Bucks fans will learn that this Bud’s for you
The Milwaukee Bucks had 13 head coaches between 1991 and the end of the 2017-’18 season. Just one, George Karl, had a run of success and it flamed out 17 years ago.
The team’s subsequent coaching hires were introduced with fanfare and optimism, but none of them won so much as a single playoff series. Some were unlucky and inherited inferior talent. Others couldn’t get the players to buy in to their program. In almost every case, the fit wasn’t quite right.
Enter 48-year-old Mike Budenholzer. Introduced to the media Monday in the Bucks’ new arena, his message wasn’t a whole lot different from the messages of those
who preceded him.
But there’s a lot of things about ‘Bud’ that make you think the Bucks got this one right, that he’s the right coach at the right time to get this team pointed toward a championship.
First, there’s the depth of his experience. An assistant for 17 years under Gregg Popovich in San Antonio, Budenholzer was part of a staff that won four NBA titles. As the head coach in Atlanta, he took a team that won 38 games in his first year to 60 victories and the Eastern Conference finals in his second. There aren’t a lot of those kind of coaches walking around.
“Experience matters,” Bucks general manager Jon Horst said. “We’ve done some things well here. We’ve had some successes. Finding the person that’s the right fit for this team, the right systems, the right ideas, the right principles and philosophies to help this group take the next step, was paramount.”
Secondly, Budenholzer comes to Milwaukee with an impressive track record of developing players in a culture nicknamed “Hawks University.” He and his staff in Atlanta consistently turned lower-end draft picks and marginal talents into good players, and turned good players into good teams.
“I would say we took a lot of pride in our player development program in Atlanta,” Budenholzer said. “I think a lot of players came through there and really grew as players, whether they were younger guys or older guys. Really, their games just went to significantly higher levels.”
The talent level in Milwaukee, starting with Giannis Antetokounmpo, is as good or better than any of the Hawks’ four playoff teams under Budenholzer.
But anyone who watched the Bucks play under Jason Kidd and Joe Prunty last season saw players who made the same mistakes over and over and too often fell back into old, bad habits. They could be rock-the-arena good one night and inexplicably flat or disjointed the next.
The head coach’s top priorities are to get his players on the same page, to hold them accountable and to get them to believe his program is the the best route to a championship. Any coach at this level can diagram plays; the successful ones get their teams to play unselfishly and with a collective will.
“If they care about winning, I think quickly they’re going to understand that as a coach and a staff we’re just trying to put them in the best position to win, to become better players individually, to grow and develop their games and their careers,” Budenholzer said. “That we’re all pointing in the same direction even though we may be at different stages of our careers, different points in our contracts.
“At the end of the day, winning is always rewarded. If you can help players become better and you can help them win, I’ve found that they’ll always listen and they’ll always follow. And that’s my job.”
Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but Budenholzer thinks the Bucks can be a good defensive team. He thinks they be a good defensive team. “Elite, I would say,” he said. That means better ball pressure, being quicker on switches, getting out to the corner three, protecting the rim – all the things the Bucks have struggled with at different times and to different degrees.
“The thing that probably stands out to me first is the potential on the defensive side of the ball,” Budenholzer said. “How can we unlock this talent defensively? I just think there’s so much to work with. You really can go up and down the roster.”
It all starts with Antetokounmpo. Let’s be honest, the Bucks job would not be as appealing without the 23-year-old Greek Freak, whose length and athleticism is perhaps surpassed only by his hunger to win. Who wouldn’t want to coach such a transcendent talent?
Budenholzer started working on the relationship immediately, meeting with Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton, the Bucks’ alpha and beta dogs, over breakfast. The coach is going to be joined at the hip with those players, but it’s how he develops Thon Maker, for example, and others on a roster that undoubtedly will undergo changes this summer, that will be telling.
“I feel very fortunate to be put in this position,” Budenholzer said. “I can’t wait to take us to the next level in Milwaukee.”
Yes, we’ve heard it before. This time, though, I’m buying it.