What better person to explain why Doc Rivers accepted the head coaching job with the Milwaukee Bucks than his son Austin Rivers?
The reasons were obvious. Milwaukee is one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference and was 30-13 when they made the shocking move to fire Adrian Griffin after 43 games.
If the team kept Adrian Griffin, they wouldn’t be competing for a championship. The defense was atrocious, and the role players weren’t consistent enough to take the scoring load off Giannis, Khris Middleton, and Damian Lillard.
The trade for Damian Lillard dramatically changed the team’s expectations, and it was up to Adrian Griffin to juggle coaching two superstar players while figuring out how the team would mesh defensively.
Well, he figured out that if you give the ball to Lillard and Giannis most of the time, that’s considered a good offense, but the problem was that every game was an All-Star game score, and even after Christmas, Milwaukee’s defense still didn’t show any signs of improvement.
With the hiring of Doc Rivers, Milwaukee adds a proven leader to their bench.
Austin Rivers speaks out on why Doc Rivers is the perfect coach for the Milwaukee Bucks.
On his podcast “Off Guard,” Rivers did a deep dive into the Milwaukee Bucks as a team and explained why Doc Rivers is the perfect coach for this team.
“We have an elite player in Giannis. We’ve got an elite closer in Dame (Damian Lillard), we’ve finally got Khris Middleton finally healthy, and Brook Lopez is healthy. They got a good role player that they found in Malik Beasley. Outside of that, they are a little questionable. I love Bobby Portis but after that they do need some help on the bench defensively for sure they need that. They are a very strong team, and needed to bring someone in with a voice, who can control a locker room and somebody who’s done it before, all of those things point to my dad.”
He also shot back at the critics and outlined why Doc Rivers is the new coach of the Milwaukee Bucks.
“He’s the second- winningest African American coach to ever coach in basketball. He’s very relatable, has won and has gone to the championship twice.”
Let’s not forget that Doc Rivers has spent his entire coaching career being at the helm of not only good regular season teams but he’s spent his entire coaching career coaching star players.
Rivers indicated how much pressure is on for Doc Rivers to be successful in Milwaukee.
“There’s a s**t ton of pressure on this, they got to perform and I think my pops knows that. I think everybody there knows that.”
Rivers laid out what needs to happen for his dad to be a successful coach for the Milwaukee Bucks.
“It’s not going to be the end all be all this year, I think he has this year, I think he has next year, and I think he might have the year after that depening on how everything goes. Conference Finals has to happen I’m not saying it has to be this year, it’d be great, next year they have to go to the Conference Finals.”
I would argue that the Milwaukee Bucks have to go on a deep playoff run for this to be a successful season. Last season, they were bounced in the first round against the Miami Heat. The year before that, they lost in the Eastern Conference Semis in 7 games to the Boston Celtics. Milwaukee has to go further in the playoffs, and firing your coach midseason despite having the second-best record in the East solidifies a championship-or-bust mentality for the Milwaukee Bucks.
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