Doc Rivers Comments on Clippers' Pursuit of Kevin Durant in Free Agency

The Los Angeles Clippers were one of the many teams to miss out on signing Kevin Durant, though not for lack of trying.

In a podcast interview with Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical (via RealGM), Clippers head coach Doc Rivers described the team's process in pursuit of Durant this summer:

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We were willing to take the gamble if we felt we were in it. And we were in it. We were in the top-3 at the very end. But we had to make a couple calls to (Durant's camp). We got two players to delay an hour (before making their decisions). We had two players on our team who could sign for more money but they were going to wait another hour to stay with us.

The second thing is we had to get this right. If we're going to go after Durant, if we can get him, let's stay in it. It's worth it, even if we don't get him. If we're not going to get him, we have to make that decision. We have to do our job business wise.

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Rivers went on to say that he asked Durant's camp if the Clippers were among his top two choices, and the response was "no."

He did add that he thought Durant "liked us a lot," though he also acknowledged the financial situation with the Clippers would have required some sacrifices from a lot of players over the next two years:

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We needed Kevin to take a hit this year to fit and next year we would have needed Blake (Griffin) and Chris (Paul) to take a hit financially. He didn't have to do that if he stayed in Oklahoma. He didn't have to do that if he went to Golden State. Plus they had room to build around that. I think at the end of the day, they looked at is as far as roster wise, well, 'the Clippers look great, we love who they are but financially they are going to be so strapped, it's going to be so hard to work, I think we're going to go the safer place,' and that was Golden State.'

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The Clippers seemed to do well in their pitch meeting with Durant. ESPN's Chris Broussard reported the former NBA MVP was "blown away" by what he heard from them, but he chose to sign with the Golden State Warriors instead.

No matter how good their presentation was, the Clippers were always fighting an uphill battle. Per Spotrac, they are cash-strapped right now at $19.5 million over the cap, and they haven't had the playoff success in recent years that the Warriors and Oklahoma City Thunder could boast. 

There's no shortage of talent in Los Angeles right now with Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan and J.J. Redick. Rivers has a tall task ahead of him now to get the Clippers past the Warriors, but there's a reason he's been considered one of the NBA's best coaches for years.