Doc Rivers taking some heat

Seems Doc is taking some heat for the Clippers recent collapse. I always felt Doc was a good motivator, but not a great game coach. In particular, his rotations weren't great, and he kind of just rode Pierce, Allen and Garnett, and those guys eventually would wear down. I have pasted A. Sherrod's article below, but there are many similar ones out there:

http://www.csnne.com/boston-celtics/after-recent-collapse-doc-rivers-still-one-best

BOSTON – Even though he took his coaching talents to Los Angeles a couple years ago, there’s still a lot of love around these parts for Doc Rivers.

He’s about as charismatic and engaging a coach as the Boston sports scene has had for years; you know, the anti-Bill Belichick.

And as much as Doc’s supporters will point to those qualities and the 2008 title won by the Celtics under his watch as being important, the story on Rivers isn’t complete unless you factor in he has been the head coach of the biggest playoff collapse in NBA history – twice.

The first time came in 2003 when he coached the Orlando Magic, who took a 3-1 series lead over the Detroit Pistons, a series most remembered by Tracy McGrady talking about getting to the next round of the playoffs for the first time.

But Ben Wallace and company had other plans as the Pistons rallied to win three straight and send Rivers and his crew home for the summer.

Fast forward to 2015 and Rivers, now with the Clippers, found himself in a similar predicament where his team once again crumbled under the weight of the moment.

No coach in NBA history has ever blown more than one 3-1 series lead before Rivers, a dubious mark of distinction no coach wants to have.

But it is now part of the Rivers narrative, one which at the very least creates a healthy discussion as to how good a coach he is.

To be more specific, is he one of the league’s great coaches at this moment?

Those on his side will certainly bring up the ’08 team and how he helped develop players the previous years that paved the way for them becoming trade chips that turned into Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen. While that 2003 Orlando team may have choked, Rivers choked all the life he could out of the 2001 Magic squad that should have been one of the league’s worst and instead finished just a game shy of the playoffs. That’s what good coaches do, which was why he was an easy choice for the league’s Coach of the Year that season.

But those days are so long ago and when it comes history, recent events have a way of sticking.

Of course his naysayers will point to his team’s most recent collapse and how the Celtics won a title but had other shots to either win one (Games 6 and 7 at Los Angeles, 2010) or get to the NBA Finals (up 3-2 in Conference finals to Miami in 2012, with Game 6 at the TD Garden. Celtics wound up losing the series in seven games).

In Boston, Rivers was 11-16 in elimination games in which a victory would have won the series for the Celtics.

There is no mistaking how difficult winning an NBA title can be.

You have to have more than just good players.

The players have to be the right fit and they have to come together at the right time. And then there are things that teams can’t necessarily control like who their opponents are in the playoffs, injuries, hot streaks, cold streaks … there’s a slew of intangibles that can make or break a team’s title hopes.

But here’s the thing.

The great coaches make it look easy.

In the NBA, we have seen this time and time again with San Antonio’s Greg Popovich.

Here in Boston, we’ve seen it plenty of times through the years with Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots.

The more you watch Rivers coach and his team plays, the clearer it becomes that he’s a good coach – but not a great one.

Because a great one would have found the right buttons to push in order to get his team over the top against a Houston squad that was missing not one, but two starters (Patrick Beverly and Donatas Motiejunas) the entire series.

A great one would have found a way to contain that barrage of 3s that rained down on them by Houston.

And making matters worse, Rivers has final say on personnel decisions so it’s not like he was making due with whatever players he was given.

These were his guys, every last one of them.

This latest collapse was by far worse than his first one.

Rivers hopes that there will be lessons learned for his group going forward from what was – for most of them at least – the toughest loss they have endured in the NBA.

But for basketball fans, it was a lesson on Doc Rivers.

He is a man of many talents, among them being a good – but not great - NBA head coach.

And Danny got a first round pick for him which, I believe, is our #28 pick rhis year and could turn into Robert Upshaw or Christian Wood or...


bob


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Besides Gregg Popovich, what other coach is a great coach?
Spoelstra because he has multiple titles with LeBron?
The game 6 collapse is not Doc's fault.
They beat San Antonio who might be better than any team in the East.
They lost to Houston who might be better than every team in the East.
The Clippers might be better than every team in the East.
It's tough to win in the West.

I read that Doc and Jordan were staring each other down in the last game.  So maybe we'll get Upshaw or Wood AND Jordan.  LOL.

First of all, Doc hasd no bench to turn to, Houston's bench scored 56 points yesterday
Secondly, Doc is a good coach for veterans. I have never been so thankful that he was not here for the rebuild. We never would have seen the young players on this tean grow the way they did if Doc was here,.
That total downfall by the Clippers was awful, He will take heat for a while, there was talk yesterday that having both jobs is too nuch for hin abd maybe they need to hire soneone for the front office, Too much pressure. It will be interesting to see what happens.

I felt happy for McHale, this has beeb a rough year for hin, losiing his daughter to Lupus, a tough thibg to cone back to the bench and sit ob'
the bench night after night. Very sad, so I was haooy for him.

But, Bob H, he will have his hands full coaching for Goldeb State, they are the front rurnners in the West.

Rosalie

RosalieTCeltics wrote:First of all, Doc hasd no bench to turn to, Houston's bench scored 56 points yesterday  
Secondly,  Doc is a good coach for veterans.  I have never been so thankful that he was not here for the rebuild.   We never would have seen the young players on this tean grow the way they did if Doc was here,.  
That total downfall by the Clippers was awful,  He will take  heat for a while, there was talk yesterday that having both jobs is too nuch for hin abd maybe they need to hire soneone for the front office, Too much pressure. It will be interesting to see what happens.

I felt happy for McHale, this has beeb a rough year for hin, losiing his daughter to Lupus, a tough thibg to cone back to the bench and sit ob'
the bench night after night. Very sad, so I was haooy for him.

But, Bob H, he will have his hands full coaching for Goldeb State, they are the front rurnners in the West.

Rosalie

Rosalie,

Yep, he sure will. They are SO explosive offensively you cannot take your foot off the pedal for a minute with them. Remember the game they played against us? Remember how they came from WAY back to win? That's normal for them, it wasn't just us.

Draymond Green is an even more versatile Jae Crowder. He played Marc Gasol on defense for most of the Memphis series.
Curry and Thompson are lights-out shooters, an offensive tandem this league has not seen for a while, and Thompson is 6'7", so he can play bigger guards.
Iggy coming off the bench. Shaun Livingston, who used to start for Brooklyn, coming off the bench. Barbosa, coming off the bench.

They're not big, they have Green and Harrison Barnes as their SF/PF, but they do have Bogut. Bottom line, they don't beat you with size or length or beef.


bob


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Good luck to Kevin.  But, in the absence of the Celtics, I'll always root for the San Francisco entry, even in a game of marbles. Heck, I attended the Giants' championship parade last October.

Sam

Those are Bob's boys! There are a dynamite team. I thought I would pull my hair our watching Josh Smith shooting three after three. Golden State just took the reboound and went right down and scored.
I think Worcester commented on this last night. This was the reason why I did not want Smith. He just does not give it up.

Golden State will win this series in 5 or 6.

Rosalie