Philadelphia 76ers coach Doc Rivers believes it can be the year for the Sixers to win the NBA Championship. However, the Sixers are yet to make it past the second round of the playoffs since 2001. So it will be interesting to see how that turns out but Rivers recently made an appearance on “NBA Today” where he opened up on a lot of things.
He was asked if the Sixers are similar to his former teams, Boston Celtics or the Los Angeles Clippers. This was because his former teams were poles apart in terms of achievements. While the Celtics won the 2008 NBA Championship under his tutelage, the Clippers never made it past the second round of the playoffs. Hence Rivers feels that the current Sixers team is more like Celtics and not like Clippers. He explained that his Clippers team never had the chemistry to go all the way.
“I would say definitely more leaning towards Boston than the Clippers,” Rivers replied.
“Not trying to take anything away from that (Clippers) team. We just didn’t get along well enough as a group, and you can’t win without cooperation. That’s the only way you can win, and obviously better play.”
He shared that his current Sixers team is way deeper like the Celtics and the players get along nicely. “This team is deeper, this team reminds me a lot of Boston. We’ve added some late pieces to our team like the Boston team. We get along,” he added.
Rivers has been a great coach over the years and during his time at the Los Angeles Clippers, he managed multiple big names in the sport. This includes the trio of Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan. He also coached the current duo of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. Despite having solid teams, he could only manage a 27-32 playoffs record with the Clippers.
With the Celtics, things were different as he had a decent 59-47 playoffs record and won the title in 2008 with the big three of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen. They won the title the same year in which they all came together.
Coming to the Sixers, Rivers feels that for teams to win the title the time must be right and he is hopeful that this is the time for his team. “For teams to win, it has to be the right time for all the players and everybody to wanna give up themselves and give themselves to the team. So it may be the right time for this group.”
The Sixers are led by Joel Embiid, who has had an MVP-level season again and he is well supported by their star point guard James Harden. They also have an exceptional supporting cast to win the Championship. They are entering the playoffs as the third seed in the Eastern Conference and they will face the Brooklyn Nets in the first round of the playoffs.
