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Inside the Bucks' sudden dismissal of Adrian Griffin: This one, mostly, is on Giannis
The Bucks hired Griffin as their coach because that's who their superstar wanted. But there's even more to it as explained here
MARC STEIN
JAN 23
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PAID
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It was exactly two weeks ago today that one of the most well-connected NBA insiders I know sent me an alarming rumble about the Milwaukee Bucks.
Heard [Terry] Stotts would be coaching the Bucks today if he was still there.
I always — always — trust this particular informant, but I have to put my hand up and admit that I struggled to believe this specific scenario (which is why I couldn’t report it just because I had heard it).
As rocky as things have been in Brewtown all season, going all the way back to Stotts’ without-warning decision to walk away from Griffin’s staff mere days before Opening Night, I couldn’t imagine circumstances that would compel the Bucks to fire Adrian Griffin less than halfway through his first season as an NBA head coach.
I was proven right … but just barely. The Bucks only waited until Game 43 to oust Griffin, despite Milwaukee’s 30-13 record, thus publicly confirming that they completely bungled last summer’s search to replace the highly successful Mike Budenholzer.
This one, though, is mostly on Giannis Antetokounmpo.
As first reported here in May — which was the first place you read it in the wake of Budenholzer’s dismissal — Griffin was the candidate who most intrigued Antetokounmpo before quickly emerging as the favorite to get the job in spite of his lack of previous NBA head coaching experience … all largely because he had Antetokounmpo’s backing.
The question then was: Why?
And: How?
Why was Antetokounmpo throwing his support behind Griffin?
How did Griffin gain that sort of endorsement from a superstar of Giannis’ stature when they had never worked together before?
League sources say now that the desire to play for Griffin is better described as a determination to play for someone other than Nick Nurse.
Nurse was among the candidates that the Bucks had high on their list after a five-game drubbing by No. 8-seeded Miami in the first round of last season’s playoffs, which led to Budenholzer’s ouster after five seasons in charge and, of course, Milwaukee’s first championship since 1971.
But sources say that Antetokounmpo wanted the Bucks to go in a different direction and thus chose to champion Griffin.
You’ve seen the instant impact that Nurse has had in Philadelphia. The 76ers entered Tuesday’s play at 29-13 — just a half-game behind the Bucks — even after trading James Harden to the LA Clippers on Halloween. The Sixers also entered Tuesday’s play ranked fourth in the league in both offense and defense … with Joel Embiid fresh off torching San Antonio for a career-high 70 points.
Milwaukee?
Desperation, as covered extensively in this cyberspace Monday, was evident with the Bucks even before they announced Tuesday afternoon that Griffin is suddenly out and that Joe Prunty has been named Milwaukee’s interim coach for the second time (Prunty, remember, replaced Jason Kidd on the Bucks’ bench during the 2017-18 season).
We wrote all about it in Monday’s around-the-league notes when explaining the Bucks’ unforeseen attempts to join the trade chase for Atlanta’s Dejounte Murray.
Milwaukee ranks a heady No. 2 in offensive rating after acquiring Damian Lillard shortly before training camp and pairing Dame Time with The Greek Freak … but the Bucks awoke Tuesday ranked an alarming No. 22 leaguewide in defensive rating. They needed to do something drastic and, let’s face it, making an abrupt coaching change — uncomfortable as it is — was a far easier move for the Bucks to make given their limited assets available to make a difference-making trade.
That desperation will now apparently manifest itself in an all-out quest to convince ESPN/ABC’s Doc Rivers to leave behind the comforts of television, after just a half-season to enjoy them, and jump back into the hot seat business.
It’s easy to say, with hindsight, that the Bucks should have hired the coach they deemed to be the best fit for the post in June rather than giving such sway to the face of the franchise. Don’t forget, though, that Milwaukee had neither traded for Lillard nor had secured Antetokounmpo’s signature on a new three-year contract extension worth nearly $190 million at the time Griffin was hired. The star’s wishes had to be heeded.
Some of you might recall, when the season began, how intrigued I was by the idea of Stotts and Prunty — both former Bucks head coaches — being named to Griffin’s initial staff. I couldn’t remember such a scenario before and have had trouble confirming any previous examples.
Barely a half-season later, with the Bucks in the midst of a 6-5 January, their coaching situation turned about five levels stranger.
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Giannis has no business deciding who the coach should be
