Bucks parting ways with HC Mike Budenholzer

[Axe]

https://www.espn.ph/nba/story/_/id/37424110/sources-bucks-fire-coach-mike-budenholzer-early-exit

[Kblaze8855]

Your franchise player falls on his back and misses 2.75 games out of 5 and the year before your second option misses the playoffs. And you get fired. Yea he could have called a timeout or two but there’s little evidence he’s not good at his job.

Who is out there to replace him? Nick Nurse?

[L.Kizzle]

Cold world. His brother just passed away a week ago. Bucks could have waited until the off-season to do this.

[Im Still Ballin]

Dumb decision. Most coaches get fired because someone higher up is feeling the heat. They want a scapegoat; someone they can point to and say "he was the problem!"

The well-run organizations avoid this sort of stuff. Miami and San Antonio come to mind. Strong leadership from the top.

[tontoz]

Cold world. His brother just passed away a week ago. Bucks could have waited until the off-season to do this.


They did it early so they could start their search. Sucks about his brother but his lack of adjustments was a glaring flaw even in past seasons. No matter how many points Butler scored he refused to double him.

[SouBeachTalents]

Literally every team that’s won the championship since 2016, besides the Warriors of course, has fired their title winning coach. What a cold ass league :lol

[Im Still Ballin]

I wonder if this has anything to do with the new ownership. Maybe the new guy wants to hire his own coach for ego reasons?

[fourkicks44]

Your franchise player falls on his back and misses 2.75 games out of 5 and the year before your second option misses the playoffs. And you get fired. Yea he could have called a timeout or two but there’s little evidence he’s not good at his job.

Who is out there to replace him? Nick Nurse?

I agree it looks a little weak and superficial right now but personally I never thought he was a good coach.

His roster as been better the last year or two so, his approach has been different, but remember when he was running those strange rotations a while ago where Giannis would sit at weird and extended periods of the game.

The only thing that he had going was that one ring that he could rest his laurels on, other than that I never thought he was a special coach. For all his identifiable faults, Nurse is a far superior coach.

[Wardell Curry]

Literally every team that’s won the championship since 2016, besides the Warriors of course, has fired their title winning coach. What a cold ass league :lol

It's not even about cold. It's about a complete lack of brainpower at the top of these organizations.

[Axe]

Literally every team that’s won the championship since 2016, besides the Warriors of course, has fired their title winning coach. What a cold ass league :lol
Teams are likely to keep the same coaches who can lead them to b2b titles or at least two titles in a somewhat short span i guess.

[Im Still Ballin]

A pretty good stretch for Mike B:


- Most wins over the last five years (2018-2023)
- 271-120 (69% win percentage)
- Most playoff wins (39)
- A championship

This front office would've probably fired Popovich. San Antonio had some disappointments from 2000 to 2002.

[post]

Your franchise player falls on his back and misses 2.75 games out of 5 and the year before your second option misses the playoffs. And you get fired. Yea he could have called a timeout or two but there’s little evidence he’s not good at his job.

Who is out there to replace him? Nick Nurse?

giannis shooting 45% ft doesn't help either

or jevon and jae disappearing

he said he should've called one timeout

but odds are it wouldn't have changed the outcome

yeah maybe nurse

maybe mike brown

maybe jacque vaughn

maybe steve nash

who knows

[HylianNightmare]

Dumb

[Wardell Curry]

Your franchise player falls on his back and misses 2.75 games out of 5 and the year before your second option misses the playoffs. And you get fired. Yea he could have called a timeout or two but there’s little evidence he’s not good at his job.

And to echo this, it's really crazy to think that the Bucks probably had a 40-50% shot at the title had Giannis not gotten hurt when he did. Those are the breaks I guess. It's really unfortunate when titles come down to injuries, and it happens all too often.

[90sgoat]

Mavs should jump on this, but Cuban will likely keep Kidd around.

[Jasper]

this is my team so I did not ever deter comments about Coach Bud.
But in past years in playoffs as well as regular season games ... he was questionable.
Stick with the plan , and don't deviate from what an opponent is doing to your team , means you can't ,make decisions on the fly.
This is the pro league and coach's must bring their best.. no matter what.
After this years playoffs I stated he has to go, because of those lack of decisions.
Two ESPN commentators could easily fill his spot. (I'd kind of like to see Darvin Ham ask out of the Lakers when they fall to take over the Bucks. )
But I think we all know Nurse is in.

[Naero]

I'm ambivalent about this. It's a much-needed move; I just hate its necessity.

