Doc Rivers’s First Task Will Be to Fix the Bucks’ Defense

If this coach hiring is a championship-or-bust move, Milwaukee still needs to mitigate the effects of a middling defensive unit.

After a splashy summer, the Milwaukee Bucks have made yet another major move.

The team is hiring Doc Rivers to replace Adrian Griffin as head coach, per multiple reports. Rivers won a championship with the Boston Celtics in 2008, and was most recently the head man of the Philadelphia 76ers after a stint with the Los Angeles Clippers.

It’s yet another all-in move from the Bucks. Milwaukee made the bold decision to trade for Damian Lillard in August, a decision that’s yielded mixed results so far. While Lillard has charged the Bucks’ offense, the domino effect of Jrue Holiday landing in Boston has perhaps been even more impactful. And now, with Milwaukee clearly operating in championship-or-bust mode, first-year coach Griffin was replaced with a legend with immense postseason experience.

There’s a lot for Rivers to work on here. He’ll have to quickly engineer relationships with Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo, who reportedly had some friction with Griffin before his dismissal. He’s going to have to manage expectations despite being thrown into a pressure cooker over halfway into the season. And on a personal level, Rivers will have to prove his recent playoff struggles are not indicative of his prowess as a coach, but a result of some unfortunate circumstances. 

Detroit Pistons guard Marcus Sasser drives to the basket in front of Bucks forward Khris Middleton, guard Malik Beasley and guard Pat Connaughton :: David Reginek/USA TODAY Sports

Those are some of the larger issues at play. But the most important job for Rivers will be on the court. And that’s Milwaukee’s defense.

The Bucks are 30–13, but there’s an argument to be made that their record is a little inflated. Lillard’s clutch-time heroics are covering up some flaws with this team. Of course, that’s why you acquire a player such as Lillard, but those flaws will be magnified come playoff time.

Milwaukee’s net rating, per Cleaning the Glass, is 3.4, 11th best in the league. Basically, despite playing at about a 57-win pace, the Bucks are performing closer to a 49-win team. And their defense is the biggest culprit.

Milwaukee ranks 21st in defensive efficiency, per NBA.com. Its 116.8 defensive rating is only 0.2 points per 100 possessions better than the tanktastic Portland Trail Blazers. Even in today’s offensively tilted NBA, that’s a problem for a contender.

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Since 2010, only two teams who’ve won a championship have finished outside the top 10 in defensive rating. The lowest was 15th, last season’s Denver Nuggets. The other was the Golden State Warriors. Not only did both of those teams go to another level in the postseason, but they each possessed the most uniquely gifted offensive player in the league at the time.

The Bucks obviously have some championship pedigree, but it’s unclear where the defensive leap will come from on this roster. Lillard is a massive downgrade from Holiday at the point of attack. Malik Beasley can shoot the leather off the basketball, but he will be targeted in the playoffs. Khris Middleton still looks a step or two slower compared to the 2021 title run.

And going beyond individuals, under Griffin, the Bucks have surrendered more points in the paint in years past, and are frequently allowing teams to leak out in transition. Milwaukee’s point-of-attack defenders are often stretched far from the rim, and they lack the ability to fight through screens as well as previous iterations of this time. The result is a penetrable half-court defense as opposed to the stingy ones spearheaded by Holiday.

There is so much that goes into coaching beyond X’s and O’s. Rivers will have his plate full, and he will have to lean on his experience coaching star players to coax even more from Lillard and Antetokounmpo. In his role as a commentator this season, Rivers has suggested finding more fluidity in their offense should help the Bucks’ defense as well. Maybe that’s exactly right. Whatever the case, Rivers has to figure out how Milwaukee can get more stops. That’s the only way the Bucks can live up to their championship aspirations.