NBA TODAY | “Bucks will win NBA title” – Michael Wilbon on Doc Rivers becomes head coach of Bucks

NBA TODAY | “Bucks will win NBA title” – Michael Wilbon on Doc Rivers becomes head coach of Bucks

Is the new head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks this comes less than 24 hours after first year head coach Adrien Griffin was dismissed by the team despite having the second best record in the Eastern Conference are here to help us digest it all Adrien wowski Michael wilbon Chan G I’m Malika Andrews and

Kendrick Perkins is here with us as well W you reported yesterday that Doc and the Bucks they were talking how did this come together yeah they started talking yesterday afternoon through late last night and then nailed down a deal uh this morning yep uh you know doc this is

A multi-year deal this is an organization that really didn’t have a plan B if they didn’t get Doc Rivers and didn’t convince him to join them uh when they made the move on Adrien Griffin the thought of what they were looking for uh a veteran coach a coach who spent a lot

Of time in the playoffs obviously a championship coach in Doc Rivers he fit a lot of boxes and you are limited in in this window of time trying to do a coaching search it’s not like the off season when there’s just many more coaches available to you but Doc Rivers

Was available listen he’s got a lot of history in the city of Milwaukee played his college basketball it Marquette grew up down the road with Michael wilbon in Chicago and I think for Doc Rivers the chance now to coach a team with Giannis tenan Copo Damen Lillard and to do

Something he’s wanted very much to do since 2008 in Boston and that’s win a championship the opportunity is there and I think Doc Rivers sincerely believed when he came to ESPN that he was going to be here that maybe the kinds of jobs that would appeal to him

Maybe he wouldn’t be a candidate for anymore he was a finalist in the final two in Phoenix last summer that went to Spring that went to Frank vogle yeah and then all of a sudden this job opens in Milwaukee with Adrien Griffin and now Doc Rivers and I’m told that Dave jger

Is a very real possibility to join his coaching staff former head coach in Sacramento Memphis he was with Doc Rivers in Philly for three years you know that’s somebody he can really lean on walking in the door uh in Milwaukee of course he has history with Milwaukee

With with Marquette as you mentioned his jersey is already in in the rafters with with Marquette in this INF fiser Forum I just want to start with your reaction to this won um it’s a wow um you know WJ mentioned the jobs that doc thought

Might fit him and he might be a fit for in the summer and then you get to the part where he’s happy I mean happy you know literally uh with his new gig and his new life which was sort of a return to an old life with us you know at the

At the g at the table calling games and and living without that pressure but it doesn’t leave him w we talk about all the time coaches want a coach right and so that’s still there and in the bucks he gets a team with two Hall of Famers

Still in their primes I mean maybe Dame is a little later in the prime but still in their primes they’re ready to win now they think they are it was clear that they weren’t going to win on the path that they were and I I I don’t put that

On Adrian Griffin you you got to put some of that on management and some things that were going on he didn’t have his complete staff in place there were some internal issues right you don’t get rid of Drew holiday and think you’re going to be the same kind of team with

The same kind of identity that’s not going to happen all of which doc is aware of but as he steps in there he’s got two again Hall of Fame players on a roster I’m not going to say it it is it’s everybody’s lined up behind the Celtics all right but you got teams

Chasing hard and Bucks management knew that you still got the reigning MVP who’s playing even better than last season in Philadelphia chasing you know you’ve got a Cleveland team that’s suddenly hot you’ve got a Knicks team that’s better and has won 10 out of 12

Games so you got a lot going and they’re looking at this going you know what we’re not going to win like this so now what and it’s it’s a shame that that falls on Adrian Griffin but in terms of Doc Rivers he looks at that and how if

You want a coach and you want to give this one more shot one more reasonable shot why not with him on last note does anybody remind maybe Reminds Me Maybe This is a stretch but that Kevin Garnett energy Yannis have some of that and some of that purpose and Yannis was critical

Of the way the team was playing his own team was playing okay now that’s going to fall on him that’s going to fall on Giannis first not Dame Giannis has got to bring that in the same way Kevin Garnett brought it for Doc Rivers championship team in 2008 but it took

Doc bottling that up and making that work in a system in Boston and I think you mentioned something that highlights a huge aspect of this it feels like for everyone it’s like this is his last shot kind of right and that highlights this idea that everybody in Milwaukee is

Under pressure I know the coach just exited now there’s a new coach Giannis is under pressure Dame is under pressure and what I thought about the timeline here you’ve seen the akee bucks make two really big swings the first swing was Giannis putting pressure on the system

And what of that amountain a player change out goes Drew holiday in comes Dame Lillard and that had huge implications I think people thought oh the offense is going to be good we’ve been a serviceable defense we’ll be all right but we’ve seen how difficult and how you know uniquely difficult that has

Been to make that change and then the second one is obviously this coaching change and I do think that it can work because the most important thing that doc will bring is being able to have that veteran experience to man the stars and I think there’s also like some

Sublayers to this he has a lot of experience in pick and roll basketball we talk about Lob City Chris Paul to DeAndre to Blake Griffin even the newest iteration with the Sixers James Harden to Joel embiid there’s a little bit of managing stars in pick and roll where we

Sort of expected more of that from Milwaukee but at the end of the day we’ve seen two really big swings from player change to coach change and then the next swing I know this is not a baseball program but like it could be a strikeout that’s the pressure that

