By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
The Milwaukee Bucks made its first major move in the ongoing NBA regular season after finalizing a deal that will put Doc Rivers as the organization’s newest head coach.
Last January 24, 2024, the Bucks confirmed that they dismissed Adrian Griffin from his head coaching post despite leading Milwaukee to an impressive 30-13 win-loss record in his first four months.
Replacing Griffin is the veteran tactician Rivers who is an NBA champion with the Boston Celtics way back in 2018 while also helping the Los Angeles Clippers and the Philadelphia 76ers enter the playoffs several times under his helm.
The move was already confirmed by veteran NBA insider of the ESPN Adrian Wojnarowski and Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium.
According to Charania, Milwaukee and Rivers are finalizing a contract that will sum his salary in the range of $40 million until the 2026-2027 NBA season.
Before leading Boston, Clippers, and the 76ers to several playoff trips, Rivers had his first head coaching job with the Orlando Magic last 1999.
Although Rivers didn’t have much success coaching the Magic, he would redeem himself when he became the architect behind Boston’s dynasty and the Clippers’ Lob City.
Rivers will be looking to reclaim the Bucks’ lost glory after the franchise failed to repeat an NBA title. He now has more pieces to work on with the dynamic duo of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard leading the way for Milwaukee.
Aside from the 1-2 punch, Milwaukee still has Khris Middleton, one of the most underrated closers of today’s game, and defensive anchor Brook Lopez.
“This is my job. This is the organization’s job at the top to evaluate every single day all areas of the organization and feel like whether we’re getting or not getting the most we can out of that group. If we feel like we could maximize the talent of this group better, we made a change. That’s why we made it,” said Bucks general manager Jon Horst.
