Doc Rivers builds the Bucks into what he wants them to be, even though they lose.
Monday was Doc Rivers’s first game as head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks. They lost against the Denver Nuggets 113–107.
That makes the Bucks sad because they have high hopes for this season and a desire to win a championship. It’s important to win games.
But winning isn’t enough, as shown by the fact that the team fired Adrian Griffin after he had a 30-13 start during his first season as an NBA head coach.
The Bucks needed to demonstrate that they were able to win in a certain way for the organization’s leaders to believe the team could win a championship. This meant that some changes had to be made.
When Doc River flew into Dallas last week, he planned to spend more time with his son and daughter-in-law before being on ESPN on Wednesday night to call a game involving the Mavericks and the Suns.
Instead, he found what he dubbed “a lot of important messages” on his phone Tuesday afternoon after hearing that the Bucks of Milwaukee had fired Adrian Griffin, their first-year coach.
Rivers said at that point that he was happy with his time out of coaching after being fired from his job as coach of the Philadelphia 76ers this summer after three years.
Since then, he said, he had been called several times about open coach positions, but he hadn’t picked up the phone and wouldn’t any time soon unless it was the right job.
He was an All-American during Marquette in the 1980s, and now he plays for the Milwaukee Bucks. His honored jersey number hangs in the rafters of their home arena.
Then think about the team he takes over: Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard are two superstars, and they have a chance of winning a championship.
“You already know the answer.” Giannis and Dame. “That’s the answer,” Rivers said during his first news conference on Saturday morning.
“Like, look at the team they have. The Bucks have been one of them, but I’m not sure if it’s that high.
“The other thing is that they’re built with veterans and their grown-ups.” If you’re planning to start something at this point in the year, I thought this kind of group would give you the best chance to connect or change things the fastest.
Rivers, 62, was introduced at a news conference on Saturday morning while sitting next to Bucks general manager Jon Horst.
This happened three days after Horst sat at the same booth to talk about firing Griffin after only 43 games, even though the team had a 30-13 record in Griffin’s first year as coach.
Griffin and Rivers have talked more than once—”Adrian and I were close friends, I wanted himself to do well,” Rivers said—but neither Griffin nor Horst would admit that Rivers had worked for the team before this week.
The Bucks beat the New Orleans Pelicans by a huge score on Saturday night to finish the second half of a back-to-back. Rivers will be coaching his first game as a coach on Monday night away at the Denver Nuggets.
Antetokounmpo talked about his first thoughts of Rivers and the goals he set after Saturday’s win. Antetokounmpo said, “You can tell he has a lot of energy.”
“From the first meeting we had to the second meeting we enjoyed he was all about what about the squad, how can we keep everyone accountable, how can we touch one another, how can we join together as a team, how can that we move the ball — just the enthusiasm that he has, he brings you a lot of confidence.”
“His voice and how he can get teams going,” Lillard said. “His voice is strong.” He is going to expect more from us. He won’t be afraid to take on me, he won’t be afraid to challenge Giannis, and so on.
“I think when you have to deal with a team which is full of vets and as skilled as we are, I think that is something that you want if you want to achieve the level we all want to reach.”
As of Monday, the Milwaukee Milwaukee Bucks will still have 36 games to play in their regular-season schedule before the playoffs start. Lillard agreed with Rivers and said he would not be afraid of challenging the team.
“This is something I’ve never done before.” When asked about taking over a team in the middle of the season, Rivers said, “I would not want this on anyone.” “This is going to be hard. I’m running toward the challenge.
We need to fasten up our plans. You shouldn’t try to do too much too soon. “We have to make changes, that’s for sure. We’re in the heart of a season, so we need to try to keep our rhythm.” We’ll get to work on it right away.”