Budenholzer Appreciation Thread

[NBA Cares]

He made great adjustments each series and landed on winning lineups when it mattered the most.

He outcoached Monty in the Finals.
We took away their passing lanes and corner 3s.
We made them beat us with high volume tough 2s.
We saw a lot of Crowder/Bridges with ball under 10 secs having to make plays, which was by design.
Their offense looked more messy and frazzled with each game.

[thomchatt3rton]

One major under-the-radar positive of Bud’s tenure is that as soon as he got here, the FO started magically making better, more *coherent* personnel decisions in FAgency and trades.

Horst and Bud >>> Horst and Kidd.

Who knows who’s making which decisions behind closed doors, and maybe its more to do with Kidd sucking, but the difference in the FO was night and day *immediately* after Bud got here.

Major impact on the franchise.


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[blazza18]

I never doubted him.

[SupremeHustle]

I said this during the preseason of Bud's first game: That man LOVES coaching. You can see it.

I didn't always love his decision-making, but he got the job done.

[ReginaldDwight]

I said this during the preseason of Bud's first game: That man LOVES coaching. You can see it.

I didn't always love his decision-making, but he got the job done.

More importantly I think one of his big contributions and Khris even mentioned it last night postgame was how Bud got Khris to take more 3s. Bud isn't going to be confused with Pop or Phil Jackson but hes a solid NBA coach who his players respect. I think Bud is like when you date a girl after an ex whose the complete opposite. Needed a big change from JKidd and Bud was the right guy. Dudes gonna have the longest leash now.

[Plossum]

Bud deserves a lot of credit. Like Giannis, Midds and our other core guys, he has gotten a lot better in the past 3 years.

Remember the days when he refused to to play Giannis more than 35mins in big Playoff games? Or doggedly stick to the drop and fight-over-the-screen-at-all-costs defence instead of just switching?

He had his warts but he learnt from them and got better. It's crazy how a few weeks back he was probably dusting off the CV to find a new job and now instead he's got a job here for life.

Well done, Bud.

[BUCKnation]

He was really good.

[Jez2983]

He was night and day from previous years. Everything they worked on all year helped in the finals. Different D schemes, dunk spot, using Giannis differently, Putting up with Mids dribbling off his foot countlessly for it to (mostly) come good in the playoffs, great use of bench players, tightening minutes at the right time, using Brook down low (could've done this more), calling timeouts when necessary.

Hell our offensive sets out of timeouts actually started working this playoffs

[H2tObes]

Oh man did he prove a lot of people wrong, I was pretty done with him after going down 0-2 vs Brooklyn (along with basically the entire team) but he clearly has learned a ton and put on a clinic vs. Monty. Thank you Bud!!

[LittleRooster]

I always thought Bud was a good coach but that he struggled with adjustments, so I wasn’t sure he was going to get us over the hump.

I was hoping he would be able to make adjustments because his players love him. He does other intangible things that make him a good coach. My frustrations were I felt he was capable of making adjustments but he’s just stubborn. I’m very happy to see him grow and learn


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[humanrefutation]

I think Bud deserved a lot of the criticism that was directed his way after the collapse against Toronto. He struggled with making critical adjustments in his rotations and he often failed to adjust offensively and defensively to best exploit the talents of his players and force opponents into spots they were not comfortable with. He was stubborn, sticking to the same gameplan no matter what the opponent was doing. These were consistent problems with him. And they came up in these playoffs as well.

But, to his credit, he went to the lab and came out with a much more adjustable approach to the team. He had them try new things. He had them work on it during the regular season. And he made adjustments - albeit small ones - in a playoff run in which the team, at times, felt on the precipice of collapsing as they had in previous seasons.

It's hard to exactly delineate how much he's responsible for the title in relation to the improved performance of his players (along with the key additions of Holiday, Portis, and Tucker). But there's no doubt that the team never quit on him; no doubt that he's built a bond with so many of them, and no doubt that the adjustments he made in this series after Game 2 were impactful.

He can now call himself a title-winning head coach. He deserves his props.

[RogerMurdock]

Watching a film analysis show on NBA.com. They showed how the Bucks made fantastic adjustments to stop the easy lobs on Suns' pick and rolls. Remember how we felt they were switching too often? They figured out when to switch and when to stay on their man. Specifically, when Ayton would come up to set the screen, Giannis (or I guess Lopez, but they were showing Giannis) would go with him, but instead of switching and leaving a smaller guy on Ayton when he rolled, Giannis stuck on him and that lob action was largely neutered in Game 6.

[RiotPunch]

I doubted whether he would be the one to get us to this point, the point of being NBA Champions. He still has his warts, but he coached a very good Finals and really seemed to have stumped Monty at multiple turns.

I have given him a lot of **** since the Toronto series, and it has been a postseason rollercoaster the whole way, but I am happy for him. He can stay. Can't help but respect him as a man, that dude loves his assistant coaches and players. No Ragrets retired (again) this time hopefully for good.

[drone3]

Smoking some victory Bud right now... respect coach

[Ruzious]

Watching the Bucks and other teams... it's amazing how some folks really believe the Bucks could easily do better - and not just this season but also the previous 2 seasons. He's been a great coach here since he arrived.

[Fotis St]

Appreciation Thread for Bud & Horst are a bit off line. I get the "let's thank everyone evolved". I thank them too. BUT appreciation thread ? That's too much for me. Those two, made Giannis path to current Championship extremely hard, almost impossible. I said that Giannis can win us a ring and overcome this Org incompetence if he reaches Michael Jordan level... He actually did exactly that. I mean myself and many other posters even from the Miami series were saying that we need Giannis at the post in order to surpass the WALL... it took him 2-3 years to train the team to do it effectively.
People also here were calling him out about the stupid drop scheme with Lopez parked at the paint... it took him like forever to drop it and play Giannis at the 5 with everybody switching.
So Bud and Horst did a below average work ... but Giannis is a gift from the Basketball Gods and blessed him to overcome these obstacles.
Lets not get carried away too much, we can surely do a better job and improve on and off the court.

So thank you Bud, you did improve against the Wall and actually got improved in his time outs in the Finals.

But as Bud said "we ask Giannis to do even more" ... well I personally want from Bud and Horst to do more too. I mean I am asking from Bud & Horst to triple their effectiveness and their speed to find solutions to team's needs. They have alot to improve.

[RogerMurdock]

Damn, I just burned my eyes from the heat emanating from Fotis' terrible hot take.

[Bucksfan28]

Need someone to design a "Play Random" shirt. But the P is the trophy.

[ShootingtheJ]

While Bud gets the reputation of being rigid against change, he's the most constantly evolving coach in the game. His defensive schemes completely changed from Atlanta to Milwaukee. He changed our offense from 5 out to 4-1. He increased his use of the pick and roll. Whatever is the next big trend is in the league, I'm confident he'll be one of the first to use it.

He started using the first game of playoff series as an experiment, and that gave him a huge advantage as the series progressed, with a 13-2 record in games 3-7.

Also, his practice style aimed at player health and longevity may have been the biggest factor in the Bucks winning the title in this season of attrition.

[ShootingtheJ]

The next thing Bud needs to research is how to get your team to actually make 3s in the playoffs.