After finishing the regular season in the first place the Eastern Conference with the best record in the entire NBA, the Bucks were unexpectedly eliminated from the playoffs in the first round by the Heat.
A disappointing end of the season puts Milwaukee’s head coach Mike Budenholzer on the hot seat, according to NBA insider Shams Charania.
“Coach Mike Budenholzer’s status as head coach of this team is very much shaky,” he said on The Rally. “There are questions across the organization, locker room, franchise about his status moving forward.
“I’m told Budenholzer does have two years, $16 million left on his contract. He is a championship coach, he led this team to a championship in 2021.”
Charania listed three main reason why Budenholzer’s position is shaky. All of them are related with the first round series against Miami.
“But then you can look at three factors as to why people are pointing the finger at Budenholzer right now. One is the lack of adjustments, particularly defensively against Jimmy Butler.
“We saw Giannis Antetokounmpo postgame last night speak to the adjustments aspect of it and how he felt they did not make adjustments. And for your best player, your franchise cornerstone to say that was pretty damning and I think pretty direct.
“Another thing the lack of a timeout at the end of regulation. You were unable to get a timeout in overtime as well when you needed to get a shot off. You did not get a shot off at the end of overtime. That just cannot happen. That’s just unacceptable.
“And then also you give up five second-round picks to go get Jae Crowder and he does not play consistent minutes throughout this series. He only averaged 10 minutes per game in the series. He was a DNP in one of the games.”
According to Charania, the whole organization is in a state of shock after the elimination.
“I think overall this Bucks organization theres a feeling of shock, feeling of embarrassment right now among the players and I think the locker room because this not where this season was supposed to end.”
Budenholzer has been the head coach of the Bucks since 2018.
