Griffin fired!- Doc Hired - Joerger likely on his way

[PG Graveyard]

Hiring Doc Rivers is just humiliating, the team is finished as a serious contender and now the whole franchise looks like a joke to the rest of the league. Firing Budenholzer is a total disaster, anybody saying otherwise is in denial. Giannis not wanting to play for Nurse reflects poorly on him and his legacy, he's just a low IQ basketball player not immediately wanting to play for championship coach.

You may need to find a room with padded walls.

[MiltownHawkeye]

Nah Giannis is going to be relegated to roll man and Dame forced into a role that he isn’t good at. It’s going to be painful. One or both is going to have to go off script. I bet both are going to be miserable.

Did you watch Philly last season? Embiid literally won MVP last year playing a two man game with Harden where he wasn’t relegated to being the roll man.

Yep. And Harden was miserable and demanded Doc be fired. How did they do in the playoffs?

Harden has been choking in the playoffs and bitching about not being in the ideal situation well before Doc

[JayMKE]

Doc doesnt even have his assistants, they're not going to bring him in & fire him unless the team completely falls apart. This is our coach of the future, the coach of the rest of Giannis's prime.

We fired Bud after winning a championship. We fired his replacement after winning 70% of his games halfway through his first season. You think if things aren't working with Doc who was simply just possibly the best of the worst type situation we're just weathering that storm?

100%, Horst is getting **** before Doc would. They're not going to fire 3 coaches in one year, they're not going to beg a guy off his big media deal to fire him when he's not even going to have his own staff, Doc is going to get a multiyear deal and basically be given the rest of this year as a leash to do whatever with. No qualified coaches are going to want to coach here after this debacle, its a huge black eye for the franchise which is more or less why they're giving Doc the job in the first place so firing him in short order is just straight up not going to happen unless the team falls apart & he completely loses them. Its not championship or bust because there isn't any "championship coach" other than Doc walking thru that door, who are they even going to hire otherwise? Its delusional to think they're telling Doc you have to win a championship this year or they're going to hire Kenny Atkinson, that's not happening. I think there's a strong likelihood Doc might have been a guy they were interested in the offseason, we already know they kicked the tires on Mark Jackson and Monty Williams so this is their type.

Doc is our guy this year and next for sure, pure cope to think otherwise

[Badgerlander]

Its easy to bash Harden but when Dame heads down the same path…

Houston Rockets point guard Chris Paul left the Los Angeles Clippers this offseason, in part, because of head coach Doc Rivers, according to a report from Kevin Arnovitz of ESPN.com:

"After Paul exited for Houston, Clippers owner Steve Ballmer reached out to his former point guard. As a relatively new owner, Ballmer wanted to learn from his organization's mistakes and invited Paul to share his thoughts about the current state of the franchise and, more pointedly, his reasons for leaving. When the two met over breakfast, league sources say, Paul stated that Rivers was one of the contributing factors."

The Clippers teams with a core of Paul, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan had a reputation for locker room drama and for perhaps not liking one another.


But multiple people from the organization indicated to Arnovitz that "Rivers became as prominent a character in the workplace drama as Paul or Griffin or any other member of the roster. And as the authority in charge of managing sensitivities and arbitrating disagreements, Rivers increasingly grew entangled with the rest of the egos."

The piece paints Rivers as something of a locker room politician who had "a tendency to placate a player by telling him what he wanted to hear" or even critiquing a player behind his back to another.

While a level of politicking is normal in any locker room, many Clippers reportedly saw Rivers as somewhat fake, a reputation that was perhaps solidified this offseason, per Arnovitz:

"Some cited a statement by Rivers to ESPN's Zach Lowe this past fall that J.J. Redick was 'begging' to return to the Clippers, a declaration that rang so false to anyone who knows Redick that there was a collective bewilderment that Rivers would even say it aloud in polite conversation. For several of his players, it was further proof Rivers had a willingness to peddle mistruths in an effort to spin perception to his liking."

Rivers was long considered a players' coach, but Arnovitz argued, "He's been overrated as a manager of relationships and egos, and quite underrated as a practitioner of X's and O's with a practical sensibility and a creative flair."

Various coaches and executives around the league reportedly agreed with that sentiment.

Paul has thrived in Houston and Rivers did one of his best coaching jobs in years in 2017-18, leading a team devoid of Paul and Griffin—and beset by injuries—to a 42-39 record. While it wasn't enough to lead the Clippers to the postseason, it's proof they can perhaps retool rather than undergo a full rebuild after trading away two stars this year.


And further changes may be coming. Jordan has a $24.1 million option for the 2018-19 season, and should he opt out, it's questionable whether he'd return. It's also questionable if he'll get that type of money on the market, but the final piece of the Big Three era for the Clippers may be gone this summer.

