So far, the improvement that the Milwaukee Bucks were looking for when they hired Doc Rivers hasn’t happened.
Former coach Adrian Griffin barely made it halfway through his first season before being fired with a 30-13 record. The Bucks were second in the Eastern Conference trailing only the Celtics at the time when Griffin was replaced with Rivers.
The Bucks have a 5-8 record since Rivers took over. They’ve lost seven of their last ten games.
ESPN’s JJ Reddick, who played for Rivers when both were with the Clippers, wants his former coach to take some accountability for the struggles.
“I’ve seen the trend now. I’ve seen the trend for years,” Reddick said during an appearance on First Take. “The trend is always making excuses. Doc, we get it. Taking over a team in the middle of the season is hard. It’s hard, we get it, just like getting traded in the middle of the season is hard for a player.
“But, it’s always an excuse. It’s always throwing your team under the bus,” Reddick added. “They lose to Memphis and it’s his players’ fault. Memphis was playing G-League guys and two-way guys. You look at his quotes over the weekend and now he wants to take credit for the James Harden trade to the Clippers working out? He wants credit for that? There’s never accountability with that guy.”
Reddick referenced a report from Tomer Azarly of Clutch Points that included the following quote about the Harden trade:
“I was the one, obviously, they consulted,” Doc Rivers said. “They made calls and I was one of the guys who said it would be a great deal for them because I thought he fit them better than he would fit the Sixers team. I think he’s a perfect fit there. It’s a league. We talk. They just talked, asked questions, and I was on board early.”
Rivers has made numerous playoff appearances throughout his coaching career, including last season when the Celtics eliminated the Sixers.
The 63-year-old coach has had one championship breakthrough — when the Celtics captured their most recent title in 2008.
Rivers is 6-10 in Game 7s as a coach, and has lost the last five. Milwaukee, which won the NBA Finals in 2022, is currently third in the Eastern Conference and 8.5 games behind the first-place Celtics.
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