Don't think Danny thought Brad would learn this quick...

[JHTruth]

Doc was good out of timeouts always to end a quarter but to end the game he let pierce just Iso..... Baffling considering he could draw up plays pretty well.

doc was a buffoon

Come on man the guy won one title and was on the brink of a second. Stevens might get us the 8 seed. Settle down..

would not call him a buffoon, but he sure was a plastic front running traitor.

Dude hung a banner. call me when CBS makes the playoffs..

[TitleMaster]

Doc was good out of timeouts always to end a quarter but to end the game he let pierce just Iso..... Baffling considering he could draw up plays pretty well.

doc was a buffoon

Come on man the guy won one title and was on the brink of a second. Stevens might get us the 8 seed. Settle down..

That 2008 Celtics team was great. What other team in the league that year had a roster of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, James Posey, Rajon Rondo, Kendrick Perkins, Eddie House, Tony Allen, Sam Cassell, Leon Powe, P.J. Brown, Big Baby Davis, and garbage time man, Brian Scalabrine, who also hustled from time to time, but was the least talented.

And Thibs was defensive specialist assistant coach. If you couldn't win in 2008, then you really don't know how to use your team's assets.

[TitleMaster]

Here's Doc Rivers basic offensive philosophy ... get the ball to Paul or Kevin, and get out of the way.

Guess what, everyone else already knows that.

[Celtics4ever]

We have a lot of depth on this team, the second unit is as good if not better than the first. 

[showtime]

Doc's not a coach he's a cheerleader. If he had to coach this team they wouldn't win 15 games and he would be fired!

[kozlodoev]

Doc was good out of timeouts always to end a quarter but to end the game he let pierce just Iso..... Baffling considering he could draw up plays pretty well.

doc was a buffoon

Come on man the guy won one title and was on the brink of a second. Stevens might get us the 8 seed. Settle down..

would not call him a buffoon, but he sure was a plastic front running traitor.

Are you implying that the 3 seasons before 2007-08 didn't really happen?

[TitleMaster]

What I mean by that was that he'd consistently fall back to his starters, mainly Pierce & KG, to save the day.

You mean that he'd expect falling back to his best players would give him the best chance to win the game? Shocker!

This is, in fact, something Brad S still has to wrap his mind around (and yes, the process of him grappling around until he figures it out is mildly infuriating).

Stevens is doing actually what Doc couldn't, and that's using the entire roster, and drawing up key plays.

Of course. Using Phil Pressey is important. I mean, winning games just hinges on this team  getting the most out of Phil Pressey, right?

I know that this comment was written before Friday's 3/13th game, however, I rest my case as a result. Pressey showed up, earning 10 pts, 10 assists, and 4 rebounds.

Now, the point is not *Friday's game*, per se, but the fact that the kid now has some experience and confidence, which may come in handy, during a playoff situation, when perhaps, Thomas pulls a hamstring or gets fouled out. Phil can look back to these moments, to ratchet up his game.

If it were Doc, however, this event would never have happened. And then, in my scenario of the (2008 version of) Pierce and Thomas, in the playoffs, Doc would have no one to draw on, if either of them were injured or fouled out.

[TitleMaster]

If it were Doc, however, this event would never have happened. And then, in my scenario of the (2008 version of) Pierce and Thomas, in the playoffs, Doc would have no one to draw on, if either of them were injured or fouled out.

And this brings up the wider point and that's that Doc can't get much mileage out of role players with one franchise player. Doc's record, if you take Steven's squad plus let's say add a Durant, would be no different that what it's been doing during the post-Rondo/Green trade period. The difference is that Durant would be handling almost every play in the games.

Instead of being efficient, Doc needs 3 Hall of Famers (GPA), 3 seasoned veterans (Posey, Brown, Cassell) and a slew of hustle players: Rondo, House, Powe, BBD, and Scals, to make anything happen.

[kozlodoev]

What I mean by that was that he'd consistently fall back to his starters, mainly Pierce & KG, to save the day.

You mean that he'd expect falling back to his best players would give him the best chance to win the game? Shocker!

This is, in fact, something Brad S still has to wrap his mind around (and yes, the process of him grappling around until he figures it out is mildly infuriating).

Stevens is doing actually what Doc couldn't, and that's using the entire roster, and drawing up key plays.

Of course. Using Phil Pressey is important. I mean, winning games just hinges on this team  getting the most out of Phil Pressey, right?

