Doc Rivers Signs Contract Extension

let me be the first to say:
NNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

and the fire doc chants officialy re-start in 3-2-1 FIRE DOC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bye bye playoffs in 2007-08 and beyond. This is the worst news for the Celtics franchise since the death of Reggie Lewis.

I used to support Ainge but this just baffles me.

Ainge and the Celts management stick by Doc like the Bush Administration sticks by its decision to invade Iraq. Stay the course!

Someone needs to caption that photo. I cant think of anything right now. Depression.

boooooooooooooooooooooooh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :(

Ummmmmm are you kidding me? God forbid we wait to see how (at least part) of next season goes before we offer him an extension. Has this ever happened before? Ever? Someone coming off a season where his team had the second worst record in the league gets an extension? Someone hasn’t won a playoff series in 3 years with a team gets an extension?

I’m baffled.

The ONLY explanation for this is if Doc agreed to do his damnedest to Tank in exchange for an extension. With that said, is it too much to ask to pull the plug on Doc on say, Nov. 2?
That would be fair right?

www.sportsguyredux.blogspot.com

It only makes sense in the context of Ainge holding on to his past mistakes in the hope that miraculously this “good guy” coach will go from “merely” being a good role model to a true strategist. We can only sit back helplessly and hope that he’s right, but it seems so impulsive and not thought through.

Grousbeck and Ainge just sold their fanbase down the river for 5 million dollars. Hope it was worth it.

Sadly, this organization just isn’t serious about winning.

“Dumb and Dumber”.

it’s like Wolfowitz getting the Medal of Honor and then placed in charge of the World Bank

Please let this be a one year extension that Wyc will be willing to eat when he fires danny and doc next offseason. Just 377 days to the 2008 draft lottery!

They can forget about selling me any tickets in 2007-2008, or 2008-2009 for that matter.

If you had to plan — deliberately — the destruction of one of the greatest franchises is sports history, would you do anything differently than what Ainge and Wytless are doing now?

dear god, no….

 It is official we are now the biggest laughing stocks in sports history. We will show improvement only to be outcoached in the playoffs. Please Bill Gates make Wyc an Offer he can’t refuse!!!

I’m not a huge Doc fan, but I can understand the argument that he hasn’t exactly had a chance to prove himself with this current roster. Still, it seems like another case of the C’s bidding against themselves (like with Scalabrine). It’s not like other teams out there were chomping at the bit waiting to sign Doc Rivers. Next year really should’ve been his make or break year.

I honestly don’t see much reason to follow this team now, top-two pick or not.
Wow.

But you know, no matter what they do, we keep coming back, yearning for the glory days of Bird and of Russell. I’ve said this before: we need an ownership change, and the only way that happens now is if people stop buying tickets and watching the games. Wytless is in it for the money, and the money needs to stop flowing.

Danny needs one more player and he may get him in a few days…then it’s game-on…let’s not jump off any bridges..

With an extra year of maturity for Chris Bosh and one more quality big man plus an additional wing scorer to replace Morris Peterson, I expect the Raptors to win 50 games nect year. I also expect the Raptors to add another quality European free agent.

I hope this works out for Doc and the team….but I’m certainly very skeptical

while i don’t understand the urgency, i have to point out that sam Mitchell one coach of the year one year after leading toronto to the first pick in the o6 draft.

this year no one here thought sam would last through november.

so what do we know…

Disgusting! Is it Ainge or WYC making this call. If WYC, Ainge should have resigned. God help us Celtic fans.

Doc, has been outcoached by so many coaches is not even funny. This extension confirm my suspicion in that DA and Doc’s future with the organization are one and the same. I am extremly dissapointed that DA could not separate frienship and buisness. For the sake of the franchise I truly hope we get GOden ’cause otherwise there will be a heavy dose of small-ball in the Garden for years to come. Prepare to see the most inconciabable subs/moves by the Celtics in end-of-game situations.

I can only hope that there is some kind of fine print in the extension that stipulates that Doc most hire a defensive minded assistant coach for the extension to take place. :o

What’s the big deal? If they start slow again, they’ll will just fire him. It’s not our money and his salary does not count against the salary cap. The problem with this team is that they rely on too many young players that have not even played college basketball i.e. Big Al, Perkins, Telfair, Green. If they want to be successful next year, they need to trade for a veteran or two otherwise we just have to wait until this core group grows up.

