The recent decision by the Milwaukee Bucks to move on from head coach Adrian Griffin had everyone shocked. Giannis Antetokounmpo and the rest of the team understandably are still picking up the pieces from the major shift in the team's landscape.

“Obviously, it's tough. You build a relationship with people and then all of a sudden, boom they're not here. For a coach like Griff, I think from day one, everything was about togetherness. He was always leading this group into the direction that we set in the beginning of the year. Him not being here, at the end of the day, we're human. It hurts,” the Bucks cornerstone reflected on Griffin's time in Milwaukee and the coach's recent firing (via Eric Nehm of The Athletic)

At the same time, Antetokounmpo has been around the league long enough to know that ownership and management always set a high standard, especially for teams built to win.

“But at the end of the day, we gotta keep moving forward. We have a goal in our head, which is to be the best basketball team that we can be. Obviously, there are high expectations from the ownership group, from the front office, from ourselves to be great and this is the business of the NBA. I've been in a situation like this in the past. I understand how things work. I gotta keep on moving forward. Today, Joe Prunty is our head coach. We played a very, very good game against a very, very good team that we lost by 40 a week ago. And tomorrow, Coach Prunty is going to be our coach again and we're going to watch film and we're going to let Coach Joe lead us towards the direction that we set at the beginning of the year and try to be better.”

Giannis Antetokoumpo, Bucks continue to navigate season without Adrian Griffin

Bucks' Giannis Antetokounmpo hyped up, with Doc Rivers smiling and Adrian Griffin looking sad

The Bucks went 30-13 under Griffin in the 2023-24 NBA regular season, but Milwaukee apparently still thought it could get better by sacking the former NBA player, who also played for the Boston Celtics, Dallas Mavericks, Houston Rockets, and the Chicago Bulls. To feel vindicated over their surprising move on Griffin, the Bucks need to be even more successful going forward, which is not hard to imagine, given that is being led by two future Hall of Famers in Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard.

Game No. 1 of the post-Adrian Griffin era already was a success for the Bucks, as they defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday at home, 126-116.