Doc Rivers will guide Boston Celtics past Big Three era

Doc Rivers and the Boston Celtics put to rest speculation that the head coach will depart next season for retirement or another team by inking a five-year deal with Boston.

With the signing of Doc Rivers, Celtics General Manager Danny Ainge secured some stability for the storied NBA franchise well past the Big Three era. Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce are aging stars who only have one or two more legitimate shots at the NBA championship.

Change is certainly coming for the Celtics after losing to the younger up-and-coming Miami Heat in the second-round of this playoffs. Ainge wanted to make sure Doc Rivers will be there for the long-haul when the inevitable rough times of transition happens.

"I think Doc is the best coach in the league. So it's great for us," Ainge said on Friday after talking with Rivers. "There's nobody I'd rather have as my coach than Doc."

After the Celtics were eliminated by the Heat, Doc Rivers said he was "leaning heavily" toward giving it another shot. The new contract will pay him $35 million over the next five years.

Earlier in the season, Doc Rivers was contemplating about calling it quits after one year to focus on his family. But besides the obvious compensation, his decision to stay suggests that he wants another NBA championship after the first one he won with The Big Three back in 2008.

"Doc wants to be here. It's not all because he thinks that over the next five years we will have the best team in the NBA," Danny Ainge said. "He's part of this franchise. He wants to do what it takes for us to be successful."

Doc Rivers will probably run a different Celtics team next season as Ainge hinted that personnel changes are coming and that the aging stars might play secondary roles going forward.