Ray Allen: Tough Decisions for Doc. Good Players May Sit.
Doc Rivers: No title without true ubuntu.
A couple of tough themes are emerging from training camp. Minutes can be an explosive issue. Sticking to the game plan is critical to success. It isn’t easy to do with major talent on a team.
Doc Rivers:
We’re deep….. It’s when you start divvying out those minutes, when you start divvying out the sets, who gets the ball more, that’s when you start….your team’s tested
Ray Allen:
Sometimes you have to make a decision who not to play and it’s a good player who not might not be playing, who could (sit).
Brian Scalabrine…
The hardest thing in the NBA, by far, is to have guys do less to get more out of them. It is very, very, very difficult to do…
Dear Beantown Ballers,
Hang your personal agendas on that coat rack in the doorway and leave them there until the 2009-10 playoffs end. You can walk out as NBA Champions. If not, you can walk out as losers. Chumps. I’m not saying that. Doc is.
Ray Allen…
The toughest (thing) for a coach on a team that is so deep, I mean it’s…somewhat of a no brainer situation, ‘cause you know who your players are, what they can do, but at the same time, is like you’ve got to manage minutes. You know you have a roster where you can play everybody. Sometimes you have to make a decision who not to play and it’s a good player who not might not be playing, who could.
You can benefit from them playing but you’re winning games so …sometimes it can be difficult for a coach, you just hope to have guys that are responsible, that are mature that know they just want to win and that’s the ultimate objective.
Doc enlarged on the idea as Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald laid it out here. There might have been some personal agendas in play last season. The message boards will light up with guesses, conjectures, and finger pointing. I have my own ideas. Yesterday is done. It doesn’t matter now. Only this year matters. That they got as far as they did with the injuries they absorbed is a testament to their fight, if not their selflessness. But that was last year.
Doc….
Let’s be honest. I think we have enough talent to win a world championship. I really believe that.
And it comes down with all the teams at that level, to how well they play together. You know, if we get that right, if they’re willing, they want to get that right, we have a shot at it.And if we don’t get that right, we’ll win a lot of games, and then go home and be upset. I don’t think there’s any trick to that. The first part is the ‘want to’, and I think we have that so far. We haven’t played a game yet, so everybody ‘wants to’ in training camp.
(Not so) Hidden Clues?
Will everyone ‘want to’ by playoff time? It’s an amazing coincidence that I decided to get my writer’s ‘mind set’ on while driving up to Newport RI (2.5 hours) to watch my first practice by listening to the last interviews on my digital recorder from last season. A Brian Scalabrine soliloquy from the Orlando series hit on those very topics. It was uncanny. Really. Let’s check with Brian Scalabrine at playoff time last year….
Doc does a good job of making guys play up to their potential.
From the first meeting at shoot around from Doc (Rivers) and Tom (Thibodeau) and Armond (Hill)…
What we need to do is this, this, and that. And every time we do this, this, and that, we’re successful. When we’re not doing those things, it’s been very, very tough for us.
When we do what they want us to do we are extremely successful. We just have to stick to our game plan and take care of business.
The hardest thing in the NBA, by far, is to have guys do less to get more out of them. It is very, very, very difficult to do from the manager’s perspective – coaching or managing – it’s what those guys do best. We have guys…. everyone on this team makes sacrifices, from Paul to me or whoever, everyone makes sacrifices to the greater good or each other.
Yes, that was three ‘verys’. Not a typo. Players get paid on personal stats, not team wins. Contracts are coming up.
When did Brian say this? This season, with the talk of personal agendas, right? Wrong. It was at the end of last season.
Then it must have been after a loss, right? Wrong again. It was after the Celtics beat the Magic to go up 3-2 in the their playoff series.
How prescient was Brian? It is far more telling now. As an insider, he observed what we never guessed. There was an inkling of it, even early on, during their incredible winning streak. But it was considered simply an effort and execution issue.
That they played hard is without question. But what is emerging now, a year later, is that the degree of sacrifice to the team concept may not have been consistently at a high level. It is one of those interesting nuances of team sports and can be readily understood, even by us normal people. Anyone who has ever worked anywhere as part of a team with a common goal knows what Ray, Doc and Brian are talking about.
That it happens discreetly in front of an intently watching audience of thousands, even millions, increases the drama and subtlety of dissipation of team focus. We could see that the team played hard. But did it play together? The coaches know what we don’t. Teammates know what we don’t. Player’s families and friends might know. We can only review things in our minds that might fit that recent admission and….. guess.
It is a new year and time is ticking on the clock for a lot of very talented but aging players. According to Wyc Grousbeck, Kevin Garnett told Rasheed that this team has the potential to be one of ‘best teams in league history’, if he joined them.
Will they be willing to do ‘less to be more’ as Brian puts it? Or will they go home with a lot of wins and upset as Doc lays it on the line for them? The choice is theirs.
We in Boston are expecting a title. But there are four other highly talented teams thinking the exact same thing. Nothing less than a ‘team first’ commitment gives them the chance to get it done.
Get ready for a great 82 game show of just incredible talent and team work at its best. When this team commits to each other, it is downright scary. When it doesn’t, it will still get a lot of wins.
