Doc Rivers and the Milwaukee Bucks have agreed to a contract worth up to $40 million through the 2026-27 season, according to reports.
Rivers coached for 24 seasons in the NBA and won the NBA title as the coach of the Boston Celtics in 2008. He had 16 consecutive winning records beginning with that title-winning year.
He ranks ninth in all-time wins with 1,097, just behind Larry Brown, and is fourth with 111 playoff wins.
Rivers has been working as an on-air analyst for ESPN this season. He was fired the day after the Philadelphia 76ers lost to the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Semifinals last season.
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Doc Rivers has to improve the Milwaukee Bucks’ defense
A big reason for the removal of Griffin as Bucks coach was the team had dropped from fourth in the NBA in team defense in 2022-23 to 21st this season.
Why? Well, for one, they traded Jrue Holiday, the team’s best defender, in the package that landed them Damian Lillard, one of the best scorers in the league.
The Bucks are third in the league in offensive rating, so if the defense can improve just moderately, they could make the run they hope to make.
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Doc Rivers needs to get his team beyond the NBA playoffs second round
Rivers was fired from the Philadelphia 76ers after three straight second-round exits. He had been the 76ers coach from 2020 to 2023. But the team didn’t make it past the second round of the playoffs in his tenure, despite having a superstar player like Joel Embiid.
He was fired after never getting the Los Angeles Clippers past the second round in seven seasons as the coach.
He won a title with the Celtics and got them to one more Eastern Conference Finals, with the last one being in 2012. He hasn’t taken a team beyond the second round since then.
The Bucks are in a win-now mode. Anything short of the Eastern Conference finals, or maybe even the NBA Finals, will be considered a failure.
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