Topic Du Jour: Doc Rivers

I still think Doc is nowhere near the coach of guys like Jerry Sloan, Phil Jackson, or Greg Popovich (far and away the best coach in the league). However, I think he’s earned a serious amount of faith, good will, and job security.

The coming season looks like a definitive challenge for Doc. His stars are another year older, he’s been saddled with a badly diminished bench and some Eastern Conference foes are much improved.

As long as Doc can keep everyone focused for an attempted repeat, then we can consider him a great coach. I mean it’s not like he has to teach them anything all he has to do is motivate.

I think Doc is an excellent motivator and leader, but in terms of tactics and Xs and Os he may not be one of the better coaches. I think hiring Tom Thibodeau went a long way towards making Doc look very good.

My only major problem with Doc is that he can’t settle on a rotation (the Cassell-House fiasco during the playoffs being an example)…that is in part due to management giving him too much to work with. Hopefully with fewer veterans on this year’s squad it won’t be as big an issue.

rotation,rotation,rotation is an issue i hope this season Doc will figure out better… working the bench players into and taking full advantage of their strengths,at the right time of games,especially the playoffs.Besides that,im cool with Doc as a head coach.I think Doc matured this past season as a coach,but having 3 superstars will help most coaches improve.

Doc very lucky not to lose his job with 18L in a row, 24W, tanking. He’s a “players’ coach”. Players enjoy playing for him and he can manage the talent. I still question from time to time the substitution patterns but he’s done a good job with the opportunity. Props to Coach T for the D, and for the players buying into the “we” not “me”.

I do think about a dozen or more coaches could have gotten us #17 last year, but props to Doc for getting it done and being a nice guy to boot.

I love Doc Rivers as a coach and more importantly as a human being. His teams are true Celtics. They play hard. Man, we’ve had Pitino, O’ Brien, ML Carr. Isn’t it clear by now? Why even ask such a question anymore? I love the guy.

For years I heard the criticism that Doc wouldn’t stick with a set line-up, and I could never understand what the big complaint was. Then somehow he managed to win a championship, again without a line-up set in stone. Somehow, I don’t expect to hear the end of the grousing.

There’ll always be fans who’ll complain when their favorite bench players aren’t getting the time they feel is their due. Doc will just have to shrug his way to the bank.

He is a players coach par excelllence and I think Pierce’s amazing maturation happened on Doc’s watch. The team morale was acknowledged by all and he must get some credit for that. We did have young guy development and he deserves some credit for that. We were #1 in points coming out of a timeout (or something like that) and the coach must get some credit for that. He’s a family man, what’s wrong with that, especially if you’re in charge of young black men who can profit from some modeling of a man like that. So what if he changed it up player wise. All this nonsense about a set rotation. If you have 12 guys each of whom can bring something to the game, use them all. Or next game only use 7. But never, ever be so imagination-less as to stick with the same formula night in and night out.

I have not always agreed with everything he has done, but he outcoached Flip Saunders and Phil Jackson.

His greatest strength has been developing young players. Al, Gomes, Delonte became desirable under his tutelage and allowed DA to make moves. Rondo has become an outstanding point guard in just 2 seasons. Leon Powe and Big Baby have become solid rotation guys. Perk is widely considered one of the best defensive centers in the league. TA was once on the verge of becoming a legitimate threat in this league and may realize it this season. Doc rightfully deserves credit for turning all of these guys into good players. Rotations, subs, calling timeouts and plays are important qualities of a good coach, but is anything more important than making your players better?

I do think, though, that he should move up to the front office in the near future. He seems to me like he would be a good executive, and he definitely has an eye for talent.

I reconcile the bad years v this year with two letters K and G… Put bluntly coaches are only as good as the players they have. So now Doc has shown that he can win with good players. This makes him a good coach, above average, but to be great he has to do it consistently. We’ll now see if he can, I think he can, I like him and think he knows the game and has a good handle on this team.

He is by far the WORST coach in the NBA. Yes we won the Championship this year but we forget how close we came to losing in the first and second round of the playoffs. And how about the disasterous previous years? What, did he all of a sudden learn how to coach? The only reason we were successful this year is because of the outstanding talent, NOT because of our head coach.
The clown has no idea on how to run a basketball team.
It makes me sick to think that he now has a Championship ring.

