Plaschke: “All Indications” Are That Rivers, Clippers Have Agreed Upon Multi-Year Extension

According to Bill Plaschke of the L.A. Times, “all indications” are that Doc Rivers and Steve Ballmer have agreed on a multi-year extension for the Clippers’ head coach, who just completed the fourth season of a five-year contract:

Although nothing has been made official, all indications are that Rivers and Ballmer have reached an agreement on a multiyear extension that will keep Rivers here for a remodeling job that will begin soon.

Rivers’ coaching, along with the rest of the team and locker room, deteriorated as the Lob City era wore on—and he certainly has his share of the blame to bear for the on-court and locker-room tensions that caused the Chris Paul and Blake Griffin-led Clippers teams to fall short of ever reaching a Western Conference Finals.

But, as the Clippers move on from that era, trading Paul and Griffin, allowing J.J. Redick to leave in free agency, and declining to offer a serious long-term extension to DeAndre Jordan, Doc has stuck around. While many of Doc’s past failures can no longer be made up for, he made the most of his opportunities this season: bringing together a mismatched crew of injury replacements to finish above .500. Doc spoke on several occasions about using more gameplans this season than he ever had in his career, as he had to adjust to 21 different roster players, a major in-season trade of his best player, major injuries to four starters, and 37 different starting lineups.

It’s unclear what exactly Plaschke means by “all indications.” He states that “nothing has been made official,” which is clear enough by, well, the lack of an official announcement. But it’s a bit peculiar, at least, that he stopped short of pulling “sources” to actually report an extension was in the works, especially because he doesn’t even say that talks are progressing, but rather that those “indications” are that an agreement has already been reached. We’ll see the rest of this unfold in the days and weeks to come.