Rivers will coach Celtics next season

[Andrew]

After speculation he might call it quits, he'll be back.

Doc Rivers will return to coach the Boston Celtics next season, a source close to him confirmed to Yahoo! Sports.

After deliberating between leaving the job and returning to spend more time with his family in Orlando, Rivers finally decided on Wednesday morning that he’ll honor the last year of his contract and return for the 2010-11 season.

The Celtics reworked the final year of Rivers’ contract with a raise from the $5.5 million he was owed, sources said, but Rivers wasn’t ready to commit to a contract extension.

I think it's a good decision for all involved, perhaps one final run before some re-tooling takes place. Funny to think he was on the brink just a few short years ago, but on the whole he's had a fine run with the Celtics.

[shadowgrin]

Since Thibs is gone, I'd like to see how the Celtics would do, assuming their core stays intact (Pierce, Ray Allen).

[Amphatoast]

i think you mean KG instead of ray allen. I think he shot himself away from another contract with the celtics. East is definitely going to be tougher for the celtics this year, but they capable of beating anyone as they showed this past season. Definitely can't write them off immediately. It all starts with good coaching which doc rivers has done a good job of.

[Sauru]

the celtics will keep allen for sure if he is willing to take a realistic contract. they keep the core and possible add 1 or 2 solid bench players through the MLE and they can make one last run at it

[Andrew]

i think you mean KG instead of ray allen.

I'm pretty sure shadowgrin did mean to refer to Ray Allen, since he and Pierce are currently free agents owing to Pierce opting out.