Not so fast, my friends.
You see, despite having a ton of success together, Paul and Doc Rivers watched their relationship deteriorate rapidly over the final few seasons they shared paired up on LA’s other basketball team.
According to Ben Rohrbach at Yahoo Sports, it all started when Rivers, then doing double-duty as the Clippers’ head coach and President of Basketball Operations, acquired his son Austin in an overly complicated deal that ultimately included six teams. The younger Rivers almost immediately alienated himself from his peers due to a perceived laissez-faire attitude and entitled nature – a move that drove a wedge between the Clippers’ veteran corps and their head coach.
Things grew all the more hostile when news broke that Doc ultimately rejected a potential trade that would have brought Paul’s noted Banana Boat buddy Carmelo Anthony to the City of Angeles in exchange for his son, Jamal Crawford, and noted pants pooper Paul Pierce. This move really didn’t sit well with Paul, who forced a trade to Houston in 2017 for, among other things, Patrick Beverley, Montrezl Harrell, and Lou Williams. According to ESPN’s Kevin Arnovitz, Paul told Clippers owner Steve Ballmer that his relationship with Rivers was certainly a contributing factor to his decision to leave, a fact that Rohrbach corroborated in his own reporting.
Now granted, both Rivers and Paul are in a very different place then they were in 2017, as both were presumably humbled by their recent castoffs from Los Angeles and Houston respectfully, but is it really worth surrendering serious assets to the Thunder to try to work that relationship out on the fly?
If recent reports are to be believed, OKC is willing to part with Paul in the lead up to the 2020-21 season, but they want a young player and first-round pick at minimum to pull off the deal, in addition to whatever money they need to take on to get a deal done. The team most frequently linked to a Paul trade, the hapless New York Knicks, are rumored to be readying a package built around Kevin Knox, a future first-round pick, and cap filler to make a deal done. Would the 76ers really want to compete with that package, especially if it means giving up either Matisse Thybulle and/or Shake Milton and the 21st overall pick in addition to Al Horford’s contract?
Yeah, that seems like a major overpay for a 35-year-old State Farm spokesman set to make $124-plus million over the next three seasons.
Next. Harrison Barnes is the key to a Buddy Hield trade. dark
From 2013-17, Chris Paul and Doc Rivers amassed a 161-86 record while making the playoffs in all three seasons. Paul averaged 19.2 points per game under Rivers’ tutelage, all the while making three All-Star appearances, leading the league in assists twice, and steals for the fourth-straight season. If the two were to set their differences aside, it’s pretty easy to imagine Paul stepping in as the Philadelphia 76ers’ veteran point guard and leading the team to a deep Eastern Conference playoff run with Ben Simmons shifted into the frontcourt. With that being said, I doubt the duo can ever put their differences aside and come together for the greater good, making any sort of blockbuster trade for the 35-year-old a rather moot point. But hey, there’s always Buddy Hield, right?