Jim O'Brien

The success of John Carroll and the Boston Celtics has raised the question in my mind whether Jim O'Brien could have taken these same players to the brink of the playoffs like his replacement John Carroll has.

If Jim O'Brien remained as head coach I think the Celtics would have wrapped up a lottery position by now instead of fighting for the 7th or 8th playoff spot. That statement is more an indictment of his coaching philosophy than anything else. His fronting style of defense and resultant slowed down transition game had become an anchor. Teams who faced the Celtics often were able to easily exploit the fronting defense by quickly rotating the ball and taking a jumper (which put the big man who was being fronted into the natural position for the rebound) or quickly swinging the ball and then dumping the ball down to the big man who switched from one side of the baseline to the other (done quickly the player goes from having the defender in front of him to having the defender on his back just feet from the basket).

I see John Carroll having the team play aggressive defense and attacking offense and I wonder if Jim O'Brien could have gotten the players to do this. The up tempo style is exactly what Danny Ainge thought the Celtics needed and I think he was right.

O'Brien was probably the beneficiary of timing more than anything else. When Pitino left - the team was beaten down. Just having Pitino gone was a relief to the players and they responded by playing loose and winning some games. Suddenly O'Brien went from being the interim coach to being the head coach.

When O'Brien quit earlier in the year - most Boston sportswriters had nothing but good things to say about him and they all said he wouldn't be out of work for long. I question whether that's true.

First off - he quit. He couldn't (or wouldn't) do the things his new GM asked him to do - so he quit. He didn't like the personnel changes - so he quit. Second - John Carroll's success in implementing what O'Brien couldn't or wouldn't makes you question O'Brien's initial success as Boston coach as just maybe one of those things. Third - when O'Brien was head coach at Dayton - he wasn't exactly coach of the year material. He may get the job interviews but I wouldn't be surprised if he went a couple of years between jobs and then wound up as either an NBA assistant again or a college head coach at a mid-major.