Why Doc Rivers Is the New Coach of the Milwaukee Bucks | The Ryen Russillo Podcast

Why Doc Rivers Is the New Coach of the Milwaukee Bucks | The Ryen Russillo Podcast

Well that didn’t take long Adrien Griffin out as head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks despite the 30 and3 record I don’t know if he’s going to get another head coaching job um kind of cool to be like yeah I won 70% of the games of my career not many people can

Say that when they walk away uh as an aside anyone that’s ever listened to this pod and heard me talk about Adrien Griffin the player knows I was a huge fan I know it doesn’t make a ton of sense I just love the way he saw the

Game in a very Advanced way there’s no mixtape there’s not going to be a video where somebody tweets kids today just don’t understand Adrien Griffin um and he didn’t really even play all that long I just loved him at a time where I just thought man if everyone saw the game the

Way this guy sees it uh he’s interviewed a million times he finally gets his chance I was thrilled for him we had him on the Pod but I would say that it was not a secret uh if you are plugged into the NBA at all that it was just these

These Rumblings the hints you’re like what is going on with that team we can get to the Numbers number two offense in the NBA but 21st on defense 26th on defense the last 10 uh they’re tied for the third best excuse me they’re tied for the second best record in the NBA

They were only three and a half games behind the Celtics they smashed him and you can get into the Celtics schedule part of it but whatever um the Terry STS thing wasn’t a great sign at the very beginning of the year where it gets into

An argument with STS STS is off the team STS with head coaching experience I always thought STS was actually a pretty good X and0 guy in the times that I’ve watched his teams um and then there was the other story we find out just this morning that Doc Rivers to the Bucks is

Official he’ll be leaving the ringer and he’s going to be the head coach of the Bucks we’ll get to that here in a second but that the Bucs had been reaching out to Doc to kind of consult behind the scenes which I’m sure if you’re Adrian

Griffin You’ be like I don’t really need this so on January 6 we knew it was bad because jannis said this quote in the postgame quote defensively we have to have a plan what is our strategy um apparently the strategy was to kind of change around the assignments and it’s funny because

People got sick of Coach Bud because he was stubborn but it worked defensively Lopez was basically dropping off everything always staying fixed in the paint uh the Lopez contested shot numbers got some of us voters would be like wait do I have to take a second look at Brook Lopez as

Defensive player of the year when there were other times where I would watch and be like well you have drew holiday at the point of attack you have Giannis swarming all over the place and Brooke doesn’t really have to leave all that much so then you look at the system this

Year and Brooke clearly didn’t love the idea of like wait I’ve got to chase all this guy all these guys around I have to stay out and and Blitz on a screen and roll I have to trap 30 plus feet away from the hoop I’m supposed to close out

On corner 3es like I liked last year I like the bud system way more than this uh then there’s the Lillard part of this where if you look at his field goal attempts they’re down but what what was going to happen what like what you think

Was going to happen when he went to the Bucks as opposed to the Portland show that he was able to run for such a long time and Lillard’s terrific terrific offensive player but shot attempts 21 last year per game to 17 a half that makes sense the field goal percentage is

Down a bit 46 to 43 but he’s a career 44% shooter you know that’s one of the things despite how Dynamic Lillard is as a score sometimes there’s some real high volume stuff where you look at the overall shooting numbers think he was 37% from three last year on 11 attempts

8 and 1 half attempts this year 35% but he’s 37% for his career uh the free throw attempts you know he was out of control last year with it n and a half per game he’s at eight attempts per game which is the second highest of his

Career this year the usage went from 34 last year to 28 he’s always been around the 30s you know in the second half of his careers he became a dominant player and offensively the box score numbers have dipped down and defensively he’s always been terrible on defense uh not

Debatable so I don’t know if Lillard is upset about the system or if he’s upset about about some of the traditional stats dipping down there a bit um I don’t know what he thought it was going to be maybe that’s why he wanted to go to Miami going that Butler guy takes a

Lot of time off I’ll get more shots up um there’s probably more Nuance looks at at what’s supposed to happen here but if you look at Giannis his usage rate dipped from 39 last year which is an absurd number to 33 this year but his true shooting percentage is the best of

His career which would make sense because you’re less likely to be able to crash onto Giannis the way you have in the past because you’re not really that scared of the shooters despite you know some of the shooters that they’ve had that you you respect you know Grayson

Allam was there Middleton obviously is a shot maker but Lillard’s an entirely different animal because you are so worried about how high Lillard initiates his offense that it’s just stretching you out defensively so it’s actually kind of worked there for bit Yan bit foriana so I’m I don’t know if it’s just

