Doc Rivers to Los Angeles Clippers is End of an Era for Boston Celtics

By Michael Moraitis--Featured Columnist

Doc Rivers' departure to Los Angeles to coach the Clippers is officially the end of an era for the Boston Celtics.

According to Jackie MacMullan of ESPN.com, Rivers will become the new head coach of the Clippers and will sign a three-year, $21 million deal after Los Angeles and Boston spent several days trying to work a deal out.

In exchange, the Celtics will get a first-round draft pick in 2015 as compensation and the Celts will release Rivers out of his current contract so he can join the Clippers.

With the deal done, the Celtics will now officially begin the rebuilding process with their newly acquired draft pick and it's just a matter of time before Kevin Garnett and/or Paul Pierce are shipped out of town also in some way, shape or form. 

Both KG and Pierce will have no interest in staying in Boston for the rebuilding process--especially since their favorite coach has gone elsewhere. On top of that, the director of basketball operations, Danny Ainge, will have no interest in keeping either of those big contracts around which in turn would slow down the Celtics' rebuild.


It's been rumored that Garnett could be headed to Los Angeles to join Rivers, but of course nothing is certain as of yet and it now looks like the league will block any such deal, per Ken Berger of CBSSports.com.

The NBA will not approve any subsequent exchange of players between the Clippers and Celtics this summer, and the teams understand that.
— Ken Berger (@KBergCBS) June 23, 2013

As for Pierce, there has been no details about his future although news broke on Monday that the Cleveland Cavaliers may have an interest, per Kurt Helin of ProBasketballTalk.com.

No matter where they go to play next, both Garnett and Pierce would be fine additions to teams in need of a veteran presence with a winning pedigree. The most important thing for both Hall of Famers will be to join a team with a chance to win a title next season.

As for the era of the "Big Three" in Boston--Garnett, Pierce and Ray Allen--it's all over as Allen himself even moved on last season to join the now NBA champion Miami Heat. That was the start of the breakup and it's safe to say Rivers leaving will seal the deal that Boston is moving on.

In whole, it was a success for the "Big Three" as the Celtics made it to two NBA Finals and won one of those series. Granted, the Celtics are used to more greatness in their history than that, but it was a welcome relief for an organization that was dead in the dirt for several years before they pulled the trigger on the deals that brought Allen and Garnett to Beantown.

Their arrival revived Boston's basketball team and made the Celtics a dominant force in the NBA each and every year.

Sure, the Celtics may have waited a bit too long to break up their roster, but they were at least competitive in the latter years of the era and even took the Heat to a Game 7 in the Eastern Conference Finals in 2012 and lost just one game short of another Finals appearance.

But those days are now over and there's only the future to talk about in Boston at this point.

Ainge will look to move Garnett and Pierce this offseason, but he also may look to deal Rajon Rondo as he's tried in the past and could very well land himself plenty of draft picks and/or young players that should set Boston up with a nice future for years to come.

The pain may be rough to deal with for now, but as the Big Three proved not so many years back, rebuilding can happen quickly if done right and it can pay immense dividends to have patience in the process.