Philadelphia 76ers: Don’t expect an Austin-Doc Rivers reunion

The Philadelphia 76ers need another guard.

I know, I know, James Harden, read more about that situation here if you feel so inclined, but what if Daryl Morey can’t pull off a deal before February 10th, or the player in question makes an about-face and re-commits to playing in Brooklyn? If that happens and the Sixers don’t at least pursue some help, their margin of error come playoff time would shrink considerably.

One way or another, the Sixers are going to make some sort of trade at the deadline, even if it’s as simple as swapping out their 14th man for a deep bench reserve on another team who plays at a position of need – say, swapping Paul Reed for Saben Lee – but to truly give Joel Embiid and company the sort of help they desperately need, it would be wise to secure a legitimate rotation-caliber performer without having to give up too much draft capital in the process.

On paper, Austin Rivers fits that bill pretty well. He’s a 6-foot-4, 200 pound on/off-ball guard who can score off the dribble, play sound defense, and hit 3 balls at an average clip league-wide, and after watching his team trade for Bryn Forbes a few weeks ago, the Nuggets might just be willing to ship him out in favor of different player at a position of need.

Unfortunately – or fortunately, depending on your preference – that probably isn’t going to happen in Philadelphia any time soon, as Austin Rivers already had to play under his father Doc once, and it sounds like he didn’t have a particularly good experience doing so.

Don’t expect Rivers’ family reunion with the Philadelphia 76ers.

On a recent episode of the Ryan Russillo Podcast over at The Ringer, Austin Rivers broke down what it was like to be coached by his father during their shared time in Los Angeles and how it affected his perception around the association.

He discussed how weird it is to be coached by your father, to have teammates smack talk the man the with the clipboard when his name is also on your birth certificate, and how folks – both inside and outside the organization – treat you when that is the case. Rivers, to his credit, also highlighted that being a coach’s son isn’t a get-into-the-NBA-free card, as he is the only such player in the NBA today, and reiterated that he was classified a five-star player coming out of college, recruited by Duke, or drafted 10th overall by the then-New Orleans Hornets because of his father.

That’s all true or at least mostly true. I’m sure having “Doc Rivers son” was a nice little bump for the 2011-12 iteration of the Blue Devils, but Austin didn’t average 15.5 points, 2.1 assists, 3.4 rebounds, and a steal in 33.2 minutes of action per game because of his father, who was coaching the Boston Celtics at the time. Similarly, the Hornets didn’t draft Rivers in some weird Brony James-style scheme to steal Doc away from the Celtics. They simply needed another guard to pair up with Eric Gordon and Anthony Davis after losing Chris Paul to the Los Angeles Clippers.

Even now, Rivers has caught a bit of momentum in Denver over the past eight games and has averaged 9.3 points in 26 minutes while hitting a totally unsustainable 48.5 percent of his shots from beyond the arc. After signing with the Nuggets following a buyout from the New York Knicks in April of 2021, Rivers has developed into a solid contributor for a team in the middle of a very weird season down one of their two franchise players. He’ll surely sign another contract when his current one-year, $2.4 million deal expires, either in Denver or elsewhere, and will continue on with his NBA career for as long as he wants to play the roles he’s offered.

Even if his best seasons came under Doc from 2016-18, it’s clear Austin has established himself as a legitimate NBA player on his own.

So yeah, Austin probably won’t be joining Seth Curry in the extended Doc Rivers family reunion in South Philadelphia for more than a once-per-season road trip anytime soon. While said party could still add another member, as Golden State Warriors guard Damion Lee is a brother-in-law of Curry, and thus, technically within the greater “Rivers shared universe,” it’s clear Austin is happy with his current situation and doesn’t want to rehash what sounds like a pretty hard time in his NBA career. Even if he’s a decent enough fit with the Philadelphia 76ers and played for the team’s GM before in Houston, Daryl Morey should probably look for another 6-foot-4, two-way combo guard who could take some ball-handling duties off of Tyrese Maxey‘s shoulders and set up a few shots for Joel Embiid in the paint.