{"id":362228,"date":"2024-01-23T20:21:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-23T21:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=362228"},"modified":"2024-01-23T23:03:18","modified_gmt":"2024-01-23T23:03:18","slug":"rookie-nba-coach-axed-in-shock-midseason-dumping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=362228","title":{"rendered":"Rookie NBA coach axed in shock midseason dumping"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Milwaukee Bucks<\/a> have fired Adrian Griffin as coach after just 43 games despite having one of the league\u2019s top records midway through the season, a person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the team had not announced the move.<\/p>\n

Milwaukee is 30-13 to tie the Minnesota Timberwolves<\/a> for the league\u2019s second-best record. The Bucks are three and a half games behind the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n

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But the dip in Milwaukee\u2019s defensive performance had raised concerns about the Bucks\u2019 viability as a championship contender even after they had acquired seven-time all-NBA guard Damian Lillard before the season to team up with two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo. The Bucks rank 22nd in the NBA in defensive rating, down from fourth a year earlier.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Milwaukee had given Griffin his first head coaching job this summer after firing Mike Budenholzer, who led the Bucks in 2021 to their first title in half a century.<\/p>\n

The coaching change came after the top-seeded Bucks were stunned 4-1 by the Miami Heat in the first round of last season\u2019s playoffs.<\/p>\n

Griffin, 49, had spent 16 seasons as an NBA assistant, including the last five with the Toronto Raptors. That followed a nine-year NBA playing career.<\/p>\n

Taking over a team with two members of the NBA\u2019s 75th anniversary team in Antetokounmpo and Lillard put Griffin under a major spotlight at the beginning of his head coaching career. An early warning sign regarding Griffin\u2019s tenure came before the season with the abrupt departure of assistant coach Terry Stotts.<\/p>\n

Stotts had more than 1000 games of head coaching experience, which figured to benefit Griffin as he began his own head coaching career. Stotts had called accepting the assignment a \u201cno-brainer", but he left the staff less than a week before the season opener.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Milwaukee Bucks have fired Adrian Griffin as coach after just 43 games despite having one of the league\u2019s top records midway through the season, […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":362232,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362228"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=362228"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":362233,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362228\/revisions\/362233"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/362232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=362228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=362228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=362228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}