Ainge has built a team out of square pegs that simply don't fit in any of the numerous gaping holes in this club.
Danny did bring in Krstic and Darko. The only person on the Celtics who had anything to do with those guys leaving the team is Doc. Danny also brought in an athletic wing in Green and I'll ask the question again...how many times has Boston ever run a play for Green? Danny also brought in a 6th-man who's been one of the best bench players in the league the last several years. It's not Danny's fault Doc tried to turn him into Ray Allen Jr. And outside of Sully, every guy on this team has at least been capable of playing mediocre NBA defense during their careers.
This may not be a championship-level team, but there's clearly enough talent here to be better than this team has been so far this year.
Mike
There isn't the time to rebut this in detail ...
However, the issues that confront this team are far more complicated than a simplistic attempt to lay them all at the feet of Doc Rivers.
Not buying Rivers is the problem.
At all.
AAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!
Is it possible to say ANYTHING against the Holy Doc without his disciples running to his defense?
Look, is Doc Rivers solely responsible for the problems this year? No.
Is Doc soley responsible for the problems this team has had in the past? No.
Can you blame Ainge for certain moves he's made, contracts signed and players missed out on? Sure.
But there's no denying that, on paper, this was as talented a Celtic team as any since Banner 17. Given what was possible, this is about as good a team as any GM could have assembled. If this team can't get it done, that can't be blamed on Ainge.
If he doesn't make the right moves to fix it, THAT you can blame on him.
The state of this team right now is entirely on the shoulders of Doc and the players. You can argue about which is more responsible, but you can't exempt either of responsibility.
Mike
You know Mike if you hadn't been basically calling Doc a horrible coach and calling for his removal since the moment you joined Celticsblog, you might have a bit of credibility regarding criticism of Doc.
But, given how you have posted about him since the moment you started posting, its pretty easy to see you have no credibility when discussing whether Doc is the problem or not.
This team is poorly constructed.
When Doc has stuck with his starters and rotations in the past he has been roundly criticized by some for not jerking people in and out of the starting lineup and rotation when someone wasn't playing great.
Now this year he is jerking players in and out of the starting lineup and the rotation and he is still be criticized by those same people.
When Doc stuck with Perk and KG and was at times getting run off the court people criticized him not running and playing the occasional small ball. No that he has zero quality bigs and the league has been transformed into a league of the better teams playing small, Doc gets criticized for playing too much small ball.
When Doc played vets he was criticized for not playing young players. When he plays young players, he gets criticized for not playing them enough. When he plays them more and the team isn't playing well, he gets criticized for his coaching ability because he can't make the team win.
Doc is a great coach. He has lots of warts. But this team is not losing because of Doc's coaching. This team is losing because KG and Pierce and Terry are starting to show they can not perform anywhere near the way they used to or as consistently as they used to. This team is losing because they have one star player and an entire roster of role players. This team is losing because that one star player isn't enough to will this team to wins all by himself, especially offensively. This team is losing because it was built on the concept of defense and the recent additions to this team have been players that are not good defensive players.
This team has 2 good rebounders and zero dominant or great rebounders. They have played without their shutdown wing/guard player. They have had inconsistent and lackluster years from just about every player they added to this team that didn't play for this team last year.
And this hasn't been Doc's best coaching year.
But when it comes to the list of reasons why this team is losing, Doc's coaching is way, way, way down on the bottom and if this team is to turn it around, it will probably be because of Doc's ability to manage personalities, inspire his players and teach his players to become a better team by sacrificing their individuality.