Pacific Notes: Rivers, Ball, Clippers, Bell, Warriors

The Clippers pulled off a blockbuster trade earlier this week, sending franchise cornerstone Blake Griffin to the Pistons in a multi-player trade. Griffin was traded a mere six months after signing a massive deal to remain a Clipper in the offseason, changing the direction of his career and the franchise.

In an interview with Steve Bulpett of The Boston Herald, Clippers head coach Doc Rivers discussed the trade of Griffin. Rivers, who coached the Celtics to an NBA championship in 2007/08, also discussed his admiration of the success of the New England Patriots. Rivers compared that Celtics team to the Clippers teams he has coached in recent years; despite immense talent, the team never made it out of the first round of postseason play.

“I don’t think there’s ever been a team that’s won a title in any sport where the players haven’t bought into the system,” Rivers said.

Rivers’ comments echo the team possibly not being on the same page when the likes of Griffin, Chris Paul, and DeAndre Jordan comprised one of the most feared threesomes in the league.

Check out other news out of the Pacific Division:

• As part of the Griffin deal, the Clippers acquired three players: Tobias Harris, Avery Bradley, and Boban Marjanovic. Elliot Teaford of the Orange County Register writes that Rivers had his squad play pickup basketball to help integrate the new acquisitions to the team and better learn their games.
• Lakers point guard Lonzo Ball still feels something in his sprained right MCL and the team is expected to be cautious with his recovery, Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN writes. Ball, 20, has missed the Lakers’ past 10 games, including Sunday’s tilt against the Thunder.
• Kevin Pelton of ESPN Insider (subscription required and recommended) examined the Lakers‘ options as the Thursday deadline approaches. Among the Lakers’ choices: trading young players (Larry Nance Jr., Julius Randle, Jordan Clarkson) or possibly dealing a veteran on an expiring deal (Brook Lopez, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope). 
• Warriors rookie Jordan Bell underwent an MRI on his swollen left ankle on Friday and the results revealed the center will miss at least two more weeks, tweets Anthony Slater of The Athletic.
• The Warriors have played more noticeably fatigued basketball recently despite winning their games. Head coach Steve Kerr said the players cannot wait to rest during the All-Star break, ESPN’s Chris Haynes writes. “Hell yeah,” Kerr said. “Guys are dying to get to the All-Star break. We’re limping to the finish line of the All-Star break. But we’ve got to fight through it to the break and then we need to get the hell away from each other and go sit on a beach and relax and then we’ll be in great shape.”