However, that may be the perfect situation for Rivers. As Arnovitz wrote, "Doc Rivers might not, in fact, be the ideal coach for a team of strong veteran personalities. Doc Rivers might be the perfect coach for a team in extreme transition."

[Wooderson]

Giannis is 2nd in the entire league in PPP as the PnR ball handler for guys with > 100 possessions in that role. He should still have the ball, and a lot. If anything, we should cut down on crap like Bobby post ups and other peripheral stuff that's bleeding offense. Giannis/Dame can be better optimized for sure, but it should mostly come from reductions in other areas imo.

[randy84]

I know the questions has been asked why people like Atkinson since his record is crap. My thought is that he can implement Bud's defensive scheme almost immediately since they coached together and the main players know the scheme. I don't know what kind of scheme Doc runs, but it will take time for the players to learn which will cause more losses. Also, Atkinson never had the kind of talent that Doc had so Doc should have a better record. We also know Doc's track record in the playoffs which might be as worse than Bud's.

I do agree that Doc is a huge step up from AG, but I don't know if that says much. I just feel with Doc you are downgrading from Bud and are going to be wasting the Giannis and Dame years. It never ends good between the players and Doc.

[MissKhriddleton]

Do people really think Embiid/Harden and CP3/Griffin should have won rings??? lol cmon.

[randy84]

So Horst and Edens read our Griffin/Doc poll a few weeks ago and then made the call. Good job guys!

I knew there should have been more options.

[JayMKE]

Do people really think Embiid/Harden and CP3/Griffin should have won rings??? lol cmon.

How much credit do you give to Doc Rivers for the combined greatness Paul Pierce, KG, and Ray Allen? Danny Ainge more responsible for that ring than Doc and its gotten him a decade+ of work

[pifhluk23]

Even if the stuff about Doc not handling egos/drama is true we'll still get at least 1.5 seasons before he loses the locker room. I like that he's considered underrated on Xs and Os.

[raferfenix]

Hey PP25: props on being in the know about Doc’s consulting gig before setting up the poll.

That’s what happened right?

Appreciate you flagging the Bill Simmons pod as having ownership specifically as an audience as well. It should also be a media story that Doc’s consulting wasn’t disclosed.

[MissKhriddleton]

Do people really think Embiid/Harden and CP3/Griffin should have won rings??? lol cmon.

How much credit do you give to Doc Rivers for the combined greatness Paul Pierce, KG, and Ray Allen? Danny Ainge more responsible for that ring than Doc and its gotten him a decade+ of work

Well yeah no ****, but we have Giannis and Dame. He doesn’t need to be Norman Dale.

[TroyD92]

Even if Doc is a 0, that’s still better than a -10

[ReddRum]

But like... Is this actually confirmed? There were conflicting reports and then everyone went to bed.

I don't believe its confirmed. My guess is somehow TNT leaked it on air last night but the Bucks wanted to wait 24 hours to announce it to make the organization look more professional. Pretty certain it will be confirmed tonight in Horst's presser before the Bucks / Cavs game...

[ABucksFan]

So it wasn't a dream??! We are freee!! I choose to believe Doc is not a choker and it was his players. I'm sticking with that

[DutchManDanFan]

Oof.

https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/why-hiring-doc-rivers-would-be-a-mistake-for-the-milwaukee-bucks/

I stopped reading after: "Ask DeAndre Jordan. Ask Ben Simmons. And now, perhaps, ask the suddenly unemployed Adrian Griffin."
I thought about asking KG about Doc.I would take his opinion serious.

[j_hilge444]

Do people really think Embiid/Harden and CP3/Griffin should have won rings??? lol cmon.

How much credit do you give to Doc Rivers for the combined greatness Paul Pierce, KG, and Ray Allen? Danny Ainge more responsible for that ring than Doc and its gotten him a decade+ of work

That is literally the whole point that you seem to be missing.

[j_hilge444]

Oof.

https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/why-hiring-doc-rivers-would-be-a-mistake-for-the-milwaukee-bucks/

I stopped reading after: "Ask DeAndre Jordan. Ask Ben Simmons. And now, perhaps, ask the suddenly unemployed Adrian Griffin."
I thought about asking KG about Doc.I would take his opinion serious.

Seriously. That article is no better than click bait.

[CharityStripe34]

Quite the dramatic past six months.

[Frank Nova]

There are refuting reports now the deal was never made official and Doc technically isn’t the coach yet? Anyone else see that? Lots of ppl on social media bashing CNN Sports for being the 1st source, and rightfully so lol. Why would TNT just act like CNN Sports was Woj and announce that on live TV? Seems like a major network blunder but who knows..

And when you bring up Docs 1 championship in Boston, you can’t be ignorant and forget about just how phenomenal Rajon Rondo was for that team. That was a big 4, not a big 3 and arguably 1 of the best rosters ever constructed in my humble opinion. They made 2 finals appearances in 6 seasons and won 1, but should've been a dynasty by all accounts.