Doc Rivers is the new head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks, according to NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski. Rivers was working as an ESPN analyst, and had coached the Philadelphia 76ers for three seasons before this year.
Bucks hire Doc Rivers as new head coach after firing Adrian Griffin midseason
The Milwaukee Bucks have a new head coach. It’s Doc Rivers.
Photo by Adam Pantozzi/NBAE via Getty Images
Ricky O'Donnell has covered basketball at all levels for more than a decade at SB Nation. He’s currently the Associate Director of Programming.
Rivers is taking over for Adrian Griffin, who the Bucks fired on Tuesday in a surprising decision. The Bucks are 30-13 overall at the time of the move and currently hold the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference playoff picture.
The Athletic reported that the Bucks asked Rivers to be a consultant for Griffin earlier this season. Rivers led the Boston Celtics to an NBA championship with the Boston Celtics in 2008. He has amassed a 1097-763 career record, but he’s also known for blowing big leads in the NBA Playoffs.
Griffin had reportedly “lost” the team, including the support of superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo.
The Bucks were No. 10 in net rating despite their record. That hinted at bigger problems under the hood in Milwaukee that have held the team back all season.
While Milwaukee’s record looks good, it’s been obvious since the start of the season that this team didn’t look like the juggernaut it was supposed to be after trading for Damian Lillard. Milwaukee’s defense has been disappointing — ranking No. 21 overall at the time of Griffin’s firing — with Griffin toggling between schemes and players all season in an attempt to find a solution. The Bucks’ defense is struggling at the point of attack, where former star Jrue Holiday thrived, as they try to integrate a much weaker defender in Lillard.
The Bucks have won five of their last six games at the time of the firing.
Griffin took over for Mike Budenholzer, who was fired after the Bucks lost in the first round of last season’s playoffs as the No. 1 seed. Budenholzer guided the team to the 2021 NBA championship, but his playoff decisions were often highly questionable. It was a bold move to hire a life-long assistant like Griffin to be head coach of a team with championship-or-bust aspirations, and it wasn’t working despite a winning record.
Griffin’s tenure got off to an odd start when assistant Terry Stotts — former head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers with Lillard — left the team before the season started amid turmoil with Griffin. Milwaukee started the season at 5-4 but eventually found a way to win, even if it wasn’t always convincing.
Read Brew Hoop on the problems Griffin’s Bucks were having through the first half of the year. Milwaukee was barely hanging on defensively despite having major opponent shooting luck from three-point range. The team was fouling too much, and wasn’t rebounding well enough. Milwaukee is also dead last in the league at forcing turnovers.
Rivers was fired by the Philadelphia 76ers last season after a second round playoff exit.
We’ll update this story as it develops.
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