Doc Rivers floated as potential Joe Mazzulla replacement

As expected reports are that the Celtics plan to retain Joe Mazzulla who still has a guaranteed $14 million left on his contract extension he signed during this past All-Star break. The Boston Globe's Gary Washburn though brings up one caveat with former Celtics Life writer Warren Shaw on the latter's show. Washburn says that if Doc Rivers successfully pitched to Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck that he'd be the right guy to take this Celtics group to the next level, that he'd be the one guy that could potentially cause the Celtics to let go of Mazzulla. Rivers is the lone Celtics coach to win a title for Boston in the past thirty-seven years. While in Boston he developed young players like Rajon Rondo, Al Jefferson, and Kendrick Perkins, and of course won a championship with the Ubuntu 2008 squad.

Since then Doc has failed to win in Los Angeles and Philadelphia, but its debatable if that's more his fault or more on the star players of those teams. No other coach has won with those Clippers or Philly cores either. Joel Embiid had his best seasons in the NBA under Rivers, so one could see Doc being able to pitch that Tatum could also become an MVP under him, but the Celtics recently eliminated Doc, Embiid, and the 76ers which complicates matters.

Many Celtics fans hold resentment to Doc for saying he was cool with sticking around for a rebuild, but then leaving for Los Angeles, but that allowed Boston to snag Brad Stevens and the Clippers also compensated the Celtics with a 1st round pick, so I don't understant that vitriol. Again, Doc is the only Celtics coach to bring home a title in the past 37 years so he will always be A ok in my book.

I put the odds of this happening at quite slim though. Especially this offseason. Now if Mazzulla struggles in season 2 and Doc is still available down the road, then I think it becomes potentially more plausible.

How would you feel about Rivers returning to Boston?

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