5:06pm: The Bucks have made the news official in a press release.
“The decision to make this change was very difficult,” Bucks GM Jon Horst said in the statement. “Bud helped lead our team for five incredible seasons, to the Bucks’ first title in 50 years, and into an era of sustained success… This is an opportunity for us to refocus and reenergize our efforts as we continue building toward our next championship season.”
4:57pm: Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer has been let go by the team, per Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link). Budenholzer had two years left on his contract with Milwaukee.
The 58-24 Bucks, owners of the top record in the league this season, were defeated in five games by the eighth-seeded Heat in a massive first round upset.
A perfect storm of circumstances led to the Bucks’ early ouster after they had been widely considered the team to beat in the East this season. All-NBA forward Giannis Antetokounmpo had to depart the first game of the series with a back injury and missed the subsequent two bouts. He played well in the fourth and fifth contests, both losses.
All-NBA Miami swingman Jimmy Butler, meanwhile, enjoyed the series of his life, averaging 37.6 PPG on .597/.444/.708 shooting. He also chipped in 6.0 RPG, 4.8 APG, and 1.8 SPG. The Heat were without their second-leading scorer, guard Tyler Herro, following the first half of Game 1 in the series.
Budenholzer’s decision-making during the series came under scrutiny in its immediate aftermath, particularly his decision to not leave Defensive Player of the Year runner-up Brook Lopez in to wall off the paint from Butler during the closing seconds of regulation in Game 5. Instead, against smaller Bucks guards, Butler pulled off a miracle shot thanks to a perfect Gabe Vincent inbound pass, which propelled the Heat to an eventual overtime victory. Budenholzer was also criticized for not employing all his timeouts during the closing minutes of that must-win contest.
Following Milwaukee’s elimination, former Bucks assistant Darvin Ham disclosed that one of Budenholzer’s brothers passed away before Game 4 of the series.
After serving as an assistant for the Spurs under head coach Gregg Popovich from 1996-2013, Budenholzer took his first head coaching assignment with the Hawks for the 2013/14 season. Budenholzer led the club as far as the Eastern Conference Finals in ’14/15 and won his first Coach of the Year award for his efforts. He also served as the team president from 2015-18.
Budenholzer joined the Bucks in the summer of 2018, immediately leading the club to the Eastern Conference Finals and earning Coach of the Year honors in his first year. Under his stewardship, Antetokounmpo won two MVP awards, and Milwaukee won its first title since 1971, beating the Suns in six games in 2021.
Budenholzer owns a lifetime regular season coaching record of 484-317, having led the Bucks to a 271-120 (.693) record over the last five seasons. His career postseason record is 56-48, with a 39-26 mark for Milwaukee.
As Bobby Marks of ESPN notes (Twitter link), replacing Budenholzer will be among many items on a busy summer agenda for the Bucks. Lopez will be an unrestricted free agent this offseason, three-time All-Star swingman Khris Middleton could join him on the open market if he declines his 2023/24 player option, and Antetkounmpo is eligible for what promises to be a pricey extension.
Never learned how to make an adjustment or use a timeout. Good riddance.
Horrendous firing, enjoy Stephen Silas
Bro really? Plenty of good coaches not saying Stephen Silas is trash but we can get can an accomplished coach to ride out Giannis’s prime years
Actually would love to see Nurse replace him. The team already has a good defensive identity. Just need more creativity in the offense!
Wow, the NBA is the epitome of ‘what have you done for me lately’ mentality and only getting worse….they need to move to Player Head Coaches and let them duke it out on the sidelines every game smh sheesh.
The freak said I want him gone,end of story. Players run this league.
Not at all. He loved Jason Kidd and that bum was fired
Know ur s&@$ before u post or the team ur posting about.
I’m not sure Bucks fans would agree with you. Some have been calling for his head for years.
Too early back then? Yes. Now? Maybe not.
