Philly Bound?
A few days ago, reports surfaced that Doc Rivers and the Los Angeles Clippers had mutually parted ways. If you remember, we broke the exclusive story about the team’s on-plane fight, which virtually ended their season. Half the team turned on Paul George and Doc didn’t fight to salvage his time with the Clippers.
Due to Steve Ballmer investing so much on the team to win now, anything short of a championship this year for them was out of plans. That led to Doc already fielding calls about his next job, in the middle of the season. It got to the point, where he made a bizarre comparison with Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid, to Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. While many didn’t pay too much attention to it, we knew Philly had plans of eventually firing Brett Brown.
Now, the reason why Doc Rivers really left the Clippers, is because he lost power within roster decisions. This happened when Steve Ballmer hired Jerry West, Lawrence Frank and Michael Winger to run the team. It had nothing to do with him losing, because he was already out. Even if they won a championship this year, Doc Rivers was still out.
Reports surfaced this week, that Doc is already looking to ship Ben Simmons to the Minnesota Timberwolves, in exchange for their no. 1 pick to draft LaMelo Ball in a few weeks. Like the rest of the world knows, Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid can’t play on the same team, and LaMelo doesn’t want to go to Minnesota.
With the Timberwolves, Simmons will have Karl Anthony-Towns and D’Angelo Russell as his knockdown shooters. The 76ers are looking for their next franchise superstar with LaMelo, who would immediately embrace the idea of playing with Embiid. In Philly, Doc Rivers has power to make these insane roster proposals, which was taken away from him in Los Angeles.
Whether or not the trade happens remains to be seen, but we’re sure Simmons only being 24 will have Minnesota’s front office giving this a serious ponder.
Last week, LaMelo revealed he hadn’t talked to the Wolves or other top lottery destinations, with the exception of the Knicks. He seems like he wants to be in New York, so take that with a grain of salt.