The Milwaukee Bucks have fired head coach Adrian Griffin after just 43 games, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. The firing makes Griffith tied for the third-shortest head coaching tenure in NBA history.
Milwaukee is expected to make assistant Joe Prunty its interim head coach, per Woj. The Athletic’s Shams Charania additionally reported that Doc Rivers has already emerged as a serious candidate for the new vacancy.
The Bucks started their season pretty strong, all things considered. At 30-13, Milwaukee currently sits second in the East and tied for the second-best record in the NBA. That’s tied for the seventh-best start in Bucks history through 43 games. Milwaukee also boasts the second-best offensive rating in the league and a top-10 net rating.
As a first-year head coach, though, Griffin just wasn’t getting the job done. Going from five-time All-Defensive Team nominee Jrue Holiday to Damian Lillard is going to come with some defensive dropoff, but the Bucks fell from fourth in defensive rating in 2022 to 21st halfway through the season this year.
The first-time head coach also made simple lapses in crucial tactical moments, like failing to foul shooters or not structuring game plans. Bobby Portis called out Griffin during the Bucks’ In-Season Tournament run, saying “how essential it is for Griffin to structure the offense down the stretch of games” during the Milwaukee’s loss to the Bucks, according to Bleacher Report’s Chris Haynes. Players earlier in the season also asked Griffin to change his defensive scheme back to the one they used to run just five games into the league year.
The writing was on the wall early for Griffin. Bucks blogs were calling for Griffin’s job 10 games into the season. One month in, The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor called the Griffin hire “the biggest mistake any team has made this offseason.”
And our own Carron Phillips pondered back in October if Adrian Griffin could coach this team.
Griffin was just the wrong fit. Hopefully the Bucks corrected course in time for a postseason run.
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