It’s no secret that Milwaukee Bucks veteran Jae Crowder did not see eye to eye with the team’s previous regime. In fact, the 6-foot-6 wing even went as far as questioning why the Bucks even brought him on last season when they didn’t actually have any plans of allowing him to make an impact on the squad.
Things are much different for Crowder now that it’s Adrian Griffin who’s sitting at the helm. In fact, Crowder has already witnessed a major milestone from the rookie coach — one that the vet believes will work wonders not only for the team’s new shot-caller but for the rest of the squad as well.
Jae Crowder Heaps Praise on Milwaukee Bucks Coach Adrian Grffiin
As it turns out, Griffin had a meeting with the team’s veterans prior to Friday’s win against the New York Knicks. The players had a few suggestions in mind, with one of them surrounding Brook Lopez’s role on the defensive end.
The players wanted to see Lopez deeper in the drop to contest shots at the basket — advice that Griffin opted to heed. It worked tremendously in Milwaukee’s favor with Lopez blocking no less than eight shots against the Knicks, en route to a 110-105 victory for the Bucks.
According to Crowder, these are the types of moments that have defined Griffin’s tenure early on:
“I think it’s a two-way street,” Crowder said, via Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “We’ve been listening to him all camp, this is the first time we came to him and he listened to us. It’s only going to build the trust. It’s only just going to keep building relationships between the player-coach. For him to have the open door and just have an ear for us and know that we’re trying to give our best and just trying to put ourselves in position to be our best, it’s great. It can only help us. It’ll help our relationship, it’ll help the growth of everything and it helps big fella be comfortable going back to what he does great. Not what he does good. He can do what coach want him to do good, but he does the other stuff great. He had eight blocks tonight, just protecting the rim, protecting everybody. It’s great.”
Griffin is clearly building rapport with his players, and it goes without saying that the approval coming from key veterans on the squad will go a long way for the rookie coach.
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