When 63-year-old Doc Rivers inevitably hangs up his coaching suit at the end of his illustrious career he will have a complicated legacy. The former player and father of two NBA players were ranked in 2022 as a top 15 coach of all time due to the reputation he gained as a result of the Celtics 2008 season when the club captured the title of NBA champions and ended the longest championship drought in Celtics history. 

However, ever since that historic season in which he coached three hall-of-fame players his coaching resume looks much less impressive. Despite coaching some of the biggest stars in the league (Chris Paul, Kawhi Leonard, and Joel Embiid, to name a few), he has failed to even make it out of the second round of the playoffs. This fact is made worse by the fact that Rivers has blown a record three 3-1 leads and owns a 0-5 record in-game 7s since 2015. To add to the tarnishment of his legacy, Rivers has also refused to take responsibility for these embarrassing losses, often blaming everything from 76ers star point guard Ben Simmons to lowly Bucks equipment managers. 

The past two seasons haven’t been kind to the Hall of Fame coach either, with him taking over from rookie coach Adrian Griffin just 43 games into last season. This was a complete shock to the NBA world, as at the time the team sat comfortably in first place, with an excellent record at 30-13 at the time of the replacement. Almost immediately after his hiring, the Bucks under Rivers took a turn for the worse, as they proceeded to go 18-21 in their final 39 games of the regular season. The Bucks reasoning behind the move was due to their lackluster defense to begin the year, as they held a defensive rating of 116.8, ranked 21st in the NBA at the time of Griffin’s firing compared to a defensive rating of 111.9, ranked 4th in the NBA the previous season. However, this dramatic dropoff in defense was likely due to personnel changes from the offseason, as the Bucks brought in superstar Damian Lillard, a defensive liability, to replace 6x all-defense guard Jrue Holiday. The Bucks (although injury-riddled) lost in the first round to the Indiana Pacers. 

The Bucks preceded to ignore their struggles under Rivers and brought him back for this NBA season as head coach, with the team even hiring his son to coach and reportedly asking for his input on offseason moves, which is power typically reserved for the GM of a team. To begin the season the Bucks have been even worse than last season, holding a 5-9 record against an easy schedule that included 7 teams under .500. This is an unacceptable record for a team with championship aspirations and a loaded roster featuring both Damian Lillard and Giannis Antetokoumpo. This appears to have gotten through to the typically excuse-ridden coach, as he stated after the atrocious start to the season that “everything is on me until we until we get it right.”