After three seasons as the Milwaukee Bucks’ head coach Doc Rivers is not expected to return next season.
According to ESPN, sources informed NBA insider Shams Charania that the franchise will look for someone else to coach, but there may be another role for the former NBA player in the organization, possibly in an advisory capacity.
The news comes after the Bucks ended this season with a 32-50 record.
“[The
season] didn’t go the way I wanted it to go, obviously,” Rivers said after Milwaukee lost its last game of the season to the Philadelphia 76ers, his former team, 126-106. “I always say I could do a better job. We could have had better health. We could have had all kinds of things. I’m not a big guy, looking back. All you can do is look forward. We did a lot of things to improve a lot of the young guys. Unfortunately, that was the road that kind of presented itself for us, and we did that.”Rivers, who won an NBA championship in 2008 with the Boston Celtics, had a 97-103 record during his nearly three seasons with the Bucks. He was (surprisingly) hired in January 2024 to replace Adrian Griffin, who had a 30-13 record. Rivers went
17-19 the rest of the way. The Bucks lost to the Indiana Pacers 4-2 in the first round of the playoffs.The following season saw another first-round exit. This season, the Bucks missed the postseason entirely, ending a nine-year playoff streak.
Rivers, who will be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame later this year, ranks sixth all-time among NBA coaches in regular-season wins and fourth all-time in career playoff victories. He also coached for the Orlando Magic and the Los Angeles Clippers.
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