As a Bucks fan who has watched every game this team has played since before Giannis arrived, this whole situation from firing Bud to hiring Griff to now Doc has been a gigantic clusterfuck. It is also however, explainable. Long winded rant to follow.
Firstly, firing Bud - the situation in the playoffs last year was bad on many levels. Jimmy was on one, dominating Jrue and making sure everybody knew about it. The fact that this happened over multiple games without an adjustment from the team was embarrassing. Giannis getting injured and playing injured meant this Miami series was always going to be tougher than expected, but the outcome was still embarrassing for the entire organization. Personally, I would have been just fine with keeping Bud, but I understood it. Thing is, if you fire a coach of his caliber, you better have a good plan already in place. Maybe they thought they did.
So we fire Bud and start a coaching search, the end result of which is 3 finalists, Griffin, Atkinson, and Nurse (I wanted Atkinson). Front office wants Nurse, Giannis says he doesn't want to play for Nurse for whatever reason. Griffin had served as Nurse's lead assistant in Toronto, and Giannis likes Griff. It is important to note that at this point in the process, Giannis had not signed his extension and was going on a media tour talking about it. Pressure was applied and the team acquiesced.
Here is where we enter the speculation zone. Was Griffin pitched a different version of the team then the one he ended up with? Maybe. At the time we hired Griffin, we had not yet resigned Khris or Brook. We had not yet traded for Dame. Griffin's defensive system requires long, athletic, smart players to aggressively trap the ball handler and generate turnovers. That's not Brook, or Khris at his age, and it's certainly not Dame over Jrue. It's clear that once the season started we did not have the personnel to run Griff's system the way he envisioned. Sadly for him, he wasn't able to adapt and had to be fired despite his record. Anyone who watches the Bucks regularly could tell something was very wrong with this team from the very beginning. The players did not enjoy playing his system, and they never bought in. This firing had to happen. I was calling for the firing in the preseason which is, I know, insane. But it really has been that obvious for that long that this would never work. This firing had to happen.
So then maybe the right call should be to let Joe Prunty be the interim coach for the rest of the season and weigh your options later. But timelines you know? Boys getting older, window not wide open, make hay while that sun is shining, etc. Ownership is not paying these huge luxury tax bills to fuck around, they want a coach with championship experience in here right now. Giannis has by now signed his extension, so his opinion no longer matters quite as much. And so, Doc.
As a die hard Bucks fan, it is my fate to find a reason to root for Doc now. To believe in him even. At least until he proves me wrong, which he likely will. So here goes. I think Doc is roughly equivalent to Bud as a coach. Probably a little worse. But he will put in a sensible system that works. Good relationships with the players (at least until he has to throw someone under the bus after an embarrassing playoff collapse). Refusal to make adjustments in the playoffs. But baseline, good enough to win a title with a bit of luck. Maybe he's just had the misfortune of coaching a bunch of chokers after Boston. Maybe merely competent coaching will be good enough with the talent on the roster. Maybe, maybe, maybe...
I'm not thrilled with any of this. Most of the wounds are self-inflicted by the front office or Giannis himself. But, I think we are more likely to win a title today than we were a few days ago. Yes, even with Doc.
