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Official Fire Doc Rivers thread

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Re: Official Fire Doc Rivers thread 

Post#261 » by Quake Griffin » Wed Sep 16, 2020 2:54 pm

What's truly sad about the 2019-2020 Doc Rivers is that he got outcoached in both playoff series we played in this year.
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Re: Official Fire Doc Rivers thread 

Post#262 » by MartinToVaught » Wed Sep 16, 2020 2:59 pm

Rakkasan wrote:This should be called the "Clipper's Fan's Official ExcuseThread". Doc definitely has to answer for his decisions, but you don't get to a game seven and have a 2pt lead at halftime, choke the second half and blame the coach. With all these posts, no one wants to mention the real reason why the Clips lost, THEY CHOKED. Kawhi and Pandemic P came out and choked in the second half, most of their shot weren't even close to going in, and the rest of the team followed suit. You are not going to win a game 7 when your two max salary players make only 2 baskets combined in the second half, don't score a point in the 4th quarter, and the team misses it's first 11 shots to start the 4th quarter. There is no coaching in the world that can make your two max players not choke under pressure!

Newsflash: we're not pissed at Doc because of one game. It's been seven years of underperforming with different players and the same exact issues. This isn't even the first time we've blown a 3-1 lead with Doc as our coach!

Did Kawhi and PG play like crap in Game 7? Absolutely, and that is on them. But this series had no business going to Game 7 in the first place, and THAT is on Doc for not making a single adjustment all series. The single biggest reason we lost this series wasn't Kawhi or PG. It was Doc continuing to put Trez up against Jokic when it was beyond obvious that it was a terrible matchup for him. When you keep doing the same exact things all series even though the other team has figured it out, you're going to lose.
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Re: Official Fire Doc Rivers thread 

Post#263 » by MartinToVaught » Wed Sep 16, 2020 3:03 pm

RoyceDa59 wrote:He’s a good motivator

He's not even good at that. The only thing that got this team motivated all season was the Lakers. Outside of that? They were complacent all season.

I can't think of a single thing Doc is good at besides coming up with excuses after a loss. He's elite at that. I guess he's good at whining to the refs, too.
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Re: Official Fire Doc Rivers thread 

Post#264 » by Quake Griffin » Wed Sep 16, 2020 3:19 pm

Yeah, the good motivator thing is literally dead after this year's playoffs.

This team was literally flat in about 4 or 5 of our 13 playoff games.
And that's just measuring it by games...it would be worse if we measured it by quarters or stretches of games.
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Re: Official Fire Doc Rivers thread 

Post#265 » by Quake Griffin » Wed Sep 16, 2020 3:25 pm

Read on Twitter


:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Re: Official Fire Doc Rivers thread 

Post#266 » by madmaxmedia » Wed Sep 16, 2020 3:28 pm

RoyceDa59 wrote:If a superstar has a bad close out game that’s on him. If the entire team plays without urgency or cohesion and give up double digit leads in 3 close out comes and go on the lose the series that’s on the coach.

I am with you Clippers fans, Doc needs to go, and it needs to happen now. He’s a good motivator but he’s not nearly tactical enough to win out in a 7 game series. The NBA is all about ball movements, cuts to the basket and kick out wide open 3’s. Clips have all the talent but no chemistry whatsoever and that’s on doc.

New coach, a few player adjustments and it’s 2021 championship for the Clips. But my god Doc has to go and it can’t wait another season. The window for this team is right now, and next season youll have GSW back, improved Nuggets, Lakers, Jazz and Mavs. Not to mention Celtics Heat and Brooklyn coming out East.

As a Raps fan I know the pain your feeling underachieving year after year. No need to waste another season - Steve Balmer, fire doc now or forever hold your peace.


This is all spot on, thank you.

The crazy thing is the entire 2nd half of this game gave me the same sense of impending, inevitable oncoming doom as the 4th quarter of Game 5 in 2015.

I think ultimately this is going to come down to what Jerry West recommends to Steve. Without Jerry, Doc is still the ‘ranking’ Clipper brain in terms of experience and prior success, and I think it’s harder for Ballmer to pull the plug on Doc. But Jerry is the big dog in the Clipper room, and so I think his word will determine what happens.

I think Jerry won’t make a necessarily fast call, but it will be decisive and committed. First he’s going to review the entire season and playoffs, and previous seasons as well probably.
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Re: Official Fire Doc Rivers thread 

Post#267 » by madmaxmedia » Wed Sep 16, 2020 3:34 pm

Quake Griffin wrote:Yeah, the good motivator thing is literally dead after this year's playoffs.

