I know this opinion wasn't a very popular one around here not too long ago but, Doc Rivers is a great coach. He's not the right coach for the right team. He's not a bad coach who got lucky to get great players. He's a great coach and here are the non-****ographic pictured reasons why.
As with any great leader of men, Doc has that vision of what needs to be accomplished, visualizes that accomplishment, instills that vision into the men he is leading and then goes about motivating, teaching, managing, planning and coaching his men. His exploit of leaving a spotlight on a blank piece of wall at the Waltham practice facility and telling the team that is where Banner 17 is going is almost Celtic legend now. His taking the Big Three on a duck boat ride and telling them that this is what we will be doing when we win it all this spring was pure genius. He introduced the team to the concept of Ubuntu and the rest was history.
But there's more than that. There's Doc's ability to rally and motivate his players during the thick of things as well and the proof of this goes beyond just this year. Doc Rivers' teams never give in. It doesn't matter if they are too young, too inexperienced, too beat up, too far behind, too dejected or too fed up with just about anything. Doc's teams come back and Doc's teams are tenacious in giving everything they have to win games. Remember the 18 game losing streak? Was there ever a team that lost that many straight games that were in and probably should have won as many games as that team? It's because they gave it everything, every game to try to win and never gave up. Doc has an uncanny knack of getting everything he can out of his players, whether they like him or not and only the greatest of coaches can do that.
And there's also Doc's ability to teach and grow youth. This is a fact and you can look it up, Doc never had a young player that he refused to give minutes to that went on to become something big somewhere else. And that's in over a decade of coaching. If you're a young player and you have talent, you have played meaningful minutes for Doc and your game has grown and flourished and Doc had a hand in your eventual development into the player you are.
And I don't want to here that he only has played young players because he was forced to because there is not one shred of evidence of that being true. Just conjecture. The fact remains that young players have become stars under his tutelage, that young players have learned the game and become the most they could while with him and that young players that had talent always saw the floor and reached their potential under and because of Doc. Rondo, Perk, Big Al, Gomes, Baby, Leon, Delonte, Corey Maggette, Tracy McGrady, Pat Garrity, Mike Miller, Ben Wallace.
Another reason for Doc's greatness as a coach is his understanding of the game and the mind and psyche of the modern NBA player. The blending of those two things is what makes him great. Too many either just don't have the understanding of the modern player or major flaws in their basketball coaching skills or aren't great teachers or aren't great managers and it is their undoing. Doc thrives and survives and overcomes and excels where others do not because he does have such a firm grip on all these aspects of basketball and coaching.
And because of these things, his players usually love him for it and listen and do what needs to be done. Results are attained and Doc teams usually do a lot better than most would ever have thought of. Having and keeping player loyalties is a difficult ability nowadays but the great ones always do and Doc always has.
And while Doc is great, Doc is not perfect. He has his pimples but he acknowledges them and takes the blame when they are the cause of failure. And best of all, he does learn and change. But change is a thing that men do not like and as always change is something that comes slowly, even for Doc. But over the years I have seen change in him and he has corrected some of his flaws. And that, my friends, is also a mark of greatness.
Topic: The Real Reasons Why Doc is a Great Coach (Read 1942 times)