Doc Rivers Takes Huge Risk in Bringing Son, Austin, to L.A. Clippers

By Casey Drottar @cdrottar19 on January 16, 2015

There’s no getting around it: Los Angeles Clippers are quite an anomaly this season.

Seen as one of the top-tier teams in the always-competitive Western Conference, the Clippers were pretty erratic when they opened their current season. However, before anyone could really start peeking at the panic button, Los Angeles went on a tear in late November, putting together a nine-game winning streak. Everything seemed peachy again as the Clippers were on their way towards their rightful place near the top of the NBA.

As we know, things didn’t stay this way for long. L.A. just can’t seem to maintain any consistency, stringing together a couple wins at most before being handed another defeat. Any time it appears as though it is back on track, it ends up faltering soon after. A prime example is its performance from this past weekend, in which it beat the high-scoring Dallas Mavericks by 20 before falling to the below-average Miami Heat the very next night on its home court.

Head coach Doc Rivers, who doubles as president of basketball operations, knew he needed to make a move or two to help shore up his bench, as well as improve his team’s wing defense. He pulled the trigger last night, acquiring Austin Rivers from the Boston Celtics.

To sum it up: in order to help his team, Doc Rivers decided to trade for his son. It’s the first time in NBA history a situation like this has occurred, and it goes without saying this is an incredibly risky move for the Clippers.

Even though we’re dealing with professional athletes, it’s hard to imagine the rest of the L.A. players aren’t going to find this whole situation more than a little awkward. Their coach and team president knew his team needed some help in order to start playing more consistently. He responded by presenting them with his son.

Now, the elder Rivers is highly regarded as one of the league’s best coaches. If this situation were taking place with a rookie coach, or one whose team was struggling mightily, it could be a disaster on impact. However, Doc has been around the NBA for a while, so at surface level it isn’t a glaring issue.

Not yet, at least.

Remember, this is the first time we’ve seen a father coach his son in the NBA, so there really aren’t any examples of how this could all play out. However, there’s already a lot stacked against this working out perfectly.

Let’s start with the very obvious: Austin Rivers is not very good.

The younger Rivers is only averaging 6.8 PPG this season, and he’s doing so while boasting a paltry .387 field goal percentage. The Clippers need some help on defense, but stats tell us they aren’t going to be getting this from Austin. According to ESPN’s Real Plus-Minus, Austin is ranked 73^rd defensively among shooting guards. Judging by these stats alone, if Doc made this trade to give his team a boost on both ends of the court, it’s already a swing and miss.

At the same time, while Austin’s play on the court is an issue on its own, the fact he’s related to his coach is only going to make things more complicated.

Let’s say Austin comes to L.A., but he keeps struggling to make an impact offensively or defensively. Instead of helping the Clippers become more consistent, he actually ends up bringing them down. Now, Doc is put in a situation you could hardly call enviable, especially if he keeps giving Austin more playing time.

In any other scenario, when a coach is giving one of his players significant time on the floor despite said player struggling, it’s either bad coaching or an attempt to shake someone out of their funk. Here, though, it’s going to appear as though the Clippers are dealing with nepotism. Doc may swear to everyone within earshot he’s not trotting Austin back onto the court despite him having no impact just because he’s his son. However, it certainly won’t stop players and media alike from thinking this is indeed the case.

If Doc shows even a hint of bias toward his son, you can bet the rest of the Clippers players are going to be asked about it in post-game media scrums, win or lose. And, if Doc keeps playing a struggling Austin, those same players are going to get sick of hearing about it. They can deny it all they want, but you better believe the rest of the Clippers are going to get annoyed about any hint of father-son favoritism.

Unfortunately for Doc, overplaying Austin even if he’s not doing well isn’t the only way this situation could get ugly. On the other end of the spectrum, what happens if Doc keeps planting his son on the bench?

Once again, this completely normal situation of benching a player who’s stuck in a slump gets magnified when said player can ask, “Dad, why aren’t you playing me?”

One of the common critiques you’d find about Austin when it came to his pre-draft scouting reports was his belief he was a much better player than people perceived. Many thought he was over-confident, carrying quite a sizable ego. ESPN’s Chad Ford even went as far as saying Rivers “thinks he’s [Kobe Bryant]. He’s not.”

I’d be surprised if, a little over two years later, this belief in his abilities has completely washed away, leaving behind a humble player who everybody loves taking the court with. Now, take this ego and add to it the fact he can gripe to his dad about his playing time because he happens to be the coach. It’s tough to see a situation like this ending up hassle-free. What happens if Austin’s displeasure with how little Doc is playing him results in the Clippers locker room having to deal with a father-son rift? I’m sure that’s just what the team needs.

There’s always the chance this is all just being overblown, and both Doc and Austin can find enough harmony to make this trade a win for L.A. However, when Doc decided to trade for one of his kin, he took a risk and put himself in a bit of a tight-rope situation. While everything could end up working just fine, right now it appears there’s just a much bigger chance this implodes and sends Doc tumbling into chaos he chose to bring on himself.

Casey Drottar is a Featured Columnist for www.Rantsports.com. Follow him on Twitter or “Like” him on Facebook