NBA Trade Rumors: Celtics/Clippers Trade Falls Apart
NBA Trade Rumors — The Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Clippers have been discussing a blockbuster trade involving Doc Rivers and Kevin Garnett in the last couple of days, but the Clippers have officially pulled out of the negotiations.
The Clippers informed the Celtics today they are pulling out of the Rivers-Garnett trade talks. "It just got to be too much," source said.
— Ken Berger (@KBergNBA) June 18, 2013
According to Adrian Wojnarowski’s Twitter, it seems that the Clippers refused to give the Celtics another first-round pick. Another reason as to why the Clippers were reluctant was the money the team would have had to pay to get the deal done — DeAndre Jordan has a trade kicker worth $3 million in his contract and Rivers would have wanted a $35 million extension.
Celtics GM Danny Ainge has called Rivers and informed him that the deal is off, and that he still wants him as the team’s head coach.
It seems a bit surprising that the Clippers didn’t pull the trigger on this trade. The one additional draft pick was really not worth that much in the big picture, and the Celtics had already made quite a few concessions. By landing KG and Doc, the Clippers would also have essentially locked in Chris Paul, and what they will do now remains an uncertainty.
As for the Celtics, this makes their rebuilding process a little more tricky, as Garnett has a no-trade clause in his contract and is unlikely to waive it for any other team.