According to reports, the Milwaukee Bucks have narrowed their head coaching search down a handful of top candidates.
It’s believed that the franchise has interviewed as many as 15 candidates at this point. However three front runners have emerged in former Raptors HC Nick Nurse, his former assistant Adrian Griffin, and Warriors associate head coach Kenny Atkinson.
While Nurse’s name has been linked to several clubs since his dismissal in Toronto, Milwaukee offers the chance to work with arguably the best player in the NBA in Giannis Antetokounmpo. The Bucks are only 2 years removed from a title, and boasted the league’s best regular season record in 2022-23.
However after their squad was upset by the Miami Heat in the 1st round of the Eastern Conference playoffs, coach Mike Budenholzer was relieved of his duties. Despite producing a .707 win percentage, coach Bud was widely criticized for his lack of in game adjustments not just in the series vs. Miami, but for several postseason runs now.
Nurse, 55, is widely regarded as one of the better in game tacticians across the association, and brings championship experience of his own to the table. In 5 seasons with the Raptors, the former bench boss accumulated a 227-163 record and was named the NBA Coach of the Year in 2020.
Bucks General Manager Jon Horst is expected to bring in each of the three preferred candidates for an additional round of interviews in Milwaukee this week.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner
Photo: Nickbarden. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.