This team was literally flat in about 4 or 5 of our 13 playoff games.
And that's just measuring it by games...it would be worse if we measured it by quarters or stretches of games.


I think there are also 2 different skills involved. I think motivating is getting team buy in on preparation and working hard over the course of a season, not losing focus, etc.

But great leadership is more than that, it’s rallying and inspiring and turning your team around when things are falling apart. Somehow in 2015 and 2020 our teams lost their emotional edge and confidence, and Doc/the staff/the team wasn’t able to turn it around when it was most needed.
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Re: Official Fire Doc Rivers thread 

Post#268 » by Raptaz » Wed Sep 16, 2020 3:37 pm

Overrated coach, no sword to fall on.

Up 3 to 1 shouldn't be an excuses

All I heard from this coach was excuses after losing to Dallas.
-I'm unsure what starting 5 will be,will figure it out as the series continues


- only been together 1 year
- no chemistry

He lucked out with Allen and garnett

He is the only coach to lose multiple game 7s (2006,2015,2020)

Only coach with 0-8 record in game 7s, others are at 5 losses.

Never advanced to conference finals


The team looked lost in the 4th quarter, no fight no heart .


Blame doc, fire him .
Hopefully the next coach won't be full of excuses.

Don't think the clippers will have as many weapons next year.

What a wasted opprtunity, this clippers team should have easily walked into the finals.
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Re: Official Fire Doc Rivers thread 

Post#269 » by madmaxmedia » Wed Sep 16, 2020 3:40 pm

SK21209 wrote:
madmaxmedia wrote:I've never had any horrible complaints about Doc Rivers and have generally liked him, but someone may have to fall on the sword for this debacle.

In 2015, when we lost Game 5 to Houston in that excruciating, toenail-pulling, fingernails-scratching-on-chalkboard, Chinese-water-drop-torture 4th quarter, I think most of the people on this board had a deep sinking feeling that we were going to lose the series even though we were up 3-2 (that's what I felt at least.)

This year, pretty sure we all thought we were still gonna win after Game 5. Which makes this year somehow arguably WORSE than 2015, which was probably the most depressing sports experiences I have ever had.

(Most depressing as opposed to flat out worst sports experience, which was actually the 2006/7 Charger Patriots playoff game where Marlon McCree intercepted a 4th down Tom Brady pass which would have likely secured the win, but fumbled the ball back to the Patriots, giving them a 1st down in a game they eventually won.)


That 2007 Chargers loss was just excruciating, they were absolutely the best team in the league.


Ironically that loss preceded a surprising coaching change that many/most thought was completely undeserved or at the very least premature.
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Re: Official Fire Doc Rivers thread 

Post#270 » by donemilio21 » Wed Sep 16, 2020 3:49 pm

LamarWho wrote:
Jeffroxyx wrote:
donemilio21 wrote:Does Ballmer have no balls? How is Doc not fired yet??
I said it. He should have been fired after game 5 loss to Mavs.



Ballmer knows how to run Microsoft. An NBA team is not so easy. You can't just CTRL ALT DEL the season.


No he doesn't. He was one of the worst CEO in the tech industry. He was clueless and lacked vision. But that's irrelevant now, he owns a sports team, not running a tech company.

I actually know a few people at Microsoft and that seems to be the consensus. He enjoyed being the CEO when Microsoft was nearly a monopoly in business software, but it could not catch up when aggressive competitors came to marketplace. He did not want to invest in R&D and new products, Satya Nadella changed the course of the company drastically.
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Re: Official Fire Doc Rivers thread 

Post#271 » by donemilio21 » Wed Sep 16, 2020 3:52 pm

Clippers coach Doc Rivers has the worst winning percentage in clinching opportunities in postseason history, among coaches with at least 20 games in such scenarios, according to ESPN Stats & Information.

COACH W-L PCT.
Doc Rivers 14-27 .341
Lenny Wilkens 17-20 .459
John MacLeod 10-11 .476
Red Holzman 12-13 .480
Postseason history (minimum 20 games)


No one should be thinking this guy is a competent coach.
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Re: Official Fire Doc Rivers thread 

Post#272 » by MartinToVaught » Wed Sep 16, 2020 3:57 pm

madmaxmedia wrote:
SK21209 wrote:
madmaxmedia wrote:I've never had any horrible complaints about Doc Rivers and have generally liked him, but someone may have to fall on the sword for this debacle.

