2:46pm: The Bucks have made it official, announcing in a press release that Griffin has been dismissed from his position with the team and that Prunty will serve as the interim head coach.
“This was a difficult decision to make during the season,” general manager Jon Horst said in a statement. “We are working immediately toward hiring our next head coach. We thank Coach Griffin for his hard work and contributions to the team.”
1:43pm: The Bucks are making a head coaching change, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, who reports (via Twitter) that the team is dismissing Adrian Griffin.
It’s a shocking turn of events for a Bucks team whose 30-13 record is tied for second-best in the NBA, and for Griffin, who was in his first year as a head coach, having been hired by Milwaukee last June. The former Raptors assistant reportedly had the support of two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo at the time of his hiring.
Still, while the Bucks have an excellent record and the NBA’s second-best offensive rating (120.6), the club’s defensive performance has fallen off sharply under Griffin. Milwaukee’s 116.8 defensive rating ranks 22nd in the league; last season, the team had the NBA’s fourth-best defense.
Setting aside the Bucks’ defensive struggles – which can be partly attributed to personnel changes, including losing perimeter stopper Jrue Holiday – it hasn’t all been smooth sailing in Milwaukee so far this season.
Griffin’s top assistant coach, Terry Stotts, unexpectedly and abruptly stepped down from his position just before the regular season began; Antetokounmpo and Griffin had a heated on-court disagreement in November; and Bobby Portis reportedly challenged the head coach during a locker-room meeting following December’s in-season tournament semifinal loss to Indiana.
According to Chris Mannix of SI.com (Twitter link), there have been “steady rumblings” in NBA circles in recent weeks that multiple Bucks veterans, including Giannis, had been losing faith in the first-time head coach.
We’ll likely hear more details in the coming hours or days about why the Bucks felt the need to make a change, but the move feels reminiscent of the 30-11 Cavaliers replacing David Blatt during the 2015/16 season. In that instance, the team recognized that things weren’t quite right with Blatt at the helm and made a move in the hopes of increasing its championship upside — Cleveland won the title a few months later.
Griffin will exit his first head coaching job with the fourth-best winning percentage (.698) in NBA history, notes Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press (via Twitter). Bucks assistant Joe Prunty is expected to take over as Milwaukee’s head coach on an interim basis, reports Wojnarowski (Twitter link).
As Bobby Marks of ESPN observes (via Twitter), this will be the third time that Prunty has taken over as an interim head coach during a season. He also did so in Milwaukee following the firing of Jason Kidd in 2018 and last season in Atlanta after Nate McMillan was let go.
Prunty likely won’t be the long-term answer on the Bucks’ bench though. Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report and Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter links) both say that Doc Rivers is a strong contender for the permanent job, while Wojnarowski tweets that Milwaukee is expected to look at a pool of “accomplished and available” veteran coaches, including Rivers.
The Bucks’ next game is on Wednesday at home vs. the Cavaliers.
Wow !! In over his head? Who replaces him, anyone on the couch at home looking for a job? Or TV guys like Doc Rivers?
This ain’t good.
At least Griffin’s resume looks good…was fired after coaching team to a 30-13 record!
But what happened in January? 6 – 5?
I would place a bet that Adrian Griffin NEVER gets a head coaching job again.
Almost like Mark Jackson where he threw his weight around because of insecurity with assistant coaches Etc, and even though the overall record was there, the players weren’t happy.
I think he’s done. Assistant coach or TV rest of the way. Or perhaps start over as a college head coach. Perhaps a small school will give him a shot and he can climb the ladder there. He’d probably be a great college coach.
Already? I wonder what’s happening behind the scenes?
No scandals. Players simply dint respect him and he has self esteem issues. What he pulled with Stotts in the preseason was BS.
Whoa, what? What happened?!
Joe Prunty, one of their assistant coaches, is expected to step in as interim, at least that’s what I found with a quick search.
I’ve also heard that Doc Rivers might be considered his replacement.
If that happens, we can dismiss the Bucks as a playoff contender. Jeesh. That’s about the worst thing they can do.
I would laugh really hard if they tried to hire Mike Budenholzer. He fits all the criteria!
Bud’s record on this date last year was 30-17 worse than Griffin! Apparently, signing Dame meant a 60+ win season not a 50-59 win season.