NFL is still the worst when it comes to coach hires and fires
Steve Kerr next please, regardless of what happens in these playoffs. Sick of these talentless coaches coasting off a single superstar – do your fn job. Ty Lue runs rings around both of them.
How much rings for Kerr..?
Bulls – MJ
Spurs – Pop
Dubs – Steph
Dude is the biggest rider in NBA history. Kerr’s only legit performance as an NBA employee was as GM of the Suns – thats his true talent level, zero.
Managing all the egos is what he does. I’d say he’s a pretty damn good coach.
Spurs – Duncan
Ty Lue ? Lol
Exactly. Lue outcoaches Kerr every time they play each other, and the only way GSW wins is by Steph being Steph. Its horrible to watch knowing the Warriors could have had anyone but Kerr and have like 7+ rings by now.
You literally just defined Steve Kerr
Dumb move, some teams are too quick to pull the trigger. In 5 seasons he was 245-110, made the playoffs every season and most importantly he guided the team to a championship. Not sure who they’re going to find that will be any better.
Yeah they lost in the 1st round but Giannis was playing injured when he did come back and along with Middleton being hobbled it was going to be hard to win that series. There’s no shame in losing to the Spoelstra and the Heat.
Right! It’s just like the Pistons back in 2003 they made back to back conference finals with Rick Carlisle and fired him after 2 seasons. Then hired Larry Brown and made back to back finals. The Pistons could’ve won with Carlisle.
What are you talking about? The Pistons won a ring with Brown and was a 4th quarter away from a back to back. You can’t play the what would be game, when the results are already full success.
He’s running a joke of team in Indiana now. He seems clueless
Injuries are always going to be an excuse. Heat were missing their best shooter Tyler Herro and they still won.
You work all season to acquire the best seed possible. Bucks had the best record of the season and were embarrassed by a play-in team.
That was all on poor coaching. Good coaches adjust.
The heat played way above their collective talent level against a injury riddled buck team . You are dismissed.
Guys like Herro while talented are easily replaced in Miami’s rotation by Strus or Robinson.
@Captain Ron the Heat aren’t your typical play-in team. They took the Celtics to 7 in the EXCF last season and lost the Lakers in the finals during the bubble season.
Great regular season coach. Awful post season coach. Plain and simple. I live here and have lived through it with multiple teams and coaches. Packers(McCarthy, laFluer) couldn’t make adjustments when it counted or use timeouts properly. I thank him and wish him well him the best. He’ll land on his feet and he’ll always have a ring and a crap ton of money. Thanks for the memories coach Bud. Milwaukee is grateful but it’s time to move on
So, I guess the team management thought the season was a failure then….
The Pistons need to hurry and make Charles Lee the next coach or else he’s going to be the next coach in Milwaukee.. I may be reading between the lines here with this move. Milwaukee doesn’t want to lose Charles Lee.
Very possible
I can see that.
Jim Boylan is available.
This is like the 7th time you’ve posted this and let me tell you…somehow it’s gets funnier every time.
MIL will almost certainly downgrade at HC from here. But it’s really not a surprise they did it, and, if they were responding to GA’s desires, it wasn’t necessarily a mistake. Even it the FO was just buying time for itself, it might not be.
Still, the FO and their 2k’er ridden fanbase, and GA, should be prepared. Lots of teams (not just a few) have fired their HC in the 1-3 years after winning a championship. You’d have to go back over 40 years to find one that proceeded to win another championship in the next 1-3 years, and in most cases the championship year(s) is a distant memory by the end of those 3 years. GA, of course, can bolt to greener pastures. The FO is on the clock.
The only way this move makes sense if if Giannis asked for a change, even then though if they’d said they were keeping Budenholzer Giannis would have just put his head down and soldiered on.
Right on point
Agreed, its a superstar league. But I find it tough to believe that Giannis would initiate this. Giannis is pretty much a standup guy, and the series loss was more on injuries and Giannis’ own play in game 5 as anything Bud did. Timeouts or not, Giannis, not Bud, missed 13 FTs and had 7 turnovers. A bunch in the 4th Qtr.