In 2015, when we lost Game 5 to Houston in that excruciating, toenail-pulling, fingernails-scratching-on-chalkboard, Chinese-water-drop-torture 4th quarter, I think most of the people on this board had a deep sinking feeling that we were going to lose the series even though we were up 3-2 (that's what I felt at least.)

This year, pretty sure we all thought we were still gonna win after Game 5. Which makes this year somehow arguably WORSE than 2015, which was probably the most depressing sports experiences I have ever had.

(Most depressing as opposed to flat out worst sports experience, which was actually the 2006/7 Charger Patriots playoff game where Marlon McCree intercepted a 4th down Tom Brady pass which would have likely secured the win, but fumbled the ball back to the Patriots, giving them a 1st down in a game they eventually won.)


That 2007 Chargers loss was just excruciating, they were absolutely the best team in the league.


Ironically that loss preceded a surprising coaching change that many/most thought was completely undeserved or at the very least premature.

As a former Chargers fan, I'll say this: Marty wasn't fired because of that loss. That's actually giving the Spanos family too much credit by assuming they care about winning and losing. He was fired for trying to hire his brother when the team told him not to. Plus there was already tension from before that season because of Marty refusing to let Rivers play in meaningless games in '04 and '05 (the latter game was the one where Brees ended up getting his almost-career-ending shoulder injury).

I'm also not sold that the Chargers were really the best team that year. They had an easy schedule. The Ravens completely shut their offense down in the regular season matchup.

Marty was a lot like Doc, actually. When he had a rebuilding team and no expectations, he could win you a bunch of regular season games. But as soon as there were actual expectations, he'd deliver some of the most heartbreaking playoff meltdowns imaginable. He did the same thing in Cleveland and Kansas City. He was also stubborn to a fault like Doc.
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Re: Official Fire Doc Rivers thread 

Post#273 » by NickP » Wed Sep 16, 2020 3:58 pm

It's very obvious why Doc will not be fired. No need to get into why.
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Re: Official Fire Doc Rivers thread 

Post#274 » by Quake Griffin » Wed Sep 16, 2020 4:05 pm

NickP wrote:It's very obvious why Doc will not be fired. No need to get into why.

Nah. Get into it.
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Re: Official Fire Doc Rivers thread 

Post#275 » by MartinToVaught » Wed Sep 16, 2020 4:20 pm

NickP wrote:It's very obvious why Doc will not be fired. No need to get into why.

I don't see how they can justify bringing him back. This team is going to be the laughingstock of pro sports next season. The level of scrutiny will be intense. I could honestly see them struggling to even make the playoffs next year if big changes aren't made, as crazy as that might sound now. You can't bring everyone back after a failure like this and expect it to turn out well. The Clippers should have learned that from Lob City.
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Re: Official Fire Doc Rivers thread 

Post#276 » by Quake Griffin » Wed Sep 16, 2020 4:26 pm

Quake Griffin wrote:What's truly sad about the 2019-2020 Doc Rivers is that he got outcoached in both playoff series we played in this year.

This is the most important reason he needs to get moved.
Both of the teams we played will be better next year and over the next 5 years and they have better coaches than us.




P.S.
Is this the thread where we listed coaches better than Doc and many of them got laughed at?
I'm sure Carlisle was mentioned when we did that.
I'm sure Spo was mentioned when we did that.
I think Mike Malone was mentioned and laughed at cuz he didn't work out at in Sac and he hadn't won anything while this Denver team was developing.

All alive and at least one will make a finals.

But nonetheless, the above quote is the real reason we need to do this ASAP.
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Re: Official Fire Doc Rivers thread 

Post#277 » by madmaxmedia » Wed Sep 16, 2020 4:35 pm

MartinToVaught wrote:
madmaxmedia wrote:
SK21209 wrote:
That 2007 Chargers loss was just excruciating, they were absolutely the best team in the league.


Ironically that loss preceded a surprising coaching change that many/most thought was completely undeserved or at the very least premature.

As a former Chargers fan, I'll say this: Marty wasn't fired because of that loss. That's actually giving the Spanos family too much credit by assuming they care about winning and losing. He was fired for trying to hire his brother when the team told him not to. Plus there was already tension from before that season because of Marty refusing to let Rivers play in meaningless games in '04 and '05 (the latter game was the one where Brees ended up getting his almost-career-ending shoulder injury).

I'm also not sold that the Chargers were really the best team that year. They had an easy schedule. The Ravens completely shut their offense down in the regular season matchup.

Marty was a lot like Doc, actually. When he had a rebuilding team and no expectations, he could win you a bunch of regular season games. But as soon as there were actual expectations, he'd deliver some of the most heartbreaking playoff meltdowns imaginable. He did the same thing in Cleveland and Kansas City. He was also stubborn to a fault like Doc.


