Bulpett: Not All Doc's Fault
by Jeff Clark on Mar 13, 2007 4:47 AM EDT
in Boston Celtics News & Links
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Steve Bulpett, my favorite beat writer, takes on the thankless task of defending Doc Rivers. A contrarian article to be sure, but unlike some writers, he doesn't come across as condescending. Instead, he almost sounds like he knows what kind of fan reaction he's going to get from the column and spends half the column admitting Doc's failures before finally placing more of the blame on the players:
But even if we grant, for the sake of argument, that Rivers is a knucklehead, to accept as fact the coaching crimes that have been ascribed to him would necessitate the indictment of the rest of the staff as well. OK, so Tony Brown, Armond Hill, Dave Wohl, Kevin Eastman and Clifford Ray are idiots, too? Does anyone actually believe these guys aren’t telling the players how to rotate defensively?
The truth is that some people turn lesson into instinct more quickly than others, and, in general, younger players are far more likely to get flustered. The Celts run through their plays in practice and everything looks fine, but what’s going to happen when a defender jumps a passing lane? Too often, the C’s try to make the pass anyway or simply break the play and look for a quick shot.
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At least somebody has the presence of mind to outline the complexity of the situation. Everybody acts like it is a black and white issue. People want a coach that is a virtual guarantee. It’s ok to want that, but Pitino and Duncan were both considered virtual guarantees and we saw how that played out. There are more factors and time is one of the top 3 factors. Going back to that same prior regime to make another point – Joe Johnson/Chauncey Billups. Pitino didn’t work out in Boston for many reasons, but succombing to such narrow minded pressures with a knee jerk reaction was one of the major reasons – he needed more patience. There are too many other factors at play here and other than the playoffs against Indiana I don’t think we’ve had a chance to fully evaluate Rivers coaching abilities. And even then, Paul and Antoine were as much or more responsible than Doc for the failures in that 7-game series that Boston should have wrapped up in 5 games.
I crack up at people who want to blame Toine and Paul for that 7 game series instead of Rivers. The ONLY reason they lost was poor coaching. The two games in which people point to regarding Toine and Paul’s antics, please remember that the Celtics WON those two games. They lost that 7 game series because of the atrocious coaching in game 2. There would have been no game 7 had Doc not botched game 2 so badly.
Allow me to clarify that I never said Doc didn’t effect the outcome of the series. Nor am I trying to absolve him of any responsibility whatsoever. Neither was Bulpett. It was Bulpett’s acknowledging the complexity of the situation that appealed to me and that I was in agreement with. You say, “but I don’t know that for sure and neither do you.” That was precisely my point about the entire situation and that includes Doc Rivers. So when you also say, “The ONLY reason they lost was poor coaching” you are contradicting yourself. It is statements indicating only one source of blame that I have a problem with, not that Doc’s abilities are being questioned. We pay good money to go to these games and invest large amounts of time in watching. We all have a right to question what is going on, but the statements of singular responsibility is narrow minded – that’s all I am saying.
a change of coaching scenery is sometimes needed just to start fresh with a clean slate, in this case there are many more reasons.
doc served his purpose and will be remembered, but its time to step it up in the offseason and get that championship coach in place and get a season or so of implementing top level bball
To me, this was a typical Herald article, one that pretends to evaluate an issue and then develops no conclusion. Lame writing to go along with our soon-to-be Lame Doc coach.
by lemonadesky on Mar 13, 2007 7:19 AM EDT reply actions
Fire Doc!
Fire Bulpett!
Doc coached Orlando to a 1-19 start and Boston to an 18 game losing streak. Both teams in the bottom 3 of the league in defense. I almost get in a fist fight every time I wear my Celtic hat for God’s sake.
Someone has to be held responsible for making the Celtics a laughing stock. Doc’s gotta go.
by green18 on Mar 13, 2007 7:26 AM EDT reply actions
To me, this was a typical Herald article, one that pretends to evaluate an issue and then develops no conclusion. Lame writing to go along with our soon-to-be Lame Doc coach.
Wait, you serve as Peter May’s white knight, but you criticize the Herald? What, are you on the Globe’s staff? At least the Herald isn’t full of vitriolic plagiarists. That’s got to count for something.
As for the article, I liked the list of things Doc doesn’t do well, although I think it could have been about 2/3 longer. Doc hasn’t had much to work with this season, but even with that being said, he’s underachieved.
As in any disaster, there is plenty of blame to go around. But a huge chunk of it goes to Rivers. The man can’t coach. As for the rest of his staff, well, Hitler had some very competent generals working for him on the Eastern front.
