Give House the Start

I love Doc Rivers.

Comparisons to KC Jones are simply off base. If anything, Doc is probably the Anti-KC. KC stuck with a 5 man rotation for much of his Celtics coaching career. During the 1985-86 season, KC was even reluctant to play Wedman, Walton, and Sichting significant or consistent minutes until after Christmas (see my earlier posts on this blog). Once that back-up trio earned their keep, he stuck with the same rotation from about mid-January through the last game of the Finals.

Doc?

He would never be accused of getting stuck in a rut with his rotations.

At one point in the season Tony Allen was the back-up point guard. Hell, on December 30, 2007, Tony Allen was the starting point guard at Staples. For stretches of the season Big Baby was the first big off the bench, while at other times it was Leon Powe and even Scott Pollard. Sometimes Posey was played at the four, sometimes at the three, and sometimes he was assigned to blanket the opposing team's point guard or perimeter center.

And then there's Eddie House.

All this guy did all season was his best impersonation of Vinnie "the Microwave" Johnson. Like the Microwave, Eddie isn't a pure point guard. But what he lacks in ball handling and distribution skills he makes up for with effort, energy, and the ability to heat up from all over the court the moment he enters the game.

Doc's "rotation by feel" hasn't been kind to our friend E. House during the 2008 NBA playoffs. He's had more DNP's than a player of his caliber probably deserves.

So what do you say we give him the start in game 5, and play him 30 plus minutes.

Doc does that and it says here the Cs win going away.

Give Rondo a break, give E. House his due, and maybe lay the ground work for re-signing the guy this summer.