The LA Clippers devastatingly blew a 3-1 series lead against the Houston Rockets, and now face a long and uncertain summer.
Head coach and team president Doc Rivers isn’t ready to blow the whole thing up, but admits the Clippers need to improve their roster during the offseason.
Re-signing center DeAndre Jordan—perhaps to a $100 million deal—is priority numero uno, according to Doc.
Per the Long Beach Press-Telegram:
Chris Paul is guaranteed $21,468,696 and Blake Griffin $18,907,725 for next season. Free-agent center DeAndre Jordan will be seeking a max contract, so Rivers will have ties that bind him. […] “Obviously, I want to improve the team,” Rivers said. “But it ain’t easy with us. Contractually, and I don’t think everyone gets that, it’s very difficult when you have the contracts that we have. … But we’ve gotta get this team more support.”
The team will have no salary-cap room, so Rivers said anything he does will likely be minimum deals. […] “There’s no big deals out there that we’re going to make, most likely,” he said. “Now, there may be. Our first priority is D.J.”
“I like our group, I really do,” Rivers said. “Teams that have stuck it out on the long run — you look at sports history — have done better than teams that have blown it up. We’re really close, clearly, and it may be a defensive guy, maybe one more guy, I don’t know yet.”
