The Bucks Have Fired Mike Budenholzer After Milwaukee's Disastrous Choke Job Against The Heat
Harry How. Getty Images.
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I'll take "The Least Surprising News Of All Time For $500", Alex (RIPIP).
I mean, who on this planet is surprised this move? You can't be the #1 overall seed, have the best record in the NBA, and then lose in 5 games to the 8 seed and expect to still have your job. Especially when Coach Bud was every bit part of the problem in that series. From his strategy, to his rotations, to his inability to understand how timeouts work
the writing was on the wall the second the clock hit 0.0 in that Game 5. Once Giannis didn't do him any favors after the series, you sort of knew what was coming
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If you lose the support of Giannis, you're cooked. It doesn't matter how good your regular season was. It doesn't matter that you were the coach when the team won the title. I imagine if you ask Bucks fans, they'll tell you that team won in spite of Coach Bud and not because of him.
Now to be fair, it's not like the front office did him many favors in terms of roster construction this year. Despite NBA talking heads declaring the Bucks had the best depth in the NBA, it became abundantly clear after about two seconds of playoff basketball that guys like Joe Ingles and Jae Crowder couldn't stop a nosebleed. They never really addressed their guard depth and relied on Jevon Carter and Grayson Allen. It's not exactly Coach Bud's fault those first two guys are washed up and very old and have no chance of staying in front of younger, quicker players.
I guess you could ask why this happened if according to Giannis the Bucks season was not a failure, that it was more just a step to success. Sort of odd to fire someone if they didn't fail right? Honestly, that quote from Giannis really did take away from what a massive choke that first round series was. There should be way more discussion around that compared to all the talk about Giannis' quote. The organization obviously felt that Coach Bud and the team failed. And that's OK! They did!
Looking around the league, there are some interesting candidates that you imagine will be in the running. Guys like Nick Nurse, Frank Vogel, Sam Cassell (former Bucks legend) etc. I wonder if they had done this sooner if they would have been in the running for Ime Udoka. Now THAT would have been spicy given the whole MIL/BOS situation. You could make the case that the Bucks are actually better off going this route no matter who replaces Bud, because it was clear he had run his course. Maybe they keep it in house and tap Bucks assistant Charles Lee, but honestly, it wouldn't surprise me if they just went to Giannis and asked who he wants. At the end of the day, he's the only one that matters, especially when he's extension eligible soon.
Either way, this is shaping up to be a massive summer for the Bucks. They now need a new coach, Brook Lopez, Khris Middleton, Joe Ingles, Jae Crowder, Jevon Carter, and Thanasis Antetokounpmo are all free agents, and this team doesn't exactly have a ton of avenues to improve
It's going to be fascinating to see how it all shakes out.