I know that this comment was written before Friday's 3/13th game, however, I rest my case as a result. Pressey showed up, earning 10 pts, 10 assists, and 4 rebounds.

Now, the point is not *Friday's game*, per se, but the fact that the kid now has some experience and confidence, which may come in handy, during a playoff situation, when perhaps, Thomas pulls a hamstring or gets fouled out. Phil can look back to these moments, to ratchet up his game.

If it were Doc, however, this event would never have happened. And then, in my scenario of the (2008 version of) Pierce and Thomas, in the playoffs, Doc would have no one to draw on, if either of them were injured or fouled out.

And yet, we won the game because of Evan Turner, not because of Phil Pressey. Better players are just... better. In the long run, you win because you got the most out of your best players. It's simple, it's true, it has happened before. Look at, I don't know, just about any team that has won anything.

I'm sure you'd like to pretend that the Celtics under Doc Rivers never got any contribution from obscure roleplayers of the bench. But to blindly insist that team coaching should revolve around making sure inferior players get a ton of unwarranted minutes to build up their confidence is naive and silly.

[TitleMaster]

What I mean by that was that he'd consistently fall back to his starters, mainly Pierce & KG, to save the day.

You mean that he'd expect falling back to his best players would give him the best chance to win the game? Shocker!

This is, in fact, something Brad S still has to wrap his mind around (and yes, the process of him grappling around until he figures it out is mildly infuriating).

Stevens is doing actually what Doc couldn't, and that's using the entire roster, and drawing up key plays.

Of course. Using Phil Pressey is important. I mean, winning games just hinges on this team  getting the most out of Phil Pressey, right?

I know that this comment was written before Friday's 3/13th game, however, I rest my case as a result. Pressey showed up, earning 10 pts, 10 assists, and 4 rebounds.

Now, the point is not *Friday's game*, per se, but the fact that the kid now has some experience and confidence, which may come in handy, during a playoff situation, when perhaps, Thomas pulls a hamstring or gets fouled out. Phil can look back to these moments, to ratchet up his game.

If it were Doc, however, this event would never have happened. And then, in my scenario of the (2008 version of) Pierce and Thomas, in the playoffs, Doc would have no one to draw on, if either of them were injured or fouled out.

And yet, we won the game because of Evan Turner, not because of Phil Pressey. Better players are just... better. In the long run, you win because you got the most out of your best players. It's simple, it's true, it has happened before. Look at, I don't know, just about any team that has won anything.

I'm sure you'd like to pretend that the Celtics under Doc Rivers never got any contribution from obscure roleplayers of the bench. But to blindly insist that team coaching should revolve around making sure inferior players get a ton of unwarranted minutes to build up their confidence is naive and silly.

Sorry, I disagree and the point about Glenn MacDonald, who'd played 13 mpg during the regular '76 season, but then, had almost no minutes during the playoffs, is indicative of my point.

The fact is that the starters had the most minutes during the playoffs and Glen played very little of it, also indicated that yes, the stars win championship but at the same time, the other players need to be ready to step it up.

If McDonald didn't show up, Phoenix would have won that day and then, we'd have a full 7 game series and one, against a lesser western conference playoff team.

And yes, in the Doc Rivers world, McDonald would have been benched all season long. He would have simply thrown all those minutes on Chaney or Scott.

[kozlodoev]

Of course, that's exactly how it would have happened. In your dream land where the "experience and confidence" of Phil Pressey is more important than making sure you're getting the most out of the 14 players that are better than him off the roster. I think I'm done here.

[TitleMaster]

Of course, that's exactly how it would have happened. In your dream land where the "experience and confidence" of Phil Pressey is more important than making sure you're getting the most out of the 14 players that are better than him off the roster. I think I'm done here.

In order for Tommy Heinsohn to know, whether or not he should've put McDonald into the playoff bench rotation, was based upon the regular season.

If he'd never played him, he would never have known. Instead, he would have played Scott/Nelson, non-stop. That's Doc Rivers for you. And then, during the playoffs, when ppl are fouled out, by the 3 OT, he'd be scratching his head, wondering who he should pick as a replacement.

Understand this, Stevens does not have an all star ensemble cast of Hondo, Cowens, JoJo, and Silas as primary go-to guys. Instead, he's got at best, Nelson, (not-even)-Scott, McDonald, and others. With that in mind, he needs to know what everyone can do or can't do.

[Kane3387]

I think DA knew exactly what he was getting when he hired brad.