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Doc Rivers knows that he and the Los Angeles Clippers just won the NBA offseason by snagging not one, but two All-Stars in Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. Sure, there were other teams who acquired superstars, too — like the Lakers getting Anthony Davis and the Nets signing both Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving — but there’s a reason why the Clippers are perceived to be the favorites to win next year’s NBA title by anonymous front office executives; because Leonard and George blend well with the current Clips roster.
While the Clippers went out and acquired George in a shocking trade with the OKC Thunder, it came to fruition as the franchise tried to convince Leonard to sign with them, promising the two-time NBA champ another superstar who he could literally hand pick to play with. That’s when Doc Rivers went to work, knowing that he had to use his previous experience during free agency to help get the biggest fish in the free agent pond in the NBA this offseason.
Talking to the L.A. Times‘ Andrew Greif, Rivers said that his time with the Orlando Magic in 2000 prepped him for how to handle the pitch with Kawhi Leonard. That summer, the Magic signed both Tracy McGrady and Grant Hill, who were two of the most accomplished players in the league at the time.
Nineteen years after Rivers, as the Magic’s coach and key pitchman, helped Orlando land Grant Hill and Tracy McGrady, he put to use the lessons learned from his first experience helping assemble a superteam during the Clippers’ pursuit of Leonard and George.
“I can draw upon Orlando,” Rivers said, “because we had so much success doing it.”
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In Orlando, Rivers also learned that free agency presentations are not one-size-fits -all.
With Leonard, the Clippers’ research indicated he sought a substantive, basketball-focused conversation.
Armed with success from those days in Orlando, that’s when Doc Rivers went to work, knowing how to sell Leonard on the vision that he had with the Clippers — who stayed competitive the past few seasons by refusing to go into full-on rebuild mode, even reaching the playoffs last year despite trading away their top scorer midseason, Tobias Harris. Here’s what the head coach said he focused on most when pitching Leonard.
“All the other stuff that people think matters in the recruitment, I don’t think Kawhi wanted to talk about that, and so I didn’t,” Rivers said. “I talked about winning, and basketball.
“Kawhi is a serious man and I think you felt that with him. I think he felt the seriousness of me and how serious I am about winning and how serious he is about winning and he felt good about that match.”
After doing loads of research on Leonard with his colleagues and trying to cut through the B.S. and focusing on the player’s demands, Rivers also had a couple other aces in his back pocket that seemed to help connect with the two-time NBA Finals MVP; not only his own playing experience — which stretched 13 years in the NBA — but also his championship as head coach of the Boston Celtics’ Big Three in 2008.
That connection proved influential with Leonard, as well. Though he already had two NBA titles, Leonard wanted to know how his time with the Clippers could be maximized. Rivers, who won the 2008 title in Boston while shepherding another so-called superteam of Ray Allen, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, showed how.
“With Doc being a championship head coach, that’s something I wanted,” Leonard said.
Said Rivers: “I guess the difference this time is I knew the league more. I knew me more. I had a body of work. The time with Tim and Grant and Tracy, I’d coached one year. I really didn’t have a body of work, so I think my body of work played in my favor this time.”
That experience underscored perhaps the most important lesson of all. If merely assembling a roster with such talent is supremely difficult, so too is fulfilling its championship-level promise.
Boston represents the best-case scenario: Eleven months after acquiring Garnett, the Celtics won a title.
The Clippers have already won the NBA offseason and will have tons of hype surrounding them as they enter next year. But with an experienced head coach in Doc Rivers — who has, seemingly, seen it all — and superstars like Leonard and George to help lead the rest of the roster, something tells me they’ll be able to live up to the pressure people are putting on them.