The Celtics may be closer to making some moves than fans thought.
According to a report from Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, the Celtics are having serious conversations with the Los Angeles Clippers working on a deal to trade Celtics coach Doc Rivers and forward Kevin Garnett.
The trade package would send Clippers center DeAndre Jordan to Boston along with two first-round picks in exchange for Garnett and the rights to hire Rivers. Garnett would waive his no-trade clause to head out west and reunite with Rivers. The Clippers would also have to give up guard Eric Bledsoe in the package.
The future of the Celtics team has been hanging in the balance since their first-round exit from the 2013 NBA playoffs. Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge has repeatedly said that Rivers will be back behind the Celtics bench next season.
But Clippers owner Donald Sterling has said he would be willing to pay Rivers somewhere around $7 million a year, which is pretty close to Rivers’ annual salary with the Celtics. Rivers has three years and $21 million left on his contract in Boston.
It may cost the Clippers even more than that, though, because of the strict non-compete clause in Rivers’ contract with the Celtics, which the team insisted on when they signed Rivers to a five-year extension in 2011. The clause says that Rivers cannot work with another NBA team for the duration of his contract. If Rivers wanted to coach another team, Ainge would gain considerable leverage in his negotiations.
