Why The Doc Rivers Experiment Failed, Milwaukee!

Doc Rivers should have let the call go to voicemail.

Unfortunately for Doc, he picked up that mid-season call from the Milwaukee Bucks, bailed on a cushy broadcast gig with ESPN, went 17 and 19 in the regular season, and got the Bucks bounced in the first round by the Indiana Pacers, who blew them out in game six 120-98. 

Rivers' tenure with the Bucks, which should have never happened in the first place, should be over, but will the Bucks see it that way? 

In 1998, Mike Shanahan secured his second Super Bowl Ring in back-to-back seasons for the Denver Broncos. At the time, he was widely regarded as one of the great head coaches in the NFL. Fast forward 15 years, and Shanahan, who still wanted to be a head coach in the NFL, was sent into retirement by 32 teams unwilling to give him another chance. 

Shanahan, who finished his coaching career with a 552 winning percentage, was an innovative head coach early in his career. Still, as time passed, his innovations on the offensive side of the ball became old and outdated, and before he knew it, 15 years had passed without another Super Bowl Championship.

What happened to Shanahan is similar to what has happened to Doc Rivers in his coaching career.

Rivers, who won a championship with the Boston Celtics in 2008, is now 16 years removed from that title, and nobody is calling him a great coach. Yes, River has won 1114 games against 782 losses for a winning percentage of 588% in the regular season. If making the playoffs is your goal and you have a championship-level caliber team, then Doc is your guy.

Like Shanahan, it has been a long time since Rivers has led a team to an NBA championship, and for the Bucks to expect Rivers to come into a situation after firing head coach Adrian Griffin, who had guided the Bucks to a 30-13 start made no sense to outside observers.

Despite Griffins' record, the Bucks probably had legitimate concerns about Griffin. The Bucks organization has yet to discuss those publicly.

I understand Rivers's desire to coach in the NBA, but after 16 years of going nowhere in the playoffs, it should have been clear to the Bucks that if a championship was their goal, Doc was not the right person for the job. Good enough in the regular season but no longer skilled enough to take a team on a deep playoff run.

Rivers, who has been heavily debated in sports media for the past 24 months, seems to have also left a trail of players who like him but don’t trust him, which is probably why Rivers, like Shanahan, should walk away from the game. The Bucks apparently completely ignored the countless stories that surfaced about Rivers's past relationships with his players after he was let go by the Philadelphia 76ers.

Being a successful head coach in the NBA begins and ends with getting players to trust you. So, after all the stories came out over the summer, it would be a hard mountain for Rivers to climb to join a team, establish trust, and lead them to a championship.

Players talk to players, and after coaching in the league for such a long time, it's not surprising that negative stories would surface about Rivers. Whether or not the stories were all true isn't the point. The point is he was damaged goods without a recent track record of success in the NBA playoffs. The Bucks should have understood this and never made the call.

After finishing 17 and 19 in the regular season, the team clearly performed significantly worse under Rivers than Griffin. Both the Bucks' defense and offensive ratings dropped under his tenure which indicates players either didn't trust him or didn't trust the system he was attempting to implement.

It is time for Doc to move back to the broadcast booth, which he is very good at.

And Doc, next time an NBA team calls, don’t answer it! 

As for Milwaukee Bucks management, try listening to what former players are saying about a coach before you hire him or her.