Don’t be naive, they 100% asked there TWO HUNDRED MILLION DOLLAR PLAYER whether a coaching change was necessary.
Raptors will make an offer again
Please no
They should hire Jason Kidd so the Mavericks don’t have to hopefully fire him. He’s a horrible coach and don’t really think he’s a Hof PG.
I agree Kidd is an awful HC but you saying you don’t think he’s a HOF PG is quite possibly the stupidest thing I’ve read on this site.
Bucks did their tour of duty with Jason Kidd as a head coach already, I believe. As I recall, one decent season…then the magic wore off…kinda like Dallas’ experience.
Bucks already went down that road once.
Fire Monty too
Losing move by loser people
Those “losers” won a ring two years ago; come on.
Wow the Bucks finally did it. He would have been gone the season they won the hospital championship But Giannis saved his job.
Facts! Lol @ “hospital championship”. Crazy ppl discredit the bubble ring when the next season was way worse(injuries & Covid during critical games).
Not the Bucks fault that Harden showed up far and out of shape in Houston, which caused him hamstring issues once he pouted his way to the Nets.
Jimmy Haslem is behind this, putting his stamp right away on the team.
We here in Knoxville has seen for years how that guy does business.
There is no loyalty to successful coaches anymore. Coach of the Year is a kiss of death. Even winning a championship doesn’t help a coach’s chances if it’s determined he is to be the fall guy.
I’m a long-time Spurs fan, and I have to say that Coach Pop has it made. He’s had three bad seasons in a row. For anyone else but Pop, that’d be the end of it.
I would disagree, Stefanski took the Browns to the playoffs and almost beat the Chiefs, since then they have been horrible. Haslam has stuck with the management after two bad years.
With the amount of money involved in sports ($billions) coaches are on a shorter leash.
The Team President for SAS absolutely loves Pop, always has, absolute man crush. Any other HC would have been canned in 2002, after being swept by the LAL in the WCF, after losing the prior year to them 4-1.
“The Team President for SAS absolutely loves Pop.”
Imagine that. Of course he does, Greg popovich is the team president of the Spurs.
If i am the bucks im trying to get Nick Nurse ASAP. Dude was Giannis’s kryptonite for a minute until this year(raptors sucked). Not only would he make there defense better. I feel like his offense would do wonders for Giannis. Imagine a rookie Scottie Barnes on HGH & wtv lebron is taking. That would be Giannis lol.
Giannis doesn’t like Nurse.
Milwaukee can have JD Bickerstaff, he is a “wonderful coach who really knows how to handle a team” wink wink!! All he does is make excuses on what and why things went wrong.
He has an excuse, Bicker is literally in his name
Ime Udoka should have waited.
Bud didn’t do anything to adjust to Butler going off like he was vintage Jordan. He also must have thought that he could save his timeouts for the next game. To leave 2 TO’s on the table in OT and 1 in regulation is unacceptable.
He was badly outcoached. The team had enough talent to sleepwalk to the ECF.
Feel for Bud. Obviously there is warranted criticism but Giannis missed 2 3/4 games, Jrue couldn’t hit a shot to save his mother, and Jimmy Buckets had an all time series. Adding the fact that his brother died in a car accident in the middle of the series, this just sucks.
This is why bad franchises stay bad over time right here… Imagine if the Spurs fired Popp in 2001 for losing to the Lakers.. Imagine if the Heat fired Spoelstra in 2011 because of Lebron… Imagine if the Lakers fired Pat Riley after losing to the 76ers in 1983… Reactionary teams will always end up in the circle of BS.. which is why the lakers will suck the moment lebron retires.. the cavs have had 3 1st overall picks without lebron, and the heat continue to have success year in year out.
How is this in any way comparable to those situations?
