Doc Rivers Headed to LA!!!

Doc Rivers is headed to Los Angeles according to a USA TODAY Sports source with knowledge of the deal. Rivers’ move completes two transformations:

1. The Clippers become a championship caliber team, and will win an  NBA title in the next three years.

2. The Celtics’ are officially in purge mode. Commence fire sale.

For all the past transgressions of Donald Sterling during his tenure as Clippers owner, this move is the catalyst to success for a team that has managed just three winning seasons since 1997 — two of which have come the previous two years.

Aside from the Spurs’ Gregg Popovich, Rivers is the most respected coach in the NBA. And with Rivers’ hiring, the Clippers will lock up Chris Paul with a long term deal, as they had with Blake Griffin in 2012.

In many ways, Doc Rivers’ arrival to the Clippers in 2013 mirrors the arrival  of Phil Jackson to the Lakers 1999. Del Harris had taken the Lakers to five consecutive playoff appearances, but after getting swept by the Spurs in the Western Conference semifinals, a change was made and the Zen Master installed. Jackson joined Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal and the rest, as they say, is history.

Rivers takes over for Vinny Del Negro, who led the Clippers to the team’s best record in the 43-year history of the franchise, before getting bounced in the first round of the playoffs. Del Negro made the Clippers a good team. That’s an achievement in its own right. But he couldn’t have won a championship for Los Angeles.

Rivers can.