You'd be hard-pressed to find someone who has been more critical of Doc Rivers than I have during his tenure as head coach of the Boston Celtics. I've ripped him for his rotations, his choice of players, his handling of players, his tactics, pretty much everything to do with basketball. Over the past few seasons, he's grown on me. There are still a lot of things I disagree with. I think he buries players too quickly or for no good reason (Leon Powe, Marquis Daniels). I didn't think he did a very good job of integrating Nate Robinson this year. I blame him for how bad our offense at the end of quarters is, and for all the games we lost because we went to the Paul Pierce isolation play too early in the fourth quarter. (He says it's the players who have control of this, but as head coach, it's his job to take that control away, if necessary). And while I think he by and large outcoached Phil Jackson in this year's Finals, we still needed to try something else in the third quarter of Game 7, when everyone was tired.
But I'm glad he's coming back. Doc has been a great leader during these championship runs, somehow getting superstar egos and other difficult personalities to mesh. It wouldn't be the same to make a championship run without him.
Next year is going to be tough. It has the potential, in fact, to be tough to watch. Rasheed Wallace is retiring. Kendrick Perkins is going to be out until at least December after knee surgery scheduled for July 7. Defensive guru Tom Thibodeau has left to steer the Chicago Bulls. Kevin Garnett's going to be a year older. So, too, wil Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, assuming they come back. Even if they do, Boston will have seven guys under contract (eight if they sign second-round pick Luke Harangody) and not a whole lot of money to go out and fill up their roster. And it looks very likely that there's going to be at least one two-max player team to contend with in the Eastern Conference next year.
Frankly, I would have liked us to have guaranteed Thibodeau the job either this season (if Doc chose to leave, as he announced he was thinking of doing) or next (once Doc's contract was up), rather than refusing to do so and letting him go to Chicago. I think he's that valuable to the team. But I do think that Doc's the right guy to steer this ship.
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