The Milwaukee Bucks are still the third team in the Eastern Conference after losing the second spot to the Cleveland Cavaliers a week ago. However, with the way things have been going for the Bucks, it won’t be long before another team in the East before an unfortunate slide down the standings begins. Amid Milwaukee’s struggles, head coach Doc Rivers compares his star player to the Boston Celtics legend he won a championship with.
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Doc Rivers recently made an appearance on NBA’s SiriusXM Radio where the newly appointed Milwaukee Bucks head coach went on to draw comparisons between Giannis Antetokounmpo and Hall of Famer, Kevin Garnett.
Doc Rivers was the head coach of the 2008 Boston Celtics team that won their last title in franchise history. Having players like Paul Pierce and Ray Allen to name a few, Kevin Garnett was the player that he got reminded of every time he saw Giannis Antetokounmpo.
However, there are some dissimilarities between the current star and the NBA legend as Rivers went on to highlight. Doc mentioned how he wishes Antetokounmpo would be as vocal as Garnett was during his playing days.
“He has a lot of [Kevin] Garnett in him, a lot of Garnett. Now, he doesn’t talk. I wish he talked as much as Garnett but his actions are very similar as far as playing hard…It’s like he’s a warrior. He has the same warrior mentality. I actually told one of my coaches, ‘Man, [Giannis] is the first player I’ve had since Garnett that reminds me of Garnett’.”
Doc Rivers’ comments come as a compliment to both Kevin Garnett and Giannis Antetokounmpo. As mentioned above, Doc Rivers had some great players on that ‘08 Celtics roster but he trusted Garnett the most for one simple reason which was his defense.
Kevin Garnett was a gifted scorer in the post and his ability to keep jawing at his opponent while dropping 25-10 type numbers made him all the more special. However, Rivers entrusted Garnett to take over the defensive helm for the team since they also had scorers like Allen and Pierce.
Instead of being upset over not being in the same role as he was for most of his career, KG took the new role of being the team’s defensive anchor with pride and became the voice of the Celtics on the court. Something that Doc Rivers wishes Antetokounmpo would instill in himself as well.
Being the team’s leader already, the Bucks locker room clearly listens to Giannis already. So, if he were to take more pride in his own, as well as the team’s defense, things could improve by leaps and bounds for the franchise. After all, defense requires effort and guile over all else. So, given how much the Greek Freak’s words would aid that objective, it is hard to refute Doc Rivers’ opinion on this one.
Giannis Antetokounmpo strongly supports Doc Rivers
Doc Rivers has been bashed enough by fans, analysts, and self-proclaimed pundits on social media and the news as well for doing a terrible job as the new coach of the Milwaukee Bucks team.
There is no argument for the fact that the Bucks have lost more games than they have won under Rivers’ helm so far. Even JJ Redick, a former player who played under Doc went on a brutal rant regarding Rivers’ failures as the new head coach on First Take.
But despite how everyone has been feeling about Rivers and the Bucks, team leader Giannis Antetokounmpo seems to be quite content with his new head coach as he came forward in his support recently.
“He (Doc Rivers) was figuring things out, how to lead a group of guys, how to operate with star players, and sometimes, that might be hard. I think everybody did a good job. His coaching staff did a good job too, helping him and making him adjust and I think he did a tremendous job leading us to a 30-13 record, but Coach Doc has won 1,100 games. So it’s totally different.”
The Greek Freak was untethered with the recent struggles of the team. Instead, he seemed to be quite excited to see what Rivers will bring to the table and can do with this talented Bucks squad. Doc may need another week or so to completely get comfortable with the Bucks’ system, so fans may not want to count out Milwaukee just yet.
