The Milwaukee Bucks inexplicably finds itself on the brink of elimination at the hands of the Miami Heat – down 0-3 in their second round series. This is certainly a shocking development, considering the Bucks dominated the regular season, much like they did last year. And in the middle of the all the madness is Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer.

If the Heat pull off the sweep on Sunday, the Bucks should give head coach Mike Budenholzer the pink slip if their season ends in the most embarrassing of fashions.

This isn't to discredit everything Miami has done to outplay Milwaukee and take full control of this series. Jimmy Butler, Goran Dragic, and company have done a tremendous job in playing beautiful basketball on both ends of the floor. Moreover, soon to be 2-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo has certainly received his fair share of criticism for his struggles in this series. However, a lot of the blame should go on last season's NBA Coach of the Year.

The Bucks play one way and Budenholzer seems adamant on sticking to his principles the rest of the way.

Playing one game plan can bring tremendous success in the regular season. Budenholzer's regular season resume shows that. He led the Atlanta Hawks to a 60-win season in his first coaching gig. Now, he has led the Bucks to the best record in the league in his two seasons in Milwaukee.

However, this tactic simply won't work in the postseason, where teams can focus in and try to exploit possible weaknesses. Going with the same attack over and over again has made Milwaukee predictable. And clearly, for a smart coach like Eric Spoelstra, he will find a way to counter this attack and keep on exploiting it.

This is one of the main reasons why the Bucks also fell to the Toronto Raptors in last year's Eastern Conference Finals. Nick Nurse's switched it up in Game 3 of that series. Budenholzer never countered and adjusted, and the Bucks lost the four straight to get bounced in six games.

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Once again, Budenholzer's unwillingness to diversify his attack has led them to this predicament. While they can still edge out a win in this series, it's hard to see them, even for a historically good team like the Bucks, pull off the miracle of miracles and come back from a 0-3 hole.

Case in point is Budenholzer's unwillingness to play his best players more. The two-time Coach of the Year usually goes deep into his bench and plays his reserves extended minutes throughout the regular season. Ideally, this would be a great tactic to keep his best players fresh for the postseason run.

But that doesn't seem to be his intentions for keeping Antetokounmpo and Middleton's minutes down throughout the season. He continues to deploy his usual lineups, and his main stars have not seen an uptick in playing time at all.

Antetokounmpo and Middleton are seeing just 35 minutes a night. And it doesn't seem like he's going to make any changes in Game 4, even if Milwaukee's season — and even perhaps, his job — is on its last string. For Budenholzer, giving them these minutes his already “pushing the ceiling.”

This is absolutely head-scratching. Does Bud even know we're in the playoffs already? Is he purposely trying to get himself fired? This is simply inexcusable on Budenholzer's part. Coaches usually tighten their rotations during the playoffs and deploy their best players.

Just look at the Raptors. Kyle Lowry, Pascal Siakam, and Fred VanVleet all played over 40 minutes in their must win Game 3 and also Game 4 against the Boston Celtics. Heck, Lowry, at 34 years old, is averaging 41 minutes throughout the series. Budenholzer's probably looking baffled at that portion of the stat sheet.

Milwaukee's season is essentially done. Even if they live to fight another day, Mike Budenholzer definitely needs to go. The Giannis sweepstakes are inevitably going to cloud them throughout the off-season. And they need to make this change as they go all out in their year-long bid to convince The Greek Freak to stay in Milwaukee.