Experience-wise, you could say that new Milwaukee Bucks head coach Doc Rivers is the exact opposite of his predecessor, Adrian Griffin. While Coach Griff barely survived his first half-season as an NBA head coach, Rivers has more than two decades of head coaching experience in the league.
The Bucks front office clearly wanted to rectify their misstep on hiring an inexperienced coach, and there’s no better way to do that than by bringing in one of the most tenured coaches available.
Pat Connaughton Speaks Out on What Doc Rivers Brings to Milwaukee Bucks
Bucks veteran Pat Connaughton has not had the privilege of playing for Rivers in the past. However, the Arlington, Massachusetts native does know a thing or two about the one-time NBA champion coach.
Connaughton believes that there are some similarities between Rivers’ coaching style to that of Griffin but at the same time, what sets the former apart is the wealth of experience he has under his belt:
“I don’t know Doc great yet, but I was a kid in Boston when they won it in 2008,” Connaughton said (h/t Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel). “I’ve been around the league, this is my ninth year, so I played against him a bunch in L.A. when I was in Portland and there were some battle there. I think it’s just the leadership that I think he can bring. He has that same past-player perspective that (Adrian Griffin) but he’s been doing it for a long time. And he’s won a championship.”
Connaughton also believes that Rivers won’t have any issues stepping into this high-profile role. Coach Doc has pretty much been through it all in his coaching career, and while this stint with the Bucks will definitely present some new and potentially unfamiliar challenges, Rivers’ experience should get him through whatever hurdle is ahead of him.
“His ability to come in, his ability to command respect immediately, his ability to lead because he’s led for so long,” Connaughton continued. “He’s led all types of different personalities, all different type of guys in the NBA. He’s led through different eras of the NBA. I think that will be stuff that will be super helpful to everybody on the team. I think it’ll also have the ability to add some structure and add some consistency to what we’re doing and I think he’ll be able to really mentor and see things from a perspective that not a lot of guys on our team maybe will have been able to do because they haven’t been in the NBA for 25-plus years as a coach, let alone his playing career as well.”
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1 Comment
So now under Doc Rivers and his leadership Bucks will over take Celtics? I doubt it.Doc had several teams and his leadership failed exception is stacked Celtic team 2008.Griffin shoulda stayed.