MILWAUKEE — The NBA playoffs are continuing without the Milwaukee Bucks. They were knocked out in the first round by the Indiana Pacers.
Doc Rivers took over as the Bucks’ head coach in late January. He said he looks forward to being in charge all of next season. That actually starts now.
“This summer, I can think about building this team and getting them right,” Rivers said the other day. “I believe in this thing. I really do. I think our window is still very much open, but we got to get it right and this summer is gonna be huge.”
“As a coaching staff, I think they can do more. They had only three months,” said Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo. “They can do more to bring the best out of us moving forward. It’s different when you have the whole summer and training camp and a year to prepare for the end. It’s hard. It was probably was probably very hard for him.”
Rivers said he is glad he has a chance to coach Antetokounmpo, and it goes beyond his rare ability.
“Giannis is as good as it gets,” said Rivers. “I can tell you, I’ve had a lot of stars and he is in the Kevin Garnett category. And that’s a high praise, if you know what I mean there. Everything about him, it’s about getting better as an individual and making this team better.”
“I try to work hard,” said Antetokounmpo. “See how can I be better and I will be better. What I think the most important thing for me is that I can stay healthy.”
Antetokounmpo is correct about health. He missed the entire Pacers playoff series. Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard and Khris Middleton were all healthy enough to play together for parts of only eight games under Rivers.
“Health has been the biggest component here for us,” said Antetokounmpo. “We have to figure out how to stay healthy. We have to ask the question, can we stay healthy? Can we be on the floor together? Because Dame and Giannis and Khris sounds good, but the history has shown the times that we’re not on the floor together.”
Antetokounmpo said he will spend some intentional time with Lillard this summer to get to know him better.
It’s safe to say that Rivers didn’t come to Milwaukee, or was brought in, to lose in the first round of the playoffs. It’s all about doing better next season.
“There’s either a happy landing or there’s a plane crash. There’s no in-between,” said Rivers. “Now, obviously, with the injuries, there’s nothing you can do about that. Like, we were not going to win with our injuries, right? But that still doesn’t mean that it’s still not just as disappointing. Because you are. You don’t have a lot of opportunities to win titles. You just don’t. The reason we’re getting better is because we want to win it. We can do a lot of winning, but you want to be the winner and unless you are a winner, nothing else counts. That’s a hell of a goal to set and it sets you up for failure, but it’s worth it.”
The Bucks know they will need to improve defensively next season.
“Yeah, we do have to be better,” said Antetokounmpo. “We do have to be better defensively, for sure. There’s times when we were very good defensively, and there are times when we are just going through the motions, we just out there.”
Antetokounmpo said putting in the work will give him confidence.
The head coach said on top of that, the Bucks will need better athleticism.
“Every year you make changes,” said Rivers. “Again, it’s too early for me to tell you what those changes are going to be. But clearly, athleticism is probably one of the things at the top. But we don’t need track athletes. We can go get those, you know, from anywhere. We can go to the track. You know, we need skilled athletes, and I think that’s going to be a very high focus for us.”
Rivers said Lillard told him one way he’ll be better next season.
“He said, ‘Coach, I was never in the shape that I needed to be in. I had to wait all summer because you’re scared to play when you know you’re about to get traded, you don’t want to get injured.’ He said it was ‘my worst offseason I’ve ever had,’” said Rivers. “He said, ‘I’ll guarantee you next year you’re going to see me in the best shape you’ve ever seen.’ He said that’s number one. The first thing he walked in and said, before I said it because he knew I was going to say it. So he beat me to the punch.”
Among the more pressing offseason matters for the Bucks is the future of General Manager Jon Horst, who’s been linked to a front office job with his home state Detroit Pistons.
Rivers will also likely streamline his coaching staff.