I think Doc is good coach (look at what he did with Orlando with little to nothing). We all know his weakness is defense but with the staff he hired that need was filled. He was smart enough to know himself and his weakness and hire the correct staff accordingly. I think you obviously keep him through next year but if they don’t win and there’s another high profile coach out there you pick him up maybe. One guy I’ve always liked was Stan Van Gundy but not sure if he’d fit with the organization.

I’m not sure Doc really outcoached Jackson or Saunders. He just had a better team than they did.

Bankshot, I think it’s a little of both. I’m not a Doc fan by any stretch, but either he out-coached Phil Jackson or Jackson gave up on his team (or both?). All the criticisms of Doc are legit; it’s just a question of how much impact they have, because he won a title. You have to give credit where it’s due.
Otherwise, you have to question how good a coach K.C. Jones is. How did he do with lesser talent? I’d prefer not to think about it and give K.C. his due as well.
Doc’s already starting from a deficit considering we haven’t replaced Posey (huge, in my book), the league has improved, and everyone will be gunning for us. Winning a title is extremely difficult; repeating is even more difficult.
I’d prefer a truly upper-tier coach. But hey, we won with Doc. So let’s get that rotation set, and work on the X’s and O’s, OK?

Doc proved once again he is a top coach by winning the Championship after having been NBA Coach of the year in Orlando earlier in his career. The fact that all his naysayers ended up looking like complete morons was very satsifying to this Doc fan. Bill Simmons should be aknowledged for being a particular Doc hater and the “Sportsguy” certainly tarnished his journalistic integrity, to say the least, with his lack of hoops knowledge…
He actually thought the Lakers were going to sweep I think…

1.

Or do you think he was just a good caretaker of the talent he was given?

Isn’t this what a good coach does when given the chance?
2. There are those who like Doc, those who don’t, and fence straddlers. This started from day one and I doubt that regardless of the facts few have changed their positions. I liked Doc from day 1 and I still like him.
3. I think it’s hard to repeat as Champion in the NBA. Winning a championship takes so much out of a team physically and emotionally. The Spurs have done a good job at it, but they’ve had their struggles. So next year will be a fun and busy year for those that don’t like Doc.

 I think Doc is an excellent motivator and leader, but in terms of tactics and Xs and Os he may not be one of the better coaches. I think hiring Tom Thibodeau went a long way towards making Doc look very good.

My only major problem with Doc is that he can’t settle on a rotation (the Cassell-House fiasco during the playoffs being an example)…that is in part due to management giving him too much to work with. Hopefully with fewer veterans on this year’s squad it won’t be as big an issue.

Perfectly said my friend! Doc really is respected by his players and a great motivator, and that is why I think Danny brought in these superstars because he knew doc really isn’t the X’s and O’s guy but these guys don’t need a coach like that anymore

As to Doc being or not being an x’s/o’s guy.
1. Doc does not call every play. He instituted a system and it is the responsibilities of the players to execute that system. In several games last year the C’s had a bad first half and went into halftime wanting to change things. Doc said “no changes”. Just executed the system. The players focused in the second half and did better.
2. Several announcers, in addition to our regulars, remark on Doc’s success with time-out plays.
3. We are Champions of the World. How bad can Doc be with x’s and o’s?
4. As to the House/Cassell thing. Cassell gives things House cannot give and vice versa. If you have the weapons use them. If one doesn’t work go to the other. Give Eddie House credit for coming thru when he had to and notice that Sam won’t be here this year. And consider how House would have reacted in the same situation with another coach.

Phil Jackson had superior talent, the best player in the world on his team and got routed.
Jerry Sloan had a much better “team” than Jackson did and he got beat by LA.

The Pistons were a far better “team” than Boston (more years experience together, more championship and big game experience) with arguably over-all equal talent and an almost identical defensive philosophy. Boston won.
The Cavaliers had a solid basketball team, the second best player in the world, and were peaking at just the right time. They lost too.
And yet, somehow Doc isn’t a good coach? He outcoached every coach his team met in the playoffs. Somehow Boston found a way to win every series, and the NBA title, all in their first year together . . . .
I would say that qualifies Rivers and his staff as elite.

Doc did as well as a coach can do. His team won the title. It certainly helped that the star player KG is a team guy and that Paul Pierce played out of his mind in the finals and Ray Allen
got hot at the right time. His only real mistake in my mind was playing Cassell over House.