Nickel: How will launching the Doc Rivers era on the long road trip work? Your guess is as good as Bucks'
What an absolutely batty journey the Milwaukee Bucks are about to embark on in the immediate hours ahead.
After crushing New Orleans on Saturday night at home, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard and the rest of the players in the locker room began talking about their new coach. Who is also their third coach. This week.
Meanwhile Doc Rivers, the 62-year-old who took the gig just hours earlier, was assisted by a staffer in the hallway outside the locker room with what looked like directions on where to go next – understandably, since Rivers has only ever been a visiting coach at Fiserv Forum.
Welcome home, Doc.
...But not for long! Because the Bucks, with their shiny 32-14 record and All-Star Game style offense, have been dispatched to a five-game, nine-day trip that kicks off Monday at the Denver Nuggets. Who happen to be the NBA defending champs. Which will be Rivers’ coaching debut with the Bucks.
“Smart, huh,” Rivers joked earlier in the day.
There’s no grand, master plan, either. There’s not even a go around the room and introduce yourself or here are some flashcards for the new defense plan. It's more like a just throw your stuff in the suitcase and we'll figure it out as we go kind of vibe.
But this is late January. In the NBA. Where everyone else has current playbooks.
And there is absolutely no sympathy for the 2021 NBA champions who are locked and loaded with talent once again. In fact there’s a new weird wave of scrutiny following the Bucks to the point where the smiles from the guys during pregame warmups are being judged.
So this superstar team meets its legendary coach basically while boarding the plane for one of the toughest stretches in the schedule. What could go wrong?
“I wouldn’t wish this on anybody,” said Rivers, who in full disclosure was a happy, if bored, golfer a few days ago, with the full context being: this assignment is quite the challenge.
It is. How are the next 24, 48 hours going to work?
"I'm going to be honest with you. I don't know...” Antetokounmpo said with a smile. Kind of like a kid buckling in to Raging Bull at Six Flags for the first time.
Firing Adrian Griffin on Tuesday, surviving three games this week with Mr. Interim Joe Prunty, and now launching the Doc Rivers era on a West Coast trip is some kind of wild and weird drama we're just not used to in this quiet, northern town.
Thank God for the super serious Lillard. He is like a Travel Dad who is backpack-ready with snacks, hand sanitizer and cash.
"I'm doing fine," soothed Lillard, and that really should be the name of his next music track. "I think my greatest strength is being able to function in commotion and respond to adversity and not be discouraged."
And really, Lillard could be speaking for almost everyone in this veteran group. The truth is, road trips are draining, and taxing, but they can also be a unifying experience. The us-against-everyone mentality can really lock in and become part of the identity, and that can help a team redefine whatever it is it wants that to be.
So this is the best guess of how things could work, logistically and realistically, in the next day or two, if the Bucks are able to grow and learn from this experience and make themselves tougher, even more resilient, win or lose.
Antetokounmpo said the Bucks can catch up on film at the hotel, before shootaround and then they can verbally work out things at shootaround or the walkthrough.
“Every time we have, to come together as a team, we have to grab it, have to take it, because we have to come together," Antetokounmpo said. "We have to come together. Now, the approach that (Rivers) is going to have? I don't know. He might say, 'You guys got it. All you need is just play defense.' Like I don't ... I don't know. I really don't know.”
The Bucks are experienced. Smart. And bonded. Brook Lopez said the team chemistry that they've been known for is still strong, despite theories to the contrary.
Maybe Bobby Portis put it best. This team doesn't need a lot of work or killer practices or caffeinated conference room meetings to cram for this exam.
"We don't have to just drill things. We have a team full of pros, team full of guys that can adjust on the fly," Portis said. "We are a team full of selfless guys that will really just sacrifice for the team.
"Doc can just put it on film. We're so good at adjusting what our minds need to do, what our bodies have to do. Just tell us and show us what to do, and we can go out there and do it together."
More: Bucks players react to the hiring of Doc Rivers as their new head coach
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee Bucks launch the Doc Rivers coaching era on a long road trip
