New Orleans Pelicans: Examining Doc Rivers’ troubling playoff decisions

Doc Rivers is a safe choice for the New Orleans Pelicans but is he the right one?

Just days ago the Los Angeles Clippers and Doc Rivers parted ways after seven seasons together and a 356-208 record. The New Orleans Pelicans have never had a coach near Doc’s level, so it would make sense for the Pels to go after him.

If Doc Rivers was the next coach of the Pelicans, I’d be happy with that move, as he’s one of the top coaches in the NBA right now and brings a strong (if hoarse) voice with him wherever he goes and has been a winner everywhere he’s been.

Even though he’s won a title and coach of the year in the past, his most impressive feat was leading the Clippers through the Donald Sterling fiasco, a good sign that he’d have the demeanor to handle any problem that comes up.

However, if you look a little deeper at some of his coaching decisions during the playoffs recently you’ll see there are some troubling signs. I’m not the first person to bring this up, but Doc Rivers is the only head coach with multiple playoff series losses when being up 3-1 and it’s happened three times to him. Getting a team that far is admirable but it shows a lack of desire to change when something isn’t working.

In the Clippers’ loss to the Nuggets Doc was unwilling to keep Ivica Zubac in the lineup over Montrezl Harrell even though the Clippers were much better with Zubac playing against Nikola Jokic. Even though Zubac fouled out of one game during that series and had as many as four fouls one other time, he also consistently had a positive plus/minus throughout the series.

Doc choosing to have Harrell split time with Zubac at center when Harrell was simply too small to defend Jokic meant that the Clippers had to help more when Jokic had the ball or move Kawhi Leonard onto Jokic. Eventually, Rivers decided to have Leonard defend Jokic but the height advantage was too much.

There’s something to be said for sticking with your guys as Doc stuck with Harrell, who just won the sixth man of the year award, and riding them to victory. But when that’s not working you need to make a change and Doc had options. Had Doc given Zubac more time the Clippers may have held off the Nuggets comeback.

Something I noticed while looking at the Clippers stats from this season was that Zubac actually had a higher net rating (+2.4) over the course of the season than Harrell (-0.4) did. The fact that Harrell was getting nearly 10 minutes more per game than Zubac shows that even in the face of clear data, Doc might still go with the guys he trusts. His loyalty can actually be a problem when it comes to making decisions that affect the game.

Is Doc Rivers the right coach to lead the young New Orleans Pelicans?

This New Orleans Pelicans’ roster is headed by two young players who don’t fit their traditional positions based on size. Brandon Ingram might be better running the offense and Zion Williamson could be the next great small-ball center.

Ingram was named to his first All-Star team this season and Zion showed the potential to be at that level. With another season of NBA basketball, those two should make another leap.

That doesn’t even count the other All-Star on the roster in Jrue Holiday, a Swiss Army knife of a player who can do a little of everything on offense and still shut down an opponent’s best guard. With that collection of top-level talent, the Pelicans should be experimenting all season to find what lineup combination puts the team in the best position to succeed.

Would Doc be willing to experiment with young players and adjust when things don’t go right?

Another thing with Doc is that he has been hesitant to play his young players a lot of minutes except when they are clear stars or he’s forced to by injury. No coach would sit Ingram and Zion so don’t worry about them but it’s the players further down the roster that would see a minutes crunch with Doc at the helm.

The New Orleans Pelicans’ roster has young players who have been tasked with a tall order to fill; become quality rotation pieces for a playoff contender from the start. New Orleans needs to play guys like Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Jaxson Hayes while still allowing them to grow and living with the mistakes all first and second-year players make.

Particularly in my mind, Hayes will need to have a big year next season. The front office may want to see how Zion performs at the 5 but just like Golden State did with Draymond Green that lineup tweak may not be fully unleashed until the playoffs. That means the New Orleans Pelicans will need a center for the majority of the season, and depending on what happens with Derrick Favors, that could be Hayes.

I don’t think Doc Rivers would be a bad coach for New Orleans or any team really, quite the opposite. He’s been a very good coach for nearly 30 years in this league and there’s no reason to think he wouldn’t help the Pelicans. My concern is that he may not do enough to get this team to where we all want them to be: on a stage at center court holding up the Larry O’ Brien trophy with confetti falling around them.