On January 23, the Milwaukee Bucks officially fired head coach Adrian Griffin. At the time, the Bucks were second in the Eastern Conference standings with a record of 30 wins and 13 losses. Journalists such as ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski and The Athletic's Shams Charania had Rivers as the favorite to take over. And so he was. One day after the announcement of Griffin's dismissal, the Bucks announced the incorporation of the former Boston Celtics champion in 2008.
BREAKING: Doc Rivers is finalizing an agreement to become the next coach of the Milwaukee Bucks, sources tell ESPN. The Bucks are getting the coach they targeted over the past 24 hours. pic.twitter.com/SP16vhYJDP
- Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) January 24, 2024
Poor results in recent years
After the title won in 2008, Rivers spent another 5 seasons with the Celtics, in which he lost in the first round of the playoffs in the 2012/13 season; in the Eastern Conference semifinals in the 2008/09 and 2010/11 seasons; in the conference finals in 2011/12; and in the NBA Finals in the 2009/2010 season.
The Los Angeles Clippers was his next team for the next seven seasons, six of them reaching the playoffs, although he failed to meet the expectations generated with a team that had players like Chris Paul, DeAndre Jordan, Jamal Crawford, or Blake Griffin, and whose best result was the conference semifinals twice.
The next chapter in his career came in the 2020/21 season, when he became the coach of the Philadelphia 76ers. Three years, and three conference semifinal losses later, ultimately doomed Rivers, who failed to make the pairing of Joel Embiid and James Harden work. On May 16, 2023, the 76ers announced his dismissal.
Brief stint on television
After 24 consecutive seasons on the bench, Rivers joined Mike Breen and Doris Burke to commentate the league's best games on ESPN. The deal was made official on August 14. Initially, the three were expected to be the lead commentators, and would serve as such for the NBA Finals. Interestingly, Rivers could have gone from attending the Finals as a commentator to doing so as a coach if the Bucks make it back to the Finals three seasons after clinching the title in 2021.
The Bucks' season
The Bucks' 2023/24 season began with major changes made over the summer. The dismissal of Mike Budenholzer and the arrival of Damian Lillard were part of those big changes that their franchise player, Giannis Antetokounmpo, was asking for in order to renew his contract. Adrian Griffin, a former assistant with several teams around the league, was chosen to replace the coach who led them to the ring in 2021. With Lillard's arrival in Milwaukee, expectations grew to the point of putting the Wisconsin team as one of the great favorites to win the championship at the end of the season. However, many were those who warned of the great defensive deficiencies, especially on the perimeter, that they could have after the departure of Jrue Holiday. Holiday, who despite being traded to the Blazers at first, ended up signing with the Boston Celtics, direct rival of the Bucks in the Eastern Conference.
Griffin's lack of authority with the great stalwarts of the locker room, and his inability to generate plays that gave fluidity to the team, both on defense and offense, ended up costing him his job. As for Lillard, he has not yet shown the level that he maintained for so many years in Portland, and that led him to be one of the best point guards in the competition. Currently, his season, in terms of field goal percentage and three-point percentage, is the third worst in his NBA career. Giannis, on the other hand, is showing a great level, but the connection with his new teammate is not improving as the games go by.
"Doc" takes over
In the midst of all this, "Doc" Rivers arrived before the All-Star break. An "All-Star" for which he was named coach of the East team, when he had only been in charge for two weeks. This was due to the fact that Joe Mazzulla, coach of the Boston Celtics and first ranked in the East, was already the coach last year, and since it cannot be repeated in consecutive years, the coach of the second ranked team would be the one to replace him. In this case, the Bucks.
So far this season, the Bucks are the 4th best team offensively, but 15th best defensively. However, since Rivers' arrival to the bench, they rank 17th in offensive phase, and 4th in defensive phase. The start was difficult, with 1 win and 5 losses in the first six games. However, after 16 games in charge, the team has a record of 9 wins and 7 losses, with a streak of 6 consecutive wins that continues after last night's win over the Clippers.
If Rivers' arrival means a substantial improvement defensively, all these Bucks need is for Lillard's best version to return, or at least one that resembles him, to solve the offensive problems they've been having all season. In addition, of course, to their two best players starting to improve their team play.