Highlights from Doc Rivers' first news conference as coach of Bucks: 'We have to find our identity'
The Milwaukee Bucks and general manager Jon Horst introduced Glenn “Doc” Rivers as the 18th head coach in franchise history Saturday afternoon at Fiserv Forum, four days after firing first-year head coach Adrian Griffin.
"When we decided with ownership and Peter and myself to make the decision, part of that decision was to try to identify a small group of coaches that we thought fit the bill and to really try and test how much confidence we would have in executing that," Horst said. "Really, that’s what led to the decision, and really quickly afterwards we identified Doc and targeted Doc and it’s been kind of a quick process after that, but we’re glad that we got him.”
A Chicago native, Rivers played at Marquette from 1980-83 and his number is retired by the university.
"It's hard to express emotionally,” Rivers said of his return to the city. “You know and from afar, and I've told Jon this, this is one of the places I've always had circled in my life if ‘I could ever play here.’ I've actually been pissed at Don Nelson for years because I thought he was gonna draft me. I think he drafted Randy Breuer. And I'm just still pissed by that. It was the right choice at the time, I guess. So I've never had the opportunity to play here.
"And then when I started coaching ... I'm not here if I don't go to Marquette. Bottom line. I really believe that. Not just Rick (Majerus), Hank (Raymonds), and Al (McGuire), but the professors. I wasn't the greatest student when I came to Marquette but I left a hell of a student. That was not my plan. I wanted to skate and it was not allowed. And it changed my life. Coming back here, to a place that changed me as a literal person, is a dream."
As for his new team, Rivers will begin coaching the Bucks on Monday in Denver against the defending champion Nuggets.
“That’s smart, right?” he quipped.
Assistant coach Joe Prunty was set to act as the interim head coach for the third straight game Saturday night against New Orleans.
Rivers and Horst met with the media for nearly 30 minutes, and here are some highlights from that session:
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What is your plan for taking over a team midseason and getting it to where it needs to go?
Rivers: I’ve never done this. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone, I can tell you that, just from the day and a half. But it’s going to be a challenge. It's a challenge that I'm running towards. We've got to get organized quickly. Can't try to do too much too soon. We're in the middle of a season, so we've got to try to keep our rhythm. There are changes that we have to make, there's no doubt about that. We’ll start working on it immediately.
It’s interesting. I looked at our calendar. I should have waited until after the all-star break. This is a tough stretch. But that’s good too. I always say good. I don’t ever say bad. I do. Rex (Kalamian, incoming assistant) back there, first thing, ‘Did you see the teams we’re playing?’ I said, ‘Good. Let’s bring it on. Let’s get it on.’ If we win them all, great. If we struggle, great, it doesn’t matter. Our goal is to be great by the end of the year. But the biggest part of the schedule is that probably three or four practice days left in the season, good days. So we’re going to have to do shootarounds. We’ve going to have to do things a little different.
What was your initial message to the team on Friday?
Rivers: Well I think we have to find our identity. That was more the message. Like if you're gonna have ‘Fear the Deer,’ you gotta fear the deer, you know? You know what I mean? But our identity right now – and I asked them, 'who are we?' You know when a team is connected and they got it, they'll give you an answer. We don't have an answer yet. We gotta find what are we, who are we. Every year you're on a new journey. We have five guys here – I think it's five – who have won a title, and I mean the players. We have to make sure they understand that we want to do a lot of what they did, but you can't go on the same journey. Every year the journey's different, even if the same guys came back with the same coach and everything, that journey's different. We have to figure out who we're gonna be and the type of journey that we need to go on to get what we want.
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How will you handle the pairing of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard?
Rivers: It depends on all of us. I was going to say, it depends on them, but it's not, it's all of us. The key is to get them both playing at their ultimate level and making it so they can do that together. That's going to be the key. And not just offensively, but defensively as a group. And that can be done. That will be done. Just being around them, I was around the facility yesterday, they're all willing, they just need to figure out how.
The Bucks have struggled defensively this year. How good can they be?
Rivers: I've not been in long enough. You're correct about the defense, I will say that. I sat in the stands (Friday) night and I saw some of it. But it's here. I think we have to get on the right page, the same page. Our language and communication defensively, we have to get that right. Right now, you can feel it. Some this way, some this way. We've gotta get on the same page. We've got to do things differently too than the past. Jrue (Holiday) and Dame are different players. We have to change some things for sure.
It was reported you were an informal consultant to Adrian Griffin in December. Is that true?
(Note: Jon Horst shook his head no as Rivers began to speak)
Rivers: Yeah, that's not true. I don't know where that came from. I was never a consultant. If I was, I need to be paid some more money for that because I didn't get a check. But Adrian and I are good friends. I talked to Adrian the last three days. I talked to him the night of the firing, I talked to him, we talk a lot. Listen, I wanted him to do well. I look at him as a guy that - he's a lifer - and for 15 years, he was trying to get a job and then he gets a job and it doesn't work out for him. And this league in a lot of ways can be fair and not unfair, that's for everybody else to judge, I just know him as a human. And he's a terrific dude.
Who are your new assistants and what is the plan for the current staff?
Rivers: Two of them are back there, Rex and Dave (Joerger) will definitely (be) joining the staff. I don’t know what in what roles yet. This is different, obviously. I’ve talked to about seven coaches already who have done this, some really good coaches who have done exactly this already. And everyone of ‘em had – I was hoping it would be the same thing, and that didn’t go well because each had a whole different story about how it went. But the toughest part is that this is a human business and we have a lot of coaches who are here already, so you evaluate everybody. You do. You don’t come in with a set idea. I guess I’ll find some new friends and learn some stuff, too. I’m going to open this with an open idea. Obviously we’re going to make changes. We have to. Because I have to be comfortable. But at the end of the day you just evaluate.
Do you have something to prove?
Rivers: I don’t know if I have anything to prove except I want to win. I like winning, I like putting myself in those situations. I’ve failed and I’ve won. But man I tell you, winning is, it’s something that you can’t produce. Winning it all, it’s like having a blood transfusion with everybody in the organization and once you get that in you, you want another one. And that’s my pursuit. I don’t know if there’s anything to prove there, it’s just something that I want to do. Listen, Giannis, that’s what he wants to do. Khris Middleton and (Brook) Lopez — just because they’ve won one doesn’t mean they don’t want to win another. And Dame wants to win one. Yeah I’ve got a hungry group.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Highlights from Doc Rivers' first news conference as coach of Bucks
