LAS VEGAS — Doc Rivers tried his best to bring Paul Pierce home to Los Angeles.
The Clippers coach, who coached Pierce in Boston, said Monday night he and Pierce got “very far” down the road this summer trying to have Pierce play for him once again. But the Clippers simply didn’t have a suitable package to offer the Nets in a sign-and-trade.
“We talked a lot,” Rivers said. “Quite honestly, a sign-and-trade just wasn’t possible for us. That would’ve been great.
“Paul ends up in Washington, and that’s great for him, but clearly we have a relationship, and he has a relationship with L.A. That’s where he’s from. So that would’ve been great. It just couldn’t happen.”
The Clippers were already without their 2015 first-round pick — which went to Boston when the Celtics let Rivers out of his contract last summer in order to become coach and head of basketball operations for the Clippers — to send the Nets in any sign-and-trade. And because both teams are over the salary cap, the Nets would have had to take on salary they had no interest in taking on.
Other than a sign-and-trade, the Clippers could have used their mid-level exception to sign Pierce. The Clippers instead used it to sign Spencer Hawes, filling a need of having a big capable of playing with either Blake Griffin or DeAndre Jordan that Rivers said was something they targeted heading into free agency.
So that left trying to work something out with the Nets as the only avenue to get Pierce to Los Angeles.
“We just couldn’t do it,” Rivers said. “And the Nets, they’re in a tough situation because they have so much money. They’re at $100 million, so they can’t take any more salaries, and in a sign-and-trade would mean they’re taking more salary, so they really just can’t do it.
“We knew it would be hard, but we tried every avenue and it just didn’t work.”
With the Clippers off the board, Pierce wound up signing a two-year deal with the Wizards, with the second year a player option. Rivers said that while he wasn’t sure where Pierce would end up once the Clippers were off the board, he knew Pierce wasn’t just going to sign with any team just to collect a paycheck.
“I didn’t know where he was going to go. I knew he wanted to go to a team that had a chance to win games,” Rivers said. “That was very important for him.”