Saturday, May 19, 2018

J-Speaks: Milwaukee Bucks Hire New Head Coach


Dating back to the start of the 1999-00 NBA campaign, the Milwaukee Bucks have been team that has had talent. However, that talent has not always equaled success as they have one Eastern Conference Finals appearance, which was in 2001 and they have had their season end in opening round of the playoffs their last eight appearances, with their latest one at the hands of the Boston Celtics in seven games. With their move to a new building in the 2018-19 season and boasting a Top 10 player in the league along with some solid players around him, the Bucks entering this off-season needed to find the man that was going to get them to reach their full potential. They made their choice is someone who has seen first hand what it takes to build a successful team that has multiple championships on its resume. 
On Friday, the Bucks named former Atlanta Hawks head coach Mike Budenholzer as their new head coach, their 16th in franchise history. 
The Bucks finished 44-38 this past regular season but lost in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals of the playoffs to the Boston Celtics in seven gamers. Management had fired Hall of Famer to be in head coach Jason Kidd in late January when the team was 23-22 and replaced him with assistant coach Joe Prunty, who led the Bucks to a 21-16 mark to close the season before hiring Budenholzer.
“We are thrilled to welcome Mike Budenholzer as the head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks,” Bucks’ General Manager Jon Hurst said on Friday. “Mike has played a key role in building successful teams throughout his career. He’s widely respected and has shown a special ability to teach and develop players. His leadership, basketball intellect, championship-level experience and communication skills make him the right fit to take our team to the next level.” 
According to ESPN, the Bucks coaching search came down to Budenholzer and current San Antonio Spurs assistant coach Ettore Messina, who the Bucks informed he was out of the running on Wednesday when a representative of the organization negotiated a four-year deal with Budenholzer hours before a breakfast meeting with Bucks’ two-time All-Star forward Giannis Antetokounmpo and his teammate in swingman Khris Middleton. 
Budenholzer, a native of Holbrook, AZ was also in the running to be the next head coach of the Toronto Raptors, who axed their then head coach Dwane Casey after a franchise record for wins of 59 this past regular season and earning the No 1 Seed in the East for the first time in franchise history. The Raptors for the second straight season though lost to the three-time defending Eastern Conference champion Cleveland Cavaliers in the Semifinals in a four-game sweep.
“After a thorough coaching search, it was clear that Mike was the ideal choice as we enter into a new era of Bucks basketball,” team owners Wes Edens, Marc Lasry and Jamie Dinan said in a statement on Friday. “Mike has demonstrated the ability to lead and communicate and understands what it takes to build a winning culture.” 
If there is anyone who understands the grind it is to reaching the point in the National Basketball Association (NBA) to become a head coach for the second time is Budenholzer. 
The 1993 graduate of Pomona College in Claremont, CA where he received his bachelor’s degree in politics, philosophy and economics while playing basketball and golf. After college, Budenholzer played professionally for the Vejle Basketball Klub in Demark where he averaged 27.5 points during the 1993-94 season. He also got his start as a coach where he was the head man on the sidelines for two squads of the Vejle system.
He began his 17-year career with the Spurs in the 1994-95 season as their video coordinator for two seasons. He was elevated to assistant coach when former assistant Gregg Popovich became first the interim head coach and eventually the full-time head coach in the 1996-97 season. In his 17 seasons in the “Alamo City,” Budenholzer was part of a staff whose .675 winning percentage, a 908-438 mark was the best during the regular season, adding four   Larry O’Brien trophies as champions of the NBA (1999, 2003, 2005, 2007). Budenholzer also served as the Spurs’ summer league head coach on a number of occasions and was the advanced scout for Team USA for the 2004 Olympics when Popovich was the head coach. 
In the summer of 2013, the Atlanta Hawks hired Budenholzer to be their new head coach. 
In his first season, the Hawks 38-44, but made the playoffs as the No. 8 Seed and gave fits to the No. 1 Seeded Indiana Pacers before falling in seven games. 
The next season, the Hawks flipped the script winning a franchise record 60 games and claiming the No. 1 Seed in the East. Budenholzer was not only coached the Eastern Conference All-Stars in 2015 but was named NBA Coach of the Month twice that season as we led the Hawks to a 14-2 mark in December 2014 and in January 2015 after leading his squad to the first ever 17-0 record in a month in league history. He received the highest honor for a head coach on Apr. 21, 2015 as he received the Arnold Jacob “Red” Auerbach Trophy as the 2014-15 NBA Coach of the Year. 
