As usual, Professor, great article.

Rivers is lousy with youth, period. Particularly SGs and SFs. Hard to tell how far either Walker or Giddens would get anyway. Giddens appears to have the body but not the basketball IQ. Walker either doesn’t have the desire or can’t stay healthy long enough to get in NBA shape.

giddens is a goner for the c’s. i just don’t know about walker. he could be a gamer if he ever gets in the game. and how about our boy montae?

On Jan 14 vs. Bulls, Giddens showed me why he’s never going to make it. That night I said “With 4 seconds left in the 3rd quarter, he got the inbound pass, fumbled it a bit, and then instead of stepping up and taking the long shot, he passed the ball to TA with under 1 second to go, making it impossible for TA to get a shot off. JR had no time to think. This was his instinct taking over… and his instinct is to NOT step up, but to make his teammate look bad instead. I say this guy is history, asap.”

You could argue it was JR’s defensive “mindset”, but that moment was a do-or-die event – no options. He needed to step forward, try to get contact, and definitely get a shot off. Instinct was all he had to act on, and he failed miserably. Someone in the comments thought it was wrong to judge a guy over so short a period of time, and I said I thought Doc would notice that play too and get rid of JR asap now. 6 days later he was sent to D-League.

Doc’s problem with new/young players seems to have begun with the arrival of the Big 3. Steve, we’d have to set aside your examples from before that time if that’s true… leaving only Leon and Baby. Doc did use them in their rookie year… but he had to use SOMEBODY… can’t play his starters 48 every night, and Leon and Baby were the only ones available for their position (after PJ).

Also, “can’t-miss” players are never going to be ignored by any coach (with a job). He’d have to be nuts. Doc’s problem is that he doesn’t give promising new players the opportunity to show their goods, or to develop. Lester is a good case in that point. And to a lesser extent, JR and Billy. I have been surprised many times at how badly Doc has overplayed his starters – especially Ray and Rondo – while Lester, who did quite well in the little time he got, sat.

Doc’s a great player’s coach with weaknesses in the areas of rotations and new player integration. I consider both of those subsets of his overall weakness of imagination. He’s a straight shooter, a can-do guy who doesn’t often like to look away from the road directly ahead.

The only rookies who will succeed under Rivers are players who already have skills.

Raw players like Giddens, Walker, Green etc have no chance.

With his awful draft position, Ainge has no choice, if he wants players that can contribute, but to choose undersized bigs or players with skills who have no position. Those are the only skill players left in the draft by the time he picks.

Powe, Baby, Gomes are the type of player who can crack the rotation.