The Official Fire Doc Rivers Thread

[Negrodamus]

The question they should ask Morey/Doc is:

Why has Harden's shot, particularly from 3, completely fallen off since his Houston days and why should we be encouraged that it will return?

Harden shot 36% from 3 on 7 FGA and 47% overall when he was traded to Brooklyn pre injury. He kept those numbers in the playoffs that year while playing on 1 leg. Let's see how he looks after a full year removed from injury plus an off season. He said he couldn't even do any rehab last off season.

Yea, I'd want to hear them say that. I feel like that would force them to address if the injury plays any part of this or if inexplicably no longer a scorer. I can understand the bad 2pt FG, especially with the rule adjustment to foul calls, but the 32% from 3 in the regular season is quite the drop from his 36% career average.

[mjkvol]

“I don’t worry about my job. I think I do a terrific job. If you don’t, then you should write it," Rivers said. “Because I worked my butt off to get this team here. When I first got here, no one picked us to be anywhere. Again this year, the same thing. If that's how anyone feels, write it. I'm going to feel secure about it.”

Not sure I've ever heard of a coach, especially one who has won a championship and will certainly be a HOFer, that was so incredibly thin skinned and insecure. This guy really needs to go if there is any shot at taking the next step.

I don't think there's been a coach with his credentials questioned so much, especially while they are competing. Wonder Why

There's been articles for his demise, while they were a top 3 seed and didn't have James or Ben.

To piggy back off of what Mik said, They were expected by everyone including fans to be a 6th seed and questions about whether to build around Ben or Joel coming into the year Doc's first season, and they won the East first seed...while overachieving and winning games they previously easily lost. Joel followed his formula and became a MVP caliber player. Ben focused on facilitating and defense and should've won DPOY, and Tobias became a real 2nd option...not to mention the best Seth Curry ever. This season without Ben, fans here questioned resting Embiid and figuring it out in the offseason, as playoffs may not happen. They competed for the top seed all year.

It's one thing for the fans on a message board to question his rotations with the backup center situation, but as soon as the Harden trade happened, even the local media started jumping on him instead of Morey due to the putrid backup center situation. This offseason is about Morey and Maxey. Your best bet is to let Rivers continue to develop Maxey, to save Philly from the treadmill situation Morey put them in with Harden.

Okay, here's a question - why have Rivers' teams, many of which had a lot of high end talent, consistently posted solid regular seasons earning high seeds and home advantages but have just as consistently melted down in the playoffs, often losing to teams with less talent? You can make the argument that letting Rivers stay will also keep the Sixers on that treadmill you speak of.

[Ksny13]

The question they should ask Morey/Doc is:

Why has Harden's shot, particularly from 3, completely fallen off since his Houston days and why should we be encouraged that it will return?

Harden shot 36% from 3 on 7 FGA and 47% overall when he was traded to Brooklyn pre injury. He kept those numbers in the playoffs that year while playing on 1 leg. Let's see how he looks after a full year removed from injury plus an off season. He said he couldn't even do any rehab last off season.

Yea, I'd want to hear them say that. I feel like that would force them to address if the injury plays any part of this or if inexplicably no longer a scorer. I can understand the bad 2pt FG, especially with the rule adjustment to foul calls, but the 32% from 3 in the regular season is quite the drop from his 36% career average.

This will be Hardens most important off season of his career. I love the guy but he needs to come out of this off season in ridiculous shape. He needs to be like he was in Houston from a body type perspective. He needs to rehab the hell out of his hamstring and get that thing back to strength. His shot all season was just different. If you look at his mechanics this season vs every year prior it wasn't the same and I think a lot of that was because of lift. He's never been a high jump shooter but it was remarkably flat this season and he routinely would get rejected at the rim and just had no burst.

All of this just leads me to believe it's his hamstring. Meere 11 months ago he was in MVP form in Brooklyn. I can't believe a guy would fall so much so fast. If he dedicates himself this off-season and doesn't hit up Italy etc with his boys that will say a lot. I know if sucks you guys just got eliminated but if Harden comes back in shape and fully healed and Morey can make some roster tweaks ( desperately need some length, defense and shooting ) the trio of fully healthy James, Embid and Maxey is absolutely deadly.

[Jailblazers7]

Doc talking about the young guys has me kinda excited. Hyping up Bassey a lot. I like our core and our young guys. Overhaul the bench and let’s see what happens next year.

Also love seeing how much Doc & Morey hate answering questions from Keith Pompey.

