Doc Rivers believes Los Angeles Cippers are hurt by ownership uncertainty
Just a month ago, everything looked up for the Los Angeles Clippers.
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Although the Clippers were eliminated by the Oklahoma City Thunder in the second round of the postseason, former Clippers’ owner Donald Sterling was banned from the league and former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was set to finalize a deal to buy the team.
However, with the ongoing Sterling trial Ballmer has not yet officially become the owner of the Clippers so Clippers’ head coach and president Doc Rivers is not allowed to meet with him. Although they have bumped into each other, Rivers believes their situation has made if difficult to lure free agents to Los Angeles.
“(A meeting is) not really allowed,” Rivers said here Monday as NBA Summer League play continued via Sean Deveney of Sporting News. “Bump-ins like today, I don’t know how that happened — things like that. It’s good, I look forward to that. It has hurt us some this summer. You go in to talk to a free agent and most guys, teams will bring their owner. I go in, looking like this, by myself. I don’t know what effect that has had but that’s not been great for us.”
Of course, it hasn’t been all bad for the Clippers. They were able to replace Darren Collison, who left the Clippers to sign with the Sacramento Kings, with Los Angeles Lakers’ free agent Jordan Farmar and were able to sign a very good third big man in Cleveland Cavaliers’ center Spencer Hawes.
Farmar averaged 10.1 points, 4.9 assists, 2.5 rebounds and 0.9 steals in 22.2 minutes per game while shooting 41.5% from the field, 43.8% from beyond the arc and 74.6% from the charity stripe last season Hawes put up 13.2 points, 8.3 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.2 blocks per game while shooting 45.6% from the field, 41.6% from three and 78.3% from the free throw line.