Hear the cheering from Toronto, New York, New Jersey & Philly??? They know Celtics will continue to be non-contenders with Doc coaching the Celtics. Oh the agony of it all!!!!!!!

Jeff, any chance of changing this to a Raptors blog? The Celtics have just become irrelevant, sort of like the Atlanta Hawks North.

I feel like there will be a massive exodus heading towards “The Bill Simmons Refugee Camp”….who’s going to turn-out the lights? ;D

Wow. They couldn’t wait a year & see what he did with a healthy roster & a top pick? Really!? Does this make sense to anyone?

The only way I see him winning is to take the Byron Scott in NJ route. Hire a bunch of assistants who could be the head coach elsewhere & take all the credit for your team’s success.

Brickoswki there already are Raptor blogs out there. Also if you feel so strongly about it, you could start one on your own.

Anyway I have no doubt that if things start out poorly again next year, Doc is gone. It’s only a one year extension.

If that’s the case, orrzor, why give him the extension? He’s already signed for next year. Other than some sort of sick loyalty thing, this doesn’t make a bit of sense. My gosh, Marty Shottenheimer was fired for a 14-2 record.

How do you know its only a one-year extension? And in any event, a one-year extension is two years too long.

It is a one year extension. Check out the Herald.

I personally wouldn’t have given him the extension oyster. I think it’s a bad decision but I don’t think it’s going to ruin next season. At worst Doc is fired by December in my opinion. Especially if we get a high draft pick, there will be no more excuses and a lot of pressure to win.

The Celtics don’t deserve a blog or podcasts. Jeff, Jughead and JB ought to close up shop for a couple of years and reopen when Rivers is gone.

If it’s more than a 1-year deal, Wyc should be paying the luxury tax. Because that’s a much better investment.

Can we get Marty Schottenheimer?!!

Everyone should calm down a bit…it’s obvious that this extension was payment for Doc’s “strategic” use of the bench to get us a top pick…Once ALL the pieces(players)are in place,Danny will take over as coach ala Pat Riley…NO reason to bring in a brand new coach right now.

The only positive I can see is that perhaps other elite coaches/players will look at this and think of the Celtics Organization and DA as “class-act” who don’t quit on their coaches after a what obiously was “tanking” situation.

orrzor is right, it’s being reported as a one year extension by mark murphy. My bigger concern is that we are creaping into knick territory where 10 more wins means dramatic improvement. If Doc can’t win a playoff series this year send him packing with an extra 5 mil courtesy of danny and wyc.

The only good aspect of this is that Doc will have absolutely no excuse next year. The fact that it was just a one year extension is essentially the management saying they will cut him loose if there isn’t significant improvement.

Im firmly in fire Doc camp, but a one year extension is not the apocalypse. Continuity with all the existing (mostly young) players could be a good thing. One negative could be if the team get off to another slow start (a Doc Rivers trademark) and a coaching change has to be made midseason, which usually results in a lost season. I also wonder if the exact same staff will be brought back or whether they will make some changes.

The one year extension makes it better, but at the end of the day, the top two premier coaches(RAlderman and RCarlisle) will not be available then.

Oh well, I’ll try to stay positive. Who knows, maybe then someone like AJohnson might be available.

if he was coming to start the season, the 1` year extension is a non-issue.

This is exactly what I thought would happen. Why is anyone surprised? Even if he is a bad coach he oversaw a monumental tank job for Wyc & Danny. They had to repay him plus most coaches never go into a season with lame duck status. So Doc gets his one extra year which will not stop management from releaving Doc of his duties should they see fit at some point this coming season.

Well they knew they had to do something drastic to pursuade Brickowski to leave once and for all. I’d tell you Brickowski to take the cheerleaders with you but we know they’re not listening on Causeway St. I don’t get this one. I’m basically a Doc supporter but he should have had to sing for his dinner. He’s already taken $20 mil from this contract. What does he need security for? DAnny’s just a jock. A likeable one but a jock. But I thought Wyc got it re. accountability. Hey, it’s clear the players respect Doc and the lesson of the Toronto coach is valid. This league is about W’s and Doc hasn’t put up enough yet to get an extension.

