The Milwaukee Bucks have fired head coach Adrian Griffin after just 43 games. According to multiple reports, Doc Rivers is in the lead to replace him.
Karalis’ analysis
What a 24 hours in the NBA. How is Joel Embiid’s 70 points suddenly like the fourth-biggest story?
I’m personally surprised by the move just because the team was still winning through their struggles. They are 30-13, second in the East, and new coaches, especially ones in Griffin’s situation, aren’t there without the blessing of the team’s stars. Giannis Antetokounmpo had to be on board with the hire, so it’s a bit shocking to me that the confidence eroded so quickly.
However, there were red flags. First, top assistant Terry Stotts, who coached Damian Lillard in Portland, left the team just before the regular season. That felt like a big deal at the time considering he was the veteran voice on the bench and he had a rapport with Lillard. Losing that meant losing a key buffer as both Griffin and Lillard learned new jobs and new roles together on the fly.
Second, there was this situation in Boston back around Thanksgiving:
Giannis did not want to come out of the game, waving off Adrian Griffin trying to bring in Bobby Portis. Griffin had to push Portis onto the floor and he and Giannis had an exchange on the sidelines. Giannis stayed at the scorer's table and quickly subbed back in for Lopez
— John Karalis 🇬🇷🇺🇦 (@John_Karalis) November 23, 2023
That's something rarely seen on the sidelines; looking back on it, it shows early fissures in their relationship.
According to The Athletic, it was shortly after that, during the In-Season Tournament, that the Bucks reached out to Rivers to take on an advisory role and help give Griffin some guidance.
To me, that's the same as being called into Human Resources to be given a formal written warning for something. It’s the beginning of a process that will result in you being booted unless there's a drastic turnaround.
There wasn’t.
After a loss to Houston, Antetokounmpo went off on a rant that included everyone in the organization.
“We have to be better. We have to play better, we have to defend better, we have to trust one another better, we have to be coached better,” Antetokounmpo said. “Every single thing, everybody has to be better. It starts from the equipment manager — he has to wash our clothes better. The bench has to be better, the leaders of the team have to be more vocal, we have to make more shots, we have to defend better, we have to have a better strategy, we have to be better. We have four months to get better, so we’ll see.”
The Bucks have the league’s second-best offense at the moment, but the ninth-worst defense. After an 11-5 November and an 11-2 December, they are 6-5 in January and those rankings haven't changed much over time. The defense has gone from 17th in November, to 13th in December, to 27th in January. The bigger issue is that January’s schedule has included Detroit twice, the Warriors, Utah, Houston, and San Antonio. It also includes that drubbing of Boston, which should have skewed the numbers a bit more in their favor.
So now the Bucks are planning on turning to Rivers, which brings in the experience they are craving, but also questions as to why they couldn't have just kept Mike Budenholzer in the first place. The obvious answer feels like the relationship between Bud and Giannis was just coming to a natural end. If that's the case, then I wonder if either side (or both) will feel some kind of regret over this.
Rivers will bring some stability to the team, and enough cachet in the league to calm things down. If they wanted some aloe to help cool this burn, Rivers can get the job done. But will that truly heal what’s bothering the Bucks?
It’s hard to put in anything extensively different in short order. Rivers can lean on the expertise of Lillard and Antetokounmpo to help the Bucks get through the change, but can he get Lillard or Malik Beasley to guard anyone? Is there anything a head coach can do to change the roster construction that prioritized offense over defense?
It’ll take some tricks, but all Rivers has to do is get the defense to be decent and the rest can take care of itself on the other end. The offense can carry the day and help fuel some better defense by scoring and getting set.
Obviously, from the Celtics side of things, everyone is rooting for it not to work. If Milwaukee remains a mess all season long, then the story of their season is the regret of giving up Jrue Holiday and a formula that won them a championship. With Philadelphia playing well but still untrustworthy in the playoffs until they prove something, Boston stands to rise further into a class by themselves.
This also goes to show what actual coaching struggles look like versus whatever Joe Mazzulla detractors think is happening in Boston. Sure, people can disagree with some of his decisions, but he has the support of his players and front office. The situation in Milwaukee is what happens when a coach doesn’t.