[Sixersftw]

I guess I don't have to take next year so seriously since its cooked already

[76thBearCub]

Yea about time for a hiatus I guess.

[mjkvol]

"I just think he's a great coach. I love working with him," Morey said of Rivers on Friday. "I feel like I'm learning from him. I think Elton [Brand] and I and him make a great team and we're going to see where this journey takes us. But we feel very good about where it's going to take us. It's going to be where we have a very good chance to win a title."


All of a sudden my faith in Morey to build a championship team here has hit a snag.

[marcush]

The sooner we fire Rivers the sooner we can find our next scapegoat.

[MartinToVaught]

My condolences, Sixer fans. Doc did the same thing in LA - blow smoke up Ballmer's ass every year after his latest failure and skate by with his job for another year, until we finally had a meltdown that even he couldn't excuse away.

[FireMorey]

Last coach this city liked was Charlie Manuel and they didn’t like him until he won a title. Until then he was “Elmer Befuddled.” This city hates coaches. Yet loved Buddy Ryan for some insane reason. This city didn’t even like Andy Reid. Philly blames coaches for all their teams problems. And this city has won 2 titles in the last 40 years. So either every coach they hire sucks or perhaps it’s the players that are the problem most of the time and coaching doesn’t have the impact on games people think it does. It has an impact, but it’s not as big as people think. Especially outside of football.

[marcush]

It’s not a Philly thing. All homers in all sports blame the coach because it’s easier than accepting the limitations of the players.

[Embiid P]

Last coach this city liked was Charlie Manuel and they didn’t like him until he won a title. Until then he was “Elmer Befuddled.” This city hates coaches. Yet loved Buddy Ryan for some insane reason. This city didn’t even like Andy Reid. Philly blames coaches for all their teams problems. And this city has won 2 titles in the last 40 years. So either every coach they hire sucks or perhaps it’s the players that are the problem most of the time and coaching doesn’t have the impact on games people think it does. It has an impact, but it’s not as big as people think. Especially outside of football.

While this disappointing season is not entirely Doc's fault, he does deserve a good portion of the blame namely for not playing our young pieces (aside from Maxey where his hand was forced because of the Simmons situation) enough during the regular season and not resting Harden and Embiid enough before the playoffs which I believe were major factors in their underwhelming performances (especially Harden) during the playoffs.

One could make the argument that he wasn't playing with a full deck especially after giving up depth for Harden which is fair, and on Morey but in Morey's defense, it's tough to acquire all the pieces needed for a title run at one deadline especially since Marks waited until the 11th hour to pull the trigger on the Harden trade.

The one unforgivable thing for me that Rivers did was not pulling the starters out sooner in game 6 vs the Raps which led to Embiid fracturing his orbital and may have cost us the Heat series.

[GoSixersBro]

Last coach this city liked was Charlie Manuel and they didn’t like him until he won a title. Until then he was “Elmer Befuddled.” This city hates coaches. Yet loved Buddy Ryan for some insane reason. This city didn’t even like Andy Reid. Philly blames coaches for all their teams problems. And this city has won 2 titles in the last 40 years. So either every coach they hire sucks or perhaps it’s the players that are the problem most of the time and coaching doesn’t have the impact on games people think it does. It has an impact, but it’s not as big as people think. Especially outside of football.

Feel like Dougie P. was loved by the majority and still is.

[FireMorey]

Last coach this city liked was Charlie Manuel and they didn’t like him until he won a title. Until then he was “Elmer Befuddled.” This city hates coaches. Yet loved Buddy Ryan for some insane reason. This city didn’t even like Andy Reid. Philly blames coaches for all their teams problems. And this city has won 2 titles in the last 40 years. So either every coach they hire sucks or perhaps it’s the players that are the problem most of the time and coaching doesn’t have the impact on games people think it does. It has an impact, but it’s not as big as people think. Especially outside of football.

Feel like Dougie P. was loved by the majority and still is.

All coaches who win titles once time has passed I think are appreciated long term. But in 2020 fans didn’t have a lot of positive things to say about him. Everyone was calling him a fraud who won because Frank Reich was the brains behind 2017.

[M2J]

“I don’t worry about my job. I think I do a terrific job. If you don’t, then you should write it," Rivers said. “Because I worked my butt off to get this team here. When I first got here, no one picked us to be anywhere. Again this year, the same thing. If that's how anyone feels, write it. I'm going to feel secure about it.”

