“I think we just have to find our playing identity,” proclaimed Saturday the experienced Doc Rivers, new coach of the Milwaukee Bucks of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard.
Rivers arrives mid-season in a franchise which surprised with the dismissal of its coach Adrian Griffin on Monday, while Milwaukee was in 2nd place in the Eastern Conference with 30 wins and 13 losses (now 2nd with 31 wins and 14 losses) .
The 62-year-old technician, former coach of Orlando, Boston, the Los Angeles Clippers and Philadelphia, will start Monday on the bench in Denver, with the reigning champion. Saturday, against New Orleans, Joe Prunty will continue his interim role. “I think we just have to find our playing identity,” Rivers said at a press conference. When we use the expression Fear the Deer (be afraid of the reindeer, the totem animal of the franchise) it should not be in vain.
Doc Rivers insisted on the defensive aspect, while the team, champion in 2021, recruited scorer Damian Lillard last summer to support Greek Giannis Antetokounmpo, but lost excellent defender Jrue Holiday. “Our communication on defense needs to be improved. We need to get in tune. Jrue and Dame (Lillard) are different players, so we have to change some things, that’s clear.” “It’s a challenge” to recover a team mid-season, he said. “A challenge that I am eager to take on.” Doc Rivers was fired by the Philadelphia Sixers in May 2023, after an elimination in the play-offs at the Eastern Conference semi-finals.
A historic figure in the big basketball league, he is accompanied, despite his title with Boston in 2008, by an unflattering record in the play-offs, where his teams have already been overthrown four times after leading a 3-2 series. , and where he only won 6 of the 16 N.7 matches he played. “I was not looking for a position at all costs,” he assured while he was a consultant on ESPN. “I received several offers this season, and sometimes I didn’t even pick up the phone. I was waiting for the right opportunity.” Doc Rivers had been a player in Milwaukee at Marquette University from 1980 to 1983, “coming back here is a dream,” he assured.