There are about 40 million reasons Doc Rivers isn’t going to take the fall for the Bucks’ 3-8 start to the NBA season.
Not that he’s blameless for Milwaukee stumbling out of the gate with the league’s 21st-ranked defense and 17th-ranked offense, but it’s not going to cost him his job. The Bucks are dealing with the aftermath of a series of front office decisions — firing Mike Budenholzer, missing on the Adrian Griffin hire and having to bring in Rivers, changing the identity of the team in trading away Jrue Holiday for Damian Lillard — and it’s more likely general manager Jon Horst’s seat gets hot than Rivers. Here is what Eric Nehm and Sam Amick of The Athletic wrote:
For those asking about whether Rivers could be on the hot seat, let’s not forget the Bucks paid him approximately $40 million on a three-and-a-half-year deal less than a year ago. What’s more, Horst is facing pressure because of how these past few seasons have gone, and league sources are skeptical he’d be given the leeway to make another coaching change this soon.
The reality is the Bucks are limited by being over the second luxury tax apron, they may make a few trades around the margins — they are not trading Giannis Antetokounmpo or Damian Lillard — and they are going to play this season out. Maybe after this season things get shaken up.
In the short term, Milwaukee should — and needs to — string together a few wins. Nine of their next 10 games are against teams .500 or worse (Houston is the lone exception) and they have 5-of-6 at home coming up. This is the chance for the Bucks to get right and turn the season around.
If they don’t do it now, things could spiral and get ugly fast.
