NBA Rumors: Doc Rivers, Bucks Have ‘Mutual Interest;’ No Contract Done Yet

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The Milwaukee Bucks and Doc Rivers share “mutual interest” but there is not yet an agreement in place for him to be the team’s next head coach despite earlier reports, per Jordan Schultz.

His eventual hiring wouldn’t come as a surprise after ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported earlier on Tuesday that the Bucks have reportedly “reached out to Rivers and are engaging in conversations on the franchise’s coaching job.”

And it all comes after the organization stunningly fired head coach Adrian Griffin just 43 games into his first season on the job. The Bucks were 30-13 on his watch, the second best record in the NBA.

Multiple reports indicated that both the team’s top players and front office had soured on Griffin this season:

According to Chris Haynes of TNT Sports and B/R, Bucks’ players “privately complained about their roles, touches, chemistry and constantly questioned the schemes on both sides of the ball.”

Griffin tried to call an “airing-out session” with Giannis Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard, Khris Middleton and Brook Lopez after the In-Season Tournament, with those players pointing out what they didn’t think was working and Griffin calling for more “sacrifice,” an increase in defensive intensity and Antetokounmpo and Lillard finding open teammates on the perimeter when they drove to the basket.

That clearing of the air at least temporarily worked—the Bucks responded by winning seven straight games. But eventually, the “bickering in the locker room continued,” the defensive didn’t improve and the Bucks felt they needed to make a change.

Rivers would bring a wealth of experience to the position, having led the Orlando Magic, Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Clippers and Philadelphia 76ers in his coaching career. The major knock against Rivers, however, is that he struggles to make key adjustments in the postseason and hasn’t led a team past the second round of the playoffs since the 2011-12 season with the Celtics.

He did reach two NBA Finals and win a title in Boston, however.

One of the wilder details about Milwaukee’s potential transition from Griffin to Rivers is that according to Shams Charania, Sam Amick and Eric Nehm of The Athletic, Rivers—currently operating as an ESPN broadcast analyst—had also been serving as an “informal consultant to Griffin at the behest of the Bucks. One month later, multiple sources briefed on the matter now indicate that Rivers is the serious leader for the now-vacant position and the preferred choice of key stakeholders.”

Per that report, Golden State Warriors assistant coach Kenny Atkinson is also a potential candidate for the job, though only “if the team is unable to secure a deal with Rivers.”