The Legacy of Doc Rivers is on the Line (Sort of)

 

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Some NBA fans and critics consider Doc Rivers to be a great NBA head coach. After all, he did win a championship with the Boston Celtics in 2008 with Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, and Rajon Rondo. However, not all NBA fans and critics are sold that Doc is all that great. Ever since his tenure with Celtics ended, he coached the exciting Lob City team in Los Angeles that consisted of Chris Paul, prime Blake Griffin, and Deandre Jordan. He also coached a Clippers team last season that was led by Kawhi Leonard and Paul George and was considered by many to be the favorite to win the NBA title. Unfortunately for Doc, all of these teams actually were really disappointing in the playoffs and could not even reach the Western Conference Finals, let alone win an NBA Championship. In fact, this quote from CBS NBA writer Bill Reiter does not exactly paint a beautiful picture of Doc's last several seasons: 

"There have only been 13 comebacks from a 3-1 deficit, and therefore collapses, in NBA history. Rivers has coached on the wrong end of three of them. He's coached six teams that have blown a 3-2 lead, including in the 2010 NBA Finals when his Celtics blew a 3-2 series lead to the Lakers."

Luckily for Doc, he ended up getting hired by the Philadelphia 76ers in the offseason, who were already established as a playoff team who needed to get over the hump. They were hoping bringing in Rivers would help them do so. As of right now, they are having the best season in the Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons era. They are currently sitting at the top of the Eastern Conference at 39-18, even ahead of the star-studded Nets team. On top of that, if it was not for his midseason injury, Joel Embiid would be right at the top of the MVP rankings with the season he has been having. Before his injury, he was the MVP front runner. He is still having a career year under Doc and has been truly dominant in most games.

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This would be a really good opportunity for Doc to help cement his legacy a little further. His Sixers team has been playing really, really well, and if anyone is going to stop the Nets in the East, it would probably be them. Typical of a Doc Rivers' coached team, they play really well on the defensive side of the ball, making them really tough to beat on any given night. Young star and Defensive Player of the Year candidate Ben Simmons is having the best year of his young career on the defensive end under Rivers. He has truly shown the ability to guard every position on the floor, which only adds to his stellar playmaking ability on the offensive side of things.

All in all, Doc has an opportunity to add to his case as an all time NBA coach by winning another title this year. From what I have read from other players experiences with him (especially Kevin Garnett in the new book he just put out), I still think he is a great coach no matter how many more rings he wins. NBA fans and media are so quick to judge a player or coach solely off of the number of titles they win, and that simply does not do a lot of these guys justice to just how good they really are. It is certainly an unfair judgement in some cases.

The Chris Paul Effect

 

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Most NBA fans are well aware of and in agreement that Chris Paul has always been a phenomenal point guard. You really just could not ask for much more out of a floor general: he has always shot the rock well, he has been an elite passer with excellent floor vision, he has been a very good perimeter defender, he is tough, scrappy, and has proven to be a heck of a leader. He is a lock to make the Hall of Fame when he decides to call it quits and will surely go down as one of the best point guards to play the game. However, one of his biggest knocks is his so called "lack" of success in the playoffs. He has never won an NBA championship, let alone make it to the Finals. And NBA fans judge players so harshly off of their ability to win a ring, so of course CP3 has not been an exception for anybody.

This post is certainly not going to be one where Paul is getting ripped on. Instead, it will be to talk about how spectacular of a player that he is and how much he means to whatever team he is playing on. After what CP3 did with last years' Thunder team and what he has been doing with this years' Suns team, I have gained even more respect for Paul than I already had. I have realized that he turns every team that he goes to into a competitor and a winner. In fact, if he did not get hurt in the Western Conference Semifinals a few years ago against the Warriors when he was still a Rocket, there is a pretty good chance that he would have at least played in an NBA Finals series, and possibly have a ring of his own right now. Anyways, what he was able to do with the OKC team from last year and the Suns right now is pretty outstanding.

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Last season, Paul was traded to the Thunder in a blockbuster deal involving Russell Westbrook. Pretty much everyone (especially the experts), thought the Thunder were almost guaranteed to be a lottery team. Instead, Paul guided a young team all the way to the five seed in a very tough Western Conference. Without him this year the Thunder are below .500 and towards the bottom of the league. The Suns have had a really hard time being successful at all with Devin Booker and have not made the playoffs with him yet. Obviously, they acquired Paul before the season started and what do you know, they are currently sitting at the two seed in the west. It just seems that everywhere the guy goes he turns the team into a winner and a real competitor. Not to mention, he is now 34 years old. He is doing this stuff outside of his prime years.

To sum things up, I think that CP3 is, at this point in his career, and underappreciated player who is a very valuable asset to any team he plays on. (To be honest, he is the type of guy the Timberwolves could really use in my opinion.) He is also one of those players that I really want to see win a ring. If anyone deserves it, its him. He has this Suns team looking really good right now, and who knows, maybe they will make a run this year.