In the playoffs that season, the Southeast Division champion Hawks got passed the No. 8 Seeded Brooklyn Nets and the No. 4 Seeded Washington Wizards in six games respectably, but their magical carpet ride concluded at the hands of the eventual NBA runners up the Cleveland Cavaliers and four-time league MVP LeBron James in a four-game sweep.  
The Hawks reached the playoffs again the next season as the No. 4 Seed winning 48 games but were swept again by the eventual NBA champion Cavaliers again in a four-game sweep in the Conference Semifinals. 
That off-season the Hawks took a major gamble and signed All-Star and three-time Defensive Player of the Year winner Dwight Howard to a three-year, $70.5 million deal to get the them over the hump in the East. 
It was not to be as the No. 5 Seeded Hawks, who made the postseason for the 10 straight time were eliminated in six games by the No. 4 Seeded by the Wizards in the opening round. 
That off-season, the Hawks front office felt that it was time to go in a different direction and rebuild the team with young players. The organization also shook things up with their then head coach removing Budenholzer’s position as president of basketball operations on May 5, 2017 with the arrival of new GM Travis Schlenk in the spring of 2017.
That resulted in a 24-58 record this past regular season, which was not only the first season Budenholzer had a losing record, but it was the Hawks worst record in 13 years, ending their streak of 10 straight playoff appearance, which was second to the 21 in a row ironically enough by the Spurs.   
On Apr. 25, Budenholzer and the Hawks mutually agreed to part ways after he and the front office could no longer see a path to be on the same page with the franchise’s plan to rebuild and the structure of the management. 
Before the mutual split, the Hawks granted Budenholzer permission to speak with the Phoenix Suns and the New York Knicks about their head coaching vacancies. Budenholzer pulled himself out of contention for the Suns’ opening after a few conversations with ownership and management. 
“I’m extremely grateful to the Bucks ownership group and Jon Hurst,” Budenholzer, who complied a 213-197 record in five seasons on the Hawks’ sidelines said. “We have a tremendous opportunity to take the Bucks to the next level. I look forward to working with out group of young and exciting players and helping us evolve in many ways to succeed on the court…The tremendously supportive fans in Milwaukee and throughout Wisconsin are waiting and ready. Now it’s up to us to put all the pieces together, and I can’t wait to get started.” 
Two very important pieces to what is hopefully a championship puzzle one day for the Bucks are Antetokounmpo, the so-called face of the franchise and Middleton, who as mentioned earlier met with Budenholzer earlier this week to gain a sense of the prospect of what’s to come for the Bucks. 
The organization also wanted the team’s two top offensive players to sit down with the preferred candidate for head coach. While that may seem unusual, it reflected how the important it was that the Bucks front office wanted to make Antetokounmpo and Middleton feel a part of this process. 
“I know he was a great coach,” Antetokounmpo said to ESPN at the NBA Draft Combine at the close of this week with Maria Taylor and Jay Bilas. “We had a great conversation. We talked about the game plan. How he viewed me as a player. How he can help this team? Had a lot of tough questions for him, but he was fun. I’m excited to play for him.” 
He added by saying about when the Bucks asked him and Middleton to meet with Budenholzer before his hire became official, “It meant a lot. Obviously, I’m not the guy that’s going to make the decision.” 
“You can reverse that, like the front office is not going to tell me how to shoot a jump shot. I do my job; they do their part. But it was great having the conversation with him.” 
The one thing that really sold the Bucks’ owners on Budenholzer was his ability as a teacher of the game and the respect he commands from his players. 
“He’s widely respected and has shown a special ability to teach and develop players,” Edens, Lasry and Dinan said. “His leadership, basketball intellect, championship-level experience and communication skills make him the right fit to take our team to the next level.” 
To bring the kind of team’s Budenholzer had with the Hawks into context, this past regular season despite their horrendous record the Hawks were No. 8 in assists per game; No. 15 in three-point percentage and finished No. 9 in three-pointers made, which was a franchise record of 917.
