The Milwaukee Bucks have fired coach Mike Budenholzer after the Eastern Conference’s top seed, and favourite for the NBA title, crashed out of the playoffs in the first round.
That is according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, who broke the news of Budenholzer’s dismissal on Friday morning [AEST].
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“This is a coach who nearly won 70 per cent of his games with the Bucks but I think this is an organisation now ready to hit the reset button,” Wojnarowski said on SportsCenter on Friday.
“They are in the middle of a championship window with Giannis Antetokounmpo certainly at the centre of all that. Brook Lopez and Khris Middleton are potential free agents this offseason. This will be a really attractive job in the marketplace. I’m told the Bucks are going to take their time as they search for their next head coach.”
The Bucks entered this year’s playoffs as the clear favourite after a 58-24 record during the regular season, only to go down in five games to the eighth-seed Miami Heat.
With it, they became the third team in NBA history to finish with the best regular-season record and win two or fewer playoff games.
Two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo did miss two games during the series after sustaining a back injury in Game 1, managing just 11 minutes as the Heat won 130-117.
But coach Budenholzer also came under scrutiny in the aftermath of Milwaukee’s elimination, criticised for not using the team’s final timeout to advance the ball after a Jimmy Butler layup put the Heat ahead in Game 5.
“Yeah we need to call a timeout,” Budenholzer said when asked about the call.
Miami wing Max Strus, meanwhile, admitted on ‘The Dan LeBatard Show with Stugotz’ that Budenholzer’s decision even caught the Heat players by surprise.
“Honestly, we were all questioning it,” Strus said.
“At the end of [regulation], Spo came in the huddle, he was like, ‘They didn’t call a timeout! What are we doing? They didn’t call a timeout!’ And we were like, we didn’t even know they had a timeout. We just figured they didn’t, the guys on the court.
“But yeah, we were kind of questioning what was going on. But thankfully they didn’t use it.”
Budenholzer was also scrutinised for his lack of defensive adjustments as Butler put the Heat on his back in the final two games of the series.
Even Antetokounmpo spoke about the lack of adjustments, admitting he wished he “could’ve guarded” Butler more.
“I don’t know, double-team him more, try to make him pass the ball,” Antetokounmpo said. “Maybe switch the matchup for a little bit, give Jrue (Holiday) a break. I don’t think as a team we made the right adjustment) or we didn’t make as many adjustments as we could have against him.”
“Out of respect, you’ve got to let the coach make the adjustment,” Antetokounmpo added. “We have our best defender on him, but obviously, there’s a conversation, whenever he gets tired, I can take him.”
It was later revealed after the Bucks were eliminated from playoff contention that Budenholzer had been dealing with a personal tragedy during the series against the Heat.
Budenholzer confirmed to The Athletic earlier in the week that one of his three brothers died before Game 4 in a car accident.
It came after Lakers head coach Darvin Ham, who previously served as an assistant on Budenholzer’s staff at Milwaukee, revealed the news to reporters.
“Coach Bud is going through a lot on a personal level,” Ham said.
“He just lost a brother, so, my apologies Bud if I wasn’t supposed to let anybody know. He and I’ve been texting. I love those guys. They’re a part of my basketball family.”
