Bucks finalizes deal to make Raptors assistant Adrian Griffin new head coach

The Milwaukee Bucks are finalizing a deal to make Adrian Griffin their head coach after serving as an assistant to the Toronto Raptors for the past five seasons, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press.

The person spoke to the AP on Saturday on condition of anonymity because the deal was still finalized.

Griffin would replace Mike Budenholzer, who was fired earlier this month following the top-seeded Bucks’ stunning loss to the Miami Heat in the first round of the playoffs.

Griffin had been an assistant on a Toronto staff led by Nick Nurse, who was fired last month after the Raptors’ season ended. Griffin was an assistant on the Raptors’ 2019 NBA championship team who defeated the Bucks in the Eastern Conference Finals.

ESPN and The Athletic first reported the Bucks’ selection of Griffin.

His hiring would allow Griffin to return to the place where he began his coaching career.

The 48-year-old was a Bucks assistant from 2008-10 when Scott Skiles was Milwaukee’s head coach. Griffin started that first Milwaukee coaching stint after a nine-year NBA career that included stops at the Boston Celtics, Dallas Mavericks, Houston Rockets, Chicago Bulls and Seattle SuperSonics.

He also served as an assistant in Chicago, Orlando and Oklahoma City before joining the Toronto staff.

Griffin’s job would be to make sure the Bucks avoid the early playoff exits thus ending their last two seasons as they face a possible shrinking championship.

Two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, who finished third in this year’s MVP ballot, has two more years plus a player option for 2025-26 in the super max deal he signed in December 2020. Antetokoumpo is eligible to sign an extension in September.

Brook Lopez, the runner-up of Memphis’ Jaren Jackson Jr. in the NBA defensive player of the year election, is a free agent. Three-time All-Star Khris Middleton could also become a free agent if he doesn’t pick up his $40.4 million player option for the upcoming season.

Antetokounmpo is 28 years old, but most of the Bucks’ other protagonists are well into their 30s. Lopez is 35, All-Star guard Jrue Holiday turns 33 on June 12, and Middleton turns 32 on August 12.

Budenholzer led the Bucks to the best regular season record of 271-120 in his five seasons and coached the 2020-21 Bucks to their first NBA title since 1971. But with the notable exception of that championship round, the Bucks couldn’t match that their success in the regular season in the postseason.

The Bucks had a career-best regular season record of 58-24 this year, but fell 4-1 to the Miami Heat in the opening round of the playoffs. They were only the sixth No. 1 seed to lose to a No. 8 seed in the opening round, and the only No. 1 seed to fail to win more than one playoff game.

Budenholzer also led Milwaukee to the league’s best regular season record in 2018/19 and 2019/20. The Bucks blew a 2-0 lead and lost 4-2 in the 2019 Eastern Conference Finals to a Toronto team that included Griffin on the coaching staff. The Bucks lost 4-1 to Miami in the second round in 2020.

The 2020-21 Milwaukee team held the number 3 seed in the Eastern Conference, losing a seven-game series in the second round to the Boston Celtics.

Milwaukee played that entire series against Boston without Middleton, who had a sprained medial collateral ligament in his left knee. In this year’s series against Miami, Antetokounmpo left Game 1 early and missed all Games 2 and 3 with a bruised lower back.

Reporting by The Associated Press.