Second-place Bucks to fire head coach Adrian Griffin just months into job

The Milwaukee Bucks have fired Adrian Griffin as coach after just 43 games despite having one of the best records in the league midway through the season, according to multiple reports.

Milwaukee is tied with the Minnesota Timberwolves for the league’s second-best record at 30-13. The Bucks are second in the Eastern Conference, 3.5 games behind the Boston Celtics.

But the dip in Milwaukee’s defensive performance had raised concerns about the Bucks’ viability as champions, even after they signed seven-time NBA guard Damian Lillard before the season to team with two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo. The Bucks rank 22nd in the NBA in defensive rating, up from fourth a year earlier.

Milwaukee had given Griffin his first head coaching job this summer after firing Mike Budenholzer, who led the Bucks to their first title in a half-century in 2021. The coaching change came after the top-seeded Bucks were defeated 4-1 by the Miami Heat in the first round of last season’s playoffs.

Griffin, 49, had spent 16 seasons as an NBA assistant, the last five with the Toronto Raptors. That followed a nine-year NBA playing career.

Taking over a team that featured two members of the NBA’s 75th anniversary team in Antetokounmpo and Lillard, Griffin was thrust into the spotlight early in his head coaching career. An early warning sign regarding Griffin’s tenure came before the season with the abrupt departure of assistant coach Terry Stotts.

Stotts had more than 1,000 games of head coaching experience, which benefited Griffin as he began his own head coaching career. Stotts had called accepting the assignment a “no-brainer,” but he left the staff less than a week before the season opener.