Contrary to popular opinion, Doc Rivers is not a particularly easy man to play for. He’s not one to let things slide and he can be brutally honest with his players. “It can be annoying sometimes,” Glen Davis, a frequent target of Rivers’ sometimes biting comments, said the other day. “But Doc is Doc. He does what he wants to do, but it’s for the best of the team and for myself.”

But by that same token, Rivers is an exceptionally easy man to play for and the reasons are exactly the same.

“The thing about Doc is, you know where he’s coming from,” Kevin Garnett said. “There is no gray area. It is what is. He’s going to tell you straight up. At the same time he’s not here to beat you down. Very, very confident coach. Builds a lot of confidence in his players, at the same time he can be difficult. He can be hard and if you don’t have the personality to take it… But I love him. I love him.” 

Rivers was named Eastern Conference Coach of the Month, which is one of those made-up honors that sports leagues like to roll out every so often. It’s about as meaningful as say, having the best record in the Eastern Conference on Dec. 3, which the Celtics currently own along with Orlando. Rivers was appropriately unimpressed by the honor.

“[It means] that I’m lucky,” Rivers said. “That I have great players. I have a great group, a veteran group, that don’t play for themselves. That allows us as a group, not just me, Lawrence [Frank] and everybody, to coach them and that allows us to win.”

And the Celtics have won. Over the last three-plus seasons Rivers has amassed a regular-season record of 192-72 (essentially tied with Phil Jackson’s Lakers who are 192-73 for the best mark in the league during that span) and when Rivers has had all three of his veteran stars in the starting lineup he has gone 150-50. So, yes, it’s the players, but it’s also the coach.  

“A lot of coaches probably envy Doc,” Ray Allen said. “But I don’t. Just knowing what he has to deal with. You look around, you could make Glen Davis the leading scorer. You could make anyone on this team the leading scorer. He has to mix it around. Some guys come back to the bench and they’re not happy they’re coming out of the game. At the end of the day they’re might not be any [minutes] because there’s so much talent. As a coach you’ve got to suppress the anxiousness of guys that want to play more, that want to do more. We all want to do more.”

We will never really know what would have happened if Rivers had decided to not return to the bench for the final season on his contract. Paul Pierce suggested earlier in the fall that not everyone would have wanted to come back if Rivers wasn’t there. It certainly would have made their decisions tougher.

“I told Danny [Ainge], the day you all get rid of Doc, I’ll tip my hat to the Boston area and the Boston fans,” Garnett said. 

What is not in doubt is that they don’t want to play for anyone else. They have no real interest in starting over with a new coach, a new scheme and a new way of dealing with things. All of them, and we’re talking about Pierce, Garnett and Allen, have been waiting their whole careers to be in a situation like this, and for the younger guys who don’t know anything different, they have to understand on some level that this is as good as it gets.

Look around the league. In Detroit and Sacramento there have been well-documented blow-ups between players and their coaches, and of course, in Miami where LeBron James has not exactly taken to Erik Spoelstra.

All of which inevitably leads to this: Rivers does not have a contract for next season and there have been all kinds of rumors that Pat Riley would love to have him in Miami to coach a big three for a new era. It makes sense on so many levels, but on one very important level, it does not.

Rivers may be the perfect coach for the Celtics, but just maybe the Celtics are the perfect team for Rivers to coach.

“Doc Rivers has done a great job of letting us be who we are, but at the same time controlling us,” Garnett said. “It’s not like we’re a bad group or a difficult group to begin with. We’re very much of a coachable group, and a group that loves to work.”

Therein lies the key because the Celtics are a team full of strong personalities, each determined to prepare individually the way they know best. From Allen’s pregame routine and compulsive rituals to Garnett’s don’t-get-in-my-space pregame focus, all the way to Rajon Rondo’s film obsession, they are all different in their approach, but committed to the same idea.

In other words, winning trumps all and the rest is just for show.

“Some get it right away,” Rivers said of players in general. “Everybody’s different. You grow up wanting to win a world championship. Then you grow up and you want to make the All-Star team. Then you grow up and you want to make the all-whatever team and sometimes guys get the order wrong. I always thought if you won first all this stuff would follow and I think the order is reversed for a lot of guys.”

The Celtics have everything in order and it starts with their coach.