Los Angeles Clippers coach and president Doc Rivers has no plans to break up his team’s Big Three of Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan.
It almost happened last summer, when DeAndre Jordan first agreed to join the Dallas Mavericks. And there will be questions about the long-term sustainability of this core next summer, when Chris Paul and Blake Griffin both have the option of leaving in free agency. But for now, the Clippers are content with their nucleus and preparing to run it back for another season.
As Doc Rivers told ESPN.com’s Zach Lowe:
You’ve already said after losing to Portland you won’t trade any of the three stars. Are you worried that boxes you into a corner a little bit? Is that really the case?
I don’t worry about the corner thing, ever. I’m always gonna do what’s good for the team. You don’t ever do anything but that. But I feel like the best thing for the team right now is to keep them together. Can that change? Of course it can change. But I don’t think it will.
The Clippers employ what is arguably the best Big Three in basketball. While their title window appears to be stuck on a treadmill, the alternatives aren’t unequivocally attractive. They could try trading Blake Griffin in favor of multiple rotation players, but that’s one hell of a risk, especially when you consider that Paul is getting older and, realistically, on the back end of his prime.
Still, given the Clippers’ inability to get past the second round with this foundation, plus the impending free agencies of Griffin and Paul, you have to at least think Rivers will entertain breaking up the band this summer. And if he doesn’t, it’s likely because they, for the first time since grabbing J.J. Redick, have found a way to significantly add to their rotation without settling for bargain-bin dreck.
