OT: Appreciating Doc Rivers

[voluntarysaftey]

I never would have FrankenSteined a Team like Ainge did, a few Years ago, but that not only produced one World Championship, it came within a whisper and an healthy Jefferson of a 2nd Championship, and we came astonishingly close, last Year, previous to which, I must admit, I'd already emotionally gone into "Egad, it's The Declining Years of Bird, Parish, and McHale Part Two" Mode...So I have to attribute some degree of that Success to Coach Rivers.

Having said that...

I love the timing of the Trade, and hope that we'll be able to move Garnett and Pierce ~ and preferably Rondo ~ and just strip things down to the bone in one Off Season, rack up the Draft Picks, and start from Scratch.

Beats the Hell out'f a Slow Slide into Toothless Mediocrity.

I agree. Blow it up -- get rid of pierce, garnett, and rondo. Stockpile 1st and 2nd round picks for the next two years. And suck so we get a top 5 pick each of the next two years. We should be good to go in 3 years.

Keeping Pierce and Rondo is a recipe for mediocrity which will then result in more mediocrity as we won't have a top player to replace them in 3 years.

With a little bit of luck, this Celtics team could've been a multi-championship team. I think they pretty much over-achieved in the big 3's time frame.
Year 1 - championship
Year 2- KG gets hurt; which kills the chances. With a healthy KG they're eastern conference favorites
Year 3 - If Ray Allen could've only made 1 out of his last 20 three-pointers (after being amazing early in the series), we beat the lakers. He went from amazingly good to amazingly bad and given all the close games, just 1 three pointer would've sealed it
Year 4 - breakdown. This is the only year where the team underacheived
Year 5- Came so close to knocking off the Heat, which would've been an amazing underdog story
Year 6 - Rondo hurt, team just didn't have enough

 

[dales804]

I agree. Blow it up -- get rid of pierce, garnett, and rondo. Stockpile 1st and 2nd round picks for the next two years. And suck so we get a top 5 pick each of the next two years. We should be good to go in 3 years.

Keeping Pierce and Rondo is a recipe for mediocrity which will then result in more mediocrity as we won't have a top player to replace them in 3 years.

With a little bit of luck, this Celtics team could've been a multi-championship team. I think they pretty much over-achieved in the big 3's time frame.
Year 1 - championship
Year 2- KG gets hurt; which kills the chances. With a healthy KG they're eastern conference favorites
Year 3 - If Ray Allen could've only made 1 out of his last 20 three-pointers (after being amazing early in the series), we beat the lakers. He went from amazingly good to amazingly bad and given all the close games, just 1 three pointer would've sealed it
Year 4 - breakdown. This is the only year where the team underacheived
Year 5- Came so close to knocking off the Heat, which would've been an amazing underdog story
Year 6 - Rondo hurt, team just didn't have enough

You are right. Being terrible and getting to the top of the lottery or having FA money to spend and the ability to make star(s) want to come to your franchise is the only way to be great in the NBA. Boston isn't a "destination" in the NBA like MIA, LA or NY so they need to be good to go the free agent route. And the only way for them to get great again is to become really bad, like 06-07.

2010 really did hurt. Ray Allen sucked in game 7 (3-14, 4TO). Having Perkins injured hurt but Rasheed did a serviceable job. KG was good, PP was okay (double-double) and Rondo, too. They needed Ray and he didn't come through. That loss still sits with me.

 

[VrabelJr]

I don't think we should let Rondo go, we just need to keep him happy while we rebuild. It's so hard to find an elite PG these days. I'm content with rebuilding around Rondo, Green and Sullinger - that's a damn good base. If we can get rid of KG and PP's contracts before free agency begins we will have the money to sign a few impact players at key positions (SG, Center, backup PG). We could easily be a top 4 team in the East next year - mostly due to the East being so weak.

 

[Steve102]

Meh.

I am not a NBA fan. I feel the Doc's greatness is a media creation. It makes a nice story that Doc, Tito, Claude, and Belichick are all "great", all at once, in Boston. A "great" coach would stay, re-load, and be great again. That ability to re-load has to do more with the way the league is constituted, but I digress.

Doc was under contract, didn't want to be here, and muscled his way out of town. He's not better than a litany of athletes who do that on a regular basis. Just another reason for me to not watch the NBA.

 

[Deus Irae]

Meh.

I am not a NBA fan. I feel the Doc's greatness is a media creation. It makes a nice story that Doc, Tito, Claude, and Belichick are all "great", all at once, in Boston. A "great" coach would stay, re-load, and be great again. That ability to re-load has to do more with the way the league is constituted, but I digress.

Doc was under contract, didn't want to be here, and muscled his way out of town. He's not better than a litany of athletes who do that on a regular basis. Just another reason for me to not watch the NBA.

I'm not a big fan of Rivers as a coach. To be fair to him, though, If I were in Doc's place, I'd want out of Boston, too. There's no way in hell I'd want to coach a team where Rondo was both my best player and my leader. That's a recipe for disaster.

 

[Froob]

Do you mean Perkins?

Speaking of Big Al he's a FA they needa bring him back.

 

[fnordcircle]

I'm a pretty fairweather Celtics fan - the last time I was really interested and watch regular season games was the first season of Rick Pitino when the team drafted Ron Mercer and Billups.

