MILWAUKEE — The Milwaukee Bucks introduced Taylor Jenkins as their 19th head coach Wednesday afternoon. Bucks co-owner Jimmy Haslam quickly made it clear they felt they were able to get exactly who they wanted to take over after Doc Rivers stepped away following the season.
“We knew who we wanted to hire as our coach,” Haslam said in his opening statement at the Milwaukee Art Museum. “and it was Taylor Jenkins.”
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But while Haslam and general manager Jon Horst made it clear they identified Jenkins as their top head-coaching candidate, they also admitted the team’s future with two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo remains unclear.
“Listen, Giannis has brought Milwaukee its second championship and the first in 50 years,” Haslam told reporters. “He’s a phenomenal player. He’s a phenomenal person. He’s arguably one of the best basketball players in the world, and we will do what’s best for Giannis and what’s best for the organization.
“We don’t know whether Giannis will stay with us or not, but we’ll work through that with Giannis in the coming weeks.”
Later in the news conference, Haslam referenced the NBA Draft, being roughly six weeks away (June 23), as a general timeline in figuring out when the organization should have clarity on Antetokounmpo’s future.
“I just think before the draft is a natural time,” Haslam said during a smaller scrum after the news conference. “Because if Giannis does play somewhere else, we oughta get a lot of assets, and that’s Jon’s job to do it. If he’s here, then you build the team differently.”
Horst on Wednesday admitted that Antetokounmpo did not meet with Jenkins before the team hired him as head coach. That was not the case for former head coaches like Mike Budenholzer and Adrian Griffin, who both met with Antetokounmpo and other veteran players before getting hired in Milwaukee and talked about those experiences in their introductory news conferences.
Jenkins did inform reporters that Antetokounmpo congratulated him on getting hired, and they have regularly communicated since he was hired, picking up on the relationship they built in Jenkins’ one season (2018-19) as an assistant coach in Milwaukee. However, the fact that Antetokounmpo was not as involved in the hiring process this time around speaks to the strained nature of his relationship with the organization at the moment, as well as the decision the organization needs to make about trading him.
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“It’s a big one,” Haslam said of the decision. “You gotta get it right. Jon knows it, and Wes knows it, and we didn’t hold back with Taylor. We just said, ‘Listen, he may or may not be with us, so don’t come because of that.’ Because you wanna be straight up with people.”
Antetokounmpo has been with the Bucks since the team drafted him with the 15th pick of the 2013 NBA Draft. In his 13 seasons in Milwaukee, the 10-time All-Star has climbed the franchise’s lists in most categories and leads the team in games played, points, rebounds, assists and blocks.
Despite receiving a word of warning regarding Antetokounmpo’s future in Milwaukee, Jenkins still decided to become the team’s next head coach. He explained that had a lot to do with the team’s outreach, including the trip that Horst, Haslam and co-owner Wes Edens made to Memphis to pursue him as the franchise’s next head coach.
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“It was pretty easy for me: It’s people,” Jenkins said. “That’s one of the most important things to me in my life, professionally and personally. Obviously, I’ve known Jon for many years now, so I have high regard and respect for him. As I got to spend time with Jimmy and Wes, intimately in our home, it became very clear these are individuals I want to partner with.
“I’m obviously very familiar with many other members of the Bucks organization in the front office, on the medical and performance side, throughout the entire staff, basketball operations. So, when this opportunity became available, I was like, I know the people. I know what they stand for. I know what their standards are going to be on a day-to-day basis.”
While the Bucks gave Antetokounmpo previous opportunities to meet with prospective coaches before hiring them, Horst reiterated that the Bucks didn’t feel that was necessary this time because of their confidence in Jenkins’ ability to lead the team moving forward.
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“Every situation is different,” Horst said. “For us, it’s really important; this is about building the culture, the identity of the team. … It was clear to us who we needed to hire, to have as a partner with our organization going forward, to build sustainable success for years to come in Milwaukee and this situation.
“It wasn’t about Giannis or not Giannis (or) none of the players. … This was about hiring Taylor Jenkins. We had a list. It was a tight list of candidates. We vetted it, and our first step of our process was (to) engage Taylor; let’s see where that goes. It ended up with us hiring him, and that’s where we are today.”
In his first stint as an NBA head coach, Jenkins took the Grizzlies from a 33-win team to one that made the playoffs in four of his six seasons, including a 56-win season for 2021-22. The Grizzlies won their first playoff series since 2015 in that season, as well. In those six seasons combined, Memphis was regularly one of the NBA’s best defensive teams — and it also was relentless on the offensive glass, even if they weren’t the most talented on that end.
While Jenkins complimented the depth of Milwaukee’s roster on Wednesday, he also made it clear that his No. 1 goal as head coach would be to get the team to compete at the highest possible level on a nightly basis.
“We’re all striving for consistency on a day-to-day basis,” Jenkins said. “My three pillars are going to be pretty easy. I think these guys may have already heard it; I’m gonna regurgitate it. I told them they’re gonna probably roll their eyes at some point, but it’s ‘Compete. Together. Get better.’
“I don’t want to overcomplicate this, so, from day one, it’s how are we gonna be the most competitive team in all areas of what we do, not just on the court, but also off the court? How together are we going to be on the court? Yes, that’s our play style, the unselfishness you guys are gonna have to have offensively and defensively, but also what we’re going to do in our lives, beyond basketball, to develop that togetherness.”
Ultimately, while those things will be important to the success of the next iteration of the Bucks — and Jenkins can begin implementing those principles right now — the biggest question surrounding the organization will continue to be Antetokounmpo’s future in Milwaukee.