The Milwaukee Bucks aren’t fixed yet | The Athletic NBA Show

The Milwaukee Bucks aren’t fixed yet | The Athletic NBA Show

Doc Rivers is the solution to Milwaukee’s problems no I I think he’ll he’ll change things in a good way he’s not Adrien Griffin who clearly had lost the lock room who clearly had lost Giannis but they just don’t have enough defense there are not enough pieces there to be great defensively and and

You can change your system to better utilize Brook Lopez and Giannis you can change your system so that everything is funnel to those guys and but at the at the end of the day in the playoffs you’re going to have to guard Jason Tatum Jaylen Brown Christ porzingis Drew

Holiday and Derek white and you’re gonna be doing it with Malik Beasley Damen Lillard and God knows who else so I’m I’m not sold that this will fix all of their problems I think their problems went Way Beyond the head coach the vision there is becoming like otherworldly offensively and competent

Defensively but I just don’t see them finding that solution like they just don’t have enough Wing Defenders I I just I’m not I’m not there yet with them and I don’t think I’ll get there Josh pel I just so the hard part for me to to figure out is like what is what

Creates a a solution to the problems right what’s their where are they sitting at record-wise right now they had lost what 13 games when doc took over um and now they’re sitting at what uh 32 and 14 right right you look at that objectively like with no knowledge

Of how whatever the problems are you go this is a good team they’re sitting second in the East right now they’ve only lost 14 like so what is the where’s the problem right to me it was this locker room thing right you got you get hear rumors coming out about Giannis

Changing plays you know what I mean the honest losing trust in in Adrien Griffin like I think doc could be somewhat of a solution because of the fact that like he is he’s Doc Rivers he he has coached championship teams he has the proven resume and he’s a defensive-minded coach

I think he’s gonna earn that respect from these guys that Griffin didn’t have because it’s weird right it’s like why do we feel like this team is struggling when they’re second in the East but also all right so this is interesting from your perspective Josh because you are a

You are a player in the NBA like you like you’ve experienced all this stuff all of us on the outside here do not believe in Doc Rivers right like Doc Rivers get like for his resume and I’m including that I’m not absolve I’m not pretend I’m not a part of that like I

Make as many Doc Rivers jokes about any as as anybody like he is not accepted as this guy who can help you win a championship anymore but why I mean like listen he had some great teams that did not perform when they should because he like they blow 3-1 leads they blow 3-2

Leads they like they don’t Advance you once once the kg Paul Pierce era was was cut you know or or was done like he he hasn’t come close to competing for a championship since I think when you look at his time in Philly that was I feel like a more of a

Personnel issue in terms of embiid wasn’t embiid yet he had Jame Harden right uh Ben Simmons like he was dealing with other potential issues of maturity competitiveness whatever you want to call it things like that I think you don’t have to worry about that with this Bucks roster the same

Way um I don’t know I just I think doc will command a little bit more respect and get these guys to hop on board a little bit better than they did with with Adrien Griffin because as a player and even you don’t even need a player to

To be a player to understand that like if your players if especially if your star player just does not respect the coach that seeps into everything it seeks into the locker room it it becomes toxic and people just don’t buy in my issue with the hiring is not even with

The hiring itself because at this stage of the season they needed to go out and hire somebody with a pedigree they could not have hired just another firsttime head coach who was learning on the Fly who had to come in and and fix things I don’t think that would have worked so

Doc Rivers there weren’t really a lot of other choices given that criteria right my issue is like you look back at Mike buen hoser and he was an amazing regular season coach who won a championship much like Doc Rivers did and had other circumstances where he probably didn’t

Adjust enough where he wasn’t up to the challenge against a great great head coach like Eric spola like and that was his problem that’s doc Rivers’s problem too so you had a guy in Mike booler who might be a better Coach and and then you end up with Doc

River so it’s just like the the steps that they’ve taken as an organization have just LED them to what I consider a downgrade and I get why they needed to move on from bher but but to me like you’ve downgraded from your head coach and you’ve done it and

Now doc has to come in midseason and fix a locker room that is reeling from a weird Adrien Griffin experience where they won a ton of are they reing they looked pretty happy well they’re happy now but but there are just like there are issues from that yeah I don’t

Know yeah it’ll be interesting it’s hard to predict if Giannis hop if Giannis jumps on board I think that goes a long ways but yeah I I agree but even to Jay you know to Jay’s Point like can they fix this deal like all right let’s we’re

Going to drop coverage 100% of the time BL okay great you’re now you’re still getting torched that by the wayer was amazing at creating a structured defensely but for the regular season sure in the playoffs like it didn’t hold up time and time again like it held up one time one time

And granted it held up for a championship so congrats but like we kept talking about the same thing of like wow they don’t adjust wow they just get shredded from three wow like any team shooting decently is going to give them trouble and so I even think like you know

Everyone everyone latched on to the the Giannis rant in the part where he was talking about we need a plan we need a system we need a plan we need a system right like once Griffin got fired the thing that kept ringing in my head is

Him saying we can’t die on screens in the exact same rant he’s like we can’t we die on screens all the time myself included blah blah blah it’s like to me that’s talking about Dame right like because like Dame doesn’t navigate screens well like he just doesn’t I

Don’t think it’s a lack of effort I think he just doesn’t have that for whatever reason at this point and like I you know Malik Beasley is a little bit better at it but not great like they don’t have the Personnel to compete on the perimeter like Chris Middleton

Doesn’t move like he used to and so unless you know unless you can fix some of that and maybe you can schematically maybe I’m I mean I’m willing to be completely in the dark on that I don’t know what Doc’s going to try to do but also like how much can

You can you implement throughout a regular season like halfway through the regular season they don’t practice and docs docs teams already don’t practice you know like there’s just only so much you can do yeah be interesting I have no idea Josh thinks he sucks that’s we have all these

Questions and they are 32 and 14 you know oh they’re so good they’re so they’ve survived all of this stuff and maybe maybe it is a coaching like clearly they needed a change they made it so quickly abruptly they knew things were very wrong I I’m just not sure it’s going to

Push them over the top

The Athletic NBA Show discuss the Milwaukee Bucks’ struggles and what Doc Rivers will do.