Last week, the Milwaukee Bucks made the surprising announcement that they were parting ways with rookie head coach Adrian Griffin and replacing him with veteran Doc Rivers. The team had the second-best record in the league with 30-13 when they shockingly decided to fire Griffin. On The Old Man and the Three podcast, host JJ Redick revealed that the rookie head coach was the third-winningest in NBA history to get fired midway through a season. The NBA star turned analyst subsequently dived deeper into the situation, foreshadowing a potential title run for the Bucks.
Advertisement
During the 1979-80 NBA season, the Los Angeles Lakers parted ways with head coach Jack McKinney 14 games into the season after he suffered a near-fatal bicycling accident. The team was 10-4 when assistant head coach Paul Westhead took over the reins. Furthermore, in the 2015-16 campaign, the Cleveland Cavaliers fired head coach David Blatt 41 games into the regular season. The team and the coach did not see eye-to-eye and hence, the Cavs fired him while holding a league-best 30-11 record.
Blatt’s 73.1% win percentage and McKinney’s 71.4% are the highest for coaches who left their jobs midway through a season. However, both the 1979-80 Lakers and the 2015-16 Cavaliers went on to win the NBA title. Redick explained that the Bucks’ decision to fire Griffin, despite his 69.8% win percentage, was motivated by their desire to win the Championship. He said,
“[The Bucks] brought in Damian Lillard to win a championship. So that is the expectation. The feeling I get is that they certainly felt that Adrian Griffin was not the right guy to help them win a championship this season.”
The co-host of the show agreed with Redick’s assessment. He noted that the East is top-heavy. The Boston Celtics, Miami Heat, and Philadelphia 76ers are legitimate title contenders and the Bucks needed to make a move to keep up with those three teams.
Milwaukee had one of the easiest schedules alongside the 76ers in their first 43 games. Despite playing weaker teams consistently, the Bucks’ opponents averaged 120.5 games per game, the sixth-worst mark in the NBA. Griffin’s defensive scheme wasn’t good enough, and with the team’s remaining strength of schedule being the third-hardest in the league, the franchise did not have faith in his ability to adapt and guide them to the title.
The Bucks are a Championship or bust side this year after Lillard’s trade, as Redick pointed out. They can’t afford to make mistakes like equating regular season numbers as an indicator for potential in the postseason. Last year, they got ousted in the first round by the eight-seeded Miami Heat despite having the best record in the NBA. However, Rivers has also proven to be shaky in crucial playoff situations in the recent years. Therefore, Milwaukee is certainly entering an unchartered terrain this year.
JJ Redick signs off on Bucks’ decision to hire Doc Rivers
The Bucks’ decision to sack Adrian Griffin caught everyone off-guard. However, replacing him with Doc Rivers raised even more eyebrows. Since winning the 2008 NBA title with the Boston Celtics, Rivers has failed to lead some incredible rosters to the championship. He was fired from his last three jobs. Despite Rivers’ history, JJ Redick approved of the move, saying,
“[The Bucks] brought in a rookie coach and it clearly was not working out. The players were clearly not responding to Adrian Griffin in a positive way. They are not then going to hire an assistant coach. This is a team that wants to win now. They want a proven coach. So in that sense, Doc Rivers to the Milwaukee Bucks makes a lot of sense.”
Redick noted that the criticism about his failure to win since 2008 was valid. He also made a prediction, saying,
“I don’t think Doc Rivers is the coach that would get this team a championship. I don’t think that. Maybe based on perimeter, personnel, all that thing, defensively they are not gonna get there this year. Maybe they add someone at the [trade] deadline. Maybe they add some in buyout, which has historically not worked. Maybe they get there. I don’t know.”
The Bucks’ defensive problems aren’t only due to schematic issues. They are the second-oldest team in the league. Of the eight players averaging at least 20 minutes this season, only three are younger than 31, while four are 32 or older. The Bucks went all-in with their veteran roster, but it hasn’t worked out. It remains to be seen whether Rivers can turn the tide or add another failure to his resume.
