Report: Doc Rivers playing Montrezl Harrell over Ivica Zubac contributed to departure

doc-rivers-playing-harrell-over-zubac-contributed-to-departure

Transcript

00:00Doc Rivers and the Clippers have parted ways.

00:04Reports indicate this has been in the works for several days as there was a reported disconnect

00:08between Rivers and team owner Steve Ballmer.

00:10So joining me now for more is our Clippers reporter Farbad Aznashari.

00:14And Farbad, in seven years as head coach, Doc has won just three playoff series and

00:19has lost multiple 3-1 series leads.

00:22Was this a factor here?

00:23It's got to be the main factor.

00:26When you look at it, no matter how good of a coach you are, you can't blow two 3-1 leads

00:30in five years with teams as talented as the Clippers have had.

00:33And it's not like a situation where Utah was up 3-1 against Denver and no one expected

00:38Utah to be up.

00:39These were Clipper teams that were favored to win championships at the time of them being

00:42up 3-1.

00:43And in the history, in the last 10 years, only two teams have made it to the Western

00:48Conference Finals with negative net ratings, Denver Nuggets in 2020 and the Houston Rockets

00:53in 2015.

00:54Both teams that the Clippers blew 3-1 leads, too.

00:57Now, Doc reportedly still has two years left on his contract.

01:00This is going to be a challenging coaching search for the Clippers, who are in really

01:04championship or bust mode right now.

01:06Who are the Clippers going to target to lead this Kawhi-led team?

01:11You know, the first option everyone's got to think of is Ty Lue.

01:13He's been with the coaching staff.

01:15The players already know him.

01:16The players probably already like him.

01:17They already really love Sam Cassell as well.

01:20And then everyone's also thinking Jeff Van Gundy, Mark Jackson.

01:24But the Clippers could also be trying to go the route of trying to find someone that no

01:27one even knows about yet, someone a little bit more undiscovered, not a big name like

01:31Nick Nurse.

01:33But I think the guttural reaction is Tyron Lue.

01:36And also, it probably ultimately comes up to who Kawhi Leonard feels most comfortable

01:40with.

01:41Farah Baadez Neshari, thank you so much for the insight.