The Los Angeles Clippers continue to be cautious about any offers of compensation to secure rights to Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers and are now threatening to blow the whole deal.
According to Yahoo! Sports, after Clippers management insisted to people that they were awaiting approval of owner Donald Sterling on draft-pick compensation for Rivers, no offer has been made to the Celtics and there's concern in these talks that the Clippers' front office has no authority to meet Boston's request of a first-round pick to bring Rivers to Los Angeles as coach.
The Clippers originally ended negotiations on Monday, insisting that Boston's asking price of DeAndre Jordan and two first-round draft picks was too steep of a price for Kevin Garnett.
Management believed that the Celtics would eventually come around to avoid repairing their relationship with Rivers, but league sources say that Chris Paul's strong desire to play for Rivers-and with Garnett-have forced the Clippers to be more motivated in finalizing a deal.
For the Clippers, Garnett and Rivers can solidify the franchise, which they believe will assure their chances of re-signing Paul.
Rivers currently has three years and $21 million left on his contract with the Celtics, but doesn't want to stay in Boston if the franchise is not looking to bring back Garnett or Paul Pierce in order to avoid rebuilding for another year.
According to the Boston Herald, Rivers was deciding between returning to the Celtics and stepping away from the game when the club asked him if he'd be interested in any of the coaching jobs that were opening around the league.
He was then asked if the Clippers job appealed to him, and it was then that he learned that the Celtics have begun preliminary discussions with that team on releasing Rivers from the last three years of his contract and thus making him available.
"At that point, this became a situation where both Doc and the Celtics were seeing if they could both get something they wanted out of this," the source said.
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