Players don’t believe in him
Agreed. I just don’t understand why the Bucks would give up on Griffin when they are 3 games behind the Celtics. I just hope it’s not another scenario like Udoka. Sure, the quality of their defense has dropped, but they could have attempted to trade or sign better defenders. If Lowry gets bought out in Charlotte, that could be a decent pickup for them defensively.
They can’t acquire Lowry because he’s got too large of a contract. Players who were bought out with a contract worth more than the full middy (about 12.4 million) can’t be acquired if the acquiring team is over the first apron, iirc.
EDIT: Confirmed, Bucks are not eligible to acquire Lowry should he get bought out. Suns, Clippers, Celtics, Suns, and Nuggets also out.
That’s true. I forgot about that clause in the buyout agreement. That’s my bad.
Didn’t the players want him in the first place?
Giannis wanted him. Apparently, until he got there. Also apparently, Giannis is the one who got him sent packing.
No one ever said the players were smart. But reality has finally woken them up.
Here we go…
When you replace Holiday with Lillard of course your defense is going to suffer. Dame’s great, but defense is not his thing
I was thinking the same thing about Dame/Jrue when I read about the defense. Like what did you expect haha I assume some kind of non basketball scandal story is coming soon.
It’s also been his refusal to play Beasley as the 6th man like he should. Connaughton should be starting at the 2 whenever possible. Yeah, Beasley is a flamethrower, but like a literal flamethrower, he has no defense. Connaughton can at least play D, and his shooting is still good. Hell, he’s a 39% 3pt shooter in his career as a starter. That’s not Beasley’s 47% this season, but uh… Malik can’t guard a parked car.
What’s funny is whenever I mention that the defense is suffering in part because they replaced Jrue with Dame, I get the following 2 responses:
1. Jrue got cooked by Jimmy in the playoffs
(I respond with “who didn’t?”)
2. It’s OK because once the playoffs start, teams won’t be able to isolate and take advantage of his terrible D. (I respond with “right, and everyone is going to love the next president, regardless who it is..”)
The counterpoint is that Jrue consistently turns into a shell of himself on offense in the postseason. Never been able to match up to what he normally does. It’s a big drain on Giannis/Middleton.
With getting Dame, the bet was either A) they’d be able to work around it because Dame can match basically anyone in a shootout, or B) they’d be able to make sure the defense around Dame was enough to cover for him. So far, the latter has gone the opposite direction, as the Bucks have only been playing worse on D as the season has gone on, not better. I could see this firing as a way to shake that up and stop the slippage, at least. Strikes me as a more Glenn Taylor-esque move, which sucks, but it’s an idea.
Still deadline deals to come, too, so they can get better defensively. But, obviously, they didn’t want Griffin sticking around even in that scenario.
I’d add that Middleton has also impacted the defense due to being out for quite some time and being another year older.
They amped up the offense and the defense took a hit on the roster. What were they expecting to happen?
The writing was on the wall once the whole Terry Stotts resignation happened. Griffin showed he was in over his head when he tried to embarrass his top assistant.
So, no real surprise here.
I see. That makes sense. I forgot about the disagreements between Griffin, Giannis and Bobby Portis.
What did he do to embarrass him?
Griffin yelled at Stotts for not hustling to join a coaching huddle in the preseason and tried to make a big deal out of it/show him up. Made himself look like someone’s jealous boyfriend.
gotta figure Giannis and/or Dame had a hand in this.
When he cursed out a very respectable former head coach Terry Stotts, I knew he was unfit to be a head coach for a team let alone a contender, back to the assistant role he goes
And Stotts was Dame’s former coach. Griffin probably lost Dame before the season even started.
Most definitely he’s definitely got a entitlement mindset
Bucks are 30-13 and he is gone? Yes the defense has been bad and maybe the players don’t respect him they have been leaking things to the media maybe that’s why but still a questionable decision they have been turning it around and making changes when needed.
D getting worse not better, Bucks giving up threes like crazy.
All of a sudden I’m looking at Giannis as some kind of LBJ GM/Player. I don’t think Griffin got or had a chance from the jump. Media already blaming defensive deficiency. Griffin didn’t trade Holiday and Grayson Allen. Kris Middleton is on the hot seat too, my opinion.
Lol just get rid of HC’s and let the team captain run the show in games. NBA let’s the players control everything anyway.
