As has been the trend in recent years and again in the previous offseason, with Joe Mazzulla, Will Hardy and Darvin Ham, there will be (at least) one new rookie coach on the starting line for the 2023/24 season. In turn, Milwaukee has indeed decided to entrust his role as head coach to a new head with Adrian Griffin who comes out of five years as Nick Nurse’s assistant in Toronto.
During his first press conference in his new suit, Adrian Griffin was asked about this freshness, which is also synonymous with experience, a theme he broached with lucidity.
” Let’s be realistic. Which rookie coach had the chance to train the Milwaukee Bucks, with the talent that there is in this team? I feel extremely humbled”, did he recognize before discussing his style of play. “Among the huge pool of resources that I have learned from the coaches I have worked with, it is obvious that the defense wins. We are going to be a proactive defense. We want to put pressure on the ball, we want our defense to attack the attack. We are not going to allow the attack to impose itself on us. We will put pressure on the ball. We will cause stray bullets and we will run. We will also make adjustments throughout the game with our defense and change our defenses. »
High percentage shots and offensive rebounds
On the other side of the field, expect the Bucks to be aggressive towards the circle as Adrian Griffin insists on “high percentage shots.”
” On offense, we want to take advantage of this team’s unique talent to create high percentage shots. So we’re going to pass the ball around. There will be a little more ball movement, player movement, to get high percentage shots in the key and then the 3-point shots will be there. We are not going to put limits on the 3-point shots we take, but it will be 3-point shots from the collective, 3-point shots taken in rhythm. And then I’m a big fan of using offensive rebounds. »
The leaders of Milwaukee thus estimated that Adrian Griffin had the qualities, by his background as a former NBA player, for 8 years, then as an assistant, for 15 years, to take the next step and take up this new challenge. GM Jon Horst thus quoted his assistant Milt Newton, convinced that the Bucks were heading for the right choice.
“Milt Newton said throughout this process, after our interview with Adrian: ‘Adrian is a head coach. It’s just that he hasn’t had the opportunity to demonstrate it yet.” slipped Jon Horst, who nevertheless took care to recruit Terry Stotts as first assistant to support him with his “incredible experience”. Jon Horst also mentioned their interview during the recruitment phase.
Necessarily high expectations
“After three questions, you could see that this guy wanted to go to the board, watch the video and say: ‘I don’t want to redo everything you’ve built, but I can show you this, or that, and where we can get a little better, a little better here.’ Winning in the playoffs is a matter of centimeters. It’s about doing the little things a little better, more consistently, and his passion and energy when it comes to coaching is evident. There are a lot of details as to why, but it’s obvious that Adrian is ready for this position”.
As one could imagine, Khris Middleton and Giannis Antetokounmpo were included in the recruitment process. The opportunity for the successor of Mike Budenholzer to take his marks with the two major players of the team and to measure the level of ambition which reigns in the franchise of Wisconsin.
“Yes, we have high expectations, but we will meet them. But first you have to get to work. We must never lose sight of the work involved. I think being undrafted and coming through the minor leagues taught me the value of hard work. That’s what we’re going to build on from day one.”
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Giannis Antetokounmpo | 63 | 32.1 | 55.3 | 27.5 | 64.5 | 2.2 | 9.6 | 11.8 | 5.7 | 3.9 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 3.1 | 31.1 |
| Jrue Holiday | 67 | 32.6 | 47.9 | 38.4 | 85.9 | 1.2 | 3.9 | 5.1 | 7.4 | 2.9 | 1.2 | 0.4 | 1.7 | 19.3 |
| Brook Lopez | 78 | 30.4 | 53.1 | 37.4 | 78.4 | 2.0 | 4.7 | 6.7 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 0.5 | 2.5 | 2.6 | 15.9 |
| Khris Middleton | 33 | 24.3 | 43.6 | 31.5 | 90.2 | 0.8 | 3.4 | 4.2 | 4.9 | 2.2 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 2.1 | 15.1 |
| Bobby Portis | 70 | 26.0 | 49.6 | 37.0 | 76.8 | 2.2 | 7.4 | 9.6 | 1.5 | 1.2 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 1.6 | 14.1 |
| Grayson Allen | 72 | 27.4 | 44.0 | 39.9 | 90.5 | 0.8 | 2.4 | 3.3 | 2.3 | 1.0 | 0.9 | 0.2 | 1.6 | 10.4 |
| Jevon Carter | 81 | 22.4 | 42.3 | 42.1 | 81.6 | 0.4 | 2.1 | 2.5 | 2.4 | 1.0 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 2.0 | 8.0 |
| Pat Connaughton | 61 | 23.7 | 39.2 | 33.9 | 65.9 | 0.8 | 3.8 | 4.6 | 1.3 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 1.1 | 7.6 |
| Lindell Wigginton | 7 | 12.4 | 48.6 | 33.3 | 88.9 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 1.7 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 1.0 | 7.1 |
| Joe Ingles | 46 | 22.7 | 43.5 | 40.9 | 85.7 | 0.3 | 2.5 | 2.8 | 3.3 | 1.2 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 1.6 | 6.9 |
| Jae Crowder | 18 | 18.9 | 47.9 | 43.6 | 83.3 | 0.9 | 2.9 | 3.8 | 1.5 | 0.4 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 1.5 | 6.9 |
| Jordan Nwora | 38 | 15.7 | 38.6 | 39.2 | 86.0 | 0.8 | 2.3 | 3.1 | 1.0 | 0.9 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.9 | 6.0 |
| Goran Dragic | 7 | 11.8 | 38.9 | 41.2 | 100.0 | 0.4 | 1.3 | 1.7 | 1.7 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 5.6 |
| Marjon Beauchamp | 52 | 13.5 | 39.5 | 33.1 | 73.0 | 0.7 | 1.5 | 2.2 | 0.7 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 1.4 | 5.1 |
| george hill | 35 | 19.1 | 44.7 | 31.1 | 73.9 | 0.4 | 1.5 | 1.9 | 2.5 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 1.2 | 5.0 |
| Leonard Meyers | 9 | 12.6 | 48.3 | 38.9 | 88.9 | 1.3 | 2.4 | 3.8 | 0.1 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 1.8 | 4.8 |
| Aj Green | 35 | 9.9 | 42.4 | 41.9 | 100.0 | 0.2 | 1.1 | 1.3 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.9 | 4.4 |
| Serge Ibaka | 16 | 11.6 | 48.1 | 33.3 | 61.5 | 0.9 | 1.8 | 2.8 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 1.4 | 4.1 |
| Wesley Matthews | 52 | 15.8 | 36.3 | 31.5 | 85.7 | 0.7 | 1.5 | 2.2 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 1.4 | 3.4 |
| Sandro Mamukelashvili | 24 | 9.1 | 32.8 | 21.9 | 66.7 | 0.8 | 1.6 | 2.3 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.8 | 2.4 |
| Thanasis Antetokounmpo | 37 | 5.6 | 43.5 | 0.0 | 50.0 | 0.4 | 0.8 | 1.2 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.6 | 1.4 |