Not sure I've ever heard of a coach, especially one who has won a championship and will certainly be a HOFer, that was so incredibly thin skinned and insecure. This guy really needs to go if there is any shot at taking the next step.

I don't think there's been a coach with his credentials questioned so much, especially while they are competing. Wonder Why

There's been articles for his demise, while they were a top 3 seed and didn't have James or Ben.

To piggy back off of what Mik said, They were expected by everyone including fans to be a 6th seed and questions about whether to build around Ben or Joel coming into the year Doc's first season, and they won the East first seed...while overachieving and winning games they previously easily lost. Joel followed his formula and became a MVP caliber player. Ben focused on facilitating and defense and should've won DPOY, and Tobias became a real 2nd option...not to mention the best Seth Curry ever. This season without Ben, fans here questioned resting Embiid and figuring it out in the offseason, as playoffs may not happen. They competed for the top seed all year.

It's one thing for the fans on a message board to question his rotations with the backup center situation, but as soon as the Harden trade happened, even the local media started jumping on him instead of Morey due to the putrid backup center situation. This offseason is about Morey and Maxey. Your best bet is to let Rivers continue to develop Maxey, to save Philly from the treadmill situation Morey put them in with Harden.

Okay, here's a question - why have Rivers' teams, many of which had a lot of high end talent, consistently posted solid regular seasons earning high seeds and home advantages but have just as consistently melted down in the playoffs, often losing to teams with less talent? You can make the argument that letting Rivers stay will also keep the Sixers on that treadmill you speak of.

Hyperbole at best man.

Perhaps the biggest scenario of him losing to a less talented team in retrospect may have been last year vs Atlanta solely because Joel should've been the best player in that series, but Trae was the best offensive player in that series. Plus Joel was dealing with an injury and Philly was built to be offensively challenged. Basically a post player star with shooters around him + a second star point guard that refused to take shots and now refuses to play for 2 franchises.

Other situations of losses revolved around injuries with Chris Paul or Blake.

Even in retrospect the loss in the bubble to Denver with the only team that voted not to stay in the bubble, they loss to what may actually have been a more talented team. Jokic wasnt seen as a MVP type at that time, but proved to be that postseason and has won 2 in a row. The only player who played in that series who will ever be an MVP, and the Clippers lacked proper quality size. Jamal Murray is equal to or better than Paul George. Porter and Grant were probably better than any other clippers player.

[M2J]

Last coach this city liked was Charlie Manuel and they didn’t like him until he won a title. Until then he was “Elmer Befuddled.” This city hates coaches. Yet loved Buddy Ryan for some insane reason. This city didn’t even like Andy Reid. Philly blames coaches for all their teams problems. And this city has won 2 titles in the last 40 years. So either every coach they hire sucks or perhaps it’s the players that are the problem most of the time and coaching doesn’t have the impact on games people think it does. It has an impact, but it’s not as big as people think. Especially outside of football.

While this disappointing season is not entirely Doc's fault, he does deserve a good portion of the blame namely for not playing our young pieces (aside from Maxey where his hand was forced because of the Simmons situation) enough during the regular season and not resting Harden and Embiid enough before the playoffs which I believe were major factors in their underwhelming performances (especially Harden) during the playoffs.

One could make the argument that he wasn't playing with a full deck especially after giving up depth for Harden which is fair, and on Morey but in Morey's defense, it's tough to acquire all the pieces needed for a title run at one deadline especially since Marks waited until the 11th hour to pull the trigger on the Harden trade.

The one unforgivable thing for me that Rivers did was not pulling the starters out sooner in game 6 vs the Raps which led to Embiid fracturing his orbital and may have cost us the Heat series.

This season Joe was given a chance, earlier in the year Reed was given chances to play I believe at pf where belongs. Easy to not play him with Tobias and Niang. Keep in mind the Sixers did have the one of the best backup center situations with Drummond 2 months before the playoffs, so the youth you're referring to wasn't going to play much. Then because anyone that knows basketball knows Reed wasn't good enough to play for a real contender, they tried veterans with recent history of being quality rebounders and defenders until it proved not to work.

