Is Phil Jackson vs Doc Rivers the biggest Finals coaching mismatch of all-time?

[PointGaurd]

This is kind of foolish to me.  lets just say Doc had the luck to coach Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen... we'd be calling him a good coach... Come on, what is your definition of a good coach.  Doc will win this series and still have hatred. 

[Discoflux]

This is kind of foolish to me.  lets just say Doc had the luck to coach Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen... we'd be calling him a good coach... Come on, what is your definition of a good coach.  Doc will win this series and still have hatred. 

Completely disagree.  I've lived through Del Harris, Rudy Tomjanovich... both good coaches for the Lakers... but what Phil does is totally different, better, and is effective.  His Zen style probably turns a lot of people off, but he seems to be in tune with the energy of his players, and dictating what he wants at different points in the game.  He is good with matchups and substitutions as his zen-brain dictates.  Somehow it seems to work well for the Lakers.

Of course good players help build W's.  But coaching is not irrelevant to the process either.

[jay_jay54]

I don't think you can measure who is the better coach in this situation,as someone pointed out,"look at the players Jackson has coached over the years compared to Doc".I have seen both coaches make some mistakes over the years.I wouldn't put Phil on top so fast.I think,if you have the right players,they can make the worst coach appear better.

[cordobes]

2006/2007 Lakers .512; lost 1st round
Smush Parker
Kobe
Vujacic
McKie
Farmar
Maurice Evans
Luke Walton
Odom
Cook
Turiaf
Kwame Brown
Chris Mihm
Andrew Bynum

2002/2003 Magic .512; lost 1st round
Vaughn
Darrell Armstrong (35 yrs old)
Pat Garrity
McGrady
Giricek
Gooden
Jeryl Sasser
Steven Hunter
Shawn Kemp (35 yrs old)
Andrew DeClercq
Horace Grant (38 yrs old)

Same winning %, similar results. How much of a difference the coaching made? Would you rather work with Orlando's roster by far?

[oneofthesedays]

I think Doc has done a pretty good job with the Celtics this year, but to compare him to Phil is a little absurd IMHO.

Yes the Celtics are in the Finals, but lets look at how they got there.

1st round - A 37 win team that the Celtics swept in the regular season takes them to 7 games
2nd round - A dysfunctional Cavs team with little chemistry (midseason trade) takes them to 7 games (with Lebron shooting abysmally)
3rd round - Defeated a good Piston team in 6 games (no criticism here)

Neither the Hawks nor the Cavs had any business taking the Celts to 7 games, and a large part of the reason why they did is because of Doc Rivers.

[BudweiserCeltic]

Doc 1 Phil 0

[CoachBo]

It might be.

Doc took Phillip to the cleaners tonight.

[cdif911]

Doc 1 Phil 0

based on these numbers, if we played 100 times, Doc would be 100 and Phil would be at 0... that is impressive and should be commended. 100% winning percentage in NBA finals, can any other coach claim that? =) I'm sure this series will grind out (though I hope for a sweep!), but Doc proved worthy tonight

[2short]

gotta say doc held his own tonight
he or tom worked out the pick and roll issues
doc stuck with sam for to long (why again?)
but overall good job doc

[BudweiserCeltic]

gotta say doc held his own tonight
he or tom worked out the pick and roll issues
doc stuck with sam for to long (why again?)
but overall good job doc

Yeah, he kept Sam too long, but not THAT long. Cassell played nicely tonight... a couple of poor shooting decisions here and there, but he was good/decent for the most part.

I really have seen some improvements with him running this offense, but there are those stretches where he reverts... Doc surely has to take him out sooner when that happened, but whatever.

[BASSTHUMPER]

doc was always a good coach~

but like any coach ya need solid playas and we been lackin that until Now~~

[ma11l]

Doc's worst decision in my eyes was leaving Sam in for too long in the fourth quarter.

It was very befuddling (yeah I said befuddling) that the Lakers didn't foul at the end of the game.  It didn't seem like they were giving up as they were playing hard defense.  They just seemed to have a mental lapse, not controlling time and score.  That's on the coach.

[RebusRankin]

Phil shouldn't have rested Kobe in the 4th. Bad coaching move.

[BASSTHUMPER]

Phil shouldn't have rested Kobe in the 4th. Bad coaching move.

naw...phil is smart

he is gettin kobe ready for next game~

it's gonna be diffrent~

kobe is mad=not a good thang

[tanner]

Doc did a good job tonight, except for that one thing which has already been pointed out.  I liked that speech on adversity.  Can't believe I'm saying it but I'm actually feeling better with Doc's coaching.  Knock on wood.