Doc Rivers has been around the NBA long enough to have a pretty good grasp on what it takes to be successful. It turns out he's also pretty tuned in to what doesn't work, too.
The head coach of the Boston Celtics was interviewed for an excellent feature by ESPN's Jackie MacMullan on Monday night and, snuck into the middle of it all, was a not-so-subtle dig at Andray Blatche and the Washington Wizards.
Rivers absorbed some criticism for not giving Bradley quality minutes sooner, but the coach said even with the benefit of hindsight, he wouldn't do it differently.
"You can't hand it to them," Rivers said. "I look at the Washington [Wizards] model, where they played Andray Blatche and those guys, and what did it teach them? That they're going to play them anyway?"
It's tough to tell if the fact that Avery Bradley was brought along slowly, even spending time in the NBA Development League, is really what helped him to develop into a solid contributor with the Celtics so soon -- though it did certainly seem like Bradley played with a chip on his shoulder this year.
Either way, though: whenever one can fire random shots at Andray Blatche in a post mortem column on their season, they have to do it ... right?