We’re counting down the 10 most important developments of the offseason.

1. Doc Rivers takes another swing

Back in late June, the Celtics hierarchy convened for the first time in public since their wrenching defeat in Game 7 of the NBA Finals. It was draft night, a time to look ahead to the team’s future, but all anyone wanted to talk about was the present. Specifically, they wanted to talk about Doc Rivers.

He took the floor to tell the assembled season-ticket holders and sponsors that they were excited about young Avery Bradley, but left unsaid was whether he would ever coach him. “We want you to stay,” someone called out from the back and the room burst into applause.

Rivers had endured one of the strangest successful season of any coach in any sport and he had seen his stature grow proportionately with his team’s success. He had somehow taken a 50-win team that was gasping for relevancy--filled with aging broken-down vets and one precocious superstar in the making--and turned it back into a finely-tuned machine of defensive intensity and offensive execution. 

What more could he do?

If you took a straw poll that night, the general consensus was that Rivers was done. He would walk away from the last year of his contract and settle back into a less hectic life of TV commentary and time with his family.

Still, there was an opening that night. Rivers talked about Danny Ainge, and after a lifetime in basketball he knew he might never find a better working arrangement.

“You can’t get this anywhere. Danny and I have a relationship – he’s my boss, but he’s one of my best friends. When you look around the league, you don’t see that.”

No, you don’t. But would it be enough? They all wanted to know: fans, sponsors, media and most of all, players. What was Rivers going to do?

A week later we had our answer. Doc Rivers was returning to the bench for the final year of his contract to coach the Celtics.

There was no extension and no hint of what may happen later, but when the answer arrived, so did the machinations that brought almost all of the Celtics back to take one more shot at a championship.

Of all the offseason decisions, his was the most in doubt, and also the most important.

It is often said that the NBA is a player’s league and this is true, but it’s meaning has just as often been taken out of context as a catch-all for selfish players concerned only about numbers; both on the stat sheet and their paychecks.

The more apt definition of that statement is that you can’t win without good players. No amount of coaching genius would have got the Timberwolves into the playoffs last season, for example. 

Talent wins in pro sports, but within the coaching profession there are a handful of certified experts at getting their players to band together for the cause: Phil Jackson, Gregg Poppovich, Larry Brown (on his best days). And after last spring, Doc Rivers has joined their company.

Ask yourself this question: How many coaches could have shepherded a team like the Celtics through the season they had, and then get them to play at such a high level in the playoffs?

For Rivers, it has been a long, slow climb to reach this peak, but somewhere between Cleveland and Orlando the coach’s acumen came into sharper focus.

It wasn’t just that he treated his veteran players like grown men or that he came up with nifty phrases like “Ubuntu.” All one has to do is pay attention to the relationship between Rivers and Rajon Rondo to see a coach and player evolving with each other. Where once they were presented as father and son, now they are collaborators.

On gamedays he coaches with feel, but also with a plan. Most of the time it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but there is rarely the feeling that an important decision just appeared out of thin air.

Rivers is a player’s coach in that he understands their emotions, but he is also relentlessly consistent and prepared. The veterans respond to that. The younger players have come to appreciate it.

He’s not stepping back into an easy situation either. There will be numerous challenges for Rivers this season. He will be without Tom Thibodeau, whose defensive philosophy is at the core of what drives this team. He will also be working with a revamped roster that has added youth and even more personalities.

There are a lot of people in the NBA that would like the opportunity to coach this team, but there are few, if any, who can do it as well as Rivers.