Bucks Set to Hire Raptors Assistant Adrian Griffin as Head Coach, per Report

The longtime NBA assistant will replace Mike Budenholzer, who Milwaukee fired after five seasons.

The Bucks are set to hire Raptors assistant Adrian Griffin as their next head coach, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports.

Griffin replaces Mike Budenholzer, who was fired following five seasons with Milwaukee after the team lost to the Heat in five games in the first round of the playoffs. Griffin has spent the past 15 seasons as an assistant coach for five different teams, including for the 2019 NBA champion Raptors. He began his career as a Bucks assistant from 2008 to ’10.

According to The Athletic’s Shams Charania, Griffin and Warriors assistant Kenny Arkinson were the two finalists for the vacancy. Former Raptors head coach Nick Nurse, who had previously interviewed for the job, pulled his name out of consideration, Charania reports.

Besides those three, Milwaukee also reportedly interviewed Houston head coach Kelvin Sampson and was reportedly interested in former Suns coach Monty Williams.

Milwaukee is coming off a season where they led the league in winning percentage, finishing the year with a 58–24 record. However, the disappointing first-round loss was enough for the Bucks to move on from Budenholzer, who led the team to an NBA title just two years ago.