Clippers Player Spotlight: Austin Rivers

By MH
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Updated: October 16, 2015

Spending the last 10 years living in Orlando, Florida there has been no high school athlete as celebrated as Austin Rivers and for good reason. He won state championships, was ranked the number one high school player in the country, and his dad just happen to coach the Orlando Magic for a few years.

Austin graduated high school in 2011, and took his talents to Duke with high expectations. At Duke he hit the big shot over Tyler Zeller at UNC at the buzzer, in a game that featured about a dozen future NBA players.

Like most top ranked freshmen these days Rivers declared for the draft which makes me wonder if he even would have went to college if there was the age limit rule. I remember draft day and Anthony Davis going number one to New Orleans.

Everyone in town waiting anxiously to see where he would land. At the time the Detroit Pistons were rumored to be interested in Rivers and apparently he had zero interest in going to Motor City. Reports said that he wanted to go to New Orleans and team up with Davis to rebuild that franchise.

He got what he wanted as the Pistons selected Andre Drummond and Rivers fell to New Orleans. I was happy for him, you know it’s never as easy as anyone makes it seem to be a NBA players son. People expected Austin to be good and make the league and he did and was in a pretty good situation.

Going to school in Illinois I would get the chance to come home for a few days at Christmas break. It just so happen that the New Orleans Hornets were going to be in town to face the Magic, Austin’s first game in the NBA in Orlando.

It was good game, but he struggled and he actually had a chance to hit a big shot corner pocket and airballed it. His time in New Orleans didn’t necessarily go as planned. He found himself in LA with Doc Rivers where he found his role with Clippers.

I like what Austin can bring to the Clippers this season and off the top of my head he probably has the best backup point role in the league. He is able to soak up all the information that Chris Paul and Paul Pierce have. Learning what it takes at the NBA level to be a successful pro.

Even Pablo Prigioni can teach Austin a few things. We know that Austin is athletic with a great first step and we don’t what his career aspirations will be. But we do know that he will develop this season more than other season in his young career.

The Clippers bench is deep and Rivers will need to increase his basketball IQ and leadership to reign in Jamal Crawford and Josh Smith when they decide to take some of those bad shots.

Rivers famously said in the summer that he wanted to be on the Team USA summer roster, and his goals for this year was to be the Most Improved Player of the year.

Reports have said that Sam Cassell pretty much lived with Austin this summer, helping him expand his midrange game. It will be interesting to see what Austin does this year. I got a chance to play against him my freshmen year of highschool and I want to see him do well.

The Clippers have high expectations for themselves and Austin’s expectations for himself are aligned with the team’s. This move to LA may have saved his NBA career and probably will propel his career to the next level. I can’t blame Rivers for bringing his son, because it’s obviously worked.

The Clippers needed a better backup guard and Austin has delivered thus far, even creating a little rivalry with the James Harden.

I expect him to have a good year, just don’t loose anymore teeth.

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