They’re under knowing that the these are significant changes to maximize on this window I think Doc is uniquely positioned to do well but at the same time the consequences are going to be very very high so it’s really unique to see a coach dismissed for a team that is

30 and 13 on the season and I I don’t want to sit up here and pretend like oh if Mike buen holer we we talked about this on the W pod yesterday if Mike buen holer was still the head coach with new Personnel that magically their defensive issues have would be different if

Magically this team would be different perk you’ve played with Doc the question here is Will doc fix the issues that the Milwaukee Bucks have you know what I feel like this right Willborn touched on the Kevin Garnett piece and I’m glad that he bought up the

2018 because this is the closest team to that that doc has had an opportunity to coach meaning Championship ready the one thing Doc will do is put those guys in position to be successful offensively he will make them guys buy into their roles he would you know exploit that Twan game

And Chen touched on a point where a lot of people are speculating that this could be Doc Last Chance well I’mma say this this is Doc last chance if he don’t get it done with this group and Giannis and Dame meaning at least making a finals run right for minimum Max winning

It all I don’t think doc will get another opportunity to coach and I hate to say it but it’s the truth because we all know how I feel about Doc Rivers but at the end of the day I don’t feel like the problem is solved yet right it’s

Still got to be some pieces mve with the Personnel but and perk touched on this me go back to something that Chan said about managing Stars let’s face it managing stars is different in the NBA it is it is unique to all professional sports worldwide to managing stars and

That is a critical thing for Doc specifically yanis remember it’s in the last 10 days or so that Giannis was critical and by the way I’m not saying unjustly so I mean it sounded perceptive when at the Le turn I think it was after a game when when Yannis talked about the

Way they were playing or not playing defensively what they needed to do and so now this Yannis is going to have to take co-ownership of this I mean the star place the only sport the the unlike the NFL the star player it falls on Giannis even more even though he’s won a

Championship than it does on Doc Giannis was very enthusiastic about the hiring of Adrien Griffin you know he sat with the three final candidates Nick nurse Kenny ainson from Golden State Adrien Griffin I remember talked to Adrian Griffin about this in training camp and he sat with a notebook and a couple

Number two pencils and he had questions for him he took notes he was a part of that process his voice was more than heard in that process and so I think there’s ownership all over the map in Milwaukee for how this went for a first first time first year head coach I think

They think Adrian Griffin’s going to be a good head coach in the NBA they didn’t think he could close the gap on the level of a coach he needed to be to win in this very tight window but Doc Rivers comes in with a lot to prove he has a

Stretch and a run as a head coach of in game sevens in the second round of the of the playoffs in both the Eastern Conference and Western Conference where there’s a hump for him to get over and they didn’t just bring him to Milwaukee to get out of the second

Round which he didn’t do in three years in Philadelphia they brought him there to get him to the finals to give them a chance to win a championship I don’t know that this is going to be he’s going to do Miracle work I don’t know that

They’re going to go for the 22nd defense in the league back into the top seven or eight they can get better this is not a team built to be very good defensively but can they get into the top 15 it’s a top three offense though in the league

Right are they going to beat the Boston Celtics they they could if they address exactly what wo said and I think there’s something I was digging in the numbers because a lot of people say oh their defense has to get better they don’t have much room to move Personnel they

Actually have opportunities there and I do think it matters to coaching when Lopez and Giannis are on the floor the Bucs have a top five defense when those two players are on the floor they have a top five defense statistically so there are opportunities for them to be a

Better defensive team but it’s more like are you bought in on transition defense are you bought in on your rotations you’re going to see a lot of things that are uncharacteristic of professional level basketball that they’re showing that like oh maybe they weren’t hearing the coaches or buying in and I think

That’s why they made this change you you went uh I don’t know if they we were going to beat the Boston Celtics yes or no that’s the series we all want to see now right um I’m gonna say no look I I I I can’t be objective when it comes to Dark

Rivers you talking about growing up listen this is going back to teenage years and I root for that’s the L test I am biased let me declare my bias yeah I root for Doc Rivers I do I mean this goes back a hundred years do I think

Though if I take that hat off that they are the better team in the Boston Celtics who are who have just as much incentive if not more right they have a one yeah they they’re looking at this Tatum and brown are looking at this being the $600 million men that

Organization feels they need to hang a banner they Milwaukee had one s they have well they going to beat Boston wow I don’t I don’t know that I see that but we got a long way to go Malika a long way to go perk last word on this and and

Let me say this Wes talked about Yannis pulling out his notebook he need to pull out his notebook again and he also need to pick up his cell phone and call Kevin G and get some advice from Kevin Garnette on how to be able to be a player for Doc

Rivers and and learn on how Kevin Garnett sacrificed so much right offensively and lost himself in the team for the betterment of the team so if Yannis want to make sure that this marriage between him and Doc Rivers is a perfect marriage that’s one that’s going

To last one that’s going to be great with multiple anniversaries meaning multiple titles he need to take his notebook out and actually call Kevin Garnett and take notes and learn his coach that he has right n Doc Rivers last thing you talk about Personnel in Milwaukee they do not have the assets to

Really make any real upgrades I Foreign Fore fore Fore foree foree Spee go back for Enemy Enemy timate enemy has defeated that Dam spee for look back

NBA TODAY | “Bucks will win NBA title” – Michael Wilbon on Doc Rivers becomes head coach of Bucks