Los Angeles Clippers: 2016 Offseason Grades

Let The Rivers Flow

With the Clippers in need of a backup point guard and bench scorer, and with the Rivers obviously having those family ties, it was no surprise to see them sign Austin Rivers to a three-year, $35 million deal (with a player option for the third year).

Unfortunately, the only reason that large contract for such an average player was not surprising was because the Clippers continually inject new life into stale nepotism jokes. It’s probably not easy being the head coach’s son, but there’s really no excuse for this kind of deal for someone like Austin Rivers.

In his defense, Rivers posted a career-high 8.9 points per game, came to life in the playoffs with 10.3 points per game, and he’s still only 23 years old. But none of that should shift the focus from his inefficient shooting (43.8 percent, 33.5 percent from deep) or the fact that scoring at a moderate rate is really all he does.

Paying a player like that a contract worth nearly $12 million a year — even under the NBA’s skyrocketing salary cap — feels like legitimate favoritism, especially after the details of some of the Clippers’ other re-signings came to light.

Lob City needed a backup point guard, but a deal like this puts pressure on Rivers to make a leap of some sort in 2016-17. For a team that needed to upgrade its bench after missing out on Kevin Durant, splurging on Austin Rivers was an almost comical alternative.

Rivers is a better player than people realize, but aside from an unlikely leap in 2016-17, this deal moves the Clippers no closer to a longer playoff run in the short-term or in the long-term.

Grade: C-

Next: Johnson Rejoins