I note in passing that none of his assistants have ever been the head coach of a winning team. For example, Armond Hill was fired after his Columbia team went 1-24. That’s positively Rivers-esque.
Keep Ray and Eastman, the skills coaches. Fire the rest. Dave Wohl is a competent NBA assistant and will find another job. I don’t care about the others.
I still haven’t figured out why some people like to pretend this is Doc’s first season. That he didn’t get out coached in the playoffs. THat he didn’t coach this team to the 7th worst record last year. That he doesn’t give young players chances until his hand is forced. And that he has been with these guys long enough to teach them how to defend a pick and roll.
Time to move on.
Regardless of everyone’s opinion of Doc’s coaching abilities it is quite apparent that it is time for a coaching change in Boston. Hopefully the first step in making that change will be made on the first day of the off season.
Having said that, I also think that the Celtics must take a long look at the conditioning of the players. I doubt we can do much to avoid all of the injuries this season, however, we have seen too many injuries in the past few seasons and we must address how the players are being prepared to play. Proper conditioning could have a significant impact on the teams future success.
Perhaps a new coach could bring fresh ideas about player conditioning.
Rivers must be the worst coach i ever seen in my life.
The writer wants to include the assistant coaches into his failure but the truth is that HE is the coach and players are successful due to his teachings.
Its horrific how he has played west at the point and how he will start him tonight when Rondo is clearly the best pg we have. Its horrific how he yells at the young players while letting guys like paul pierce off mistakes(talk about double standard). And its especially horrific he has no set rotations and has had way too many different lineups
I’m just glad he won’t be back after next year. We should look to hire an assistant coache from san antonio, detroit, Dallas, Phoenix to take over doc
I would say Doc has until next year’s trade deadline to get the ship going in the right direction. If things fall right and we get Durant or Oden with the players we already have we should be no worse than .500 this time next year. Doc’s in game coaching is the my major issue with him. There have been so many issues the past few years that he was only 1 of many so he gets a slight pass from me.
Bulpett makes some good points. I’m not saying Doc’s perfect, or that another coach couldn’t have done better, but Doc doesn’t deserve nearly as much of the blame as he’s getting.
I say, if he can’t get this team to .500 or above next year with a month or two of healthy, in shape players, especially if the team lands Oden, that’s when he should get the axe.
by timothy.michael.clark on Mar 13, 2007 9:47 AM EDT reply actions
Here we go with more equivocation on Doc. Starts here and ends up with a 3-year contract extension being announced pretty soon. After all, he can’t go into next year as a lame duck coach, can he?
I’m starting to believe the only way Doc will not be here next year is if he quits – and management will try and talk him out of doing that!
I accept that there are some teams that almost anyone could coach and they would win. Unfortunately, this Celtics team is far from being one of those teams. They need a real coach.
I don’t think Danny will fire Doc but intends to re-up him – as much as anything because Danny does not want to admit to another of his mistakes. Wyc will go along with whatever Danny tells him, at this point. Wyc, Danny and Doc – hey are some kind of conjoined triplet of mediocrity!
by tallpaul on Mar 13, 2007 10:15 AM EDT reply actions
people who don’t see that rivers is a terrible coach and the main reason for our failures are never going to see it. some people just plain don’t see it.
by mroden on Mar 13, 2007 10:22 AM EDT reply actions
And some people who see Doc as the main reason for our failures “just plain don’t see.” I agree with Bulpett. No NBA coach with that many assistants could be clueless about defense. But players can fail to play it. I scratch my head sometimes about his subbing (I’d like to see more mins for Powe,less for stone hands Perk)but the players respect him. Look, the old adage will come into play, you can change one coach easier than many players. Clearly, in my mind, something has to change if they don’t exhibit a winning potential through the rest of this season. I can’t get out of my mind how clueless K.C.Jones looked sitting on that bench during those glory years. Players win games, players lose games.
Two comments on the article:
And I donâ€â"¢t like the fact he has a rational explanation for all the above points.[/quote]
Um…yes, and what are these “rational” explanations? I’d sure like to hear them.
[quote]The issue is how many could have done a whole lot more with the unfinished roster that is the Celtics.
No, the issue has nothing to do with how many[/i] better coaches are out there. The issue is that if even [i]one coach could have done better and was available, doesn’t the franchise have a responsibility to go after that coach?
“Thereis no question there are better coaches on this planet than GlennRivers. The issue is how many could have done a whole lot more with theunfinished roster that is the Celtics”
[/quote]
Um Bulpitt you already said that someone could of done a better job…you answered your own question.
