Sources: Celtics eye Austin Rivers

In those times in recent years when Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers has considered retirement, his desire to spend more time watching his son, Austin, play basketball was among the most relevant reasons.

According to sources, the Celtics were working hard to merge the best of Doc's two worlds on Thursday by moving up in the draft to potentially select the Duke shooting guard.

Boston has the No. 21 and No. 22 picks, and Austin Rivers is known to be on its short list of prospects who are inspiring the push to get into the lottery. It remains to be seen whether the Celtics can pull it off to create a rare father-son pairing. Austin Rivers could be picked in the top 10; SI.com's latest Mock Draft has him going to Toronto at No. 8, and a source said Houston is hoping to land him at No. 12.

Should he go to Boston, though, the younger Rivers said recently that he'd embrace the experience.

"It's a father-son relationship, and then it also turns father-son and coach-player, so it would just be an interesting balance of how we'd have to balance that out," he said at the draft combine in Chicago earlier this month. "I don't know if anybody has done that before seriously where it's been a serious thing. I just don't know how that would work.

"I think it could work. I think we could work, just because of how seriously my dad takes the game and how seriously I take it. We both love the game of basketball, and it's our livelihood. ... I think outside the lines, you just have to be normal, and then inside the lines you just have to understand that it's nothing personal. It's a job."

With 36-year-old Ray Allen set to become a free agent and second-year guard Avery Bradley known first and foremost as a defensive player, Rivers would fit in as a scoring option in Boston's backcourt. He averaged 15.5 points and shot 43.3 percent from the field as a freshman last season.