I think he was a great coach overall (despite many knee-jerk reactions to the contrary), but he was far too mulish to translate that into the playoffs. He lived by the same schemes in the regular season and died by them in the postseason. Other coaches actually use the regular season to experiment with different approaches, whereas Bud just coasted on the same five-out offense; once that got scrutinized in the postseason, he hardly had any alternatives or counterschemes up his sleeves.

Despite that, he still could've survived with a different roster. As talented as it is, the leadership intangibles leave too much to be desired: the players overtrusted him and vice versa. Bud stood pat when critical adjustments and moves were needed, and the players sheepishly followed suit. We had no one as vocal as Jimmy Butler to override him. Everyone—not just Bud—was rudderless.

Hence they need a more on-the-ball and assertive coach to compensate for that, and only so many hireable ones fit that bill. If we don't choose a top-end replacement like Nick Nurse, it's just as likely we'll nosedive into mediocrity (akin to the Jason Kidd era). The Bucks needed a new voice; make no mistake about that. But it's dicey to find the right one, and it's lamentable that we have to.

Not that I doubt that we can find a suitable replacement, and part of me believes we will. Another part of me, however, is worried this will be the end of an era—not just for Bud, but for our title-contention status.

Bud was a flawed mastermind at best, but I still appreciate all he's contributed. Fact is that he vaulted into title contention to begin with and was an integral part of us winning it all in 2021. Sure, we could have and should have won more with less stubborn coaching (especially in 2019), but I'd wager that most coaches wouldn't have even copped us such opportunities.

We'll just have to see if the new HC can maintain our winning culture—or even evolve it.

[BarberSchool]

Dumb decision. Most coaches get fired because someone higher up is feeling the heat. They want a scapegoat; someone they can point to and say "he was the problem!"

The well-run organizations avoid this sort of stuff. Miami and San Antonio come to mind. Strong leadership from the top.This.

Says more about panicked, tense ownership than anything else.

Stupid move, and will eventually equate to players losing faith in the aforementioned panicked scapegoat-seeking ownership.

[hold this L]

I'd imagine Nurse has already been contacted.

[Street Hunger]

CBS Sports: "Budenholzer won nearly 70% of his games and a championship in Milwaukee. Antetokounmpo's presence will give his successor the chance to do even more, so long as the rest of the roster is managed properly. Virtually every coach on the market will seek out the Bucks job if they are approached for it, and as such, they should be able to attract almost any candidate that they want."

[rmt]

Failing to call timeouts and NOT TRYING Giannis on Butler are inexcusable.

[bdonovan]

Budenholzer is not the reason the Bucks were a top team.

More than ever, it's the players who are directing the offense.

The coaches have some say, such as matchups, rotations, timeouts. On that front, it's not clear Budenholzer is the best option. On the strategy front, I'm not clear Budenholzer did anything that stands out.

I've noticed this from coaches- that after a period of time, their rapport with the players lessens, their choices are worse. I've seen this with Steve Kerr on the Warriors. Kerr's strategies in the early years were brilliant, now they seem arbitrary. Sometimes winning can do that to you.

[bdonovan]

This.

Says more about panicked, tense ownership than anything else.

Stupid move, and will eventually equate to players losing faith in the aforementioned panicked scapegoat-seeking ownership.

I doubt it. Usually these moves happen only after management consults with personnel and often has to do with players loss of trust in the coach.

[bdonovan]

this is my team so I did not ever deter comments about Coach Bud.
But in past years in playoffs as well as regular season games ... he was questionable.
Stick with the plan , and don't deviate from what an opponent is doing to your team , means you can't ,make decisions on the fly.
This is the pro league and coach's must bring their best.. no matter what.
After this years playoffs I stated he has to go, because of those lack of decisions.
Two ESPN commentators could easily fill his spot. (I'd kind of like to see Darvin Ham ask out of the Lakers when they fall to take over the Bucks. )
But I think we all know Nurse is in.

I noticed the same thing in past years. No adjustments on his end.

[Jasper]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoZvtbxfKDM pretty much sum's it up.

Need to make this comment as well :

No way will the Bucks hire a head coach without a championship pedigree or a assistant coach .

It will have to be a coach that went thru all of it as well as win a chip or more.
This is not a cross roads for the Bucks , but Giannis is showing his wear and needs a supporting cast in Lopez
and Middleton in form he was 2 years ago. (*I hope they scope his knee and do whatever is needed)

Grayson Allen is not the answer , and feel they need to package 4 players to get a guy like Bridges or SG w/the Wizards.
I will say this the window is 2 years , then a roster re-make will be done.
Lopez will be out , Middleton may not be able to go , and Jrue may die with all the minutes he plays.

[bison]

Topsy turvy world where coach bud is fired but Jason Kidd still has a job.