The Milwaukee Bucks have let go of assistant coaches DJ Bakker, Sidney Dobner and Josh Oppenheimer, staff sources advised The Athletic.
Bleacher Report’s Chris Haynes first reported the information, the most recent in a collection of employees strikes the Bucks have made since firing Adrian Griffin and hiring Doc Rivers as head coach in January. When he was employed as head coach, Rivers added Dave Joerger, Rex Kalamian and Pete Dominguez as assistant coaches. Coming back from the February All-Star break, the Bucks dismissed Nate Mitchell, who was employed as an assistant coach final offseason as a part of Griffin’s employees.
Heading into the offseason, Rivers advised reporters he wanted to guage the scenario earlier than making any choices on his teaching employees’s future.
“I don’t know,” Rivers mentioned throughout exit interviews about probably trimming his teaching employees. “I’m going to make a number of calls. I’m simply going to guage the employees that I’ve right here. After which we’re simply going to maneuver ahead from there.”
Bakker joined the Bucks earlier than the 2023-24 season, however Dobner and Oppenheimer had each been with the Bucks for years and gained an NBA championship in 2021. Dobner began within the Bucks’ video room in 2018 and labored her approach as much as turn out to be the franchise’s first feminine assistant coach earlier than this previous season. Oppenheimer joined the Bucks’ teaching employees for a second time in 2020. He beforehand labored for the Bucks from 2013 to 2016 and constructed a robust relationship with two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo.
When Rivers took over and added just a few assistants, he admitted there was going to be an adjustment interval as he acquired to know the coaches who have been already in Milwaukee and the right way to use them.
“The hardest half is that it is a human enterprise, and we’ve got a number of coaches who’re right here already, and so that you consider all people,” Rivers mentioned throughout his introductory information convention about the opportunity of trimming his employees . “You don’t are available in with a set concept.
“I suppose I’ll discover some new pals and be taught some stuff, too, so I’m going to open this with an open thoughts. I imply, clearly, we’re going to make modifications. We’ve got to, as a result of I’ve to be snug. However on the finish of the day, you simply consider.”
Because the season went on, it appeared doubtless Rivers was going to shrink the scale of his employees.
“We’ve got 11 coaches,” Rivers mentioned Feb. 13. “That’s nuts.”
After the dismissals, the Bucks have seven assistant coaches on employees heading into subsequent season: Vin Baker, Dominguez, Joerger, Trevor Gleeson, Kalamian, Patrick Mutumbo and Joe Prunty. With open teaching jobs and modifications occurring day by day across the league, there might nonetheless be extra modifications earlier than the Bucks tip off subsequent season.
(Photograph of Doc Rivers: Jeff Hanisch / USA Right this moment)