The Sixers ended up with one of the worst benches in the NBA. It was the playoffs, but the regular season. The lead was being built back up to 29 from around the 20s after the 10 minute mark. It's not atypical for teams to play their starters until the losing team throws in the towel. Considering Philly's bench, that lead could've been down to 13 with 2 minutes if they just took Joel out, never mind the other starters with Toronto playing as hard as they can. The 4 minute mark may have been safe, they likely win regardless. However, you don't kill a coach for that in a closeout game. You kill siakam

[Jhawk03]

Last coach this city liked was Charlie Manuel and they didn’t like him until he won a title. Until then he was “Elmer Befuddled.” This city hates coaches. Yet loved Buddy Ryan for some insane reason. This city didn’t even like Andy Reid. Philly blames coaches for all their teams problems. And this city has won 2 titles in the last 40 years. So either every coach they hire sucks or perhaps it’s the players that are the problem most of the time and coaching doesn’t have the impact on games people think it does. It has an impact, but it’s not as big as people think. Especially outside of football.

While this disappointing season is not entirely Doc's fault, he does deserve a good portion of the blame namely for not playing our young pieces (aside from Maxey where his hand was forced because of the Simmons situation) enough during the regular season and not resting Harden and Embiid enough before the playoffs which I believe were major factors in their underwhelming performances (especially Harden) during the playoffs.

One could make the argument that he wasn't playing with a full deck especially after giving up depth for Harden which is fair, and on Morey but in Morey's defense, it's tough to acquire all the pieces needed for a title run at one deadline especially since Marks waited until the 11th hour to pull the trigger on the Harden trade.

The one unforgivable thing for me that Rivers did was not pulling the starters out sooner in game 6 vs the Raps which led to Embiid fracturing his orbital and may have cost us the Heat series.

This season Joe was given a chance, earlier in the year Reed was given chances to play I believe at pf where belongs. Easy to not play him with Tobias and Niang. Keep in mind the Sixers did have the one of the best backup center situations with Drummond 2 months before the playoffs, so the youth you're referring to wasn't going to play much. Then because anyone that knows basketball knows Reed wasn't good enough to play for a real contender, they tried veterans with recent history of being quality rebounders and defenders until it proved not to work.

The Sixers ended up with one of the worst benches in the NBA. It was the playoffs, but the regular season. The lead was being built back up to 29 from around the 20s after the 10 minute mark. It's not atypical for teams to play their starters until the losing team throws in the towel. Considering Philly's bench, that lead could've been down to 13 with 2 minutes if they just took Joel out, never mind the other starters with Toronto playing as hard as they can. The 4 minute mark may have been safe, they likely win regardless. However, you don't kill a coach for that in a closeout game. You kill siakam

This times 1000, and I'll never understand the idea of when to pull your starters (as if there's actually a singular way of doing it that every coach lives by.) Had it been Siakam getting injured, bad enough that it would've carried over into next season or worst case beyond, would Nurse have received the same criticism as Doc? I honestly doubt that. The bottom line is Doc kept the starters in because Nurse didn't waive the flag until ironically 2 more game minutes after Embiid took the peoples elbow, and no one said anything about Nurse keeping his starters in when the game was supposedly mathematically out of reach.

[Foshan]

Last coach this city liked was Charlie Manuel and they didn’t like him until he won a title. Until then he was “Elmer Befuddled.” This city hates coaches. Yet loved Buddy Ryan for some insane reason. This city didn’t even like Andy Reid. Philly blames coaches for all their teams problems. And this city has won 2 titles in the last 40 years. So either every coach they hire sucks or perhaps it’s the players that are the problem most of the time and coaching doesn’t have the impact on games people think it does. It has an impact, but it’s not as big as people think. Especially outside of football.

While this disappointing season is not entirely Doc's fault, he does deserve a good portion of the blame namely for not playing our young pieces (aside from Maxey where his hand was forced because of the Simmons situation) enough during the regular season and not resting Harden and Embiid enough before the playoffs which I believe were major factors in their underwhelming performances (especially Harden) during the playoffs.

One could make the argument that he wasn't playing with a full deck especially after giving up depth for Harden which is fair, and on Morey but in Morey's defense, it's tough to acquire all the pieces needed for a title run at one deadline especially since Marks waited until the 11th hour to pull the trigger on the Harden trade.

The one unforgivable thing for me that Rivers did was not pulling the starters out sooner in game 6 vs the Raps which led to Embiid fracturing his orbital and may have cost us the Heat series.

This season Joe was given a chance, earlier in the year Reed was given chances to play I believe at pf where belongs. Easy to not play him with Tobias and Niang. Keep in mind the Sixers did have the one of the best backup center situations with Drummond 2 months before the playoffs, so the youth you're referring to wasn't going to play much. Then because anyone that knows basketball knows Reed wasn't good enough to play for a real contender, they tried veterans with recent history of being quality rebounders and defenders until it proved not to work.

