In terms of what's important today - managing egos, getting your players to buy into what you're selling, keeping the respect of your players - there aren't too many coaches who are better than Doc. I don't think he's the BEST coach over the past decade. The '07 - '08 Celtics clearly had a ton of talent, and the star players were certainly in that phase of their careers where they were all completely willing to buy into the team concept, but there was still a huge risk of that team turning into the 2004 Lakers. You've got to give Doc a lot of credit for how quickly the team gelled. That's one of the best coaching jobs of the past decade.
Last year, they continued to compete very hard and be very competitive even with decimating injuries. Props to Doc for keeping the wheels on, even if it sounds like some of the ubuntu was lost.
During The Puppy Days, I tend to think Doc was overcriticized, expectations were too high when you NEVER see teams as young as we were really have any success. He kept the players respect, kept them working hard, and you saw guys like Big Al and Perk and Delonte and Rondo get appreciably better during very difficult circumstances. They kept busting tail. Hard for Doc to "win" without pulling a miracle out of his hindquarters during that period.
Combine that with the unexpected success his Magic team had, and it's hard to see how Doc's not even in the top 10, much less with some of the yahoos on the list ahead of him. Hell, even during the worst days of the pre-KG era, would anyone have really preferred having Flip Saunders as coach?
Doc's really been the antithesis of Flip and Skiles and Larry Brown, Doc's players in Boston have never seemed to tune him out. He had a lot of problems at the end of his Orlando tenure, maybe we're all glossing over those too much, but since he's been in Boston Doc has always seemed to have had his players' respect.
Topic: Kelly Dwyer says: Doc Rivers not a top 10 coach of the 2000's (Read 3849 times)