Author Topic: If it were Stevens (not D. Rivers), the KG/PP era would have had more titles!  (Read 11460 times)

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Offline Boston Garden Leprechaun

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Maybe. I never thought coaching was the issue. It was more of unfortunate luck of injuries and some other things .


At the time doc rivers was highly respected around the league. We traded doc for a 1st round pick. No other coach that I can remember was ever traded like that

injury in 09? yes. 2010? nah. perk getting hurt did not ruin the series. the refs screwed us and docs rotations were terrible in game 7 and with all that we still had a 12 point lead we blew in the 4th that game. we still shoulda won. biggest two reasons were refs and doc not perk.
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Offline tenn_smoothie

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What championship would we have won besides 2008, whether the coach be Doc, Stevens, Pop, Jackson, or Red himself?



2011

IF Danny Boy had not traded Kendrick Perkins, we were headed to the Finals and would have beaten Dallas. That team was healthy and beyond motivated from the sting of 2010.
I will never forgive Danny for that stupid trade. He thought we needed to become more athletic to keep up with LeBron & Co. when the truth was we had the only antidote in the league back then because of our power on the inside and our toughness, physically and mentally.
« Last Edit: July 31, 2018, 12:03:14 AM by tenn_smoothie »
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Offline Moranis

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I don't know if Boston would have won the title in 2009, but I absolutely believe that Stevens could have made the difference in the semi-final 7 game loss to the Magic in which Boston got blown out at home in game 7 because it had no answer for Turkoglu and Pietrus.  That's right Turkoglu and Pietrus destroyed the Celtics.  Not sure that Boston squad would have beaten the Cavs or Lakers without Garnett, but it should have absolutely gotten by the Magic. 

I think Stevens absolutely coaches Boston to victory in 2010 against the Lakers (another 7 game series loss).  After that Boston was basically done as a contender, but I think the team would have been closer with Stevens.

the only real question is, would Boston have still won the 2008 title with Stevens instead of Rivers, and that is a difficult question to answer.  Is Stevens a 1st time head coach or does he have experience?  Would PP, KG, and Ray have all bought into Stevens system that 1st season?  Would they have still been the 1 seed or would the Pistons have caught them as a result of more growing pains earlier in the year?  All interesting questions.
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Online Donoghus

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Boston would've gotten lit up by CLE in the conference finals if they had gotten by ORL.  They were ill equipped to match up with CLE that year without KG. The Cavs would've been rough matchup for that Celtics squad.

 The funny thing was that the Cavs were ill-equipped to matchup with ORL that year and it was illustrated in the '09 ECF.   The Magic winning that Game 7 in Boston cost NBA fans a chance of a Kobe/Lebron Finals, IMO.



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Offline fairweatherfan

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What championship would we have won besides 2008, whether the coach be Doc, Stevens, Pop, Jackson, or Red himself?



2011

IF Danny Boy had not traded Kendrick Perkins, we were headed to the Finals and would have beaten Dallas. That team was healthy and beyond motivated from the sting of 2010.
I will never forgive Danny for that stupid trade. He thought we needed to become more athletic to keep up with LeBron & Co. when the truth was we had the only antidote in the league back then because of our power on the inside and our toughness, physically and mentally.

This narrative may never die but neither will the reality that Perkins was a shadow of his former self in those playoffs and the rest of his career, we had basically no reserve wings after Marquis Daniels went down with a scary injury, and we fell 11 playoff wins short of a title.  Also unclear how Brad or any other coach would've prevented a trade that came from Danny.

Offline Moranis

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Boston would've gotten lit up by CLE in the conference finals if they had gotten by ORL.  They were ill equipped to match up with CLE that year without KG. The Cavs would've been rough matchup for that Celtics squad.

 The funny thing was that the Cavs were ill-equipped to matchup with ORL that year and it was illustrated in the '09 ECF.   The Magic winning that Game 7 in Boston cost NBA fans a chance of a Kobe/Lebron Finals, IMO.
I'm not really sure that is the case.  The Cavs were never an interior oriented team.  I would have expected them to win because of Lebron, but I don't think Boston would have been lit up without KG, as Boston still would have had the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th best player in that series.  That Cavs team was pretty bad outside of James with Mo Williams or Big Z as their 2nd best player.  Varejao and Delonte West were starting.  The bench was Boobie Gibson and a bunch of old men (Joe Smith, Big Ben, and old friend Wally).  I think Stevens could have found a way to shut everyone down that wasn't Lebron and made it a hell of a series. 
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Offline colincb

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I'll take CBS over Doc, but I don't think he overcomes key injuries at inopportune times. Not sure Doc wasn't the best coach for that group of personalities either.

Offline saltlover

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I'll take CBS over Doc, but I don't think he overcomes key injuries at inopportune times. Not sure Doc wasn't the best coach for that group of personalities either.

