The much-publicized Los Angeles Clippers-Boston Celtics negotiations may once again be starting up.
According to Yahoo Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski, the Clippers called the Celtics today and offered a future first round pick for the rights to Celtics’ coach Doc Rivers, and the sides are “near agreement.”
The negotiations between the teams stalled last week when the NBA said that the proposed deal — which would have included Los Angeles center DeAndre Jordan and Boston power forward Kevin Garnett — was illegal under the league’s current collective bargaining agreement, part of which basically prohibits the “trading” of coaches.
The organizations briefly began to restructure the trade, before the Clippers decided to go in another direction. Los Angeles interviewed Byron Scott and former Memphis Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins was also a candidate. As for Rivers, he went to Orlando, Florida and it appeared the options for him were to return to the Celtics or go back to broadcasting.
Now, the Clippers and Celtics appear to be close to a deal to bring the highly sought-after Rivers to Los Angeles. According to Wojnarowski’s report,