The position of the coach who won the final two years ago is shaking.
Reporter Shams Charania of ‘The Athletic’ reported on the 28th (Korean time) that Mike Budenholzer, the head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks, is in a very unstable position.
Milwaukee, who entered the playoffs as the 1st seed in the Eastern Conference with a record of 58-24 this season, ended the season in vain by collapsing 1-4 against Miami, who struggled through the play-in tournament as the 8th seed.
Milwaukee was strong enough to be selected as the team with the highest probability of winning by various media before the start of the playoffs, but Tyler Hiro and Victor Oladipo were injured in Game 1 and Game 3, respectively. It left a disgraceful record of being the number 1 seed team upset by the number one seed team.
According to reporter Karania, it is rumored that the Milwaukee team’s leadership is feeling disappointed and embarrassed that they did not even make it to the second round. Naturally, the position of manager Mike Budenholzer, who has been directing Milwaukee for five seasons, also began to shake.
Having accumulated enough coaching experience under manager Greg Popovich from 1996 to 2013, Budenholzer took over as manager of Milwaukee in 2018 after working for Atlanta. Milwaukee has grown into a strong player in the Eastern Conference with coach Budenholzer, and in 2021 enjoyed the joy of winning the Finals 50 years after 1971.
However, in a situation where expectations were high after a great regular season, the sudden pain of an early dropout from the playoffs turned Budenholzer’s future into a drastic darkening.
Giannis Antetokounmpo, who had a career-high season, Brook Lopez, who performed impressively throughout the season enough to be nominated for Defender of the Year, and Cruz Halladay, one of the most difficult defenders to play against, shook off a sluggish first half and improved in second half. Even though all of the 2021 winning members, including Chris Middleton, were in good health, they failed to even step into the conference finals once again after being eliminated in the second round of the playoffs in 2022. 먹튀검증
In particular, in this first round, there were exceptionally many scenes where the responsibility for the defeat could be held on coach Budenholzer rather than on the players.
First of all, it was regrettable that Halliday, who had difficulty blocking Butler, continued to be assigned a dedicated mark for Butler even though Jimmy Butler, the ace of Miami, ran rampant throughout the series. As Antetokounmpo mentioned after the playoff elimination was confirmed, the outcome could have been different if Antetokounmpo, one of the league’s best defenders, had stopped Butler instead of Halladay.
In addition, it was also curious that no operation time was used in the extension of the 5th game, and that veteran wingman Jay Crowder, who was recruited by investing 5 round 2 nomination rights during the season, was only used for 41 minutes throughout the series.
Budenholzer still has a two-year, $16 million contract with Milwaukee. The probability of being fired right away is not very high, but the future of Milwaukee and Budenholzer can change at any time depending on the report card next season.