Breaking: Bucks Coach Sacked After…
Adrian Griffin is fired by the Bucks after 43 games. Following a 30–13 start, Milwaukee has parted company with its coach.
It was Adrian Griffin’s first year as head coach of the NBA.
Adrian Griffin, the coach of the Milwaukee Bucks, was sacked after 43 games on the job. Milwaukee’s record of 30-13 ties them with the Minnesota Timberwolves for the second-best record in the league. In the Eastern Conference, the Bucks trail the Boston Celtics by three and a half games.
Next actions: The Bucks are anticipated to name assistant coach Joe Prunty as their temporary head coach, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Longtime assistant coach Prunty has also filled interim positions in Milwaukee and Atlanta.
Even when the Bucks added seven-time all-NBA guard Damian Lillard prior to the season to complement two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, the decline in Milwaukee’s defensive output has cast doubt on the team’s potential to contend for a title. The Bucks’ defensive rating is currently 22nd in the NBA, down from fourth the previous season.
After Mike Budenholzer was fired by Milwaukee this summer, Griffin was offered his first head coaching position. Budenholzer had guided the Bucks to their first championship in fifty years in 2021. Following the top-seeded Bucks’ 4-1 upset of the Miami Heat in the opening round of the previous season’s playoffs, the coaching change took place.
The 49-year-old Griffin assisted in the NBA for 16 seasons, the last five of which he worked with the Toronto Raptors. That came after he played in the NBA for nine years.
When Griffin took over a club that included two players from the NBA’s 75th anniversary team—Anetokounmpo and Lillard—he was thrust into the public eye at the start of his head coaching career. The sudden resignation of assistant coach Terry Stotts prior to the season served as a caution flag for Griffin’s tenure.
Griffin was fortunate to have Stotts’ more than 1,000 games of head coaching expertise when he started his own head coaching career. Although Stotts had described taking on the role as a “no-brainer,” he departed the team fewer than seven days prior to the start of the season.
