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Milwaukee Bucks Make Surprising Decision to Fire Adrian Griffin

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Milwaukee Bucks Adrian Griffin

Getty Adrian Griffin yelling.

The Milwaukee Bucks have fired Adrian Griffin, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. Griffin was in his first season as a head coach, leading the team to a 30-13 record. Despite the second-place spot in the Eastern Conference, there have been obvious issues for the Bucks. On the defensive end, they’ve been one of the worst in basketball.

The reason for his firing hasn’t been announced. This could’ve been as simple as the Bucks weren’t playing well enough under him and general manager Jon Horst believed they needed to change something. Joe Prunty is expected to take over as the interim head coach.
Shams Charania of The Athletic reported the following on how the Bucks made the decision to hire Griffin:
“After that, each candidate met with a Bucks ownership contingent on Wednesday. On Thursday night, Horst held a dinner to discuss the team’s decision regarding the head coach opening that included ownership. Both Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton were invited to attend, a league source said.”
As Shams notes, Giannis was certainly a major factor in the decision.
“While all three candidates interviewed for the position with Horst, another factor became incredibly noteworthy late in the process: the finalists were also given the chance to meet individually with two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo at his River Hills, Wis. home on Tuesday, sources briefed on the matter said. “

Bucks Head Coaching Candidates

According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, Doc Rivers has emerged as a serious candidate to become the next head coach. Adrian Wojnarowski reports that Rivers will be near the top of the list and that the Bucks are planning to put together a small pool of coaches and interview them.

It’s uncertain who else the Bucks will go after. At this point in the year, not many coaches are available.

Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated reported that Giannis Antetokounmpo lost faith in Griffin in recent weeks.

“There have been steady rumblings for weeks in NBA circles that several Bucks veterans, including Giannis, had lost faith in Griffin. What appeared to be smart hire last spring just never worked out.”

While Mike Budenholzer had his reasons for being fired, and it still might be the right decision in the long run, he likely would’ve done a better job than Griffin did this season. Perhaps he could return to Milwaukee, although that’s extremely unlikely.

Important Deadline Coming up for Milwaukee

Firing Griffin seems to be the right idea. However, it’s tough to blame everything on him. As the Milwaukee Bucks defense took a major hit this season, all of that blame seems to be getting put on him. In reality, the Bucks don’t have many good defenders on their roster. They lack a POA and wing defender.

As the deadline approaches, they have massive moves to make. Whether that be for a POA defender or something else, Milwaukee must improve defensively. No matter who the coach is, it’s going to be tough to succeed with this team defensively.

This is an interesting spot for them to be in and it made the deadline even more important. Milwaukee’s a championship or bust team and with that being the case, they have to make the right moves every step of the way.

Jon Conahan covers the NBA and NFL for Heavy.com. Since 2019, his sports coverage has appeared at Sports Illustrated, oddschecker, ClutchPoints and Sportskeeda. More about Jon Conahan

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