The reactionary changes is the macro point.. and I used a very telling example… The Cavs change coaches so much they fired this year’s NBA coach of the year TWICE lol… The Lakers also fired that same COY haha… they change coaches every 2-4 years. Franchises with that much turn over and never form a culture, stability, or any form of consistency. They may have a good year or two (IE the Cavs, Knicks, and Kings this season)… but the water always finds its level.
It’s a good move. Milwaukee was starting to regress. They need something fresh. Especially someone with a dynamic offensive strategy.
they had the best record in the nba and lost to the team with last years best record in the East…. what regression?
Bud may be gone but the big decisions to come about Middleton and Lopez will determine how successful the new coach will be.
Bud is a good coach, but he’s way too stubborn about line ups and switching strategies.
Nick Nurse.
2 years after leading a small market team to a title? Wow. Who’s the better coach they are replacing him with?
That’s what good front offices get paid to do: figure that out.
So it was a failure. Giannis was wrong.
It’s the right decision even with mitigating circumstances factored in imo, but half the battle still remains in replacing him. Even though Bud wasn’t a great head coach, he wasn’t terrible either.
Nurse is a logical choice, but I’m not sure how well a head coach who runs players into the ground will mesh with an aging veteran roster. Sounds like a team which could once again overachieve in the regular season but ultimately come up short in the playoffs. He’d have a better team and better bench to work with, though, so maybe he’d be more inclined to dial things back.
To bad, the bulls just given extension for bd. Raptors should sign him. Will kidd back to the bucks?
This was a reactionary firing. The Bucks lack depth. The GM will need to be creative this offseason or he’s next.
They were just about the deepest team in the east. It was coaching.
Did the coach miss 13 FTs in Game 5?
the bucks would have beaten literally any other team in the east.. The Heat figured them out years ago, and outside of an exhausted team that had played for almost 3 years straight in 2021 (had about 6 weeks after the bubble for the next season) The Heat have basically “owned” the Bucks. The Bucks were doomed when the Hawks upset the Heat in the play in (which may have been a tanked game by Miami)
Sad to see. Timing was horrible regarding his brother and I’m sure it impacted his mindset when they lost. He’ll land another opportunity.
@padam, sad his brother died, yes. Did his brother also die in 2019, u 2-0 in ECF. 2020 in the bubble? Nice guy, great coach for first 82 games. Then it was like a novice was coaching this team. It’s like being a Packers fan. You can taste a potential championship then all your left eating is hot garbage
Wow, heartless. I imagine Bud is in a really dark place right now. No need to pile on.
Um, you’re conveniently ignoring 2021 when he WON A CHAMPIONSHIP
The Bucks should look at Porzingis to replace Lopez. He’s entering the final season of his contract and I don’t think the Wizards want to pay $36mil. A stretch big who’s strong on the D-boards will take some of the pressure off Giannis. Shake Milton is a UFA. After the Melton trade, he’s become the forgotten 4th guard of the Sixers. I like him because he’s a very good FT shooter, is 6’5″, young, can pass, and is capable of playing solid D. With good coaching and, in the right environment, he might become a fair or better 3pt shooter.
bring on D’Antoni
I’m just finding out his brother passed during the Heat series…. I just lose all respect I ever had for the Bucks. If I’m a player on that team.. I just lost all trust as well. How do they not quietly find his replacement and LET HIM RESIGN FOR FAMILY REASONS… holy god.
Nurse to the BUCKS ……. Bud to the RAPTORS.
I do love a good social experiment from time to time.
Horst: Hey, man. Sorry to hear about your brother. Oh, by the by, you’re canned.
Man, I hate watching the Bucks play. It’s just Giannis forcing his way to the hole all game long. I can see why the Bucks fired Bud. When Miami Heat start hitting 3’s they are hard to beat and are tops in the league in not giving up points in the paint. So every game is a 3 point contest. They could go to the finals. I see people dogging the hell out of Jason Kidd. That dude looked like coach of the year last season. Ever thought about blaming the GM and the players?
Overdue …..