Agreed….but who will the Players blame when that doesn’t work out? Certainly not themselves….Chicken vs. Egg conundrum lol
tried having giannis run sprints.
I literally called this the moment they fired a veteran assistant coach in pre season for not “responding fast enough”….. this guy was never a coach
I feel like there’s some behind the scenes stuff people don’t know yet as a main reason he was fired. Either that or nba is gonna become as bad or worse than nfl with 1/10 to 1/4 of the league changing coaches every year.
For sure. Bad defense or upset players cannot possibly be the whole story. That stuff is nothing new.
They went from Jrue Holliday to Dame…of course their defense has taken a big step back.
Doc returning to Milwaukee would be a great story.
Not for Bucks fans with championship aspirations.
Maybe there’s another Antetokounmpo brother who the Bucks would be willing to pay handsomely to do nothing
Don’t forget about the other Lopez, he doesn’t even require a seat.
Again players running the teams. Just do your job aholes and listen to your coach. Hopefully they go in a big losing streak.
so a player can’t speak up when they feel the defensive that the coach is playing is not working? obviously griffin doesn’t know how to run a defense. the bucks went from 4th to like 22nd in defense, not all of that came from losing holiday.
He came in and essentially did a lot of the similar things that got budenholzer fired, so why would you expect different?
Connaughton and Portis/Crowder/Beauchamp/one of the other young guys should start over Beasley and López (depending on matchups), and they should have used their young versatile defenders more…with Crowder coming back, that should also help, and they should use Giannis more at the 5 as well
Outside of certain matchups, Lopez shouldn’t be playing more than 18-25 minutes
If they go with Doc Rivers though…ROFLMAO
Celtics pay attention, Joe needs to go to or we are not going to win anything!
But then who replaces Joe? Van Gundy? Nate McMillan? Not Sam Cassell!
I’m curious, why not Sam Cassell? Seems like he’s been waiting in the wings for years. What are his shortcomings that are not publicly broadcast?
Nothing against the guy, but I think if the Celtics went with another coach, they’d be better off selecting someone with experience. I may be alone on this, but I always liked McMillan.
Okay thanks. Just wondering out loud.., seems like Sam has been waiting a looong time.
None of the recent-ish former players are worth a sh*t as coaches. None of them.
It’s the NBA. I like Adrian. But, he asked for it. Not by anything he did or didn’t do, other than take a job he could lose for nothing he did or didn’t do. NBA HCs, these days, aren’t hired to really coach the team, and, as such, aren’t really fired based on how they coach it. Their important roles are those of a babysitter, front man, fall guy, etc. Not inherently attractive roles, but its performance in them that will determine how long he keeps the job. The positives are usually 1) pay (they’re paid handsomely to accept a job where they can be fired outside of the merits), and 2) recycling (almost as if the industry recognizes firings are not really on the merits). I hope both have and/or will come his way.
You’re right, really it’s a player personality management job. One of the assistants handles the offense and another handles the defense. The head coach does the substitutions and minutes and massages the egos. Definitely not something just anyone can do.
Perfect example was Phil Jackson. He had his offensive and defensive guys but he brought the whole thing together into a perfectly cohesive unit.
Often not even that, except nominally. Many HC’s can’t even pick their own staff, especially the top offensive and defensive assistants, and star players feel free to stray from gameplans. HC’s determine minutes and roles, but only to a degree, veteran stars don’t change their roles, unless they want to, or allow their minutes to be cut. Which makes it difficult for the HC to do it with the rest of the team. Even below the star level, minutes seem to be dished out more and more based on who the FO is invested in, via signing, drafting high or just paying alot; just as FO’s are being staffed by more and more by non-basketball people. Teams have so few in-season practices, by CBA rule, I sometime wonder how a HC can put his imprint on a team, and if he can’t, then he’s really not to blame for the product, just a Fall Guy if the strategies and methods of others don’t work out.
Yup well said. They get the big dollars but wow, job security is practically zero.
Look at Michael Malone as an example. Handled the offense for the Warriors with Mark jackson.., gets canned because Mark couldn’t take being stood up or deemed incapable.
Then Malone goes to the Kings, does okay I guess, gets fired anyway.
Now with the Nuggets he’s the greatest thing. Same guy, maybe matured a little bit but still, “now” he’s such a great coach. Sure is a tough business.