Indeed.Those two look like they just smoked a Blount

Jeff,
I don’t know the infatuation with Rick Andleman, why is he condiered so valuable? In an earlier blog I saw that the report form Sacramento was that Bibby had sort of quit on the season, that is not the Mike Bibby I remember seeing in past years, in fact, whenever we got to see Bibby it was like the game flowed through him and here he is quitting this season, not taking it to the basket and settling for easy things.

You can say a lot of negative things about the Celts this year but the players quitting, I did not see that. He didn’t have firm rotations especially when the injuries started piling up but rotations will come later after the players have earned their spots.

I like the extention, Doc deserved this.

Me thinks everyone should calm down a little bit. Look everyone, I’m not a Doc apologist and I’m not in favor of him coaching this team. But, as Stephen A. Smith would say………How Ev Uh…..clety86 (a couple of entries above) makes the best point of all when he said:
‘Why is anyone surprised?’
i) ‘He oversaw a monumental tank job and they had to repay him’
ii) ‘Most coaches never go into a season with lame duck status’
iii) ‘So Doc gets one extra year which will not stop management from relieving Doc of his duties should they see fit at some point this coming season’

In essence, they “thank him for the chance to get a top two pick”, they make him feel like he’s got a shot with a healthy roster and top draft pick, they buy some time of continuity for the younger players who seem to like him, they appease Pierce who is a Doc supporter(?).

Now to quote a favorite, and over used, Doc phrase….‘At the end of the day’…it settles the waters for a brief time within the clubhouse, Doc was going to be here next year anyway, and if he screws up the first couple of month of next season, which we certainly expect him to do, they’ll have no choice and he’ll likely be replaced.

So Brick and company, cheer up. He won’t be here too long. The money they will pay him after they release him doesn’t count against the cap.
Rejoice, all’s well in Celtic land after all.

Dr. D, I’m almost there with you but for one point: Right now, they could fire Doc and eat the $5 million now and go after a real coach. All they’re doing right now is paying off Doc a $5 million reward for tanking. It’s hush money, blood money, whatever you call it. But the worst thing of all, the one thing that’s irrefutable by now, is it keeps a sub-par head coach leading this team, which no matter how much healther it will be, no matter how much improved it will be, no matter what pick it will get, will still be guided by Doc Rivers.
Again, I see the logic up above, but as solid as that thinking may seem, Doc remains an untenable reality.
Should’ve made him earn the extension through results, not tanking, whether it was one year or three.

“Tank job” that has been aluded to many times in this blog and in the media and there is no doubt that the Celtics will benefit from a losing record but name a season, name a league in which a team that has no hope of playoffs doesn’t experiment with the personal; why should last years Celtics be any different. The only difference to me is that the sports media controlled by NY wants to point it out when it is a Boston team.

If I was Doc, I wouldn’t have played Pierce at all, he should have shut it down earlier than he did. I would have experimented with Ray at point guard as he did, what better time to find out if the kid can play in this league, he is not going to make it as a shooting guard, why not point if he can contribute in the future. I would have also done as Doc had with mixing it up during crunch time 4th quarter, who doesn’t get flustered and who does, those last couple of months were the time to find out.

Obviously, Doc got his extention not because the team failed in the win/loss column but because they excelled in young player improvement.

Rick Pitino would be an improvement over the Grousbeck-Ainge-Rivers triumvirate.

I’m getting a black arm band…the Celtics are dead to me.

Too many of you bloggers think $5 million is play money. Get real! The Celts aren’t grossing $250 million a year. You don’t “say thanks” to a guy for $5 mil that you’ve already given $20 mil for a bad won/lost record (even if not his fault). I am for patience and consistency and Doc may have earned not getting fired. But did he earn $5 mil for year after next. No way. Maybe Wyc, who inherited his Daddy’s money, doesn’t have a real sense of value. You can forgive Danny for sticking up for a fellow jock. But where is the financial thinking. For that matter, how has Chris Wallace managed to stick around? I love the fact that Wyc is a true fan as opposed to the Gastons, but he may be a a naive businessman. What else would explain this. If it was his $5 mil then it’s his to decide. But if he’s coming back at us for it, there will be a Brickowski-like breaking point for the rest of us.

I’m kind of surprised how many people are threatening not to watch the celtics because of this. Sure the move looks bad, but you really want to miss seeing all these promising players come together next season, after all the time you’ve invested in watching them? Remember Popovich was also in the lottery, and then got Duncan.