Hey I don’t I don’t love running this or I don’t like being off the ball this much or I don’t like where I’m getting to initiate if Lillard just wants to dribble it up 80 to 90 times and get a high screen and then pull up from 30 or

Get to the hoop because that’s the other great thing about Lillard is he’s a smaller player but he’s still so quick and crafty enough to finish at the rim and the free throw parts of it like it’s it’s not a complete disaster we’re talking about the number two offense so

I’d love to get like the truth serum on really what was upsetting to Lillard or did Lillard Lopez middle guys that have been around you know maybe even Middleton and Lopez more so going like look whatever we were doing defensively despite people’s frustration with buds rules remember like Giannis

Not getting to play on Jimmy Butler Giannis being asked about it after that Series last year and he just is like I don’t know they’re like okay a little bit more freedom a little bit more creativity you’re like yeah but now we’re terrible now we’re terrible on

Defense so can we just go back to what it was so I wonder if that was more of the motivation than me just wondering if Lillard’s complaints were solely about just getting more shots or having the offense more tailored to him which was just not a reality because he’s playing

With somebody like Giannis somebody he’s never played with before uh so maybe it’s just still supposed to take a little bit more time I don’t know man look they had the Cleveland loss without GI Yannis where they got smoked they had the January losses the first week there

Where they lost to Houston and Utah they lost four out of five against the Pacers the inseason tournament game being there live and watching how terrible they were on defense it was it was alarming um I don’t think this is even as bad as the David blat thing where David blat made

It to the NBA finals then went 31 then he was fired but it might just be as simple as the personality because everything I’d heard about then uh with blat was just players didn’t like him and if the players don’t like you and you’ve spent all this money and you have

A chance for a championship which is what the Bucks certainly have and you add in the Jimmy Haslam part of it if you look at his NFL history with coaches if they were all in agreement like look this just isn’t going to work it can it can seem entirely unfair that

Somebody at 30 and 13 loses their job but I don’t know that I think it’s the wrong thing and by the way that Cavs team went on to come back against Golden State down 3-1 and win a title after they’d made the change so we’ve covered some of the defensive stuff here but

Just to add to it when you switch out Drew holiday for Dame on defense you’re not going to be as good defensively I know most of you know that already right but the problem with Dame is you know and it was even funny too when he got he got traded

There it was there was I think there was a couple stories and may have been a quote from him it was like it’s not that I’m bad on defense it’s just that it’s like no no no you’re you’re like disinterested you can’t be bothered with it sometime which is why it’s so

Incredibly frustrating so I’d love to know the truth of his frustration and and what that is um I don’t know if there’ll be as much outrage about doc getting the job over the in-house assistant pry as there was with Finch getting the job in Minnesota um I like the hire I like the

Hire for Doc here I know people the approval rating for Doc is is lower uh I wouldn’t say lower than I realized because I I realize it I know he has the 331 leads that he’s blown the AC with Orlando against Detroit to me who cares the Houston one against the

Clippers is terrible the Denver one against the Clippers is also terrible the one that really has always bothered me is the seven game series against Atlanta but you know I’ll never understand that one if you want to go back and read about that and the blown

Leads and how absurd some of the history was in that I would say don’t go back and watch it if you’re a Sixers fan but was it on Doc or did Ben Simmons after he went four and4 from the free throw line in game five like was he just done

Do you realize he took I looked this up again this morning Ben Simmons took one shot total in the fourth quarter the last six games of that Series so a guy who’s supposed to be your second dude you know the thing you’ve been building around just completely loses it in a

Series um you know there’s there’s certain things that happen in these headlines of Doc blows another 3-1 lead here’s what I know about doc he’s great with stars he just is not saying it works every single time but I saw it firsthand in Boston and even if there

Was a little push back initially and you know a younger point guard in Rondo where Rondo is always the smartest guy in the room room and you know I don’t think Rondo’s history is that he is in a hurry to get along with everybody um but

As as much as there’s criticism of Doc this might be exactly what they need a guy that’s been through it all and a guy that understands stars as a head coach couple quick things here speaking of Ben Simmons we had video last night as the Knicks took out the Nets of Ben getting

Some shots up nothing says March like some video of Ben Simmons going through a workout now I’m trying to be fair here because we’re talking about another injury that they just can’t seem to figure out but I am a little worried he’s running out of outfits because it’s two days later I’m

Not leading the Pod with embiid 70 points if I don’t have a pod I can’t do it that day that was incredible as you were watching it happen you’re like dude is he G to get 80 tonight and it was completely within the realm of possibility like it could have happened

