Doc Rivers not taking any responsibility for crapping the bed.

[Woodsanity]

Full article here: http://deadspin.com/doc-rivers-cant-be- ... 1705196802

Here's something crazy that Clippers coach and GM Doc Rivers said after his team finished choking away a 3-1 series lead to the Rockets last night (via USA Today):

"I want to fix it," Rivers told USA TODAY Sports. "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 looked at the roster and we laughed. I was like, 'What the (expletive) can we do with this?' It was more the contracts. But we have to try to do it somehow. I don't know how yet, but something will work out."

It's not often that a coach or GM just comes right and how and says something as painfully obtuse as this (hello, Phil Jackson!), but here we are. Doc Rivers, who inherited a 56-win team that boasted a Hall of Fame point guard, a fantastic defensive center, a young guard people were calling "Mini-LeBron," and one of the best power forwards in the league-all in their primes!-is acting like he came to Los Angeles to start a reclamation project. That's insane! After the 2012-13 season, there wasn't cushier gig available than coaching the Clippers, and I would guess that a great majority of the other GMs in the league would have gleefully swapped rosters with Doc.

Here's another thing Doc Rivers said after his team finished choking away a 3-1 series lead to the Rockets (via Yahoo):

"We took too long to get over the intoxication of beating the Spurs," Doc Rivers told Yahoo Sports late Sunday afternoon. "I never thought we gave Houston the same focus that we gave the Spurs. Even though we were up 3-1, I never felt that way.

"We stepped back instead of going forward."

It's a coach's job to make sure his team stays focused enough to close out a series in which they are up three games to one, and it's a GM's job to make sure that his team has the right mix of stars and role players to accomplish that task. Rivers is doing a lot of talking, but all he's saying is that he hasn't been very good at either of his jobs.

I can't believe this guy. He really is a slimy weasel. Acting like some kind of savior when he inherited a stacked team and somehow butchered the roster and acting like he was in a tight spot and had no assets when he threw all of them away for pennies.

He literally has not taken this team anywhere further than VDN did. At least VDN had some integrity. Doc really is what some people thought he was.

[nickhx2]

lol god

this team is screwed if he really thinks that. i really hope ballmer has what it takes to axe him and prevent any further damage.

[nickhx2]

have to post again cause thinking on this makes me so angry.

the guy doesn't want to take any responsibility for how he screwed it all up. hasn't said one word about the awful dudley trade. and he is now trying to change the narrative to make people think that he had a project to begin with?

if that's not manipulative and deceiving, then i don't know what is. wowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww what the hell are we supposed to do

[MartinToVaught]

There's a reason why I've wanted him fired all year. He's a slimy used car salesman whose first thought is how to deflect responsibility to others. He needs to go.

[nickhx2]

from ramona shelbourne's very good article today on espn. i don't really care for her but i'm glad she put his incompetence right out there. i only hope the rest of the media can start slowly picking up on that and make it snowball.

http://espn.go.com/nba/playoffs/2015/st ... ig-changes

"The core isn't the problem. The depth is, and that's on Doc Rivers, president of basketball operations, more than anyone else. He's the man who constructed a roster that hasn't been particularly flexible, deep or dynamic all season. Griffin and Paul each took turns taking the blame for not getting this group out of the second round. As the All-Stars here, they should.

But it's really on Rivers to get them more help and he has failed to meaningfully do that each of the past two summers. The decision to prioritize Spencer Hawes over a small forward like Paul Pierce or Trevor Ariza looks awful in retrospect. So does the decision to trade away Jared Dudley and a first-round pick to clear enough salary cap space to fill out the roster with Hedo Turkoglu and Glen Davis. That first-round pick could've helped them in trades this winter as they pursued the likes of Jeff Green or Arron Afflalo."

kinda hoping also at least one big name journalist can put out the idea of him being fired for one of, or both jobs. he didn't do either one very well and that's why we're out of the playoffs.

[LApwnd]

he got to much credit for Bos success, he was a bad coach prior to the big 3 accumulation in Bos, he was bad coach with Orl. Personally I thought a lot of the success Bos had was thanks to the asst. coaches.

[Woodsanity]

As a coach I think he is good albeit overrated but as a GM he is horrible and right now his character seems very questionable.

[og15]

Hmm, wow, interesting

[MartinToVaught]

As a coach I think he is good albeit overrated

Only coach ever to blow two 3-1 series leads. He's also blown five 3-2 series leads. Good coaches know how to close playoff series. Doc isn't a good coach. Even in 2008, with a historically stacked roster, he got taken to 7 games twice (including by the 8th seed) and 6 games in the other 2 series.

[amcoolio]

I really can't stand Doc Rivers. I don't know why people think he's this holier than thou godfather coach guy. Ya'll would never do it but a coaching change would go a long way

[nickhx2]

the media likes him because he has personality and he talks to them. when that happens, they are much less likely to criticize him for bad moves.

