Things Seem Great In Milwaukee After Bobby Portis Went After Bucks Head Coach Adrian Griffin For Stinking At His Job After Losing To The Pacers
Ethan Miller. Getty Images.The Milwaukee Bucks are having what I would call a weird start to their season. Prior to pulling off the Dame trade, the Bucks were already considered one of the few true contenders for the NBA title. The second they pulled off the Dame trade, they were vaulted into being the favorite. Two Top 75 players joining forces, it looked devastating on paper.
The thing is, basketball is not played on paper.
Through the first quarter of the season, it's hard to get a read on what the Bucks truly are. Overall, their 15-7 record looks pretty good, sitting 2nd in the East and the 3rd best record in the league. They aren't awful against good teams (7-4) and have mostly done their job against bad ones (8-3). There have been moments where you can see their potential, and others where their flaws seem unavoidable.
For example, offensively, even with Dame and Giannis still figuring things out, the Bucks own the #3 offense in the league with a 118.8 rating. That's awesome. But we always knew the Bucks were going to have a good offense when you insert Damian Lillard into the equation. The questions were always about the other end, and well that's not all that great. We've seen the Bucks drop from the 4th overall defense last year to 22nd this year. Opponents are averaging 118.7 points this year (24th), and through 20 games they've already allowed 120+ points 12 times. If you were curious, that happened just 21 times all of last year.
Heading into the IST, the Bucks were the favorites to win the whole thing, much like they're talked about for the real NBA title. What happened? Another game of allowing 120+ points, another game where the Bucks lack of perimeter defense/wing defense was exposed, and to make matters worse it sure doesn't seem like things are all that great in the locker room
Being a first year head coach in the NBA isn't exactly easy. I know there are examples of guys winning a title like Nick Nurse, or guys making the Finals like Ime Udoka, or guys winning 57 games and making the ECF like Joe Mazzulla, but it's much more common that there are some struggles and growing pains. Considering the Bucks have no excuse to not win the title this season, that puts a heavy amount of pressure on Adrian Griffin to deliver, and he's not exactly off to the best start.
I understand Bobby Portis is considered one of the "leaders" of the Bucks, but considering he's having a pretty brutal season and then had just 4 points on 5 shots in his 18 minutes last night, maybe he's not the best person to pull something like this. You could make the case that Bobby Portis' play is a contributing factor to a lot of the Bucks' issues. It doesn't mean he's wrong, but when you have players openly calling out a coach, and then that gets leaked to Haynes (not an accident), that's not great
Portis, who scored four points on just five shots against Indiana in a near-season-low 18 minutes, quickly interjected and stressed how essential it is for Griffin to structure the offense down the stretch of games, sources said.
As one of the leaders of the team, Portis continued on voicing his concerns. Griffin welcomed the criticism and acknowledged he could do a better job being more aggressive with his play-calling, sources say. The nine-year veteran explained that it's a two-way street: direction is needed and then it's up to the players to execute, sources say.
Most of this all comes back to a single play with about 2:20 left in a 3 point game
Imagine trading for DAMIAN LILLARD, being in a close game in the 4th which is the exact reason you brought him in, and then you have Khris Middleton waving him off so he could do what? Turn it over? This is what Bobby Portis is talking about. There was no plan. I don't know what Middleton was thinking at that moment, and I'm not alone. Lillard had no idea either
Once Middleton made it passed half court, he looked for Lillard who was being hounded by Bruce Brown. Middleton forced the pass and it was picked off.
Brown's transition layup attempt was halted by Lillard at the rim, but no Bucks players got back and Buddy Hield gathered the offensive rebound and put in the easy two.
Lillard admitted after the game that he didn't know what they were doing on that possession.
"It was an unfortunate play," Lillard said.
As someone who roots for a team that has had to deal with a first year head coach in back to back seasons where the expectation is a title, all you're really looking for is for them to not fuck it up. When the talent is there, you just want the coach to keep the train moving. Now you could argue there are roster flaws on the Bucks that are more significant than their head coach not knowing what he's doing, but the second a team loses buy-in about the guy in charge, you're cooked. Everything is magnified when you're a title favorite, every mistake, every bad decision, every loss. That's just how it works. When you're a first time head coach you don't get the benefit of the doubt, and the next thing you know you have washed Bobby Portis ready to go Crazy Eyes Portis on you. Just ask Nikola Mirotic how that ends.
Of course, it's early December. We're only 20 games in and there's a lot of basketball to be played from now until the Spring when this shit is truly going to matter. But between Griffin's defensive strategy being a complete disaster and now his end of game offense not looking any better despite having two Top 75 guys on his roster, that's not great.
Add in the fact that he got into it with Terry Stotts (an offensive minded coach) to the point where Stotts flat-out quit, certainly makes this feel even worse. Dame Time can only bail you out so many times, and needing to rely on that bail-out isn't exactly a recipe for success.
At the end of the day, Adrian Griffin is who Giannis wanted. That's all that matters. Honestly, it's much more likely they trade Bobby Portis than fire Griffin, and for all we know this was the first step in that process.