Stephen A.: This is Doc Rivers’ LAST CHANCE to prove himself as a head coach 🚨 | NBA Countdown

Stephen A.: This is Doc Rivers’ LAST CHANCE to prove himself as a head coach 🚨 | NBA Countdown

Just about 24 hours ago after firing Adrien Griffin Adrien wowski reports the Bucks have hired Doc Rivers as their new head coach Rivers is ninth on the all-time wins list over 14 Seasons with the magic the Celtics the Clippers and the 76ers of course he won a championship with Boston in 2008 now

Rivers has a track record of coaching stard Duos just look at this list now it includes Dame Lillard and jannis attent kmo so Rivers has coached 11 of the players on the NBA’s 75th anniversary team so w why did the Bucks who are second in the East think a coaching

Change was needed and that Rivers is the answer the Bucks ultimately believed that they had a young coach whose learning curve was really not going to be on the timetable to help them be a championship team this year maybe even next year that they have a window with

Anant kopo with Dame Lillard which is Win now and I think over these first 43 games despite the record the fact that it was the League’s easiest schedule over this time that they didn’t see the ability for Adrien Griffin uh to grow into the kind of Coach they needed in

The playoffs that they needed to command this team to get better defensively and they go to Doc Rivers largely because he was the best available coach out there when they did a search last summer Doc Rivers was not among their finalists he was not really a candidate for the job

It was Nick nurse it was Kenny ainson in Golden State and Adrien Griffin and so I think what Doc Rivers brings to this team is certainly a lot of playoff experience a coach who has been in the Eastern Conference the last three years as you just detailed Malika all the star

Players he’s coached yeah but he was available to them and I think for Doc Rivers has a lot to prove in this job he is trying to get out of the second round of the playoffs in both the Eastern Conference and his time in the western conference with an organization that

Expects to go further than that I’m told Dave gger who was his assistant in Philadelphia former head coach in uh Sacramento Memphis he’s expected he he is a strong candidate to join him there they’re going to continue to talk about that add to the staff there but I think

For Milwaukee Doc Rivers gives them they thought their best chance to win and you know he will start as coach here soon does the path Stephen A for the bucks to come out of the Eastern Conference become easier now that Doc Rivers is the head coach for Milwaukee I’m not goingon

To say easier where’s Boston going Philadelphia and jool and B looks like an absolute Superstar he’s in he’s the first in line for League MVP I will say this the level of urgency definitely is going to be attached to this franchise even more so from the second that Doc

Rivers walks through the door it’s 24 seasons he’s got one Championship you talked about 11 players on the top 75 is still W Championship okay we understand that that’s number one number two we understand how he departed from the Clippers this is a friend I love him

Daily I believe in the man the man can coach but you just got bounced out of Phil Philadelphia this is a situation right now despite all of these seasons of consecutive winning seasons and what have you there are game sevens that you have lost and there’s five consecutive

Game sevens that he’s lost and three times he’s lost a 3-1 lead I believe in Doc Rivers but I also believe this is his last chance he doesn’t win in Milwaukee and he ends up losing this job in the foreseeable future like the next

Couple of years it will be his last as a head coach in the NBA it is that kind of pressure right and he’s going to have to get the Greek Freak and Dame and the rest to answer the call look obviously um you don’t want to be here I mean this

Is not where you want to be John horse doesn’t want to do this right now and you look at how did you get here you go back to Adrian the hiring really I mean the hardest thing to do for an organization obviously the most important person is is the owner and

Then the general manager because he picks the players and the players are the ones that win or lose but then it’s the coach and and when you hire a coach it’s really hard it’s really hard to get the right guy but you don’t want to make

Changes now right you don’t want to be here and sitting here with a team that’s contending for a championship to watch their defense become what it has I don’t blame John Horst I I don’t know Adrian Griffin I by the way tremendous record right done a good job with this record

Would you have done we’re talking about a 30 and 13 team would you have done the same thing looking at this group Malik you have to believe that John horse didn’t wake up yesterday and make this decision right this was in his head Stephen A we talked the other day about

What you saw happen in Vegas yes some of the conversations you heard personally um that to me was the first kind of break in the dam when your best player comes out and says what are we doing what remember I came to all of y’all

Because I was the one in The Press Room who had asked Giannis a question about the team right and then he went in and was using words like lost buff incompetent stuff like that he was saying and I said are you talking about the coach because he kept alluding to

Things that was the coach and I shouldn’t say alluding it was direct when we talk about why Doc Rivers Doc Rivers has in that time those 24 years just won Championship but gotten close enough cuz he has managed stars and in the NBA at the top of the coaching list

Long before we get to any X’s and O’s you got to manage Stars doc has done that we know that Stars around the league at least believe he can do that if they were in that situation so so that’s and and now we go to Giannis this

Is as much on Giannis as it is on Doc as a matter of fact let me change that more it’s more on Giannis star players shoulder the burden in the NBA that’s the way it’s always been it’s the way it is right now Giannis was okay with

Adrien Griffin right he picked but then he wasn’t and so he wasn’t very quickly it didn’t take long to not be okay with him now he’s okay with Doc he better be okay with it but they also Milwaukee knows it’s not just this season and that

Goes back to why now it’s this season you don’t want to lose and you don’t want to lose your star because we’ve seen Harden Durant Kyrie others you can force your way out no matter what your contractual status is in the NBA they don’t want Giannis to do that they don’t

Want to see him go in the orange and blue skies in New York City and Madison Square Garden so you got to get this right in Milwaukee but Giannis has got to get it right too these you talk about these two star players Giannis Dame Lillard these are not supposed to be

Hard players to coach these are two of the most professional players of their generation I think for Doc Rivers it is the rest of that roster it is tightening this team up defensively it is his stature his leadership to the broader group and he is their trade deadline

Deal that’s what Doc Rivers is their Improvement has got to come with this coach they don’t have the asset to go out and make a significant [Applause] [Applause] trade

Stephen A. Smith, Adrian Wojnarowski, Michael Wilbon and Bob Myers join Malika Andrews on NBA Countdown to describe the pressure Doc Rivers will have to win a championship with Damian Lillard, Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks after failing to do so with the LA Clippers and Philadelphia 76ers.

✔️Subscribe to ESPN+ http://espnplus.com/youtube
✔️ Get the ESPN App: http://www.espn.com/espn/apps/espn
✔️Subscribe to ESPN on YouTube: http://es.pn/SUBSCRIBEtoYOUTUBE
✔️ Subscribe to NBA on ESPN on YouTube: http://bit.ly/SUBSCRIBEtoNBAonESPN
✔️ Watch ESPN on YouTube TV: http://es.pn/YouTubeTV

#nba #espn #basketball