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“He was a tough-minded player, kind of like Darvin Ham”- A former NBA Coach of the Year gives his take on the hiring of Adrian Griffin as Bucks coach
The Milwaukee Bucks have found the perfect coach to help them right the ship following a disastrous campaign this season.
This was the assessment of former NBA Coach of the Year winner Sam Mitchell, who said the 48-year-old Griffin is exactly what the doctor ordered for the Bucks.
Mitchell sees Griffin as someone who can provide the desired Milwaukee needs, especially after the Bucks’ monumental collapse in the playoffs that saw them getting eliminated by the No. 8 seed Miami Heat in the very first round of the playoffs.
The right man for the job
In Milwaukee’s head coaching search, Griffin, who served as an assistant coach in Toronto from 2018 to 2023, beat out two other finalists that included Kenny Atkinson and Nick Nurse.
During his five-year stint with the Raptors, Griffin served as an assistant to Nurse.
Griffin beating out Nurse for the Milwaukee coaching position that was vacated by the dismissed Mike Budenholzer was very telling, said Mitchell, also former Toronto head coach.
“Well, I think it tells you something about the character and the type of a man that Adrian Griffin is,” said Mitchell in one of the episodes of NBA Gametime.
In his nine-year NBA career, Griffin was known to be a hard-nosed defender and a great locker-room guy. Those qualities will serve the Bucks well, said Mitchell.
“When you look at the Milwaukee Bucks, and you look at the NBA entirely, teams, because of the money, brand, and the youth of all these players, they want veteran guys, they want guys to come in and bring that tough leadership because you need some discipline,” said Mitchell.
The Bucks emerged as the best team in the regular season, finishing with an NBA-best 58-24 record that made them the number one overall seed in the playoffs.
But in the playoffs, where teams get to pick their opponents apart more, the Bucks simply faded.
Griffin-Ham comparison
“If you look at Milwaukee this year, as good as a team as they had, they look like they were missing that tough gene, that one thing that puts you over the top, and if Milwaukee needs one thing, I think Adrian Griffin can bring that,” said Mitchell.
Mitchell went on to compare Griffin to former Milwaukee assistant coach Darvin Ham. Mitchell even believes that had Ham stayed, he could have been chosen to become the next coach of the Bucks.
“He (Griffin) was a tough-minded player, kind of like Darvin Ham. Darvin is now in LA because if he was still there, he would be the head coach. I think they went out and tried to find a guy that has the same type of character and the same type of qualities that Darvin Ham brings, and I think Adrian Griffin is that guy,” Mitchell said.
