The future of Doc Rivers as the coach of the Boston Celtics has been a hot topic in Boston. There has been speculation that Rivers could step down, opting instead to spend more time with his wife and four children. In fact, just Tuesday night, Sean Grande, the radio voice of the Celtics, said that he believes Doc will step down.
The question then becomes who would replace Doc Rivers? Jeff Clark of CelticsBlog is asking that same question, and offering his take on the names already floated out there by Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated.
McHale wouldn't be terrible in the short term, but I don't see him as much of a long term solution. Don't even talk to me about Vinny Del Negro. I'm not a big fan of Sam Mitchell either. If, like Mannix says, both of them have a way of grating on players, how do they expect to coach Rajon Rondo who has butted heads with every coach that's ever coached him (at least at first)? Bad idea.
Chris also mentioned Jeff Van Gundy (if he can be lured out of the broadcast booth), whom I like a lot. Another name to consider for a short term fix is Armond Hill. If the NBA is going to be locked out next year and we've got just one year of the core left, you could do worse than to promote Armond and hope for the best. Then again, you could do better too.
If Rivers does step down there certainly will be many names to discuss. Check out the full take at CelticsBlog.