And San Anton was in the game enough that embiid had to stay out it was justifiable to keep embiid out and I wanted to see it happen I hate when they pull guys early like oh you don’t need it respect the game um in this case I

Don’t know that I think pop wanted him to get 70 they didn’t double team him until like late and then the best part for him beat is he had to defend soan so he just didn’t defend him so he would just go down and kind of hang by the

Paint and be like whatever if you’re going to hit a couple shots go ahead and hit him but now this becomes the MVP conversation where there’s no other choice but we know with the new rule with the NBA for the postseason Awards it’s 65 games and you’re going to play

20 or more minutes in those 65 games you can’t just check in for a possession and then out and be like all right cool embid as of this morning I believe depending on what you’re looking at here he’s on Pace for 62 and a half games so

I would never say the MVP races over 42 44 games into the season CU things can change but where he’s at statistically where he’s historically with some of the stuff and then if you really want to add in the unfair part of it is like hey centers haven’t done this cuz that part

Of it just feels like I don’t even know that you can just compare embiid historically to centers I don’t know how anybody could vote for anybody else for MVP but because of the rule this thing is still in play and that’s going to suck if emids at like 63 games and it

Just H I can’t imagine they’re going to let that happen but if he were if you were legitimately like at a point where he has to get through some kind of injury and he keeps this pace up and this kind of scoring it’s going to suck and by the

Way as I say all of those things I still think yic is the better player two things that I want to hit on I guess it could be three things because they’re my favorite things col train when Jordan P said earlier this year quote my basketball Legacy is taken

Care of with a championship ring I couldn’t help but be like that’s pretty much all I need to know like Jordan P like what are you 38 like and again they the Jordan pool jokes like we almost there were so many we almost got sick of them like I don’t

Even know if that’s good content anymore right but it was hot the first couple months of the season but when you hear something like that you just go why would you one why would you admit it but why are you wired that way now granted there’s 450 of these guys even more when

You think about all the different guys that get signed and wave throughout an NBA season a lot of people out there playing well there’s not a huge number of people that are in the NBA but for a given season a lot of players a lot of

Players a lot of people a lot of thoughts doesn’t mean everybody’s going to be thinking the same way but DeAndre Aton the other night and by the way a week where he couldn’t make it to the game because of ice and it’s like what and look even people on social

Media weren’t like hey do you realize how dangerous these storms can get like normally there’s that lane of people like finding a way to still defend the player like find a way get to the game you want to know why you never hear that cuz it just doesn’t happen so Aon

Doesn’t make it to the game and he said uh recently quote I’ve got nothing to prove in this league I’m a max player and I’ll continue to be a max player that’s why he’s not on the Suns all right that’s why when you watch him and how physically gifted he is and the

Touch that he has and the athleticism where you go this dude should be a beast but not everybody’s a beast there is no internal Beast there all right he is totally cool with I’m a max player and I don’t know that he’s going to be one the next time around

Because one of the most surprising things if you just want to talk about like player rle what my expectations were I figured Aon would put up big numbers with Portland get a bunch of shots and somebody would talk themselves into it again that’s not happened he’s getting 12 points 10 boards his shooting

Percentage is the worst of his career that guy is playing what almost 30 minutes a game and he’s averaging a free throw and a half attempt per game DeAndre a he has only three games this season where he scored 20 or more now Granton when you watch Trailblazers

Games lot of guards out there a lot of guards taking a lot of shots including my guy scoop but I didn’t know he could be more checked out than Phoenix where he was frustrated that it was clear the Vets just didn’t trust him anymore right that

He just wasn’t a dude that was built for some of that stuff even though physically he actually was built for it but mentally just not that guy and that in Portland where I thought he’d put up some numbers and trick everybody he’s instead decided like no I’m totally

Cool being fairly checked out every night I don’t even need the touches just let me sit out a game every other week or so put on the fit and let everybody know that my goals are already accomplished and I know some of you are saying who cares he’s making money

Generational stuff yeah but he’s not in sales they’re still supposed to be something competitive about this Sport and I love these Quotes look

Ryen Russillo reacts to the news that the Milwaukee Bucks fired  head coach Adrian Griffin and replaced him with Doc Rivers and discusses why it happened, what changed about the Bucks defense, and why Doc might be a good hire for Milwaukee. He then briefly touches on Joel Embiid’s 70-point game and MVP candidacy before discussing Deandre Ayton’s disappointing season in Portland.

Check out the Bill Simmons YouTube channel: youtube.com/billsimmons

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