NBA Rumors: Blake Griffin’s Exit from LA Clippers Could Hurt Doc Rivers’ Career

By Carlo Monzon
Blake Griffin
Los Angeles Clippers Blake Griffin during a game against the Washington Wizards at the Verizon Center in Washington on March 12, 2011. Keith Allison/Flickr CC

If the Los Angeles Clippers decide to let go of Blake Griffin, then his departure could cause a domino effect on the team. Aside from breaking up the team's Big Three, which includes DeAndre Jordan and Chris Paul, Griffin's exit could also have serious consequences head coach Doc Rivers' career.

For some time now, it has been rumored that the Clippers are considering releasing Griffin. This started after the power forward came from an injury-plagued season which caused him to miss more than 40 games with the team.

Currently, Griffin is still an active member of the Clippers' roster. However, he will become a free agent next offseason, according to Clipperholics. But, as maintained by the Clippers, they will try to do whatever they can to re-sign him. However, if they feel that they probably would not be able to convince Griffin to rejoin the team next year, then their next option would probably to trade him now.

This way, the Clippers will be able to get something out of his departure instead of completely losing him in free agency.

The problem here, however, is that if Griffin leaves, the team will lose a key component in its offense. This could then lead to a weaker team with only Jordan and Paul on the lineup.

Obviously, a weaker roster will eliminate the Clippers as a title contender, which would then have serious implications on Rivers' career. As coach, Rivers' job is to direct the team to win games. But. With a crippled Big Three, it seems this might be impossible to do.

Rivers has been the coach of the Clippers since 2013. During his debut season, he was able to impress the executives of the Los Angeles organization by leading the team to winning a franchise-record of 57 games.

Even after the team changed its owner following the controversy that Donald Sterling got involved in in 2014, Rivers was still retained.

However, if the team fails to become a title contender due to Griffin's departure, then the Los Angeles franchise might decide to release the coach.

But, as noted by Rivers, he's confident that the Clippers will retain Griffin and Paul under the leadership of new owner Steve Ballmer.

"Well, I'm confident," he told The Vertical Podcast. "Probably the same way every team is confident that they're gonna be able to keep their guys. I do think we have an attractive place. We have a new owner."

"It would be interesting is Steve Ballmer wasn't the owner; I don't know how confident I would be," he added. "But with Steve, I'm extremely confident that we can keep both."

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