The Bucks in contrast were No. 14 in assists per game; 22nd in three-point percentage and No. 27 in three-pointers made. 
It is one thing for Antetokounmpo to be the Bucks top scorer and rebounder, which he was in the regular season at 26.9 (5th NBA) and 10.0 respectably and in their seven-game opening round setback to the Boston Celtics with averages of 25.7 points and 9.6 boards respectably with 6.3 assists, but in order for the Bucks to go further than they have, the team needs more consistency from the rest of the cast. 
Beyond the 24.7 points that Middleton averaged against the Celtics, only Eric Bledsoe and Jabari Parker averaged double-figures in points that series at 13.6 and 10.0 respectably. 
Budenholzer’s most important task right from the jump is to get this young, but talented group to bring a consistency level to the court night-in and night-out. 
When the Bucks acquired Bledsoe last season, they felt that they added another scorer and playmaker to go alongside Antetokounmpo and Middleton and there were nights that he brought that to the court and then there other nights that was not the case. A player of his caliber should for starters be averaging more than the 5.1 assists he had in the regular season and the 3.6 he averaged against the Celtics. 
Along with hiring a new head coach, another big decision the Bucks have to make this summer was to extend or not extend the contract of forward Jabari Parker. 
The No. 2 overall pick in the 2014 draft out of Duke University will be a restricted free agent on July 1 and while he has shown great promise in the early stages of his career, he has sustained two serious injuries to the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee that has caused him to miss 155 games. 
Going to back to the to do list for Budenholzer, if the Bucks have any plans to be a serious contender in the East, the 2017 Rookie of the Year Malcolm Brogdon, Tony Snell, John Henson, Thon Maker, Matthew Dellavedova, and Sterling Brown have to become bigger factors on both sides of the ball. 
They were ranked No. 5 in block shots per game at 5.4; tied with the Pacers for No. 2 in steals per game at 8.8 and were No. 3 in forced turnovers at 14.7 during the regular season, but it just seemed like for a team that has collectively one of the best wingspans in the league did not bring an attitude that they could be a great defensive team on a nightly basis, especially this past regular season and against the C’s in the postseason. 
Two stat that really brings this out is the fact that the Bucks were ranked No. 28 in rebound differential at -2.9 back in the regular season. 
There is an old saying that offense wins games and defense wins championships, the Bucks have been very inconsistent on both sides in recent years, which is why they have not advanced in the playoffs despite having an elite talent in Antetokounmpo. 
When the Bucks hired Jason Kidd, they thought they had a head man on the sidelines who could bring the best out of his players because of his experience as a player who succeeded individually and was a big part of team success helping the Dallas Mavericks in his second stint win a title in 2011. That did not work out. 
The organization hopes that Budenholzer with all his knowledge, experience in being a part of the Spurs construction of being a multiple title winner and what he did with the Hawks can turn the Bucks into a consistent a championship contender. 
Their last appearance beyond the First-Round was as mentioned in the 2001 Conference Finals where they lost to Hall of Famer Allen Iverson and the Philadelphia 76ers in seven games. Their last appearance in the NBA Finals came in 1971 when then Lew Alcindor, now Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar led them to the championship with a 4-0 sweep of the then Baltimore Bullets.  
“By all accounts this guy knows what he’s doing,” ESPN NBA analyst Tim Legler said on “Sportscenter” at the close of the week. “He’s obviously a Spur protégé, came from Gregg Popovich. Had great success in Atlanta. They went into ‘Trust the Process’ mode down there. He does not want any part of that. He’s got a star player to build around and a team that’s got some really nice young pieces around him. I think it’s a great fit. I don’t think you couldn’t have done much better than Mike Budenholzer.”

Information, statistics, and quotations are courtesy of 5/17/18 7 a.m. edition of NBATV’s “Gametime,” with Matt Winer, David Griffin and Sam Mitchell; www.nba.com story, “Mike Budenholzer Named Head Coach of the Milwaukee Bucks;” 5/17/18 www.espn.com story, “Bucks Announce Mike Budenholzer as Coach,” by Adrian Wojnarowski; 5/18/18 www.espn.comstory, “Bucks Giannis Antetokounmpo ‘excited’ to Play for Mike Budenholzer,” by Ian Begley and contribution form Adrian Wojnarowski; 

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