Doc Rivers doesn’t foresee Lance
Stephenson starting at small forward for the Los Angeles Clippers in 2015-16.
Stephenson, acquired from the Charlotte Hornets on Monday in exchange for
Spencer Hawes and Matt Barnes, is expected to serve as a role player, according
to Rivers.
“I like that [Stephenson] can play multiple
positions -- really 2, 3 and 1 -- because he’s a terrific passer,” Rivers, the
Clippers head coach and Senior Vice President of Basketball Operations, told The Beast 980 on Wednesday. “I don’t
know if I made the trade for him to be a starter, per se, I look at him really
more to be a utility player that can come in and play literally three different
positions for us. When you look at us, we needed toughness and more athleticism
and we get that.”
Stephenson had a disastrous 2014-15
campaign after signing a 3-year, $24 million contract with Charlotte last offseason. He averaged just
8.5 points, 3.9 assists and 4.5 rebounds last season, shooting a dreadful 17.1
percent from three-point territory. Stephenson, who led the league in triple
doubles in 2013-14, fizzled out in Charlotte, never fitting in with the team’s
offense and even recording some DNPs at the tail end of his woeful season.
Rivers believes Stephenson, who will
be 25 years old by the start of next season, has the best chance to right the
ship for his career in a backup role in Los Angeles. With Barnes dealt in the
trade and Rivers declaring Stephenson a bench player, who will start at small
forward for the Clippers?
Paul Pierce’s name has been thrown
around in the Clippers' rumor circles of late. The future first ballot Hall of Famer is
coming off a strong postseason for the Washington Wizards, averaging 14.6
points on just 9.9 shots per contest. He led all players in three-point
shooting, hitting an incredulous 52.4 percent of his jumpers from behind the
arc. Overall, he shot 48.5 percent from the field and 85 percent from the
free-throw line. Pierce hit seemingly every clutch shot he attempted for
Washington, most notably his buzzer-beating, “I Called Game”, dagger against the
Atlanta Hawks in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Semi-finals.
Pierce and Rivers won a championship
together with the Boston Celtics in 2007-08 and were a game away from winning
the title in 2009-2010. Pierce has a $5.5 million player-option for the
upcoming season with the Wizards and has maintained his happiness in D.C.
throughout the year.
Rivers coached Pierce for nine
seasons, but could he persuade the small forward—who grew up in Inglewood, Los Angeles—to bolt
to the Clippers? Rivers will have to convince Pierce that the Clippers have a
better chance at winning the championship than the Wizards. The Clippers have
the better team, but the Wizards play in the much weaker Eastern Conference. A
title seems like a longshot for either team, but the Clippers present more of
an upside for the upcoming season.
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| Doc Rivers will be courting Paul Pierce this offseason. (Alex Brandon/AP) |
Last offseason, Rivers chose to sign Hawes over Pierce—a terrible decision by a highly respected coach who has had his
share of struggles adjusting to the role of player operations. While Pierce is
not the type to hold grudges, joining Los Angeles seems less likely now than it
did a year ago.
A Boston reunion is not out of the question for Pierce either.
He wanted to finish his career with the Celtics and was devastated when he was
traded to the Brooklyn Nets two summers ago. Yet Pierce has continued to have a
strong relationship with the city and its fans, and the team’s immense
improvement from this past year—coupled with their ample cap space to sign 1-2
top-tier free agents—could lure him back to Boston, where he played the first
15 seasons of his storied career.
