ESPN REPORT: The head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks is fired because of…
For the previous fifteen years, Jon Horst, general manager of the Milwaukee Bucks, and his family had little reason to worry about the name of their wheaten terrier. When Horst and his wife, Mia, lived in a small two-bedroom condominium in Milwaukee’s St. Francis area, Griffin Bear Horst became a member of the family. Horst was a rookie director of basketball operations in the Bucks front office, and they didn’t have any children. But the puppy was only the beginning of their aspirations for their family and careers.
However, “Griff” wasn’t his birth name.
Horst said last October, “Our dog’s name was Otis — like the elevator company — for, like, a day.” “However, it fell through. We gave it a try, but didn’t enjoy it.”
According to legend, Horst met Adrian Griffin, a rookie assistant coach for the Bucks, in the same elevator that served as the inspiration for the original name, the following day. He had always thought highly of Griffin as a player, and since Griffin had gone to Scott Skiles’ bench, the two had grown close. In addition, they lived next to each other in the condo building.
Horst said, “So I’m in the elevator with him.” “And I’m thinking, ‘Griff! Not Otis! It’s a fantastic name.
The name remained this time. Though Horst didn’t inform him about his namesake until he hired the real Griffin to be the head coach of the Bucks in June of last year.
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At the time, Griffin’s future with the team appeared endless. “I loved it,” he remarked. He had been interviewing for head coaching positions for years when he was ultimately hired for one of the top positions in the league: teaching two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo and a team that was primed to contend for a title. Days before training camp, three months later, the team traded for seven-time All-Star Damian Lillard.
Griffin stated last autumn, “I would say I’m so optimistic almost to a fault.” I don’t approach it with the mindset of ‘What if we fail?’ I consider it as a “What if?” scenario.
It’s a fantastic chance. When Jon told me about Dame, I was ecstatic. You don’t get to coach Dame and Giannis every day.”
In total, Griffin had just 118 days as the head coach of the Bucks to oversee Dame and Giannis, out of a total of 233 days. Despite Milwaukee’s 30-13 record and one of the fastest hooks in history, he was dismissed on Tuesday. You have to go back to something else Horst said last fall to understand how the Bucks went from employing the man the general manager practically named his dog after to sacking him seven months later, after the club had won almost 70% of its games.
A principle that has informed every choice Horst and the Bucks have made since Antetokounmpo reached his peak.
“If you’re being honest,” Horst responded at the time, “with Giannis, you’re kind of always on the clock.”
Adrian Griffin’s tenure as the Bucks’ head coach lasted just 43 games. Photograph by AP/Morry Gash
THAT CLOCK STARTED TICKING almost immediately as the company had what one source called “a constant” round of frank internal discussions regarding their team’s performance and the reasons behind it.
Even so, they had the second-best record in the league, trailing only the Boston Celtics. However, the team’s defense, which had long been its defining characteristic, had quickly fractured as players tried to get used to playing without All-Defensive guard Jrue Holiday (who had been dealt in exchange for Lillard) and to adjusting to Griffin’s more blitzing, aggressive approach.
Griffin’s reputation as the primary designer of the Toronto Raptors’ defense—which finished sixth in the NBA in 2019 and won a championship—played a major role in his hiring. Horst also mentioned how impressed the organization was with Griffin’s presentation of his ideas during the interview about the redesign of Milwaukee’s defense.
Milwaukee interviewed about twenty coaches in all for the position of head coach. There was a second round of interviews with eight of them. The four finalists were then interviewed by Khris Middleton, Holiday, and Antetokounmpo.
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At the time, Griffin claimed to have interviewed for head coaching positions for 20 years, but he had never been able to convince team executives the way he had with the Bucks’ three All-Star players.
However, that was also the first indication that the position he was hired for was not the one he ended up getting. Holiday was brought in to serve as a defensive focal point on the outside, but he was also expected to be a reliable veteran on a team whose starting lineup had won a title three seasons prior.
That group was already well-known. Griffin’s task was to give it new life.
Everything changed when Holiday was exchanged. The Bucks have to develop fresh offensive and defensive philosophies. From a guard who plays the ball most of the time in Holiday to one who plays it frequently in Lillard, they had to figure out how to complement their skill sets. Antetokounmpo and Lillard are both used to having the ball most of the time. Without one of the top front-line defenders in basketball, they had to assemble a defense.
Tensions developed practically immediately after that. Five days prior to the season’s commencement and two days following a disagreement with Griffin following practice, top assistant Terry Stotts—who had been brought in by the front office to mentor Griffin during his rookie campaign—announced his sudden resignation, as per team sources. Eleven days later, in only its second game of the season, Milwaukee was thoroughly embarrassed at home by Atlanta. The Hawks shot 50% from the field and had eight players score in double figures.
