The Official Fire Doc Rivers Thread

[mjkvol]

https://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/266949/76ers-To-Meet-With-Doc-Rivers-In-Coming-Days-As-Lakers-Continue-To-Loom

So maybe it isn't written in stone quite yet. I don't think this means anything, but that would be something if the Lakers were willing to pay to get Glenn.

[Tony Franciosa]

Lakers' 2022 first round pick for Doc? Where do I sign?

[mjkvol]

Lakers' 2022 first round pick for Doc? Where do I sign?

Great idea, but I don't believe the Lakers own their pick.

[Lou_23]

They arent going to give away 1st rounds picks to get him. It is their only goods assets to make trades, 2027 and 2029 1st picks.

[FireMorey]

Read on Twitter

[Sam Hinkie]

I think Doc is gone. If you watched the press conference you'd see Doc crying when he said he talked to Maxey at 1 in the morning. I know Doc seems like an emotional guy but I don't see him crying when talking about Maxey unless he was leaving for a different team.

[Sam Hinkie]

I think Doc is gone. If you watched the press conference you'd see Doc crying when he said he talked to Maxey at 1 in the morning. I know Doc seems like an emotional guy but I don't see him crying when talking about Maxey unless he was leaving for a different team.

[Zumramania]

Lakers would be the perfect team for Doc tho. A bunch of seasoned vets, no young players to develop, no need for much creativity, the player-coach Lebron...Sixers need a modern, creative and cerebral coach with guts like Spo and Nurse. Morey and Doc are a weird pairing anyway, two different worlds. Otherwise it's another wasted playoff run.

[elchengue20]

All the blame isnt on him, it was a tough situation with Embiid hurt and emotionnaly unstable, but also he was seriously outcoached the last 2 games of the series.

We coudnt get anything going offensively and defensively we were always a step late. Plus, the lack of energy was disgusting and the coach to me always has something to do there. Hes one of the leaders of the team. We got beat by a team starting 2 undrafted players, we werent playing a juggernaut. Coaching was a big factor in this series. Spoelstra is really a top coach, not like Doc the fraud.

I woudn't mind at all to see him gone, he's been a loser for more than a decade now. Clearly there is something wrong with him. Also we could very easily find a worse coach, so i understand they want to play it safe and keep him. And having some continuity is also positive, i guess he could be a little better next season.

[mjkvol]

Lakers would be the perfect team for Doc tho. A bunch of seasoned vets, no young players to develop, no need for much creativity, the player-coach Lebron...Sixers need a modern, creative and cerebral coach with guts like Spo and Nurse. Morey and Doc are a weird pairing anyway, two different worlds. Otherwise it's another wasted playoff run.

Agreed. I'm not one who believes that coaches should be responsible for motivating professional athletes, especially in the playoffs, but an argument can be made that the Sixers quit on him in game 6. They sure played that way.

[M2J]

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.

You have to be real with yourself. It is just a known thing that typically speaking unless is a necessity. Contending teams prefer veterans over rookie mistakes. Unless that rookie is just too good for that.

But it's also a blatant falsehood to say that rivers does not play young players.

1. Maxey played 61 games 15mpg in a 71 game season as a late first round pick on the first seed in the East. The roster had ben Simmons, Seth Curry, Danny Green, Furk, Shake, George Hill and Thybulle all with more experience... And relatively earlier in the season Maxi was tried out for a key rotation space that he failed in. He is undersized as a 2, still struggles as a point guard. Refused to shoot from 3 early, and struggle defensively and still sometimes does. But Rivers developed him and allowed him to play anyhow. He also played in every single playoff game. So please everyone stop with that narrative of Maxey only playing this year because of Ben. He may have started only because of Ben not being here but he was clearly going to play with his improvement. He was already playing before he was developed... Which is his development.

2. Matisse was a 2nd year player last season.

3. He chose Tony Bradley to start when Joel missed time. Who they should've kept... Another Morey mistake

4. Just in his last year with the Clippers.... Terrance Mann played, Zubac started I believe. Shamet did as well. Year before that...SGA


So please at least stop that narrative.

Reed sucks That's why he didn't play. Joe was given a chance and he sucked too. When you're already under talented. You can't try to develop players and cost yourself games. Kerr It's struggling to even put Kuminga on the court.

This year it was that he played the starters too much with the bad bench. Last year it was that he played the bench too much. That's all well and good. But every time each of those were brought up, it seen as what he always does as opposed to him being able to adjust to what his team is. When the proof is there that he does that.

[M2J]

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.

One can say you being proactive but trying to protect your leg with your starters knowing your bench sucks. It's all Monday morning quarterback stuff. That's definitely not fair on any human being to be blamed for someone's injury when another player was being reckless.... It's just something that pushes a narrative

[Embiid P]

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.

One can say you being proactive but trying to protect your leg with your starters knowing your bench sucks. It's all Monday morning quarterback stuff. That's definitely not fair on any human being to be blamed for someone's injury when another player was being reckless.... It's just something that pushes a narrative

I was calling for him to pull the starters in real time and sure enough...

Why take unnecessary risks when you are up by 29 with 4 minutes to play especially given Embiid's injury history?

[davesilver]

Lakers would be the perfect team for Doc tho. A bunch of seasoned vets, no young players to develop, no need for much creativity, the player-coach Lebron...Sixers need a modern, creative and cerebral coach with guts like Spo and Nurse. Morey and Doc are a weird pairing anyway, two different worlds. Otherwise it's another wasted playoff run.

Could not agree more. I wonder if we could squeeze a 2nd out of LA for Doc. Would love to see a new face as HC, although wouldn’t mind Joerger

[downtownpie]

If Rivers goes to the lakers the sixers end up with a winning season after all.

[NYSixersFan]

We need Daryl, Doc, Brand and Harden gone

[Mik317]

Doc's issues were sticking with DJ for too long and not trying out Reed or Bassey earlier. I also think going with Thybulle to start the second half of game 6 was bad. I also think the gameplan of forcing the ball to Biid when he obviously did not have it was stupid as hell too.

but honestly a lot of the issues with this season was roster construction IMO. Morey signed DJ. He made it so Thybulle (and Danny) were our only wings. His big move of Harden also did not have the results.

I think Doc should go because we need a guy who can adjust on the fly with how volatile and unlucky Embiid is and just to have something different for once...but Morey is the bigger reason for the bad than Doc IMO

[Jhawk03]

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.

One can say you being proactive but trying to protect your leg with your starters knowing your bench sucks. It's all Monday morning quarterback stuff. That's definitely not fair on any human being to be blamed for someone's injury when another player was being reckless.... It's just something that pushes a narrative

I was calling for him to pull the starters in real time and sure enough...

Why take unnecessary risks when you are up by 29 with 4 minutes to play especially given Embiid's injury history?

It's gotta go both ways, nobody was saying Nurse needs his head examined when he was pushing his starters in a game that was mathematically over. The idea of holding each possession until the shot clock expired should've been used just to make that point. But we live in a culture of narrative pushing unfortunately, so being stupid and reckless gets a pass.

[76ciology]

Month Williams a good coach? No championship. His team got a 2-0 lead and ended up playing embarrassingly bad in game 7.

[Embiid P]

Month Williams a good coach? No championship. His team got a 2-0 lead and ended up playing embarrassingly bad in game 7.

Not that it matters much, but I'd still take Monty over Doc any day.