How the Bucks' coaching issues contributed to Giannis's exit

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In a recent article by Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, he breaks down the key points of what led to, now Miami Heat player Giannis Antetokounmpo to leave Milwaukee.

One of those points involved different coaching changes that Antetokounmpo and the team never clicked with.

It all started with Mike Budenholzer.

Former ESPN Senior NBA Insider, Adrian Wojnarowski reported on May 16 in 2018 that the Milwaukee Bucks will be hiring Budenholzer who was originally the head coach for the Atlanta Hawks.

One of the main reasons that the Bucks organization decided to hire with Budenholzer was because "his ability to teach and build a winning culture," as Wojnarowski wrote in his article following the hiring.

And that's what he did.

In his first season coaching the Bucks, they finished the season with a 60-22 record and captured the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference. They fell short in the conference finals to the eventual champions, the Toronto Raptors in six games.

The following year Milwaukee once again had the No. 1 the east but in the bubble, Milwaukee fell to the Miami Heat in the second round.

But then everything changed in 2021 where even though they didn't get the top seed in the conference, the Bucks got over the hump winning the NBA Finals against the Pheonix Suns.

Budenholzer became the second coach in franchise history to win a championship by Larry Costello who was the first bring Milwaukee a championship in 1971.

However, two years later, a man who was going be embedded in Bucks history, was fired following the historic upset where the No. 8 seed Miami Heat became the sixth team in playoff history to win in the first round.

It seemed like a premature decision for a coach who did in fact build a winning culture, as well as discipline, basketball principles and a specific vision for his players.

"It felt like the decisions being made were based off the emotions of results,” former Bucks player Pat Connaughton said in an interview with the Journal Sentinel. While, Budenholzer showed that he could bring Milwaukee to the top he wasn't perfect.

Playoff games that included game plan errors, taking a step back two years in a row and Antetokounmpo, as well as many of his teammates, became tired of the Budenholzer's personality which the ultimately decided to move on.

Yet, Antetokounmpo still described Budenholzer has the best coach he's ever had, and had the respect of him and the rest of the team.

"I’ll say that he was tough," Antetokounmpo told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "Very militant. Very militant person, coach ‘Bud.’ But he had 12 to 18 guys on the roster that would do everything for him. And his coaching staff, too, was always on the same page with him.”

When it came to hiring it's next head coach, Adrian Griffin, Antetokounmpo wanted to have a voice and endorsed in hiring Griffin, despite him having doubts if Griffin could bring a championship to Milwaukee, the Bucks front office listened.

But it seemed the decision quickly backfired after Antetokounmpo was the one drawing plays and players seemingly coming together to get the team back on track by calling plays and controlling the rotations.

It was clear that the coach had no real control and even Lillard believed the players had too much input for a team. There was no trust between players and their coach.

"It was a lack of trust,” one player said of Griffin.

Antetokounmpo even flatly said, “I feel like it's a partnership” when it came to coaching," Owczarski wrote.

Players didn't listen, didn't like the ways thing were ran and even former forward Bobby Portis called out Griffin.

Antetokounmpo didn't think there was a direction and wanted the team, as well himself, to be held accountable. Griffin tried to be more vocal, but nothing changed and once Antetokounmpo was trying plays again, time was up for the new coach.

There was never consensus

Griffin was fired and the Bucks hired Doc Rivers as their new head coach. Rivers was an analyst for ESPN at the time, and co-owners Wes Edens and Jimmy Haslam took control of the decision to hire him.

However, Rivers and General Manager Jon Horst were both reluctant with the idea of Rivers coming back to coaching as he was already a consultant for Griffin.

Rivers himself didn't understand the idea but Edens didn't seem to care.

Owczarski quoted Rivers in the article which stated, "I told [Bucks ownership] when they called, ‘I don’t understand why you’re doing this,’” Rivers said after he took the job. “And one of the things they said was, ‘Well it doesn’t matter. We’ve done it now and we want you.’ And so that was a tough one.”

Now you have someone who was hesitant with the decision to become the next head coach, as the next coach and it reflected.

Although he undermined himself later and admitted that he we wouldn't wish it on anyone, Rivers was eventually on board.

He took over and tried to do things his way but it did more harm than good. There were numerous incidents throughout his tenure with Milwaukee that could've been chalked down as the boiling point, but nothing more than when he said Joel Embiid was the most talented player he's ever coached.

Two first round exits in the playoffs to the Indiana Pacers and a season little success, resulted in Rivers giving his coaching responsibilities to assistant coach Darwin ham, and admitted himself that he failed.

“I was brought in here to take the team to the next level and that just never happened,” Rivers said in the article.

When Rivers and the team returned home from Philidelphia following the last game of the season, his office was already cleared out.

The Bucks hired Taylor Jenkins as their new head coach and while Antetokounmpo said that Jenkins is a good coach and person, it was too late and he already decided on the future.

Maybe if Budenholzer was never fired or if the front office went with the option of choosing a different coach that had a stronger insight, then Antetokounmpo would've stayed.

But in the end a decision was made and the dominoes fell with it.

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Published 16 hours agoTRE ALLEN

Glen (Tre) Allen is from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He attended Louisiana State University, where he graduated with a BA in journalism. Working for the student newspaper, The Reveille, he covered LSU football and men’s and women’s basketball, writing game stories, analysis and profiles.

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