Answer me this : Who would we hire in Doc's place?
End of story. We aren't firing Doc Rivers.
One of the Van Gundy boys. Stan went to the Finals with a team that had less talent than what Doc has had since KG and Ray showed up and is anybody going to argue that Jeff isn't a proven coach? Even after all the success with Boston the last 6 years, JVG still has a better career winning percentage as a coach than Doc.
Danny Ainge.
Larry Brown, for one last run with this group.
Lawrence Frank.
Nate McMillan.
Avery Johnson.
Flip Saunders.
Jerry Sloan.
Terry Porter.
Now, Ainge wouldn't want to do it and there are, of course, things to pick apart with the rest of that list. But without even looking hard at any promising young NBA assistants or the college ranks, there's 10 guys Boston could probably get to replace Doc if the team wanted to.
Would any of them do a better job than Doc? Who knows? But every one of those guys except Porter and Frank right now have better coaching resumes than Doc did before KG and Ray joined the Celtics.
And let me mention that just as I thought it was stupid for the Lakers to can Mike Brown and the Nets to fire Johnson, it would be ridiculous to fire Doc at this point. But even more ridiculous is the idea that Doc is the ONE TRUE COACH and that there's no one else in the world that could replace "the precious".
Mike