Raps in 4 wrote:The Warrior wrote:Raps in 4 wrote:
People here criminally underrate Bud. That Bucks roster (outside of Giannis) is filled with misfits and former scrubs that Bud has turned into cogs in a well oiled machine. Bud is easily a top-5 coach in the NBA.
Best coach in the NBA
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His playoff performances were never bad. He just went up against better teams. He took a Hawks team without a single superstar to 60+ wins and the ECF, where he lost to Lebron.
He took a Bucks team that won 44 games the year prior to 60+ wins and lost in the ECF to a better team (Kawhi had a much better supporting cast than Giannis, and I'd argue that Kawhi is also a more dynamic player than Giannis).
Bud is a rich man's Casey. Like Dwayne he is liked by players and he is able to come up with a system that fits his pieces well enough to beat up on bad teams and get some wins against good teams in the regular season when there is less prep. However, over a series coaches like Pop, Spo, Stevens or Nurse will pick their systems apart if the overall talent level is close.
That 2014-15 Hawk team might not have had a superstar, but they did have a well built team. The Hawks had built a strong young bench mob (Michael Scott, Bazemore and Schroeder) led by a solid veteran (Thabo). Their starting line-up had Milsap and Horford and Carroll in their prime. Motivated by his first big contract opportunity Carroll had the 2nd best statistical year of his entire career, that year. Kyle Korver also had his 2nd best statistical year overall, and arguably had the best volume 3pt shooting season in his career (Career high 3PM and the 2nd highest 3pt% and point total in his career). That season was a confluence of fortunate events around a solid, deep team. Point in fact, the year before Bud led essentially the exact same roster plus Lou Williams to a losing 38-44 record, luckily sneaking into the playoffs to get beat in the first round. In fact, no other of Coach Bud Hawks team won more than 48 games.
As for the 20+ game improvement when Bud went to the Bucks: Had the Bucks had any decent NBA coach instead of Jason Kidd that improvement would not have been nearly as dramatic.
Like I said, MIL has a good supporting cast and has an excellent team and it will be a disappointment if they don't make the NBA Finals, questions will be raised whether Giannis can carry a team and win in the playoffs.
