Doc plays talented Rookies.
I love all of our Rookies right now, but all of them have some flaws in their game;
EtWaun; Great Offensive, but dont really know about his defense (He moves his feets really slow, dont know if anybody else have noticed)
Avery; Great Defensive, Sucks Offensive.
JaJuan; Great all around talent, but need to bulk up.
There's always going to be something. Yet he played Mikki Moore, Marbury, Robinson, Cassell all because they were experienced players, even though they sucked through many stretches.
I cant understand how we signed or how the hell the guy got minutes, but the other guys were pretty decent..
Cassell played pretty well here (Offensive wise..).
Robinson and Marbury were pretty average pickups, both saved us in playoff games..
Despite playing horrible at other times. That's the point no? For some reason Doc is vastly more forgiving to vets regardless if they're the more useful option.
I liked all those pick-ups, but when it was obvious they weren't producing for us, and at times really hurting us, Doc was content with playing them, often at the expense of a better choice. Like House in the 2008 playoffs through the first 2 rounds.
Exactly what better choices did Doc have at the time?
JR Giddens, the guy that is no longer in the league?
Bill Walker, the Knicks worst defensive player and possibly the league worst sixth man ever?
Gabe Pruitt, another player who has never made it back to the league for any significant amount of time.
House wasn't a young player or rookie. He had been in a long slump to end the season and lost his job to Cassell but then Cassell lost that same job because he could hit a shot either. When House returned he played better and kept the job.
All of the above. It's not all about depth chart discussions, it's also about giving players their due rest to optimize their time on the floor. Walker for one, even with all his misgivings, he could've been very much helpful during that year. If not to keep our players fresh, but to give us an offensive lift from time to time, and if anything be another player Doc could call on when the time presented itself. Which incidentally was during the Magic's series, but Doc couldn't call on Walker by then... he hadn't play much all season.
But let's forget the "young player" aspect as it doesn't apply to House. How about stubborn, does that define Doc better? Sometimes it comes off as a strength, but at other times it bites us in the ass. The House situation was like this. Cassell wasn't playing well either other than some spot games here and there. He finished the season with some strong meaningless games, though until that time he was pretty much mediocre for us. Had some good games against Atlanta, and a good game against Cleveland early on. Other than that, he was bad for us in those 2 series.
But it's not all about Cassell, how about the misused of Rondo during that playoff run? Rondo was quite bad, other than a few games here and there. Wasn't moving the ball well, was horrible in 4th quarters, and was not scoring the ball much either. And this is very important given that teams were forcing us to play 4 on 5 on offense.
The simple fact that House got on the floor at the end of the Cleveland series, it finally gave the Celtics a good offensive flow which we were missing until then, particularly when using Pierce as a point forward.
So yes, he's very reluctant to play young players, as well as stubborn with his usage of veterans.
And in all honesty, it isn't about playing young players vs. playing the vets, or developing talent. It's about, you have little depth in one position then you better have people ready to play that position when needed. Which was his mistake on how he used Giddens/Walker. We could argue that Ainge should've picked someone to fill that role, but he didn't, so Doc had to make sure to get the people ready, and he didn't and when we needed either of them, even for a few minutes a game to keep our main guys fresh, he couldn't go to them.