But this talk about bringing in Brian Shaw is pretty great. This is definitely the sort of situation he's been holding out for - a chance to build a team that is in obvious rebuilding mode so there will be significantly less 'win now' pressure. And his ties to the organization will make for an easier transition not to mention the fans will be more prone to like the guy.

 

[Steve102]

I'm not a big fan of Rivers as a coach. To be fair to him, though, If I were in Doc's place, I'd want out of Boston, too. There's no way in hell I'd want to coach a team where Rondo was both my best player and my leader. That's a recipe for disaster.

He signed the deal, knowing Rondo was here, and knowing Rondo was a tool. I think he's getting a pass from the fan base a bit.

I'll give you a conspiracy theory: Doc knew he'd want out, Danny knew, they agreed to a long term deal, knowing they could get a draft pick out of it, improving the team on the way out.

*putting the tinfoil hat away*

 

[fnordcircle]

I'll give you a conspiracy theory: Doc knew he'd want out, Danny knew, they agreed to a long term deal, knowing they could get a draft pick out of it, improving the team on the way out.

*putting the tinfoil hat away*

Why would Doc want to weaken the team for which he would eventually leave?

 

[Angry Man]

Thanks Doc for the 2007-2008 Championship win... but it's time for the Celtics to move on.

 

[captain insano]

think about it. hes leaving the boston Celtics. a team with excellent ownership and great tradition to go coach the clippers. a team with one of the worst owners in all of sports. and a team that lost in the 1st round. to me its a slap in the face. I hope he finds out quick what a mistake he made.

 

[VrabelJr]

think about it. hes leaving the boston Celtics. a team with excellent ownership and great tradition to go coach the clippers. a team with one of the worst owners in all of sports. and a team that lost in the 1st round. to me its a slap in the face. I hope he finds out quick what a mistake he made.

He gets to coach a team that will have Chris Paul, Eric Bledsoe and one of Blake Griffin/Dwight Howard. I don't think he will be missing much.

 

[captain insano]

He gets to coach a team that will have Chris Paul, Eric Bledsoe and one of Blake Griffin/Dwight Howard. I don't think he will be missing much.

ya they really set the world on fire losing in the first rd this year. dwight howard is a under achieving joke. a head case at best. he will make that team worse not better. howard makes rondo look like a saint in comparison.

 

[VrabelJr]

ya they really set the world on fire losing in the first rd this year. dwight howard is a under achieving joke. a head case at best. he will make that team worse not better. howard makes rondo look like a saint in comparison.

They lost to the Grizzlies in a series that went 6 games with a banged up Blake Griffin (remember how we got blown out in 2011 when KG was hurt?) and with Vinny Del Negro as their coach. The Clippers are certainly trending up and if they aren't a better team with Doc as their coach instead of Del Negro I'll be shocked.

I do agree that Howard is a baby though and if Kobe can't keep him in check then Chris Paul certainly can't. The Clippers are better off not trading for him and I'm sure Doc knows that.

 

[fnordcircle]

think about it. hes leaving the boston Celtics. a team with excellent ownership and great tradition to go coach the clippers

"Tradition" is overrated and Doc seems to pretty clearly not want to wait through a rebuilding period. He's going from a team that is going to tank it for a year or two to a playoff team, seems like the right move to me.

 

[Kontradiction]

ya they really set the world on fire losing in the first rd this year. dwight howard is a under achieving joke. a head case at best. he will make that team worse not better. howard makes rondo look like a saint in comparison.

While I agree with your general take, the Clippers are set up better than the Celtics. Both for the fact that they currently have better and younger talent, and for the fact that they're in the western conference. They didn't get out of the first round this year but getting either one of KG or the out-of-shape-in-shape, injury faking mountain goat Pierce (or both) should take them to the next level.

 

[tonyto3690]

Doc is a lying weasel who betrayed the Celtics trust.

"I'm a Celtic"
"I'm here for the long haul"
"I'm here for the rebuild"
"It's time to return the loyalty they showed me"

And then he went out of his way to get Lee, Terry, and KG to sign here, under the notion he'd be there to coach them and that is a large reason why all three signed multi year deals here.

Then at the first sign of trouble he completely 180s and books it out of town as fast as he can.


So much for Celtic pride Doc.

Go ***** yourself.

I am considering buying tickets for the Boston-Clippers game, just so I can boo Doc.

 

[Ive_Killed_People]

I think we throw the term 'class act' around a little too liberally sometimes.

 

[captain stone]

I'm kinda pissed that Ainge could only finagle a 2015 1st-rounder for him; and now espnBoston
is claiming that the Cs & Clips cannot trade with each other for the entirety of the following season,
so that means we can forget about DeAndre Jordan coming here in a Pierce and/or KG deal.

 

[Steve102]

Why would Doc want to weaken the team for which he would eventually leave?

I don't know. I cannot find my tinfoil hat now, so I am back to just being sore that he's a JAG, not about team, and just about himself.

If he were truely great, he could stay here and win with the pieces that Danny gets him. Instead, he has to go coach Chris Paul and Blake Griffin, where most of the pieces are in place.

It's more of the same crap in the NBA. Coaches follow superstars, then get credit for being great coaches. Hell, I could be the Zen Master if I coached Jordan/Pippen, and then Kobe/Shaq et al. Whatever.