Blogger Bits

Quick, somebody said something good about Ricky…somebody spin it fast!

loys place is spot on about doc’s poor coaching’ a great guy’ says the right stuff, but inadequate to coach.

The Loys Place article is a cheap shot on Doc. Was the author at Celtic practices? Did the author have to teach almost every player on the team to play NBA basketball? And on and on. Doc has not been a coach till now. He’s been a teacher. You can’t teach 10 guys who know nothing 15 things at once. Doc now has the chance to do his job. Let’s evaluate him at the end of THIS season.

I thought the article in Loy’s Place was quite mild compared to the one I would have written.

A coach IS a teacher. That’s what coaching is.

I just think that the comments about Doc are premature. Although he hasn’t proven himself, the team he had was a setup for the coach to be hit with a lot of criticism. He has strengths and he has weaknesses. One strategy is to complement his weaknesses with assistants that can help him in those areas and if he’s good he’ll use them well and learn from those assistants. Ainge has taken this approach in his hirings the last couple of years. I think Doc is a good coach in a number of ways certainly in dealing with his players, having passion that rubs off well on his players for the most part and not letting criticism get to him publicly. After what he’s been through in Danny’s reconstruction and his part in creating the chips that brought in the veteran stars, he deserves a chance, preferably without all the negativity, to see if he and his staff can do the job.

It is certainly time for Doc to show whether he can orchestrate the people chemistry aspects along with playing philosophy, use of player talents, teaching, game prep and strategy aspects of coaching among others, that he’s been maybe unfairly criticized for, now that he has a team with the talent and experience to win in the NBA. Two to three months to show the team is moving toward its potential seems the least he deserves, although we should have a good feel in mid too late December for whether it looks as if it will come together. And my gut tells me it probably will, based on what seemed to be starting to happen last year in the couple of weeks before Pierce’s injury took him out of the lineup.

Brickowski:
A coach IS a teacher. That’s what coaching is.

I agree with you to a point, but you try to teach 10 guys to play NBA basketball, most out of HS where they werent’t taught the basics, at once. If you want to judge Doc as a teacher and his methods of approaching each player differently per personality, then I think Doc did a darned good job. One of the guys he helped teach was traded for a hofer. That’s a pretty big compliment to me both to the teacher and student. And teachers are usually judged by how their students do. And I’m not really sure a coach has to be a teacher. KC Jones wasn’t a teacher with his Celtic team and I don’t think Doc will need to be much of a teacher with the team he has now.

having trouble with too short thingy. Just posting this to see if it’s my computer

Celtics assistant coach Armond Hill…" “Hill was asked about a variety of Celtics players and his boss, head coach Doc Rivers.”

Doc Rivers: "He is one of the smartest people I’ve ever met when it comes to basketball. He sees a play before it happens. Nobody can break down a play on the chalk board like he can. Not only that, but he always has a counter. He is always one step ahead. I can’t tell you how much I’ve learned from him.

I think I would listen to Armond Hill’s eval before anyone from the media or this or any blog.

“Celts assistant warns not to underestimate Doc”
By Bill Burt , Staff Writer
Eagle-Tribune
[url]http://www.eagletribune.com/pusports/local_story_223094003?keyword=secondary story’,’158[url]

Sorry about the link, but I gave it my best shot. Hope this works.

http://www.eagletribune.com/pusports/local_story_223094003?keyword=secondarystory’,’158

I’ll quit while I’m ahead. Have a good day all.