Bucks didn't do Adrian Griffin dirty. That is complete nonsense. He will be paid handsomely for half a season of work and it's his choice whether to return to the NBA as an assistant (where he belongs). Bucks made one correct decision and two mistakes: The correct decision was firing Griffin. Their big total bonehead mistake was hiring him as HC to start with. Their second mistake was hiring Doc Rivers as the replacement. The Bucks could argue they didn't have many options but that goes back to the dumb decision to hire Griffin. The outcry that Griffin is some kind of victim is typical of the internet emotional echo chamber. David Culley wasn't a victim of the Texans for getting paid $22 million for one season (which could be more than he made in his entire career as an assistant). He can also brag he was an NFL coach. Lovie Smith wasn't a victim either.
IMO it's not that Griffin is a victim its that it seems that Rivers so far is worse than Griffin. At least Griffin didn't make the dumb tactical mistakes Rivers made so far. And then people are dunking on Giannis cuz he has that squeaky clean image but then turns out to be a coach killer.
Well there was no reason for the bucks to lose to memphis. Atleast the rockets had the excuse of having injuries to several players and a much worse record than the bucks.
Bucks made their bed and have to sleep in it. If Giannis turns on them and asks for a trade after the season, I'll LOL more than anyone.
I have nothing against Doc. Players haven't always agreed with his coaching style, but he seems a decent dude. But firing Adrian Griffin....was it because the star players didn't like his style? He was doing well with a team that had traded away its defense for flash-and-dash.
GIANNIS! Say his name Word is He didn't like The coach criticizing Thananis LOL Diva Behavior Rocket River
He had some questionable moves. Completely changing the way they play defense was bad. To his credit, he changed it back after the players demanded he do so. But I'm not defending his firing. They should have never hired him in the first place. They fired him mainly because Giannis didn't want him and they didn't want an inexperienced head coach, but neither of those things were Griffin's fault. Giannis got pissy and that wasn't the fault of Adrian; and obviously the team knew he was inexperienced as a head coach when they hired him. It was just stupid all around. Luckily for him, his contract was guaranteed. So he'll be getting paid to chill and/or do some other dream job. So at least he has that.
Giannis pushed for Griffin's hiring because he didn't want the Bucks to hire Nick Nurse. They fired Griffin because the players did not believe in anything he was saying about anything because he was clueless. It wasn't just Giannis that tuned him out. You better believe they should not have hired Griffin in the first place. They also shouldn't have let him run off Terry Stotts right before the season started because he would have been perfect to step in. Griffin knew early on he wasn't up to snuff and having a seasoned coach like Stotts around probably made him feel insecure. (This is why the Warriors fired Mark Jackson). The Bucks hired the wrong guy (at the behest of their franchise player), quickly knew they made a big mistake, let this same wrong guy run off his obvious replacement, finally fired him and got stuck paying a washed up Doc Rivers $40 million for nothing. Adrian Griffin made out like a bandit and got $16 million to have a training camp, preseason and coach 40 games. Meanwhile, the Bucks will deservedly suffer the consequences of their franchise-altering idiotic blunder.
I don't know enough about the Bucks to make any actual analysis. However they clearly weren't actually playing poorly under Griffin. Maybe it would have crashed, but I don't see how anybody could say firing a coach of an elite team midseason was a smart move knowing there were not gonna be any good replacements available. They have been peak mid since they got rid of the "terrible" coach so Griffin had to have been doing something right, or at least not wrong. It's pretty clear Giannis is a prima donna who didn't realize how good they had it with Bud. He figured he could win with any coach and just wanted the path of least resistance not respecting the value of the position.
Exactly. I don't care if Griffin was a bad coach. They were winning. Why would you fire a coach to interrupt the momentum when you were winning and had nobody better to replace him? The result is clear. They have been worse after the firing. Anyway, I hate it when a star player is trying to play GM.
Just wait until they fire Doc, they are going to be paying a combined supermax for coaches to not coach
B I don't understand why they commit to such long terms with Doc, I understand just getting him til the end of the season and see what happens. But yeah, players are typically terrible at picking coaches, most of the time they just pick whoever enables them to do whatever
