Clippers, Celtics Nearing Doc Rivers Deal

4:57pm: The Clippers and Rivers are working on the length of the deal, tweets Wojnarowski.

4:56pm: The Clippers believe that Chris Paul will soon notify them that the acquisition of Rivers clinches his signature on a max deal when he can legally sign on July 1st, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com.

4:30pm: The deal will see the Clippers trade a 2015 unprotected first-round pick to the Celtics, a source tells Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports (on Twitter).

4:02pm: The Clippers and Celtics are nearing a deal to allow Doc Rivers to become the next coach of the Clippers, league sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports.  Rivers and the Clippers are working on the language of a five-year, $35MM deal and no agreement will be in place until those details are finalized.  It appears that the deal will send a first round pick out east to Boston in exchange for the rights to Rivers.

The longtime C's coach told the Clippers that he was no longer interested in the position on Friday, but Paul pressured L.A. management to fork over a first round pick to get the deal done.  Wojnarowski concludes that Rivers' telling the Clps he no longer had interest in the job and the Celtics setting a Friday deadline for a deal were negotiating postures to get the Clippers to up their offer.

Rivers went into the weekend planning to decide his future with the Celtics and sources said he had been leaning strongly toward returning next season to fulfill the three years and $21MM left on his deal.  With the Celtics set to rebuild, several sources say that Boston wanted draft-pick compensation over paying for an elite coach.

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