Sixers Move Quickly on Rivers

After a mutual split with the Los Angeles Clippers franchise on Monday, Doc Rivers is the newest head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers as of Thursday afternoon, a mere three days later.

According to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, Sixers general manager Elton Brand wanted to move quickly on getting Rivers into the fold.

The Sixers have made the playoffs each of the past three seasons, but have yet to make it past the Eastern Conference Semfinals, though their roster currently has one of the NBA's best young tandems in All-Stars Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons.

The duo will now be coached by one of the winningest coaches in NBA history in Rivers, who ranks 11th in all-time regular season coaching wins (943) and 7th in all-time playoff coaching wins (91).

As a coach, Rivers also has one championship to his name, leading the Boston Celtics to the 2008 title over the Los Angeles Lakers. Two years later, he led his Celtics to the Finals once again, where they lost to the Lakers in seven games.

Rivers has also guided the most successful era of basketball in Los Angeles Clippers history, winning 356 games, a franchise record, while making the playoffs in six of his seven seasons at the helm.

However, his tenure never materialized into postseason success, with the Clippers failing to make it past the Western Conference Semifinals with Rivers as coach, and blowing two separate 3-1 playoff leads, in 2015 and 2020.

That didn't deter the Sixers however, who clearly locked in on Rivers as the right guy to lead their talented group.

Both Rivers and the Sixers are looking for redemption after multiple playoff flameouts over the past few seasons, and Rivers already believes Philadelphia has the talent to be a serious title contender, based on his past comments regarding Embiid and Simmons.

We'll see if Rivers and the Sixers can cure each others' woes in 2021.