Doc Rivers is behind everything the Orlando Magic do. He is also behind the heat right now. He made a couple of controversial decisions in the 1st round series against the Detroit Pistons. He played PF Pat Garrity, when he was injured. Garrity isn't a very good defender or rebounder period, but his shot was off, so Garrity really wasn't effective at all. Another decision was to not play Steven Hunter that much. Hunter impressed everyone at the end of the season with some fine performances. Everyone was expecting Hunter to start so that he could get experience, but Doc started Andrew Declerq instead. Another decision that turned against the Magic was when Pistons PG Chauncey Billups was lighting the Magic up with 3 pointers, Doc should have put the taller and better defender Jeryl Sasser to cool him down a little, but instead Doc put Tmac on him and that wore Tmac down for the last couple of games in the series and Tmac couldn't be as dominating as he was in the early games of the series. In the playoffs, he got a lot of heat not being able to get out of the 1st round with a 3-1 lead against the Detroit Pistons. Doc didn't make the Magic practice as hard as he could, because he assumed, like the rest of the world, that the Magic will get out of the 1st round. The owner of the team said that if they don't make it past the 1st round this year than either Doc and/or General Manager John Gabriel will get fired. So plenty of pressure is on Doc now that Gabriel has done his part in getting key players this offseason for the Magic's run this year. He got another scorer that will help lessen the load on Tmac in Juwan Howard. He also got good PG help with the additions of rookie Reece Gaines and a couple year player Tyronn Lue. The only major loss is team leader Darell Armstrong, who was a fan favorite and a good citizen that helped keep the clubhouse in good shape. This year is Doc's year to shine. He is a former Coach of the Year award winner and I think that he is one of the best coaches because he relates so well with his players, so it would be a shame if we fire him, but if the Magic struggle then he is gone. Do or Die.
did i say he could stop chauncey? all i said was that he could cool him down a little and rest tmac on the defensive end so that he could focus more on the offensive end.
Sasser is a scrub..and no scrub could stop or contain a player like billups when he is shooting the ball great..i don't think many players could.
sasser is an above average defender, he would play if he could shoot the ball, he couldn't shoot a beachball into the ocean. he is more than a scrub defensively, but offensively he sucks so bad.
but i do think doc made some mistakes , he should have played steven more, and give giricek the ball more.
i don't agree with the giricek thing. giricek just dissapeared, he couldn't buy a bucket. he got plenty of shots, but he would miss every one of them.
Gordie struggled in games 1, 2 , and half of game 3. He has some game, but Pat was just hurting , and it was obvious he didnt have his lift in his shots. I hope Doc plays Reece a lot and makes Hunter a big part of the team maybe the 6th or 7th man