[nickhx2]

KA kinda killing it (doc) on twitter.

[tweet]https://twitter.com/kevinarnovitz/status/600287851322933248[/tweet]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/kevinarnovitz/status/600383126494420992[/tweet]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/kevinarnovitz/status/600386282238390272[/tweet]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/kevinarnovitz/status/600386976886431744[/tweet]

[mattd13]

I am jj's biggest fan but he went 3 games in a row with below average shooting. the team has not done well when that happens. then you have 2 guys who basically are not good shooters go off 2 times in a row. we lose. does the roster need help of coarse. resign dj and get a sf somehow and this team can succeed. is doc a bad coach no just unlucky. hawes was a bust but at the time we all thought it was a great deal. I am not a fan of doc but they will get something done and the team will improve.

[Dynamix]

Great article that sums everything up: http://clipperblog.com/2015/05/18/doc-r ... -the-team/

[nickhx2]

very good article, thanks.

obliviousness is such a great word to describe doc. and it just makes me so sad thinking that doc's obliviousness might be the undoing of this team.

[mkwest]

The Clippers are clearly in need of help after becoming only the ninth team in NBA history to squander a 3-1 lead in a playoff series, their overworked stars fatigued to the point that they couldn't execute a few inbounds passes in the season's final game.

Their thin bench not only failed to produce, being outscored for a third consecutive game in the series, but continued to lag in the trust department. Houston Coach Kevin McHale played his top three reserves a combined 65 minutes in Game 7 compared with a combined 46 minutes for the Clippers trio of Jamal Crawford, Austin Rivers and Glen Davis.

"We're talking about the bench," Rivers told a throng of reporters who continually made it a talking point, "so I have to do a better job."

Ben Bolch, LA Times

Doc is right in that he has to do a better job.


As far as the USA Today quote....

He would have to expound on what he meant about the contracts instead of being so vague. Changes obviously needed to be made, but I think it was a situation that most incoming GM's would welcome with open arms. We had BG, CP, DJ, Bledsoe, Crawford, Butler (expiring) and Green under contract with the 25th pick and MLE. We didn't have bad contracts imo. If he was trying to say that, then that's just plain ridiculous.

If he's talking about the contracts that could have been used in a trade (i.e. more flexibility) to acquire higher salary players, then there may have been some truth in that. That's still a problem and will be a problem for as long as 3 players take up the majority of the team salary and you only have MLE-level salary to trade. This past season, it was an issue with the hard cap (we had a hard cap the previous season as well), which was established by using the full MLE and the BAE. It was tricky, but that's where you have to be savvy. Not every move is going to be a home run or even a hit, but there's a whole lot less room for error when you're in the position that we were/are in. If he connects on one of the first rounders and this year's MLE, then things could be looked at a lot differently even if the other first rounder [still] flopped and Farmar still does what Farmar does. You just can't afford for everything to flop. It's crushing.

This upcoming summer, we'll have even less (offseason assets) to work with to attempt to improve. The lack of a 2015 1st or the reduced MLE aren't his fault, but his prior asset managing only magnify those issues. Doc was going to get paid a lot regardless of if he came here as just a coach or if he wore both hats. However, to whom much is given, much is required.

[QRich3]

See, I used to be the first guy to defend his cheap politician catch-phrases when they did no harm to anyone. Like his laughable campaign to get DJ the DPOY award, if you know basketball you know DJ should be nowehre near that, but he managed to trick a lot of beat writers and shallow journalists into giving him votes and motivating the hell out of DJ in the process. No harm to anyone, way to make use of people's ignorance to help improve your team, or the perception of it.

Now with stuff like this, I feel he is actively taking me for a fool to defend the pathetic job he and his minions have done. I think it's silly to even get to analyze the idiotic crap he said, but he had a blue chip prospect in Bledsoe, very tradeable veteran contracts in Butler and Crawford, and every pick sans one (the one we traded for HIM!) to round one of the best 3 man future cores in the league. Any half-competent executive around the league can build a real contender with those pieces. Instead, we have the 4 man core and nothing else. No picks, no role players around it, no room to make a single move.

Sh*t happens, he f*cked up every move after the Bledsoe trade, and if he owns to it and tries to make the better with what he left, I can get behind him. But this moronic attitude of his tells me he doesn't even realise what he's done bad, he's just another dumb guy way over his head clinging tooth and nail to the power he managed to randomly get by being in the right place at the right time.

[mattd13]

the new owner is a businessman who wants to win and make money. hopefully he will get involved and make the moves and changes that have to be made.

[rayofsunshine]

Who did you guys get for Bledsoe?

[QRich3]

the new owner is a businessman who wants to win and make money. hopefully he will get involved and make the moves and changes that have to be made.

He's also notoriously known for treading water as a CEO of Microsoft, and speaking of Doc Rivers as if he was the second coming of Red Auerbach. Wouldn't get my hopes up tbh.