Following the game, Antetokounmpo wrote his grievances about the team’s plan on a large whiteboard that takes up almost one wall in the Bucks locker room.
With a marker in hand, Antetokounmpo started diagramming plays for Bucks assistant coach Josh Oppenheimer. As he drew out the team’s spacing and movements, he became more agitated and passionate and revealed in real time what he believed went wrong and where the players needed to be on the floor. Eventually, he snatched forward Bobby Portis and his brother Thanasis to accompany him.
It was clear that he was frustrated.
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“It’s Game 2,” Antetokounmpo declared following the contest that evening. “We’re still learning about ourselves. We are determining what functions. We are learning what our strengths and weaknesses are.”
A week later, not much had changed. The day before the team’s Nov. 3 game against the Knicks, Antetokounmpo, Brook Lopez, and Middleton went to Griffin to talk about their previous pick-and-roll strategy. Under Mike Budenholzer, they had used this strategy to great success, allowing Lopez to play more passively and stay closer to the rim.
Lopez had been playing up more and blitzing ball handlers as part of Griffin’s attempt to implement a much more aggressive defensive system. It was successful in one sense: the Bucks, who placed 27th last season, are now fourth in the league in deflections per game this year. However, Second Spectrum reports that through the first five games of the season, the Bucks also had the lowest field goal % at the rim.
According to sources who spoke with ESPN, Lopez, who placed second in the Defensive Player of the Year vote the year before, was confused by the move and had pushed Griffin to change his approach as early as the preseason. Lopez was used to top-10 defenses under Budenholzer.
Griffin said, “As coaches, we can be too smart for ourselves,” following the Knicks game, in which Lopez recorded a game-high nine blocks. The Knicks were defeated by five points.
GRIFFIN IS ABSOLUTELY NOT THE ONLY COACH whose roster has seen significant changes since he was hired.
According to insiders, as a rookie coach, the Bucks pushed him to replace Stotts with a head coach with prior experience. Although the organization brought on well-known international coach Trevor Gleeson in late December, sources claimed that the team persisted in advising Griffin to consult with additional mentors.
As the mayhem erupted, peers from all around the league began phoning Griffin to provide guidance and encouragement. Among them were ESPN analyst and former Philadelphia 76ers coach Doc Rivers, who shares a coaching agent with Griffin, as well as former Memphis Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins.
Over the previous few months, Rivers had multiple chats with Griffin and developed a somewhat informal mentoring relationship with him. (Sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski that he will now take over as head coach, as the organization seeks a more experienced voice with stressful coaching situations to handle.)
In the end, the Bucks continued to win consistently, but their faith was eroding even more quickly.
After the Bucks’ 20-point deficit at the half of their Jan. 6 defeat to the Rockets, Antetokounmpo made it clear how he felt about the team’s present situation.
“We need to improve. Antetokounmpo, who finished with 48 points and 17 rebounds in the defeat, stated, “We have to play better, we have to defend better, we have to trust one another better, and we have to be coached better.” “Everything and everyone needs to improve. The equipment manager needs to wash our garments more thoroughly. Improved bench play, increased vocal leadership from the team’s leaders, increased shooting volume, improved defense, improved strategy, and overall improvement are all necessary. We’ll see; we have four months to recover.”
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After the Bucks’ loss against the Pacers, Giannis says they “have to be better.”Following the team’s elimination from the in-season competition, Giannis Antetokounmpo exhorts the Bucks to “be better”.
The Bucks went 5-2 in the seven games that followed Antetokounmpo’s tirade, but they also let up 125.3 points per game—including 135 to the Pistons, who had won four of them—and had a meager net scoring margin. They were the 27th-best defense in the league.
Antetokounmpo told The New York Times during the summer that “I would not be the best version of myself if I don’t know that everybody’s on the same page, everybody’s going for a championship… and if I don’t feel that, I’m not signing.” Griffin was hired in the midst of a similar existential dilemma.
In November, Antetokounmpo, 29, did in fact sign a three-year, $186 million agreement with the Bucks, largely because they had shown their dedication to winning by acquiring Lillard.
This eliminated the chance that the Bucks’ star forward might decide to opt out of his contract after the season, temporarily relieving some of the team’s strain.
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But with Antetokounmpo at the height of his abilities, winning championships rather than just games is a constant pressure. That’s why Milwaukee’s move reminds me of something that happened a few years ago to another Midwestern franchise with a superstar in his prime and some serious problems at the top.
Similar to the Bucks of this year, the Cleveland Cavaliers of 2015–16 abruptly fired head coach David Blatt in the middle of the season, bringing in assistant coach Tyronn Lue in his place. After the team started out to a 10-4 start, Jack McKinney was gravely injured in a bicycle accident and was replaced by the Los Angeles Lakers in 1979–1980.
Those two teams went on to win championships. The question now is if the Bucks will follow suit or if simply altering the coach’s name will be sufficient.
