Philadelphia 76ers Doc Rivers. (Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports)
The Philadelphia 76ers are planning to entice free agents to join them this summer with the draw of playing for Doc Rivers.
If the 76ers want to compete for titles, they need to hit the free agent market and surround Joel Embiid and James Harden with some heavy hitters.
How do they plan to do that? One way is to lean on the draw of their head coach.
Doc Rivers continues to enjoy a positive reputation in the league, so the team is going to put him front and center in their free agency recruiting.
76ers might have the worst plan to lure free agents: Doc Rivers
“I think one good thing about coach Rivers is people wanna play for him because he’s very upfront with what role they’ll have, and I think that’s helped us recruit,” team president Daryl Morey said, per Sixers Wire.
The problem here is that by now Rivers should also have a reputation as a perennial choker who hasn’t sniffed actual playoff success since he left the Celtics. One could argue he’s still living off the glow of Boston’s Big Three, the trio of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, who managed just one NBA Championship under Rivers.
He accomplished nothing with the Clippers aside from several embarrassing playoff choke jobs. Since taking over in Philadelphia, things haven’t taken a turn for the better with a similar story of playoff frustration.
So, sure, Philadelphia can try to use Rivers’ reputation as bait for free agents but that might backfire if players start to pay more attention to the last decade of his coaching career.