MILWAUKEE -- In the final minutes of their 112-100 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday night, the Milwaukee Bucks officially announced that Doc Rivers had been hired as the 18th head coach in franchise history. He is expected to begin coaching the team on Monday against the Denver Nuggets, according to Adrian Wojnarowski. Bucks PR would neither confirm nor deny that report.
While Rivers didn't technically become the Bucks' coach until 9:34 p.m. local time, he had already been in contact with the players and spoke to the team at shootaround early on Friday morning.
"He's just been like a big uncle to me," Jae Crowder, who, like Rivers, played his college ball at Marquette, said after the shootaround. "I've never played for him, but I've played against him in the league. It's just always respect, always a classy conversation between us two about our Marquette background, obviously. I think that's the connection I have to him, but I'm just happy to play for him, happy to be a part of the journey with him."
With the news official by the time the locker room opened after the defeat to the Cavaliers, the rest of the team shared their initial reactions at that time. That did not include Giannis Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard nor Khris Middleton, who all left without speaking to the media.
"Talked to him today, he's on board with us and knows that the expectations of this team are really high," Bobby Portis said. "I think he's ready for it."
"He said a few sentences and they were powerful," Pat Connaughton added. "He talked about just being able to have that identity that we should have as the Milwaukee Bucks. He talked about the talent we have on the team, teams should be a little bit more afraid to play us. I think, right now, with the way our defense has been playing, the way we've kind of been up and down in games specifically – I know we have a great record – I don't think teams have really been worried about coming in and playing us.
"I think that was a great start for him as a leader and I think everyone's bought into that."
The Bucks are 31-14, which is good for second place in the Eastern Conference and the fourth-best record in the NBA. But if their record was the only thing that mattered, Adrian Griffin would still be their head coach. Of course, that's not the case, and the Bucks have more than a few issues to clean up, particularly on defense.
Building a defensive identity will be a major part of Rivers' remit, but the Bucks also wanted someone who can "maximize this group from a leadership perspective, from an experience perspective," general manager Jon Horst said on Jan. 24 during a press conference. Griffin was a first-year head coach. Rivers has coached 2,075 games between the regular season and playoffs over 24 seasons and won a title with the Boston Celtics in 2008.
"I'm excited to have him here," Brook Lopez said. "Obviously he has tons of experience, he's been in the NBA, played in the NBA for a very long time, so that will be good to have in this locker room. An outside perspective to what's been going on on the court with the team. We get to use his outside point of view and all his wisdom he has. It's gonna be very beneficial for us."
Winning games won't be the only benefit to Rivers' wealth of knowledge.
"Coached one of my favorite players, Kevin Garnett, as well, so that's kinda dope," Portis said. "Can ask him stories. Think that's really cool."
