OFFICIAL: Doc Rivers Joins Bucks as Head Coach, Uniting with Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard 🔥👀

The most unexpected move of the NBA season came on Tuesday when the Bucks fired head coach Adrian Griffin.

The Athletic reports that Doc Rivers has emerged as a “serious leader” to replace Griffin and is negotiating a contract with the Bucks, despite ESPN reporting assistant coach Joe Prunty is slated to be named interim coach.

In a statement announcing the change, Bucks general manager Jon Horst remarked, “This was a difficult decision to make during the season.” “We are starting the process of selecting our next head coach right now. We appreciate Coach Griffin’s dedication to the team and his hard work.

The 49-year-old Griffin recently took on his first NBA head coaching position in the spring, joining the Milwaukee Bucks at 30-13, good for a tie for the second-best record in the Eastern Conference and the league.

4The Bucks have fired head coach Adrian Griffin.AP

Additionally, the Bucks have won five of their last six games.

The Bucks have given up 120.5 points per game this season, which is the sixth-highest in the NBA and an increase from the 113.3 points per game they gave up the previous season, raising worries about the team’s defense.

Milwaukee’s defensive rating, which is currently 22nd in the NBA, is a significant decline from its 110.9 rating from the previous campaign, which was fourth in the group.

Doc Rivers (l.) is a candidate to become the new Bucks coach. 4Doc Rivers (left) is a contender to take over as head coach of the Bucks.Giannis Antetokounmpo and other Bucks veterans “had lost faith in Griffin,” according to a report from USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Con Sports Illustrated, months after Antetokounmpo inked a three-year, $186 million deal extension with Milwaukee.After spending nine NBA seasons as a player, Griffin started his coaching career in 2008 as an assistant with the Bucks. He later worked as an assistant with the Bulls, Magic, Thunder, and most recently, the Raptors, where he was a member of the team that won the 2019 NBA championship.4Giannis Antetokounmpo (r.) and Adrian Griffin (l.)AP

After being dismissed by the 76ers in the spring after their loss to the Celtics in the second round of the playoffs, Rivers, 62, is currently the top NBA broadcaster on ESPN.

Rivers has not guided a team to the conference finals for 11 straight seasons.

Rivers played for the Magic for five years before joining the Celtics in 2004 and winning the NBA title in 2008.

Rivers played nine seasons in Boston before being traded to the Clippers in 2013. He spent six of his seven years in Los Angeles, including the playoffs, before stepping down following the 2019–20 campaign.

During Rivers’ three seasons in Philadelphia, the Sixers were eliminated in the second round each time.

Damian Lillard (l.) and Adrian Griffin (r.) 4Adrian Griffin (r) and Damian Lillard (l) from USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Con148 What are your thoughts? Leave a remark.Before the season, the Bucks made roster changes by adding veteran Trail Blazers player Damian Lillard. The Bucks, who won their first NBA title in fifty years three years prior, had been led by Mike Budenholzer, who was fired following the team’s first-round loss to the Heat the previous season.All-Star and defensive mainstay Jrue Holliday was traded by Milwaukee to the Blazers, who promptly traded him to the Celtics, who are now 34-10 and the best team in the NBA.The end consequence has been a porous Bucks defense that, in spite of a winning record, concerned team management enough that they felt obliged to take the dramatic measure on Tuesday.