Doc Rivers' coaching record doesn't really look that good

[PhoSita]

Last night's collapse against the Warriors was a Doc Rivers special.  Down the stretch, team hoisted lots of jumpers, slowed down, offense became stale and uncreative.  Iso-heavy.  The Warriors are obviously amazing, but the Clippers -- like the late-KG-era Celtics -- are prone to dropping these big leads, and I blame Rivers partially for that.

[Eja117]

All coaches have their ups and downs...If you put any other coaches timeline alongside this one (aside from maybe 2-3-4 of the legendary coaches) they would look awfully similar and in most cases even worse.

Most coaches don't have Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan, and Chris Paul.

And most people vastly overrate all three.

Yeah, those guys are just garbage. You couldn't realistically expect a good coach to do much with them

So why have they never made it to a conference or NBA final? Stretch that through Chris Paul's entire career for that matter.

Talent wise they're great. They're title contenders yes. But they just don't have the clutch presence to get them over the hump. The presence of Pierce might get them to do that, but right now there are teams in the Western conference that are just plain better than them.

The coaches were Del Negro and Doc, right?

[kozlodoev]

Down the stretch, team hoisted lots of jumpers, slowed down, offense became stale and uncreative.

Can you explain how this was different from the "Brad S special" we watched against the Dallas Mavericks?

[Big333223]

Rick Carlisle remains underappreciated. I'd easily rank him the second-best coach in basketball. What he's managed to do with the Mavs since 2012, the second half of last year notwithstanding, is nothing short of incredible.

I always think this, myself. He got a raw deal in Detroit because that franchise wanted to bring in Larry Brown and then he was doing incredible things in Indiana before Ron Artest ruined that situation. He's overacheived everywhere he's gone, as far as I can see.

Doc Rivers is a better than average coach. A bad coach, I don't think, would have such a good ratio of winning seasons to losing seasons. Even though I think he made some bad choices in Game 7 of the 2010 Finals, he still won us one ring and won a ton of games everywhere he's gone. This Clippers situation is starting to feeled cursed, though.

[SHAQATTACK]

Ol Ducky Rivers better get on the stick ....

His team .....if that's what you want to call it   ..a huge group of losers , screwball and divas .....save Blake Griffin .....who just gets better and better

Is a bucket of uncoachable trash .

Take Griffin Off that team and they d be lucky to beat the Lakers.

[PhoSita]

Down the stretch, team hoisted lots of jumpers, slowed down, offense became stale and uncreative.

Can you explain how this was different from the "Brad S special" we watched against the Dallas Mavericks?

It's a very different thing when your team gets desperate and starts hoisting jumpers because your only potent offensive option is Isaiah Thomas or a streaky Avery Bradley, as opposed to settling for jumpers and grinding to a halt when you've got Chris Paul to run pick and rolls with Blake Griffin or Deandre Jordan.

Really, if you've got Blake Griffin, there's never an excuse for your offense to become boring, predictable, and jumper-heavy.

[fairweatherfan]

All coaches have their ups and downs...If you put any other coaches timeline alongside this one (aside from maybe 2-3-4 of the legendary coaches) they would look awfully similar and in most cases even worse.

Most coaches don't have Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan, and Chris Paul.

And most people vastly overrate all three.

Yeah, those guys are just garbage. You couldn't realistically expect a good coach to do much with them

So why have they never made it to a conference or NBA final? Stretch that through Chris Paul's entire career for that matter.

Talent wise they're great. They're title contenders yes. But they just don't have the clutch presence to get them over the hump. The presence of Pierce might get them to do that, but right now there are teams in the Western conference that are just plain better than them.

It's interesting to see Doc having the same problems he had in the late Big 3 era here with integrating veteran free agents into the existing system (like Terry, Lee, JO, etc), but now he's having it with a guy who was a key part of those teams (Pierce).  Seems like he's still a lot better at talking vets into coming to play for him than using them well once they get there. 

[spikelovetheCelts]

All coaches have their ups and downs...If you put any other coaches timeline alongside this one (aside from maybe 2-3-4 of the legendary coaches) they would look awfully similar and in most cases even worse.

Most coaches don't have Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan, and Chris Paul.

And most people vastly overrate all three.

Yeah, those guys are just garbage. You couldn't realistically expect a good coach to do much with them

So why have they never made it to a conference or NBA final? Stretch that through Chris Paul's entire career for that matter.

Talent wise they're great. They're title contenders yes. But they just don't have the clutch presence to get them over the hump. The presence of Pierce might get them to do that, but right now there are teams in the Western conference that are just plain better than them.

It's interesting to see Doc having the same problems he had in the late Big 3 era here with integrating veteran free agents into the existing system (like Terry, Lee, JO, etc), but now he's having it with a guy who was a key part of those teams (Pierce).  Seems like he's still a lot better at talking vets into coming to play for him than using them well once they get there.

People also forget how professional Allen was in the beginning of the Big three era. Allen does not get enough credit IMO for our championship. We saw in Miami who he was.

[kozlodoev]

People also forget how professional Allen was in the beginning of the Big three era. Allen does not get enough credit IMO for our championship. We saw in Miami who he was.

Who was he in Miami? A bit player who played fourth fiddle on a very good team. A role that was considerably smaller than any role he had on the Celtics.

[kozlodoev]

Down the stretch, team hoisted lots of jumpers, slowed down, offense became stale and uncreative.

Can you explain how this was different from the "Brad S special" we watched against the Dallas Mavericks?

It's a very different thing when your team gets desperate and starts hoisting jumpers because your only potent offensive option is Isaiah Thomas or a streaky Avery Bradley, as opposed to settling for jumpers and grinding to a halt when you've got Chris Paul to run pick and rolls with Blake Griffin or Deandre Jordan.

Really, if you've got Blake Griffin, there's never an excuse for your offense to become boring, predictable, and jumper-heavy.

Um, no. We're doing just fine running PnRs with Amir Johnson and David Lee. But somehow these plays disappear down the stretch and we're treated to an endless torrent of jump shots. Same thing happened in the second Nets game yesterday.

[wiley]

http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=ozmtbkt

Sometimes you have to give up the best player to make progress.

The Clippers have no competent back up bigs (especially if you don't count Pierce and Josh Smith as bigs).  Their trifecta (big 3) doesn't work and they prove it year after year.
Gilchrist won't play this year but what have the Clippers got to lose?

Give them a Charlotte first if necessary.

[Moranis]

http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=ozmtbkt

Sometimes you have to give up the best player to make progress.

The Clippers have no competent back up bigs (especially if you don't count Pierce and Josh Smith as bigs).  Their trifecta (big 3) doesn't work and they prove it year after year.
Gilchrist won't play this year but what have the Clippers got to lose?

Give them a Charlotte first if necessary.

trade would never happen.

[PhoSita]

Um, no. We're doing just fine running PnRs with Amir Johnson and David Lee. But somehow these plays disappear down the stretch and we're treated to an endless torrent of jump shots. Same thing happened in the second Nets game yesterday.

I don't recall any point in yesterday's game where Amir or Lee looked like an effective option on offense.

[kozlodoev]

Um, no. We're doing just fine running PnRs with Amir Johnson and David Lee. But somehow these plays disappear down the stretch and we're treated to an endless torrent of jump shots. Same thing happened in the second Nets game yesterday.

I don't recall any point in yesterday's game where Amir or Lee looked like an effective option on offense.

On the other hand, they looked just fine against the same team last week, especially Lee.