I have to say this was a bit premature. The Bucks have made their first big decision following their upset 4-1 series loss to the 8th seeded Miami Heat as they fired longtime coach Mike Budenholzer.
This may end up being the right move, but it just feels wrong to do so right after such a difficult loss.
The Milwaukee Bucks have made their first ruthless move of the offseason as they fired head coach Mike Budenholzer, making him the third championship winning coach to leave the team they won with in the last four seasons (2019 Raptors: Nick Nurse, 202o Lakers: Frank Vogel). But, aside from that brief tidbit, I just feel like this was a premature move.
Let’s not forget that Budenholzer is one of the best coaches in the NBA, and one of the greatest in Milwaukee history, as he’s amassed a stunning 271-120 regular season record with the Bucks, a 39-26 postseason record, finished as the #1 Eastern Conference seed 3 times, finished as the best team in the NBA 3 times, has reached the Conference Finals twice (2018/19; 2020/21), has overseen three players (Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jrue Holiday, Khris Middleton) earn All-Star selections, has overseen Giannis become the MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, and an All-NBA 1st Team recipient, and won the 2021 NBA championship.
Obviously, Budenholzer is a fantastic head coach with genius schemes…but that may have been the problem.
A big reason why the Bucks lost against the Heat was due to the fact the team never adjusted to what the Heat were throwing at them, and especially not against Jimmy Butler. Throughout the entire series, Jimmy Butler was essentially guarded by just Jrue Holiday to the detriment of the team as the Miami forward averaged 37.6 PPG.
And, even though Holiday is a great guard and defender, he alone wasn’t ever going to be enough to stop Butler from destroying the Bucks defense. Budenholzer’s inability to steer from his genius strategies has cost the Bucks at least 2-3 winnable (2020 vs. Heat; 2022 vs. Celtics; 2023 vs. Heat) playoff series, but is that really enough to fire him?
Like I said, he is one of the most successful Bucks coaches in team history as he has one of two NBA championship head coaching rings in Buck franchise history (only the legendary Larry Costello has the other from the 1971 championship), he’s only the fourth Bucks head coach (out of 16) that has won more than 20o games, he has won the third most games as a head coach in Bucks history with 271, he broke the 50-year championship drought, and his 39 playoff wins are more than the previous 13 coaches earned combined.
Moreover, Budenholzer lost his brother, which was unknown during the series, to a tragic car accident prior to Game 4 of the Bucks vs. Heat playoff series, so I’m sure his mind couldn’t have completely been on the court.
Thus, I can’t help but think this firing is super unjustified as almost everything that could have gone wrong for Milwaukee went wrong. Giannis got injured and missed 3/5 games (he only played 11 minutes in GM. 1), Khris Middleton has recovered from his injury fully, the Heat rallied as a team, Jimmy Butler turned back into Playoff Jimmy, and Budenholzer suffered terrible personal tragedy.
Sure, Budenholzer didn’t adjust to Erik Spoelstra and the Heat properly, but I don’t think many coaches would have pulled off that comeback given the circumstances.
I just hope Budenholzer gets another great job soon as he’s one of the best coaches in the NBA.
Images Source: Featured Image:
