By Steve Megargee<\/p>\n
The Milwaukee Bucks don\u2019t expect Doc Rivers back as their coach next season, a person familiar with the situation said Sunday night after Rivers coached what could be his final game in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because no formal announcement about Rivers\u2019 decision has been made.<\/p>\n
ESPN first reported that Rivers won\u2019t be back as Milwaukee\u2019s coach next season.<\/p>\n
The news caps a tumultuous season in which Rivers was selected to the Hall of Fame while leading a Bucks team that was among the most disappointing in the NBA. The Bucks went 32-50 amid a series of injuries, snapping a string of nine straight playoff appearances.<\/p>\n
The 64-year-old Rivers had left little doubt about his future plans as the season wound down. He said after a 126-106 loss against his former Sixers Sunday that, \u201cI think you guys pretty much know\u201d his intentions and that an announcement was expected soon.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have seven grandkids now and they\u2019re all 8 years and under,\u201d Rivers had said about his future before an April 7 loss at Brooklyn. \u201cAnd it kills me every time I miss grandparents\u2019 day with each one of them in school. And it\u2019s probably time to go see them more. So, I\u2019ll let you figure out the rest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rivers went 97-103 in 2 1\/2 seasons with the Bucks. He owns a 1,194-866 overall record and overtook George Karl for sixth place on the career wins list among NBA coaches earlier this season.<\/p>\n
Only Gregg Popovich, Don Nelson, Lenny Wilkens, Jerry Sloan and Pat Riley have more coaching wins than Rivers.<\/p>\n
Rivers\u2019 exit comes amid speculation regarding two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, who led Milwaukee to its first title in half a century in 2021 and has set Bucks career records in virtually every major statistical category.<\/p>\n
Antetokounmpo\u2019s status dominated league discussions as the trade deadline approached, but he wasn\u2019t dealt. He since has been in a disagreement with team management over his injury status.<\/p>\n
The last game Antetokounmpo played this season was on March 15. Antetokounmpo said in the closing weeks of the season that he was healthy and wanted to play, as the Bucks continued to rule him out due to a left knee hyperextension and bone bruise. The NBA is investigating the matter.<\/p>\n
Antetokounmpo had two extended absences due to right calf strains and ended up playing in just 36 games. Kevin Porter Jr., the Bucks\u2019 second-leading scorer, appeared in just 38 games.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard,\u201d Rivers said Sunday. \u201cI don\u2019t remember guys being out like this, but it makes sense. I haven\u2019t had a lot of this. It\u2019s no fun. Losing, I don\u2019t give a crap what the reasons are, I\u2019m just too competitive. It\u2019s just no fun not winning. It just isn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rivers took over the Bucks midway through the 2023-24 season after the firing of first-year head coach Adrian Griffin. Although the Bucks had gone 30-13 under Griffin, they\u2019d posted some uncomfortably close wins over inferior teams and team officials believed a more experienced coach was needed to guide a roster that now featured seven-time all-NBA guard Damian Lillard, as well as Antetokounmpo.<\/p>\n
This move also represented a homecoming of sorts for Rivers, who played at Marquette before his 13-year NBA playing career. His No. 31 college jersey hangs from the rafters at Fiserv Forum, the arena that serves as the site for Bucks and Marquette home games.<\/p>\n
But the Bucks backslid during Rivers\u2019 tenure as they continually dealt with injuries to key players.<\/p>\n
Milwaukee finished 17-19 under Rivers during that 2023-24 season, entered the postseason as the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference and lost to Indiana 4-2 in the opening round, with Antetokounmpo missing the entire series due to a calf strain.<\/p>\n
Last season, three-time All-Star wing Khris Middleton didn\u2019t start playing until early December after recovering from offseason surgery to each of his ankles, and he got sent to Washington at the trade deadline. Lillard missed Milwaukee\u2019s final 14 regular-season games due to deep vein thrombosis in his right calf, returned for Game 2 of the Bucks\u2019 first-round playoff series loss to Indiana but tore his Achilles tendon two games later.<\/p>\n
With an injured Lillard unable to play this season, the Bucks waived him and agreed to pay his remaining salary over the next five seasons. That opened up cap space for the Bucks to sign former Indiana Pacers center Myles Turner.<\/p>\n
The roster overhaul didn\u2019t work out.<\/p>\n
\u201cI personally have enjoyed the challenge,\u201d Rivers said after Sunday\u2019s game. \u201cIt didn\u2019t go the way I wanted it to go, obviously. I always say I could do a better job. We could have had better health. We could have had all kinds of things. But I\u2019m not a big guy in looking back. All you can do is look forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rivers won a title with Boston in 2008 and led the Celtics to Game 7 of the NBA Finals two years later, but he hasn\u2019t advanced a team beyond the regional semifinals since. He owns a career playoff record of 114-112.<\/p>\n
This marks the first full season in which Rivers has coached and posted a losing record since 2006-07, when he went 24-58 with Boston.<\/p>\n
Rivers came to Milwaukee after head coaching stints with the Orlando Magic, Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Clippers and Philadelphia 76ers. He was working as a broadcaster for ESPN and ABC before the Bucks hired him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Steve Megargee The Milwaukee Bucks don\u2019t expect Doc Rivers back as their coach next season, a person…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,21,9,24,63,9126,319,11495],"class_list":{"0":"post-195065","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-brooklyn","9":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","10":"tag-brooklyn-news","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-philadelphia-76ers","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-top-stories-tmc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}