I’ll watch them on TV once in awhile, so long as FSN continues to be part of the basic Comcast cable package. Otherwise, I’ll watch the games that air on TNT and NBA-TV. I won’t miss the Foxwoods commercials.

Wow.. Another wasted year. I’ve been with Ainge the whole way, but I’m done. So what if we happen to get lucky and make the playoffs this year. We’ll get badly outcoached and lose in the first round again. Nellie is showing what a great coach can do with a bunch of misfits. Carlisle, Brown, and probably both Van Gundy’s are available and we extend this loser.

Wow.. Another wasted year. I’ve been with Ainge the whole way, but I’m done. So what if we happen to get lucky and make the playoffs this year. We’ll get badly outcoached and lose in the first round again. Nellie is showing what a great coach can do with a bunch of misfits. Carlisle, Brown, and probably both Van Gundy’s are available and we extend this loser.We won’t ever contend again until someone else buys this team and cleans out the entire front office. I really wonder what Doc would have to do to get fired. 10 and 72? 5 and 77? a 30 game losing streak? 40? I just don’t understand.

If Doc starts next season 0-10 he’s gone. That’s one scenario where he gets fired. Our 18 game losing streak was with Pierce, Allen, Wally out. People keep mentioning the streak and neglect to mention it coincided with the height of our injuries. If Pierce had been playing and we had an 18 game losing streak, Doc would’ve been fired then. You need at least a minimum level of talent to win an NBA game.

I honestly believe the extension was given to Doc for being a "good soldier " in his role in tanking during the final stretch of the season. It certainly wasn’t granted on merit .

Our fate is sealed. It doesn’t matter if we end up with a top 2 selection, healthy squad, trade for veterans, etc. This team will not win 45 games this season. Because the 24 win bar was set so low from last year’s miserable season, expect all the hoopla on how we are “improving”. All the stars have to align for us to have a winning record, and if we don’t, here we go again: Wally/West/ fill in the blank injuries, our #1 pick needs time to develop, still working as a unit,etc. I expect a 500 club, give or take several games. Had we pulled a top notch coach and a great pick, 45 to 50 could/should be in the cards.

Getting outcoached, X and Os, and assinine Danny and Doc reasoning will cost this team a good half dozen games. This is not as dire as last season with Telfair’s selection, but it is no “banner time” contention either. Say hello to the middle of the road.

I want what is “best” for the Cs, I don’t think the extension was a move in that direction. We need “new blood”, sorry Danny and Doc but I am not positive with the same ole, same ole. There are very few if any professional franchises that would have had the type of season the Cs had and not done some type of house cleaning.

This is from the Herald article:

"Roughly an hour after they finished, at 5 p.m., Rivers signed the deal. His salary will remain at $5 million, though bothsides reportedly had an option for a second year. The current extension goes ghrough 08-09 season. "

Can someone please explain what is meant by the option for a second year? Does that mean that Doc can opt to make this run thru 09-2010?

We’ll dump lottery picks to save $$$ and refuse to spend the full MLE but then don’t bat an eye at extending one of the league’s worst coaches. It’s frustrating to know that the organization has neither a firm timetable nor any real criteria for measuring success. I hope fans are excited for back to back 1st round ousters, before trading Pierce for cents on the dollar. The franchise (if not the fans) deserve the 3rd pick, Danny and Wyc need a reality check.

The Celtics need better players, healthier players, and for the players they currently have to gain more experience. Coaches really don’t have all that much impact on a team’s record. Did Larry Brown become an awful coach after he took over the Knicks? Did Nate McMillan forget how to coach when he took the Portland job? You could go on and on.

What if there was a housecleaning this year and the team still struggled next season? They don’t get a top two pick. The point guard situation remains a basic problem. Pierce decides he’s had enough. Do you clean house all over again?

Bad news. Major mis-step. For those who say just dump him early next season if things look bad, it matters because the offseason and preseason are valuable. (Anybody recall the even-more-than-usual baffling things Doc was doing in preseason last year?) Especially if they hope to have a rookie or veteran acquisition effectively and quickly integrate. Those who credit Doc with player development are way off – development has happened despite Doc. Just as winning will need to happen despite him.

The bottom line question is did Doc get the most out of what he had. I simply don’t believe anyone can think the team overachieved — or even achieved. With underachievment – look first at the coaching. Not only is he extended, but he makes well above the average head coach salary!

