Defense, ‘Bad Decision’ Torpedo Adrian Griffin’s Short Bucks Tenure

Getty The Bucks' Adrian Griffin was fired 43 games into the season, despite a 30-13 record.

Two league sources were quickly on the line Tuesday afternoon telling Heavy Sports that Adrian Griffin was in a no-win situation.

Except the Bucks had won 30 of their 43 games, including five of their last six. They were tied for the second-best record in the NBA, just three losses behind the Celtics, whom they defeated two weeks ago.

But that wasn’t enough to save Griffin’s job. The first time head coach, after 15 years as an assistant and a 10-year playing career, was deemed an improper fit for the position.

There were those who questioned his hiring in the first place. He took over for Mike Budenholzer, who was let go two years after guiding Milwaukee to an NBA championship a shortly after the club earned the No. 1 overall seed and was bounced in the first round by Miami. Sources told Heavy that exit interviews with Bucks players were a factor in Budenholzer’s dismissal.

It was clear that Griffin was placed in a difficult situation, a win-now mandate that grew even stronger when Milwaukee acquired Damian Lillard just days before the start of training camp.

‘Just a Bad Job for Him to Take’

Were Griffin and these Bucks really a match?

“Nope,” said one veteran NBA coach. “I said that when they hired him. Adrian was upset and disappointed these last two or three years that he didn’t get a (head coaching) job, but this was the wrong job to take. I said, ‘You’re walking into a situation where they won (58) games in the regular season, the best record in the damn league. You’d better have success — like, immediate success.’

“That was just a bad job for him to take, and it was a bad decision to bring in a first-year head coach with no experience. They should have hired Doc Rivers instead of Adrian Griffin. But I think they looked at Darvin Ham getting to the conference finals with the Lakers his first year after he’d been on their staff under (Mike) Budenholzer.

“But to hire a guy with no head coaching experience for THAT team, I don’t think that was smart at all.”

Bucks Defense Did in Adrian Griffin

According to multiple league sources, Milwaukee’s defense was a major concern to the front office. The Bucks had been among the NBA’s best on that end of the floor, but this season are 25th of 30 in points allowed at 120.5 per game.

“Their defense was one of the worst in the NBA,” said one, “and management there was looking at it like, ‘We have a two-year window to win.’ They gave (Griffin) 40-something games to show where their defense was, and they made their decision.

“I don’t think the players helped the situation with how they felt about things, but I think it just came down to their defense. It was just because their defense was so bad, and they were think they had this year and next year to win it. They obviously hope to keep things solid for longer, but that’s the window they’ve been looking at.”

The larger question is whether the Bucks could honestly think they could send away a first team All-League defender in Jrue Holiday for Lillard and believe their defense would be nearly as good.

“I thought the Celtics benefited so much from those trades that it put the Bucks in a terrible situation,” said one front office source on the succession of moves that saw Holiday go from Portland to the Celtics. “They couldn’t have been thinking Jrue was going to wind up in Boston when they traded him for Dame. Now Jrue’s solidified Boston, which was already a good team. And now Boston looks like the best team out there.”

Trouble Connecting With Players

Said a coach, “In the playoffs, Lillard’s going to be in every single pick and roll. Any team they play is just going to put him in every pick and roll. Lillard tries on defense, but he’s a liability.

“They probably should have brought in at least one lock-down defender, for sure, because they don’t have one. They don’t have a lock-down defender. (Jae) Crowder’s a tough guy, but he’s going to have trouble guarding a primary scorer.

“You could put Holiday on LeBron, you could put him on Tatum, you could put him on Jaylen Brown, you could put him on Trae Young. You could put him on the premier scorers in the NBA.”

Regarding talk that players were questioning Griffin, a league source told Heavy Sports, “Getting the players to want to play for you is what’s important now. That’s a skill. The kids in this era are different. It’s not old school. You’ve gotta connect with them.

“You’ve got to show them you can make them better. You’ve got to show them that you’re in it together. You can’t be a dictator, and Adrian came in strong in his first job. He obviously wanted to establish himself. That’s what led to Terry (Stotts, former assistant coach) quitting on him. People needed to realize that Adrian wanted to get his feet set there in his first time.

“But it’ll be interesting to see what happens now. The players may get a coach they like better, but Milwaukee’s still going to have to do something to fix that defense before the playoffs get here.”