The Los Angeles Clippers will have a front office shakeup. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, coach Doc Rivers is going to focus solely on coaching the Clippers. Rivers was the team's president of basketball operations. Rivers will still have a voice in basketball decisions but will partner with Lawrence Frank, the team's executive vice president of basketball operations.
Losing Chris Paul could be a factor
Without saying it, a real reason for the decision to remove Rivers as the president could be losing Paul. The former All Star point guard was dealt to the Houston Rockets in a sign-and-trade deal.
Reports surfaced the reason Paul was going to leave originally was because he had a torn relationship with Rivers. He did not like how Rivers seemed to favor his son, Austin Rivers, who was Paul's backup.
The team gained a large haul in return for Paul, but Paul is an All Star point guard. Ownership was surely not happy about losing Paul to a team that is in the western conference. Now, Frank gets to run the show after his promotion. With Rivers, the coach will look to have a successful season, and postseason. In his four years of coaching the Clippers, Rivers has a 217-111 record in the regular season but has a 18-22 record in the postseason. The Clippers have never made it past the second round.
New roster, new duty
The Clippers will have nine new players on the team. Ownership believes that incorporating the new players into a new system will keep Rivers busy. Frank does not have any coaching duties, so he can give his full attention to structuring the roster. Rivers and Frank have a strong personal and professional relationship according to the report.
The Clippers only have Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan, Austin Rivers, Wesley Johnson, Brice Johnson, and Brandon Bass as members from last year's squad. Griffin was signed to the second largest contract in NBA history this offseason.
Second president-coach combo to go down
Rivers is the next former president of basketball operations/coach to lose his post this year.
Atlanta Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer was recently the president as well, but the Hawks decided to remove Budenholzer from that position this spring. Now, the NBA features just three coaches that serve as the president of the franchise. Those include Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs, Tom Thibodeau of the Minnesota Timberwolves, and Stan Van Gundy of the Detroit Pistons.
