Facing high expectations and a recent taste of winning it all, Milwaukee Bucks took the podium for the team’s media day at the Fiserv Forum Monday.
Head Coach Doc Rivers enters his first full season at the helm in Milwaukee after Adrian Griffin was in the middle of last year’s campaign.
General Manager Jon Horst, who took the podium with Rivers first, said it has been a breath of fresh air to have a full offseason with the Bucks’ relatively fresh coaching staff.
“It’s been vital to have a foundation to build from,” Jon Horst said in the offseason in the first full year under Doc Rivers. “We’re building that continuity and that collaboration.”
Rivers has been a constant in the NBA coaching landscape since 1999.
He won the Coach of the Year honor in Orlando and has been a pillar of the postseason ever since. Rivers also mentioned that the core of a championship team is built far before game one of the season. Through early workouts, a team can begin to get an idea of their skeleton. Rivers said he can sense this team gelling as they gear up for another title run.
“The best teams start here,” he said.
The 2021 NBA Champions made a couple of splashes in the offseason, including acquiring veterans Taurean Prince and Gary Trent Jr. on one-year contracts.
Prince and Trent Jr. join Delon Wright on a Milwaukee squad that has prided themselves on defense.
“We have an opportunity to be a great defensive team,” Antetokounmpo said. “We have the tools. We just gotta do it.”
Giannis Antetkounmpo recognized that reputation, one that has been molded in the Bucks’ system since he was drafted, and he said defending the ball will be a huge priority.
Rivers admitted that in a landscape littered with large market super teams, he didn’t believe both players would choose Milwaukee.
“We thought there’s no way, but we hung in there,” Doc Rivers, who won an NBA Championship with the Boston Celtics in 2008, said. “When we saw that we were still on their board, we didn’t let go.”
The Bucks won a title of their own a couple of years ago, but they’ve suffered anticlimactic finishes as of late.
Winners of 49 and 58 games in each of the last two seasons, Milwaukee has bowed out in the first round two times in a row.
Rivers recognized that the Celtics, 76ers and a plethora of other teams have taken some of the limelight away from the Bucks, but he also mentioned that expectations mean nothing if the results don’t live up to them.
“At the end of the day, everyone is 0-0,” he said. “That’s how the season starts.”
Along with their offseason acquisitions, the Bucks selected AJ Johnson (pick no. 23) and Tyler Smith (pick no. 33) in the 2024 NBA Draft.
Johnson, 19, played for the National Basketball League (NBL) in Australia in 2023-24.
Operating as a flare off the bench for the Illawarra Hawks, Johnson has already caught Rivers’ eye as someone who could crack Milwaukee’s roster sooner than later.
The same goes for Tyler Smith, a young forward who played with the G-League Ignite last year. Smith averaged 14.3 points per contest while shooting 47.2% from the field.
“Tyler and AJ, they’ve got a chance to play,” Rivers said. “There’s nothing better than when you get a rookie that’s skilled. “When they just have an NBA skill walking in the door, it’s a blessing.”
The Bucks open up preseason play against the Detroit Pistons on Oct. 6, and they begin the regular season on Oct. 23.
The games for the 2024-25 season will be aired on 95.3 WBEV.
