The best team does not always win a championship every year in the NBA.
Need some proof of this? Just ask the Milwaukee Bucks.
Finishing the regular season with a 58-24 record, the Bucks entered the playoffs as the league's top overall seed and their chances of winning another title were high. Well, that was until the 8-seeded Miami Heat rolled into Milwaukee and took down the league's top team in five games.
The Bucks disappointing end to the 2022-23 season resulted in Mike Budenholzer's departure and the arrival of long-time NBA assistant and former player Adrian Griffin. Recently serving as an assistant coach for the Toronto Raptors since 2018, Griffin will seize control of the reins on the sideline in Milwaukee with one goal in mind – hanging another banner in Fiserv Forum.
“The foundation has already been laid. This is a strong culture,” Griffin said in his introductory press conference on Tuesday afternoon. “We have special talent on this team, so this wasn't something where I was coming in to uproot everything, it's to build. I think with my 25 years of experience in the NBA, I can add great value to the team just bringing my experiences as a player and a coach.”
Only one organization has over 350 regular season wins since the start of the 2016-17 season and that is the Bucks. Success is the only word this franchise wants to talk about and Griffin is ready for the challenge that awaits him.
“We have high expectations, but we are going to embrace them,” Griffin continued. “It starts with getting to work and never losing site of the work involved. I think going undrafted and going the minor league route taught me the value of hard work and that's what we are going to build upon from Day 1.”
Spending nine seasons in the NBA as a player, Griffin was a member of five different organizations after going undrafted out of Seton Hall in 1996. After retiring in 2008, he joined Milwaukee as an assistant coach for two seasons before serving as an assistant under Tom Thibodeau with the Chicago Bulls, a lead assistant with the Orlando Magic, an assistant under Billy Donovan with the Oklahoma City Thunder and most recently an assistant under Nick Nurse in Toronto.
Griffin has seen what does and does not work as a coach in this league, which is one of the reasons why he stood out as a coaching candidate for Milwaukee. Replace Budenholzer this offseason suddenly turned into a necessity for the Bucks due to the lack of in-game adjustments being made and the fact that the team's defense struggled in the postseason the last few seasons. This appears to be a key point of emphasis for Griffin heading into the new season.
“I have been under a lot of great coaches and you kind of take the good and make your own stuff, so I am fortunate I have a large pool to pull from,” Griffin stated. “But defense wins championships. We are going to be a proactive defense. We are going to get out there, pressure the ball. We are going to take our defense to the offense. We aren't going to allow the offense to take their offense to us, we are going to pressure the ball, get turnovers and get out and run. We are also going to make adjustments during the game to switch up our defenses.”
While they still look to remain championship contenders for the foreseeable future, the Bucks are entering an offseason where they will face some challenges. Three-time All-Star Khris Middleton could become a free agent should he decline his player option and veteran center Brook Lopez is going to be an unrestricted free agent after his stellar defensive season.
Milwaukee will be looking to retain both players, but several other teams loom in free agency and could look to take one or both championship pieces away from them. Of course the main topic of discussion for the Bucks always revolves around superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo and what the team can do to maximize his value.
Arguably the greatest player in the world, Antetokounmpo will enter the offseason eligible to receive a massive extension in September. Already delivering a title to Milwaukee in 2021, Giannis remains focused on the goal at large and he is the sole reason why the Bucks enter every season as title favorites. Playing a role in the team hiring Griffin, Antetokounmpo is ready to start fresh and get back to the top of the league with his new head coach.
“I can tell you, I left the conversation in awe,” Griffin said in reference to meeting with his new star player. “You're talking about a guy that is super passionate about bringing another championship to the city of Milwaukee. He was very humble, he was very hungry and those are the traits we are looking for in all our players. I had the opportunity to reach out to all the players and that was the common theme with all of them – that they are hungry.
“That's going to be our motto this year. We are going to put in the work, we aren't going to take anything for granted and we are gearing up for April, May and June.”
Unlike most teams that enter the offseason looking for a new head coach to guide their rebuild, the Bucks were looking for a leader and a voice that can immediately take them back to the NBA Finals. Adrian Griffin is ready for this challenge and has the full support of the Bucks behind him. Milwaukee is not going anywhere and they will enter the 2023-24 NBA season as the favorites to once again win the Eastern Conference.
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