About the Griffin – Stotts incident, it seems Griffin went over the Hill, and cussed out his former AC, because he didn’t take part in HC’s proposed huddle. While it may have been a mistake by Griffin, one which I’m sure players didn’t forget, and manifested by Antetokoumpos AND Portis’ clashes, its also real that Stotts Challenged His authority, the authority of a first Time coach, in preseason. So he also has to take His part. Instead of trying to resolver it behind closed doors, he resigned two days later, obviously adding a big plate on Griffin’s construction of authority.
Griffin Is also a longtime NBA veteran player. But even if he would’ve come out of nowhere, he was the Head Coach. He deserved respect and cohesiveness, from all the team, to start his process.
Stotts also deserved respect from Griffin. That was the agreement of Stotts hire. Instead, Griffin was worried that Stotts might take his job.
Stotts should know that that kind of things, messes with HC authority. Having More experience as HC, puts Griffin in an umcomfortable Situation from the start.
And yet, Monty Williams is still employed.
Tom Gores and Troy Weaver. That’s it. That’s the entire explanation.
Different team goals.
Hire Terry
Hey, why not !! The only thing is, by quitting did Terry stotts burn a bridge?
Now he’ll be seen as a quitter, has to be his way or he’s out, can’t compromise and do the job, things like that?
Smithers is back baybeee!
Mid season like this is crazy, the truth is they shouldnt have fired Budenholzer (never liked him but he did win a title with them, so he deserved better).
I am sure Giannis had a say in this firing.
Bucks hiring Doc would be hilarious
Budenholzer is available
The NFL has its Rooney Rule. The NBA its Doc Rivers Rule. He needs to at least be mentioned for every high profile HC’ing position.
Wow that’s uncalled for. He’s the second best winning record coach in the nba. Bucks lost my respect there.
Also, “players lost respect”, what are people’s sources on that?
Griffin Made a mistake by cursing, if that’s what happened. If he had yelled, he would’ve right.
The defensive falldown Is More on the players. Schemes can have a part, but not for such a dropoff. Players aré the ones that play the game, Score the ball, lower their butts and put effort on defense, or slack off.
Besides, Griffin was a defensive specialist as a player. I doubt he’s More of an offense than defense coach. That dropoff, is the result of players not respecting His coach AND, as such, not putting effort, not following órders and questioning authority.
You never see something like this happen midseason even when players complain about their respective head coaches. Something must’ve really been wrong beyond laziness and all of that.
Compared to just 3 seasons ago the Bucks have forgotten how to play defense. And that comes from coaching
Stotts my bad
Be hilarious if Stott’s was HC
Irony would be Stotts being hired as HC
What the Buck is going on in Milwaukee?
Kudos to the Bucks for having the guts to do something like this midseason. It’s obviously not ideal, but far too many franchises choose to stick with mediocre head coaches long past their expiration date to the detriment of playoff success.
Of course, this was a self-inflicted wound with the bad initial hire but that’s a sunk cost at this point.
Coach trade
Milwaukee sends Griffin to the Pistons for Monty Williams AND Detroits 2024 second rounder (first pick of the second round)
Lakers should trade Darvin Ham to the Bucks for Banjo. Lakers would be ripping them off, but still.
Successful coaches have archetypes and it’s really only these styles of coaches/personalities that command attention in today’s NBA. A hard-nosed career 9th man barking orders at practice isn’t going to do it. You have to be a savant like Nurse, a lifer like Malone, or buddy buddy/stern father like Doc Rivers to get a locker room to respect you.
Griffin has some baggage and plenty of detractors who think he had 14 interviews about head coaching jobs for a reason. This really doesn’t bode well for his coaching career and it doesn’t look good on Milwaukee, to be honest. Please let them hire Doc Rivers. It’ll be hilarious to watch him lose with another championship-level team. His best coaching attribute– managing people– doesn’t matter at all in the playoffs when you actually have to be tactician and not a therapist.
Griffin fits the archetype of a bulldog lead assistant or college head coach and that’s probably where he’ll end up.
Hopefully, the Bucks are smart enough to also fire Doc right away when they inevitably get embarrassed in the playoffs. Because if they keep him beyond this year, they will just be compounding their initial mistake.
Just get another Adrian … Adrian Dantley … Adrian Monk … Rocky’s wife!!! Yo, ADRIAN!!!!