The before the five vacant benches in the NBA has found a new owner: as reported by ESPN and The Athletic, Adrian Griffin will be the new head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks. The team that closed the regular season with the best record in the NBA has thus decided to entrust the now former assistant coach of the Toronto Raptors the legacy of Mike Budenholzer, who was fired after being eliminated in the first round of the playoffs at the hands of the Miami Heat. Griffin, 48 and the father of Atlanta Hawks player AJ Griffin, has his back 9 seasons in the NBA as a player and 15 as an assistantstarting in 2008 in Milwaukee (making himself known by GM John Horst, who hired him today as head of management), then moving on to Chicago, Orlando, Oklahoma City and finally Toronto, where in the last four seasons he has assisted Nick Nurse, who pulled out of the Bucks’ bench race after being among the final three along with Kenny Atkinson.
Antetokounmpo’s role in choosing Griffin
All three finalists for the vacancy they met Giannis Antetokounmpo at his Milwaukee homewith the two-time MVP preference ultimately going to Griffin, who will then get his first opportunity as head coach after years of often being referred to as one of the best assistants in the NBAespecially for the defensive half but also for the individual work done with several youngsters who later became All-Stars such as Jimmy Butler of Chicago and Pascal Siakam of Toronto. In Milwaukee, however, they will ask him above all to win, given that Antetokounmpo on the threshold of 30 is in the prime of his career and a perennial MVP candidate, despite finding himself around a supporting cast on which choices will have to be made, starting from the free agent Brook Lopez up to the player option of Khris Middletonwho was also involved in the decision-making process to find the new Bucks head coach.