Oh yeah there was definitely a lot of backstory to it all, under normal circumstances that firing never happens. I blame AJ Smith more than anything. If we were not the best team, then even less reason to fire a head coach after a 14-2 year and close playoff loss to one of the all-time great franchises and QB's.

I also get the comparison of Marty to Doc. But the most memorable meltdowns that happened under Marty were of a different sort than the Clippers under Doc. With Marty we had 'The Fumble' which IIRC had nothing to do with a bad coaching decision. Also Marlon McCree's 4th down interception and fumble was also just a horrible mistake at the worst time by a player. You can factor in coaching into those but indirectly.

With the Clipper meltdowns in 2015 and now 2020, neither came down to 1 play or 1 single mistake. The entire team basically fell apart and Doc was not able to rally the team and turn it around. In 2020 he had an entire halftime to do it, and we still failed in the same way- the team just lost it.
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Re: Official Fire Doc Rivers thread 

Post#278 » by madmaxmedia » Wed Sep 16, 2020 4:38 pm

Quake Griffin wrote:Is this the thread where we listed coaches better than Doc and many of them got laughed at?
I'm sure Carlisle was mentioned when we did that.
I'm sure Spo was mentioned when we did that.
I think Mike Malone was mentioned and laughed at cuz he didn't work out at in Sac and he hadn't won anything while this Denver team was developing.

All alive and at least one will make a finals.

But nonetheless, the above quote is the real reason we need to do this ASAP.


I remember the Mike Malone firing had many scratching their heads, including Kings fans. I'm happy for him that he got another chance and has made the most of it.
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Re: Official Fire Doc Rivers thread 

Post#279 » by MartinToVaught » Wed Sep 16, 2020 4:42 pm

madmaxmedia wrote:Oh yeah there was definitely a lot of backstory to it all, under normal circumstances that firing never happens. I blame AJ Smith more than anything. If we were not the best team, then even less reason to fire a head coach after a 14-2 year and close playoff loss to one of the all-time great franchises and QB's.

I also get the comparison of Marty to Doc. But the most memorable meltdowns that happened under Marty were of a different sort than the Clippers under Doc. With Marty we had 'The Fumble' which IIRC had nothing to do with a bad coaching decision. Also Marlon McCree's 4th down interception and fumble was also just a horrible mistake at the worst time by a player. You can factor in coaching into those but indirectly.

With the Clipper meltdowns in 2015 and now 2020, neither came down to 1 play or 1 single mistake. The entire team basically fell apart and Doc was not able to rally the team and turn it around. In 2020 he had an entire halftime to do it, and we still failed in the same way- the team just lost it.

The Patriots meltdown wasn't just one play either. Remember Eric Parker's muffed punt? The stupid penalties by Florence and Olivea? Marty randomly going for it on 4th and 11? Honestly, that team was shook from the opening kickoff. Marty's teams always were when it mattered.

I think Marty and AJ get equal blame. AJ was an egomaniac, but on the other hand, it's not a good look for Marty that Norv Turner (another bad coach) had more playoff success than he did with the same team.
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Re: Official Fire Doc Rivers thread 

Post#280 » by madmaxmedia » Wed Sep 16, 2020 4:43 pm

donemilio21 wrote:
LamarWho wrote:
Jeffroxyx wrote:

Ballmer knows how to run Microsoft. An NBA team is not so easy. You can't just CTRL ALT DEL the season.


No he doesn't. He was one of the worst CEO in the tech industry. He was clueless and lacked vision. But that's irrelevant now, he owns a sports team, not running a tech company.

I actually know a few people at Microsoft and that seems to be the consensus. He enjoyed being the CEO when Microsoft was nearly a monopoly in business software, but it could not catch up when aggressive competitors came to marketplace. He did not want to invest in R&D and new products, Satya Nadella changed the course of the company drastically.


I was always more of an Apple guy, so never had a super-favorable impression of Ballmer, but I respected him. He has a definite skillset, was a great sales exec, but he's not a visionary in any way.

All that being said, it doesn't matter too much in the current context and I can only compliment him for everything thus far in his Clipper ownership. He has the money, is a passionate basketball fan, and is smart enough not to try to lead the decision-making. It's very fortunate though in this case we have Jerry West as advisor/part-time GM, because Baller has him to lean on for this decision. Otherwise Doc is the most senior basketball guy in the org and it's harder for a non-basketball owner to make the call to replace that senior guy.

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