The Milwaukee Bucks will address head coach Mike Budenholzer’s contract situation after the conclusion of the NBA Finals, team principal governor Marc Lasry said in an interview with The Journal Sentinel before the series with Phoenix.
Budenholzer reportedly has one year left on the deal he signed in 2018.
“We’ll deal with it at the end of the year,” Lasry said. “Nobody has talked about it.”
The Bucks head coach had been under heavy scrutiny nationally since the team fell to Toronto in the 2019 Eastern Conference finals and his job had been reported to be in jeopardy as late as May and again after falling behind 2-0 to Brooklyn in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
“There was no truth to it,” Lasry said of the reports. “But what ends up happening is you can’t sort of listen to what the media is talking about because they were going to write what they need to write. I just felt bad for ‘Bud.’ That was really it. How would you like to be reading about yourself, people saying it’s over. I get it. It’s part of the business we’re all in. I think it was hard for him.”
The Bucks came into the season with NBA Finals expectations, beginning with a massive trade of draft capital and players for Jrue Holiday, the reshaping of the roster for more shooting and with two-time Most Valuable Player Giannis Antetokounmpo agreeing to extend his stay in Milwaukee for up to five seasons after this one.
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Budenholzer was named the 2018-19 Coach of the Year after leading the Bucks to a regular-season best 60-22 mark in his first year on the bench, but the Bucks surrendered a 2-0 Eastern Conference Finals lead to Toronto to eventually lose in six games. The Bucks marched to a 56-17 regular-season mark last year before exiting the playoffs in the second round of the “bubble” against Miami.
The Bucks had changed their offense this year and experimented with different defenses, and put together an offense that set a franchise record for points per game at 120.1, a number not seen in the league since 1984-85.
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The team defense was not as strong as the previous two seasons, but the Bucks still finished the year No. 9 in defensive rating. The Bucks ended the regular season as the No. 3 seed in the East with a 46-26 record and advance to their first Finals since 1974.
On April 19, general manager Jon Horst gave Budenholzer an endorsement, citing the adjustments the coach was making as well as managing a significant change in roster construction in a unique year due to COVID-19 protocols.
But on May 2, The Athletic reported Budenholzer would likely be fired if the team did not have a deep playoff run.
On June 3, CBS Sports Radio asked Bucks president Peter Feigin if Budenholzer would indeed be fired if the team lost to Brooklyn, and Feigin said, “I think Bud’s signed in through another year. I think he’s a leader of our team. I think we’ve progressed in a really good way. Certainly none of us are focused on it at all.”
Just a week after that the Bucks had been blown out in Games 1 and 2 in Brooklyn and were trying to climb back in the series. ESPN floated the idea that if the Bucks could not rally, it was unlikely the coach would be back.
At the end of that series, Brooklyn star Kevin Durant said the Bucks adjusted well throughout and Bucks players were complimentary of their head coach in getting them to the Finals.
“He’s doing whatever it takes but also trusting us out there,” Khris Middleton said after the Eastern Conference championship round. “We have an idea about what we need to do and he trusts us. That’s all you want in a coach, especially the players that are out there, they see it a little different and feel it a little different. When we come up with suggestions, he listens to us and trusts us with it.”
Budenholzer, 51, was hired by the Bucks on May 17, 2018.
He was the fastest coach in franchise history to reach 100 and 150 victories and currently holds a 162-65 regular-season record. He is tied with Scott Skiles for the fifth-most wins in team history and his .714 winning percentage is easily the best in the franchise.
Budenholzer’s 30-17 record thus far in the playoffs is the best playoff-winning percentage in franchise history and he trails Don Nelson (42) and Larry Costello (37) in playoff victories.
Under Budenholzer’s direction, Antetokounmpo developed into a three-time first-team all-NBA player, and a two-time Most Valuable and Defensive Player of the Year. Middleton became a two-time all-star while Eric Bledsoe, Brook Lopez and Jrue Holiday joined Antetokounmpo as All-Defensive team members.
“Jason (Kidd) helped in the beginning and ‘Bud’ has taken us to the next level,” Lasry said. “I think our GM has done a phenomenal job. Please give him credit for a lot of this because here’s a young kid who has stepped up and become a great GM in the last four or five years.
“Credit goes to the people who brought us where we are. Jon did a gutsy trade in Jrue Holiday. If you sort of think about it, what we’ve got is a great team.”
Bill Glauber contributed to this report.