It’s obviously impossible to say what would have happened.  The Celtics were up 13 with barely over 20 minutes to go.  You’d think coaching wouldn’t be the X Factor on a team with three veteran Hall of Famers as the core, who had already won a title with each other.  Could Brad have done something different?  Perhaps.  But ultimately it’s the people on the court, and that includes the refs, who decide things when it’s that big of a swing. 

Offline slamtheking

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I'll take CBS over Doc, but I don't think he overcomes key injuries at inopportune times. Not sure Doc wasn't the best coach for that group of personalities either.

It’s obviously impossible to say what would have happened.  The Celtics were up 13 with barely over 20 minutes to go.  You’d think coaching wouldn’t be the X Factor on a team with three veteran Hall of Famers as the core, who had already won a title with each other.  Could Brad have done something different?  Perhaps.  But ultimately it’s the people on the court, and that includes the refs, who decide things when it’s that big of a swing. 
you would hope not but it's possible Stevens figures out a way to keep those 3 and Sheed from getting gassed down the stretch so that KG and Sheed aren't too tired to keep the Lakers off the offensive boards. 

Offline IDreamCeltics

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What championship would we have won besides 2008, whether the coach be Doc, Stevens, Pop, Jackson, or Red himself?



2011

IF Danny Boy had not traded Kendrick Perkins, we were headed to the Finals and would have beaten Dallas. That team was healthy and beyond motivated from the sting of 2010.
I will never forgive Danny for that stupid trade. He thought we needed to become more athletic to keep up with LeBron & Co. when the truth was we had the only antidote in the league back then because of our power on the inside and our toughness, physically and mentally.

Agreed, that will go down in history as a "benching healthy Malcolm Butler for the Superbowl" level bad decision.

Food for thought, CBS has never won a championship on any level... Do we really know he's better than Mike Dantoni?

Offline saltlover

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What championship would we have won besides 2008, whether the coach be Doc, Stevens, Pop, Jackson, or Red himself?



2011

IF Danny Boy had not traded Kendrick Perkins, we were headed to the Finals and would have beaten Dallas. That team was healthy and beyond motivated from the sting of 2010.
I will never forgive Danny for that stupid trade. He thought we needed to become more athletic to keep up with LeBron & Co. when the truth was we had the only antidote in the league back then because of our power on the inside and our toughness, physically and mentally.

Agreed, that will go down in history as a "benching healthy Malcolm Butler for the Superbowl" level bad decision.

Food for thought, CBS has never won a championship on any level... Do we really know he's better than Mike Dantoni?

Fairly certain D’Antoni won a couple of Italian League titles.

Offline mmmmm

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Can Bad Stevens win a championship in reality before we start retroactively assigning him championships for teams he never coached?

TP
NBA Officiating - Corrupt?  Incompetent?  Which is worse?  Does it matter?  It sucks.

Offline mmmmm

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What championship would we have won besides 2008, whether the coach be Doc, Stevens, Pop, Jackson, or Red himself?



2011

IF Danny Boy had not traded Kendrick Perkins, we were headed to the Finals and would have beaten Dallas. That team was healthy and beyond motivated from the sting of 2010.
I will never forgive Danny for that stupid trade. He thought we needed to become more athletic to keep up with LeBron & Co. when the truth was we had the only antidote in the league back then because of our power on the inside and our toughness, physically and mentally.

That team was most definitely NOT healthy.

At the time of the trade, Perkins, Shaq, Jermaine, Semih, Nate and Marquis were ALL injured.   In particular, we had exactly ZERO healthy centers and Marquis Daniels was lost for the season.

The trade gave us a healthy center and a health backup SF in exchange for two players (Perkins, Nate) who barely played a tiny handful of minutes the rest of the season.   Without doing the trade we were looking at having to play a D-League call-up as our center and no rest for Pierce.

By the time the playoffs rolled around, Jermaine got healthy enough to play some, and was actually pretty decent, but Shaq never was able to play more than a few minutes and never at the level he did in the Fall (when the 5-man starting unit of Rondo+Ray+Pierce+KG+Shaq was just dominant).   And that, more than anything, doomed that team.   

And then some out-of-character outside shooting by Lebron and Wade, plus Wade doing a number on Rondo's elbow just stuck the dagger in.

But I suppose those last things were Doc Rivers' fault as well?
NBA Officiating - Corrupt?  Incompetent?  Which is worse?  Does it matter?  It sucks.

Offline Kuberski33

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Interesting question.  My first reaction was yes, because CBS would  have found a way to make the bench stronger - especially in the post-Posey years.  Doc has never been accused of being a good developmental coach and several players brought in while he was coaching never were able to contribute consistently.

At the same time, Doc actually played in the league and I think that earned him the kind of cred necessary to coach a team with KG, Pierce, Ray Allen and even Rondo on it.  Brad may have struggled to win that first one even.  They'd have won in 08-09 if KG hadn't gotten hurt and Danny dumping Tony Allen hurt subsequent teams.  Doc probably should have won 2 and possibly 3 titles with those teams and the two that had chances - but didn't - weren't his fault.

Offline konkmv

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Brad is a better coach... probably would have won 1 more