Why 76ers’ Doc Rivers era absolutely needed to end following their latest postseason collapse

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The Doc Rivers Era in Philly has come to the place it was always headed — a painful end after a disappointing playoff run and a final conclusion so self-evident it’s painful to think of the years the Sixers squandered under his leadership.

That Rivers was never the right person for the job, and this listless, weak, humiliating end to another promising season was what the Sixers were always likely to find at the end of a Doc Rivers-coached season.

That was true the day he was hired. It’s certainly true now, in the wake of that 112-88 Game 7 thumping at the hands of the Boston Celtics Sunday. I wasn’t joking when I said, a few days ago, that the Celtics had Doc Rivers and the Sixers just where they wanted them when they were down 3-2.

Remember: The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting to get a different result. That’s why the Sixers’ decision to hire Rivers in the first place was insane, and it’s why keeping him on would have been even crazier. 

And so, on Tuesday, after three seasons, the Philadelphia 76ers fired Doc Rivers. 

The announcement technically qualifies as news, though it does not feel the least bit surprising. This experiment has been painful and, for Sixers’ fans, frustrating. The truth of the Doc Rivers Fallacy isn’t new. That this organization hired him two-and-a-half years ago before hiring his boss, Daryl Morey, the team’s president of basketball operations, which means the guy in charge of basketball operations has had to wait several seasons to have his own coach. Well, no need to wait any longer. 

And for those who may question why, get ready, the stats are stunning.

Rivers’ teams had blown multiple 3-2 series leads in his career, as they did, yet again, in his last series against the Celtics. In the entire history of the NBA there have been 13 blown 3-1 series leads, and Rivers was on the wrong sideline for three of them. That does not apply this year, of course, because Rivers’ Sixers were up 3-2, not 3-1, but we’ll get to that.

He is now 6-10 in Game 7s,…

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Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/why-76ers-doc-rivers-era-absolutely-needed-to-end-following-their-latest-postseason-collapse/

Author : Bill Reiter

Publish date : 2023-05-16 16:23:23

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