Over at SB Nation, Mike Prada has ranked all 30 NBA head coaches, from the Atlanta Hawks' Larry Drew -- "Skeptics will look at Drew's small salary compared to his peers and assume he was brought in simply because he came cheap" -- to the Los Angeles Lakers' Phil Jackson.
↵The Celtics' Doc Rivers earned himself a ranking of No. 7:
↵↵↵Last year may have been his best year yet. He took a lot of criticism for taking it easy on the players during the season, but that approach kept the team fresh and fueled their deep playoff run. Rivers' strength is as a motivator, and he's smart enough to cede tactical responsibility to his assistants. It'll be interesting to see how he responds to not having defensive ace Tom Thibodeau at his side quarterbacking the defense this season.
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Rivers is behind Nate McMillan of the Portland Trail Blazers (No. 6), the Houston Rockets' Rick Adelman, Jerry Sloan of the Utah Jazz, the Magic's Stan Van Gundy and Greg Popovich, the Spurs' head coach, who came in at No. 2.
↵Of the top-ten, only three coaches have won NBA championships: Jackson, Popovich and Rivers.