He's someone around 8-12 best coach in the league, depending on how you see things.
Any desire to name the 18 coaches that he's clearly better than? Because I think you'd have a hard time doing so, especially after he was just outcoached by Mike Brown, and for certain games, by Mike Woodson.
Doc ... will not bad mouth his players in the public media forum. That's classy and something a lot of coaches will not do.
That just isn't true. He hasn't done that as much this season (although he's thrown BBD and Powe under the bus a few times), but he's taken enough shots at his players during his tenure here.
I agree with most of the rest of what you say, although I would point out that Doc's players haven't always liked him (Raef, Pierce, Payton, and numerous others have all had problems with him in the past, and KG, House, and Tony mentioned issues with Doc to the media this post-season) and he hasn't always been so great with chemistry (Ricky, Blount, and Marcus were sent out of town because of their effect on the locker room). Doc is definitely a better coach on the off-the-court side of things, and the impact of that, as you say, is important.
In the playoffs, though, I think having an Xs-and-Os coach is of greater importance. Some mediocre coaches can survive that because they have great talent (K.C. Jones), but it's definitely a skill that becomes amplified in the playoffs, where there are a lot more close games that hinge upon key decisions.
The worry is that Doc is a decent regular season coach -- where his "managing" skills are best suited -- but that his teams will never do quite as well as they could in the playoffs if they had a better game coach on the bench. I think what we hope for is that the team continues to play games at the level they did in Game 3. If so, in-game coaching is going to be irrelevant.
These are coaches I feel he is clearly better than:
Mike Woodson - one series to me means nothing and I honestly feel that in that series, the players were awful.
Sam Vincent
Jim Boylan
Marc Ivaroni
Isiah Thomas - I know now unemployed but not last year
Eric Spoelstra
Scott Skiles
Randy Wittman
Mo Cheeks
Reggie Theus
Sam Mitchell
Eddie Jordan
Larry Krystowiak - again now unemployed but better than last year.
These are coaches that I feel he is in the same boat as and an argument can be made that he is better than:
Mike Brown
Avery Johnson
Rick Adelman
Jim O'Brien
Mike Dunleavy
Lawrence Frank
Stan Van Gundy - sorry just hasn't proven to me that he's that great a coach
Nate McMillan
P.J. Carlesimo
There's 21 coaches that I honestly believe that Doc has a case to say that he is better than.
He's clearly better than some and about the same or, depending how you see things, slightly(in some cases oh so very slightly) better than others.
But as of right now, I do believe he could be ranked around 12th or 11th. Just my opinion.
Just because a player may complain to the media that he doesn't like that way he's doing things doesn't mean he doesn't like him or respect him as a coach. Payton was a bit of a cancer here, of course he would have problems. Raef didn't think he was playing enough yet his obvious declining skills agree with Doc that he shouldn't be playing that much. Pierce was ****ed that the team stunk. Eddie and Tony didn't like being benched but I case can be made that they should have been, especially Tony. And who could or has had great chemistry with Blount and Ricky on their teams.
Rivers has coached a lot of players over the years and you brought up 9 names of people who have had a problem with him, 7 of which are really no big deals considering what was happening or who they are. So, I still believe he is liked by his players.
And yes, he's not the best game coach, I've admitted that. He drives me crazy at times. But his off the court coaching brought us a lot further in the regular season than some coaches would have. Maybe his off court stuff got us to the homecourt advantage where others would not have. That does have a positive post season effect.
But, his in game inadequacies haven't cost them a series and he has had good coached games and they are becoming more frequent as this playoff season continues.
I truly believe the Celtics are the best team in the league this year and will win the championship. And I don't think it will be in spite of the fact that Doc was the coach. I think he brought a lot to the table this year and is still improving as a coach. He has definitely been a reason that this team is where they are. Not the only reason and maybe not a big reason. But a reason none the less.