[quote]"But after that, the belief here was that the Celtics [team stats] should have hired Paul Westphal to weather the rebuilding years and install the running game Danny Ainge (and Tommy Heinsohn) craves."
by knocsucow00 on Mar 13, 2007 12:28 PM EDT reply actions
While I think Doc is not to be blamed entirely and needs to be evaluated with a healthy squad through some length of time into next season, I never said that he should do so with a 3 year extension in hand (not that anyone accused me of it either). I hear everyone make the lame duck argument as to why he will get the extension, but while I don’t think you can blame him solely for the Celtics shortcomings I also do not believe that he has done anything to earn the extension either. There is only one compromise that makes any sense and takes into account the complexity of the situation: Doc enters next season as a lame duck coach under scrutiny with a healthy squad at his disposal. If he’s headed for the playoffs bythe trade deadline then he gets an extension. I understand that the book is closed for most of you in regards to Doc’s coaching abilities and you want a quick fix this offseason. I hope that happens for you because I would have no problem eating copious amounts of crow for us to appear in the ECF with Adelmann, Westpaul, Silas, etc.. as our coach.
Name another situation where a team wins 33 games one season, follows that up next season with an 18 game losing streak and being on pace to win less than 25 games, and the coach is not considered to be on a death watch. Honestly, fans probably wouldn’t be so crazy about Doc being a bad coach if he was receiving the appropriate level of criticism from the media. But when he makes absolutely horrible coaching decisions and almost receives a free pass, it only intensifies fan anger.
Mike
Jughead, count me in your army on this. Doc is far from perfect, but it seems as if he’s the only culprit. I am sure he tripped Wally a couple of times too.
There are coaches who are good at developing young talent, others that are good at playing the veterans and at boosting the team chemistry, others who are ONLY good when they play superstars. Ask Phil Jackson to coach these Celtics, and we’ll see if zen applies when three of your for veterans are injured.
Honestly, fans probably wouldn’t be so crazy about Doc being a bad coach if he was receiving the appropriate level of criticism from the media. But when he makes absolutely horrible coaching decisions and almost receives a free pass, it only intensifies fan anger.
Mike
That is it, in a nutshell, Mike.
Those fans who observe dock’s deficiencies are much more irate due to the fact that the general Boston sports media doesn’t want to call him on it.
My question is why?
Why is there so little criticism of dock’s coaching by the Boston sports media?
Is it because he was a media member before this gig?
OK, back to Bulpett’s assertions.
Of course the assistants are telling their players all sorts of things. Does that make them good coaches per se?
He claims that “the truth is that some people turn lesson into instinct more quickly than others, and, in general, younger players are far more likely to get flustered”. Is it not also true that some coaches have the ability to coach young players better than other coaches? It seems to me that it is dock who is the one who is the most flustered. I have never seen another coach act that way on the sidelines. He doesn’t seem to understand what kind of effect his behavior has on the team. To me it is so obvious.
Isn’t the team leader supposed to be the one that keeps everyone calm and stable when things aren’t going well? dock does the opposite. It is as if he can “threaten” his players into playing better basketball. I am not sure why he has the reputation of being such a nice guy either. He acts much better towards the refs, opposing coaches and players than his own team. Other coaches get really mad at the refs but dock is always really mad at his team. This has no effect on their performance?
Rick Pitino got the reputation of a man who was good at coaching young kids in college but didn’t really know how to coach men in the NBA as well. Rick Pitino yelled a lot, but he didn’t humiliate his players.
dock also seems to like to air out the dirty laundry to the press about his players. Would a good coach do that? Did you ever hear Red, Tommy H., Bill Fitch, KC(by the way – that was a low blow to KC, Wildblue. His facial expression had nothing to do with his coaching abilities. Now HE was a NICE guy! not to mention a hall of famer) bitching about this or that criticism of “some” of his players? It never happened. Why? Because there is no purpose in it. If you have any criticisms about players – tell them in private, hammer them in practice – why tell it to the press? Is that going to make the player play better?
Did you see dock grabbing Ryan Gomes and telling him what he had done wrong after that double over time game where he played great and also logged 51 minutes? Everyone was celebrating, but dock has to show up one of his players under those circumstances. Are you kidding me? dock must tell each and every one of his “lesser loved” players what they did wrong even if they did great? – always? in front of 17,000? He wouldn’t do it to PP or DW – that’s for sure.
I am sorry, but I have never seen another NBA coach act as dock does. I think that he has a big ego and he feels that he must keep all his charges in check – can’t have certain ones feeling good about themselves and confident. Nope – he must always take them down a notch – show them who’s boss. Unless it is one of the “worthy players”.
If dock gets an extension, it looks like I won’t be going to many more games for a long time.
p.s. If we knew that dock was going to be this bad we could have just kept John Caroll or any assistant coach and paid them peanuts.
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