Very surprised they sacked him to be honest IMO. It wasn't a mutual decision he still had 2 years left on his contract and given a part of the reason why Kawhi signed with them was to play for Doc it means he must've signed off on this too.

Pacers

Doc's always been a bit of a hack, more in the role of motivator rather than tactician. He's never been able to make an adjustment over a playoff series, if memory serves has the worst game 7 record in NBA history. If not for him being gifted the '08 Celtics I don't think he'd still be talked about as a potential head coach considering how much his teams underachieve. Just look at what Stevens has done in Boston with a younger and less (individually) talented team. Hopefully Clippers find someone good, cause they have the chance to be great.

Rivers has been unlucky with injuries

Won 2008. 2009 Garnett was injured. 2020 Kendrick Perkins missed game 7, the Lakers dominated the Celtics on the rebounds and won by 4. If Perkins had played, Celtics win that series. If Garnett hadn't missed 2009 and Perkins plays Game 7 2010, Celtics could've been a 3 peat team.

In LA, how many years were either Paul or Griffin injured during the playoffs? I'll have to check, but from memory there was 2 or 3 different seasons where one of them was missing crucial playoff games?

Popovich obviously on a different level, and I'm a Spurs fan who thinks he's the greatest coach ever or very close to. But as a comparison, how many major injuries did Duncan, Parker and Ginobili have between them, over a 15 year period?

None.

I approve.

A brief look at the highlights and lowlights of Doc Rivers coaching career

Someone else look at his time with the Magic- this is Celtics and Clippers.....

2008- Celtics win the title, taking game 6 in a 39 point landslide over LA.

2009 - Garnett injured. Misses entire playoffs. Lose 4-3 in conference semis to eventual runners up Orlando. Facing a prime Dwight Howard with a frontcourt of Kendrick Perkins, Glen Davis and Brian Scalabrine.

2010- Finals tied 3-3 after Lakers take game 6. Kendrick Perkins goes down. In a scrappy, low scoring game 7- which would've been perfect for a bruiser like Perkins- the Lakers physically manhandle the Celtics, dominating them on the glass and winning by 4 points in a tight encounter. With Perkins, Celtics probably win the championship.

2012 – Rivers coaches an aging Celtics team to the conference finals vs Miami with prime Wade and Lebron. Miami takes a 2-0 lead but then Boston wins game 3, 4 and 5, before Miami gets the series 4-3. Not a bad effort considering Garnett and Allen were both 36 and Pierce was 34. Miami ended up winning the Finals 4-1 over Oklahoma and only lost 4 games in that entire playoffs to any team other than Boston.

2015- The Clippers won the first round after an incredible game 7 win over the Spurs, where Paul played with an injured hammy down the stretch before banking the game winner over Tim Duncan (still hurts me, this one…). That was a huge win for the Clippers, since it was probably the greatest first round matchup in NBA history. In a deep Western conference, the reigning champion Spurs dropped from 3rd seed to 6th after losing to New Orleans on the last day of the season. The seeding rules meant the 6th seeded Spurs (55-27) finished lower than 4th seed Portland (51-31), who won their weak division and lost 4-1 to 5th seed Memphis (also 55-27). So you had the Clippers (56-26) facing the Spurs in round 1 in an epic series where games 5, 6 and 7 were all tight games from start to finish, culminating in Paul’s game 7 heroics.

In round 2, Paul missed the first 2 games with his hammy injury – which split 1-1- then returned for game 3. Clippers dominated games 3 and 4, taking a 3-1 lead. Game 5 Houston turned the tables, dominating with a blowout win for themselves. Game 6 though, is probably the game that would haunt Doc Rivers more than any other in his career (and Chris Paul too, except perhaps 2018 when the Rockets lost to Warriors in Game 7, except Paul can’t blame himself there as he wasn’t playing). LA were leading 89-70 late in the 3rd quarter and somehow ended up losing 119-107. Rockets comfortably took game 7 and the series. Probably one year where you could reasonably ask what the hell happened. Losing a 3-1 lead, and a 19 point lead late in a close out game- the stuff of nightmares.

2016- 4th seeded Clippers give up a 2-0 lead in the first round, losing 4 straight and going down 4-2 to Portland. Paul and Griffin both missed games 5 and 6, where the Clippers lost by 10 and 3 despite missing their two stars.

2017- 4th seeded Clippers lead Utah 2-1 in the first round. Griffin gets injured, missing the final 4 games and Clippers lose 4-3.

2020 will go down as Doc’s most disappointing year given widespread expectations around Kawhi and George. But given the strength of this Denver team and how they’ve carried themselves in the playoffs over the last 2 years, it’s hardly an embarrassment. Lakers were my pick this year from Day 1 anyway- that Clipper roster is missing some size and rim protection. So they finished 1 round earlier than I expected.

So Doc coached in 2009, 2016 and 2017 with stars missing crucial playoff games (2015 too if you count Paul missing the first two games of the conference semis, and must’ve been underdone for the remainder). With the Celtics he won a title in 2008, made the finals in 2010 and then pushed Miami to 7 games in the conference finals with Dad’s army.

I was recently reading Bill Simmons' Book of Basketball, he says most coaches are pretty useless, and they just need to get out of the players way, or not do anything that causes the team to lose. You have certain leaders of men- Jackson, Pop, Riley etc- and most other coaches are just mediocre, you could have one or the other and it woudn't make much difference.

Not sure if I fully agree. But I will say, luck comes into it. Garnett, Paul, Griffin, all missing crucial playoff games. How many injuries did Phil Jackson's Bulls or Lakers have over the 90's and 00's? How many injuries did Pop's Spurs have? Very few in both cases.

How would Doc's teams have gone, if he'd had the same luck with injuries in Boston and LA?

We'll never know.

For mine, I'm happy enough Doc is going to Philly. He's a veteran coach, a respected leader and hopefully can take them to the promised land.

The tale of Kendrick Perkins and championship aspirations:

2009: Boston only had Perkins to guard Dwight Howard, and thus lost.

2010: If Boston had Perkins in game 7, they would have won.

2011: Boston trade Perkins 12 games into backing from injury, preferring to go with Jeff Green and Nenad Krstic.

2012: Thunder may have had a chance if Scot Brooks just didn't play Perkins (this was the theme for the remainder of Perk's career, especially once Adams arrived).

Obviously you can't blame injuries on a coach (unless a coach is running his players into the ground, but usually it's just dumb luck). But Rivers does have the worst Game 7 record of all-time, and the only coach at the helm of three series loses after leading 3-1. He has always been a poor tactician in the playoffs. Once an opponents figures his scheme for the series, Rivers' teams routinely buckled and flamed out. Even the '08 Celtics (with their full list) were taken to 7 in the first round by a 37-win Hawks team. I'm not saying he's the worst coach, because he has had some success, but he is definitely not in the top echelon of NBA coaches in my opinion. At least in Philly there will be potential to rest their shortcomings on injuries come playoff time.

I have to admit that Atlanta series in 08 is damming

And, adds weight to the argument Doc can't coach close games- Boston won 4 blow-outs, but Atlanta's won 3 by single digits, including 2 where Boston had the 3 qtr time lead