However, the 2008 Laker's team was composed of Kobe, Gasol, Fisher, Radmanovic, Turiaf. Both Bynum and Ariza were injured and the bench had just slightly above average players like Farmar, Walton, Vujacic, etc. Aside from Kobe ball, that team does not compare to a bench of Posey, PJ Brown, Powe, House, Cassell, TA, Big Baby, and for kicks, Scalabrine, supporting a superior starting five of PP, RA, KP, KG, and Rondo. All and all, with Riley or Jackson coaching the C's, that series would have been over 4-1. KobeBall, at most, beats the Celts for one game, game 3. Afterwards, they wouldn't have made a huge run in game 4, thus, the greatest comeback would have been perhaps, a down by 10-12 contest, followed by an easy Celtics rout in Q3 and Q4.
You bring up 2 HOF caliber coaches to compare to Doc who you say is overrated. If your point is that Doc is not as good a coach as Riley or Jackson, I would agree. I've never (nor have I heard ANYONE EVER) suggest Doc is a HOF coach. Now if you were to say that Mike D'Antoni or Mike Brown would have beat the C's 4-1 that would make a better point.
Ok, in the spirit of fairness, I didn't bring up Riley/Jackson to make a direct comparison to Doc, vis-a-vis a sub-par coach like Mike Brown. I'd brought up Riley/Jackson, to highlight the fact that the 2008 title team was in fact, a highly talent squad, pretty much across the board.
Where I'd make a more one-to-one mapping is to let's say KC Jones, where in fact, KC rode on his starting five, possible the best starting 5 [next to the early 70s Knicks w/ Monroe] for most the minutes of the game, with the idea that if fatigue didn't set in, then the Celts would generally win. Well, Riley understood that principle and put in his fastest guys, in various rotations, to wear out all the Celts' legs. What happened was that Riley played chess with KC; he knew perfectly well that a strong C's starting 5 could easily beat the Lakers, if they slowed down the pace, and kept their legs fresh for the final rounds. It was a chess match which Riley knew how to play. KC, however, was always fighting father time, and as a result, has similar limitations as Doc. Today, Doc can't fall back on KC-isms because for the most part, his bench isn't Kite, Thirdkill, or Carlisle. Doc's able to take a few more risks, without falling into a huge hole. Doc's bench has a lot more room to maneuver.