Doc Rivers needs to stop talking and take responsibility
Pointing fingers has never made a problem go away, Doc.
COMMENTARY
I’ve never hidden the fact I’m not the biggest Doc Rivers fan. Good coach, sure. Very good, even. Not great. Definitely not elite.
Plenty of you, especially Celtics fans unable to think outside the glow of the new Big Three era will disagree.
But, here’s something we can all agree on: Rivers is a horrendous general manager.
The former C’s bench boss orchestrated his way out of Boston prior to Brad Stevens’s arrival for two primary reasons: He didn’t want to be part of another rebuild and he wanted more power. In working a trade west to the Los Angeles Clippers, he got his wish. On June 25, 2013 – nearly two years ago to the day – he became the Clippers’ coach and Senior Vice President of Basketball Operations.
Rivers inherited a Los Angeles ball club that had won 56 games under Vinny Del Negro – Vinny Del Negro! – the previous season and had finally unseated its Laker arena-mates as kings of the Pacific Division. Alas, a six-game, first-round loss to Memphis sparked a change and then-owner Donald Sterling brought a former star player home.
When Rivers arrived, he instantly had Blake Griffin, Chris Paul, Jamal Crawford, DeAndre Jordan and Matt Barnes. Eric Bledsoe and a floundering Caron Butler were key role players, but the coach didn’t see them as a fit, so his first act after the 2013 draft was to deal the pair to the Suns in a three-team trade that brought in J.J. Reddick and Jared Dudley from the Milwaukee Bucks and Phoenix Suns, respectively. It’s the most substantial move he’s made to date. At that point, his first Clippers roster – along with the addition of free agent Darren Collinson – was all but complete.
But it wasn’t until nearly two full years later that we learned just how bad the poor guy had it.
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Rivers took the podium to address the media following last month’s second-round collapse at the hands of the Rockets. With the playoff exit, Rivers became the first coach in NBA history to blow multiple 3-1 series leads, the latest coming on the heels of an embarrassing, almost visibly effortless, 113-100 defeat in Game 7.
“I want to fix it,’’ Rivers told USA Today’s Sam Amick. “I want to win. That’s why I came here. I knew when I came here that roster-wise, it was going to be very difficult. The first thing I did before I took this job, I look at the roster and we laughed. It was like, ‘What the (expletive) can we do with this?’ It was more the contracts. But we have to try to do it somehow.’’
Hang on.
Rivers laughed at a roster featuring Griffin, Paul, Crawford, Jordan, Barnes, Butler and Bledsoe? Hardly the 2006-07 Celtics there, Doc. This was a group with a .683 winning percentage, two All-Stars in their primes, and a defensive force the second he walked through the damn door. This guy didn’t need to ask for Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, and Robert Parish.
It’s insanity.
Under Rivers, the Clippers have really made no more progress than they did under Del Negro. Two seasons with win totals of 57 and 56. Two playoff appearances, both with disappointing second-round exits. He’s had Griffin, Paul, Crawford, Jordan and Barnes all along the way, not to mention Reddick, who’s only improved as a shooter and scorer since his arrival.
And, yes, now here’s Rivers running his blame-free mouth again.
The club’s promoted president of basketball operations told The Beast 980’s Fred Roggin Tuesday “this is really only my third year, but you can make a case this is our second year, if you know what I’m saying.’’
“If I someday wrote a book and told you a couple of the trades we had in the first year that we didn’t do because of other reasons,’’ Rivers continued, “you would fall off your chair.’’
Yeah? Name one.
“I’m too young,’’ Rivers told Roggin with a laugh. “Not yet.’’
Please just stop!
Enough excuses. We have Jamie Foxx to deflect blame for you, Doc.
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Glenn: We get it; Sterling was a miserable boss. That doesn’t excuse your being a bad GM (in action, if not title) unless you really write that book and provide some details on his interference. Until then, it’s more comical lip-service for reasons your team failed to reach its expectations and it’s making you look more terrible by the day.
And, by the way, in today’s social media news-breaking age, at least one of those moves that would have made the Clippers so good might have surfaced on Twitter.
It’s on Rivers that his big move last offseason – a major bust – was signing Spencer Hawes, who basically didn’t play in the postseason. Hawes was dealt this week to Charlotte with Barnes in a move to acquire Lance Stephenson, who stunk when you could even find him on the floor in his lone year with the Hornets.
Veterans Danny Granger, Hedo Turkoglu and none other than Glen ‘Big Baby’ Davis didn’t pan out either. Doc’s son Austin, while he had his moments in the postseason, wasn’t exactly one for the win column either. The elder Rivers’s failings in the war room forced the coach into a seven-man rotation on the floor.
Who can win that way?
Rivers has to stop blaming his previous owner and take ownership of his own inept execution that has left LA hamstrung with regard to the league’s salary cap. He should be thankful for how much talent is apparently stuck on that roster of his and supply some depth to the bench he patrols. His defensive blame-game is becoming so comical, even Celtics beat writers are weighing in.
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Rivers made the moves, or at least signed off on them, and now the overhyped coach and under-scrutinized executive has to live with them. Pointing fingers has never made a problem go away.
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