The Sixers ended up with one of the worst benches in the NBA. It was the playoffs, but the regular season. The lead was being built back up to 29 from around the 20s after the 10 minute mark. It's not atypical for teams to play their starters until the losing team throws in the towel. Considering Philly's bench, that lead could've been down to 13 with 2 minutes if they just took Joel out, never mind the other starters with Toronto playing as hard as they can. The 4 minute mark may have been safe, they likely win regardless. However, you don't kill a coach for that in a closeout game. You kill siakam

I got to take issue with the bolded. Agreeing with the first. No one believes a guy like Niang can carry your bench in the playoffs. We know Green got hurt last year, love him, but dudes old. We remember Drummond with Rose color glasses, compared to DJ...

All i'm saying is, Doc's thing is not playing young guys. He got forced because Maxey, who got no burn all last season showed up in the post season when others didn't, and it's all 'what could have been.' This year, we all see Joel busting his ass playing so much... especially after the trade, everyone realizes we are going to need post help come playoffs. And Reed & bassey are ignored. While I don't think Joe is a difference maker per say... he has the tools to be a solid wing defender, which we could have really used in the post season, and he's not an offensive zero.

That none of those guys got any significant time to play through mistakes is on the coach imo.

I'm hopeful, if Embiid isn't insistent on winning the mvp next year, he can take a more rested approach to the regular season to be rounding into top form come playoff time.

[Embiid P]

While this disappointing season is not entirely Doc's fault, he does deserve a good portion of the blame namely for not playing our young pieces (aside from Maxey where his hand was forced because of the Simmons situation) enough during the regular season and not resting Harden and Embiid enough before the playoffs which I believe were major factors in their underwhelming performances (especially Harden) during the playoffs.

One could make the argument that he wasn't playing with a full deck especially after giving up depth for Harden which is fair, and on Morey but in Morey's defense, it's tough to acquire all the pieces needed for a title run at one deadline especially since Marks waited until the 11th hour to pull the trigger on the Harden trade.

The one unforgivable thing for me that Rivers did was not pulling the starters out sooner in game 6 vs the Raps which led to Embiid fracturing his orbital and may have cost us the Heat series.

This season Joe was given a chance, earlier in the year Reed was given chances to play I believe at pf where belongs. Easy to not play him with Tobias and Niang. Keep in mind the Sixers did have the one of the best backup center situations with Drummond 2 months before the playoffs, so the youth you're referring to wasn't going to play much. Then because anyone that knows basketball knows Reed wasn't good enough to play for a real contender, they tried veterans with recent history of being quality rebounders and defenders until it proved not to work.

The Sixers ended up with one of the worst benches in the NBA. It was the playoffs, but the regular season. The lead was being built back up to 29 from around the 20s after the 10 minute mark. It's not atypical for teams to play their starters until the losing team throws in the towel. Considering Philly's bench, that lead could've been down to 13 with 2 minutes if they just took Joel out, never mind the other starters with Toronto playing as hard as they can. The 4 minute mark may have been safe, they likely win regardless. However, you don't kill a coach for that in a closeout game. You kill siakam

This times 1000, and I'll never understand the idea of when to pull your starters (as if there's actually a singular way of doing it that every coach lives by.) Had it been Siakam getting injured, bad enough that it would've carried over into next season or worst case beyond, would Nurse have received the same criticism as Doc? I honestly doubt that. The bottom line is Doc kept the starters in because Nurse didn't waive the flag until ironically 2 more game minutes after Embiid took the peoples elbow, and no one said anything about Nurse keeping his starters in when the game was supposedly mathematically out of reach.

All they would have had to do up nearly 30 with 4 minutes left is hold onto the ball and milk the shot clock on each remaining possession. If God forbid the lead shrunk to 15-20 with 2:30 minutes left or so (still not enough for the Raps to overcome IMO), then he could have put the starters back in.

Point is, sometimes it's better to be proactive as a coach than reactive.

[ankle420breaker]

Miami pulling away from us every 3rd quarter validates the universal lack of confidence in Doc's ability to execute in-game adjustments. We looked like a rutterless ship on both ends of the court.... no disguising that reality.

For whatever reason, Doc also totally abandoned the Harden/Embiid pick & roll, which appeared to give teams fits during the regular season.

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