Doc has proven himself to be a good coach, certainly above average by NBA standards, and you can't blame him for players getting old or just flat out sucking.
But this season there are probably more things that you clearly CAN blame Doc for than at maybe anytime during his tenure in Boston.
1. Sully. He clearly fell in love with the guy and put him in the starting lineup, but then wasn't willing to allow Sully to go through the inevitable growing pains that all rookies have. It was beyond dump to yank Bass out of the starting line up if Doc wasn't committed to Sully playing his way through his mistakes.
2. Terry and Lee. Both guys have to take responsibility for their poor play, but Doc has to take responsibility for his either stupid or lazy decision to just force each of them into the role Ray used to play on this team, ignoring the fact that neither of them are Ray, that Ray was sick of playing the role himself and that the role had become less and less effective.
3. Darko. Doc probably wasn't the only or even the main reason Darko abandoned ship, but getting exiled to the bench after just 5 minutes of regular season play couldn't have helped. And let me point out that Avery Bradley pretty consistently looked like hot garbage during his rookie season and the start of his second year, yet Doc continued to give him minutes. Darko, however, got the "Nenad Krstic in the playoffs 2 years ago" treatment for reasons only Doc knows.
4. Defense. Again, the players are at fault but there's no way this team should look this bad. Coaching has to be playing a part in it, such as realizing there are situations when Terry really can't be on the floor.
5. Waiting until nearly 30 games into the season before realizing this team needs to play at a faster pace. That's the one thing I like about the Clipper game. The team was clearly committed to trying to run and play within a freer, less stagnant offense. The problem was that Boston is now trying to learn that style and the Clippers have it down pat.
Mike