Let me start off by saying that I was far from a fan of Doc last year, he blew a lot of games in the final few minutes (and this was when the Celts were still trying to win). This year I figured I'd give him the benefit of the doubt because I wanted to see what he could do with solid players. Although I still feel he cost the Celts a few games this year I was overall pretty pleased with him for getting the team to bond as much as it did. However, after watching these first four games and thinking more about it, I have decided that is just an easy cop-out for Doc created by the media. So what if he got the team to play together? As Pierce said in an interview they really came together as a team during their overseas trip in the pre-season. I am not sure Doc even deserves as much credit as he gets, a lot of the chemistry had to do with just the right mix of guys coming together.
I can not stand the way Doc coaches. All season when the Celts were in tight games in the fourth quarter (including the past two games), Doc had this overconfidence about him that bugs the crap out of me. The only time he ever seems mad is at the refs. He seems just as overconfident as the players at times, and that really scares me. He relys wayyyy to much on the Celts ability to shoot the three ball, often inserting 3 point shooters rather than the Celts better defenders looking for a quick fix. An example from tonight was how he allowed Ray to continue to try to cover Johnson even though he was getting torched, and only switched Paul onto him in the final minute or two (When this happened Paul forced Johnson to miss, but Ray couldnt keep the bigger Childress from getting the offensive board). Tony Allen should have got more time in this series early on. Doc was willing to go a little offense defense with Cassell and Rondo at the end, I think the Celts would have been a lot better off if he went offense defense with Ray and Tony. Tony matches up really well with Johnson.
Also, you'd think with one of the top ten power forwards of all time on his team he'd run a lot more low post plays for KG throughout the game. He wastes his timeouts at silly times early in the fourth. Probably my biggest problem with Doc is how he allows the Celts to stray away from their game plan in the fourth and fall back to one on one play. I don't care that Paul, Ray, and KG, are all future Hall of Famers, Doc needs to make a stand with them and demand they run at least a set play every couple times down the court in the fourth. Doc is by far the most overrated coach in the league. I give him credit, he does know the game very well and gets along with the players. However, it seems to me he knows very little on how to coach a team when it actually matters.