As you might've guessed, Philadelphians aren't exactly taking the 76ers‘ humiliating Game 7 no-show against the Celtics in stride. The sky is falling; these are the end times. The months-long chatter that James Harden wants to return to the Houston Rockets this summer feels more legitimate than ever; for the first time, there's real doubt that Joel Embiid, the reigning MVP, can pilot a championship-level team. Even if all the doomerism is a bit fatalistic, it's clear that the 76ers need to make some major changes this offseason—it's hard to imagine the 76ers running back this same outfit after getting blasted 112-88 in the franchise's most important game in decades. As such, 76ers' coach Doc Rivers seems like the likely scapegoat, with off-shore sportsbook BetAG offering -400 odds that he'll be fired before next season.
Although Rivers has now overseen two massive meltdowns in the playoffs with the 76ers and has yet to even make the Eastern Conference Finals, he's statistically been one of the most successful coaches in franchise history. In his three seasons in Philadelphia, Rivers has amassed a 63.6 percent winning percentage in the regular season and won 57.6 percent of his postseason games, both of which are the second best of any 76ers' coach all-time. Under Rivers, Embiid took the major leap to become one of the absolute best players in the league, but Rivers and the 76ers' braintrust never found the right alchemy of role players to win in the postseason.
If Doc Rivers is axed by the 76ers, he'll be yet another victim to this offseason's highly active coaching carousel; already, high profile coaches like Nick Nurse (Toronto Raptors), Mike Budenholzer (Milwaukee Bucks) and Monty Williams (Phoenix Suns) have been canned.
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