 A reward for being a good soldier and tanking? That is absurd. What if the Cs end up with pick #5? They extend the guy at $5 million as a thank you for a 40% versus a 20% chance at #1 or#2? What evidence is there Doc has the ability to do anything but lose and post progressively worse season records?

calm down. doc is the best coach we have – because he is the only one. start to support your team.

You know what sucks? watching Utah losing 2 HOFers and still recover within a few years to be a contender and play great basketaball. That is the difference between good ownership and crap ownership.

 that’s bad news. we need doc like we need blount. i know there was a doc in the seven dwarfs, but was there a skippy? i don’t know what is going on in wyc’s head or danny’s, they are at the precipice and can see down but i guess all they can do is look up.to ejplaya,you know how much i feel about doc being unsavable,so i will refrain from now to the beginning of the season on any comments about him in the hope of a lucky pick and a lucky, injury free season.

Let’s see… Chris Wallace is still with the club, Scalabrine’s five year contract, Vin Baker’s signing, the Telfair trade… this is just one more instance of the pattern of the 21st century Celtics handsomely rewarding mediocrity and failure. The only thing left for this organization is to trade our next 5 first round draft picks to get Isaiah Thomas as our GM.

Memphis did the tank job.
they had Gasol and miller (allstar caliber) players and made us look like a playoff team
pierce was truly hurt ,Allen really blew out his knee .we really had players like telfair
and scalabrine on the roster we did have doc as coach… im not sold on us tanking, i truly
believe that doc is that bad. like the first game of the season last yr when we had the W
doc didnt even have us cover the inbounds pass, see tanking didnt start at the beginning of the
season , we really suck under doc

Thanks Nazzbo, I appreciate it… I do for the record feel this is a bad move and that he should have been under the pressure of a “lame duck” season. If he did well for the first half we could have done this same thing then. At least it was only one season and an option.

BTW Nazzbo… Did you ever come up with one of those veterans (the talented and physical guys) that were just out there waiting for Danny to “pluck” off another team? You said that was easy. Why no names?!

BTW Brick. Make sure you go read the response in the other posting we were in. Shame on you Brick.

I said read your own poll in the previous thread. Unfortunately I didn’t look closely and thought that the “yes’s” were ahead. I should have known better.

I think all of you should all just stick to watching the college game there will be a nice comfort zone for you where the slicked back haired coaches control every second and inch of the floor and the camera is on them and they try to look important berating 18 year olds; oh wait a minute, we had one of those here in Boston a few years back, how did that work out; I think it set the organization back a players generation.

This could either be perfect timing on Dannyâ€â"¢s part, or the final touches of his own death sentence. If all goes well in Secaucus, all will be forgiven and forgotten. If things go poorly, this will be a double whammy for a great majority of fans that have wanted Doc gone for a long time now.

We blame Wyc, Danny and Doc for everything and now we are depending on ping pong balls for future glory. Who do we blame if we don’t get a 19 year old who’s never played an NBA minute? Who’s the guy who makes the ball thing work?

eurobird, be careful what you say here. But I like Doc and think Danny has done a great job. I’m also not counting on getting Oden or Durant and I still think we’ll be much better next year. To me Doc’s extension is very reasonable for all parties and I don’t see any great coaches out there who would be better than Doc. I do see several coaches out there who would make us start all over again. We now have an offensive system that players are familiar with, we have players that know each other. Obviously we need to improve our defense, but one thing at a time. At the start of last season we complained about rebounding. I think that’s improved at both ends of the floor. That was fixed and I think Doc was the coach last year. It is what it is so why not let things work themselves out.

To answer the question if we clean house and still struggle do we still clean house again. Nothing’s a given in life and that’s what more or less what happened to the Sacramento Kings. IMO you make the change though- no question about it. Stan and Jeff Van Gundy may be there, Rick A., the list goes on and everyone has their own favorite choice.

Bottom line IMO is Doc was “rewarded” for this team tanking and being in the #2 spot going into the lottery drawing.

Caption for that picture…

Danny: “No, No Doc, I swear. haha…They are actually going to extend you”

Doc: “Hah..Your kidding me, right? This sh*t is too easy”

Even if we do get Oden or Durrant and even if they don’t suffer a career ending injury from colliding with Veal on the first day of practice, unless there’s a slew of injuries they’ll see precious little game time for the first 2-3 years until they can master Doc’s elusive defensive scheme.