How Doc Rivers' 'dangerous' conversations have led to buy-in from the Milwaukee Bucks

Doc Rivers wasn’t quite yet the acting head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks when he first made his presence known. Following the dismissal of Adrian Griffin, Joe Prunty was coaching in the interim when Rivers was formally hired on Jan. 26, and before Rivers would assume duties on the bench he had Damian Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo work their two-man game in shootaround that morning.

Rivers’ presence, and voice, were immediately felt.

It’s one of the intangible reasons the 62-year-old coach was hired after 43 games to take the Bucks deep in the playoffs.

“I just thought that through the first part of the season, even though we had success on the court in record, it didn’t look to me like the quality of the play was going to be successful in the playoffs and in these tougher games,” Bucks co-owner and governor Wes Edens told the Journal Sentinel about the coaching change. “That’s what we thought. So it’s a judgment call and it’s a hard call to make in the middle of the year. It’s like my dad said – it’s much better to look stupid than be stupid.

"So we made the decision to do it. Hard to let ‘Griff’ go because he’s a good guy. Then we talked to Doc, and I think that Doc is exactly the kind of coach that we needed at that time. He’s done a remarkable job.”

But perhaps Rivers’ strongest impression that he was the right coach at the right time was made at the University of Minnesota on Feb. 22. It was the Bucks’ first practice out of the all-star break, and as the players filed off the buses they assumed they would just get right into practice.

Without notice, Rivers gathered the team together. He addressed each player individually, yet collectively.

From Giannis Antetokounmpo to rookie Chris Livingston, Rivers defined roles. He told each player what would be expected of them.

In front of everyone.

Rivers’ ‘dangerous’ conversation connected with Bucks

The concept wasn’t exactly new for Rivers. It’s something he has done in training camps. But without one, he had to improvise. He waited through a set of games on the road, then the all-star break, before that day in Minnesota.

The Journal Sentinel spoke with a handful of players with various experience levels to explain what that Minneapolis session was like:

Damian Lillard: “I didn’t think he was gonna do it. I think it was nice for our team because, you know, over the course of the season we just kind of kept rolling and rolling and rolling and finding a way, finding a way, but that was the first time that everything was just addressed right in front of everybody. He said something to each guy individually. Good, bad, just brutal honesty. And it was in front of everybody. So it was no hiding, or he had a meeting with me. Everybody was right there to hear what he expects from you, how he sees you on this team. What he thinks you need to do better.

”He said it in front of the team, and it kind of just laid everything on the floor. It was like OK, we all heard it, you know? I think everybody respected the truth. Everybody respected the truth. Everybody respected his voice, and I think at that point that’s when the buy-in happened. I think that’s when the buy-in happened. And it showed in our play.”

Bobby Portis: “Big in a regard of just owning the room as a coach. I feel like every guy has to respect you, every guy has to feel your vibe, feel your message and ultimately believe in you. That’s what it comes down to. As a player, players have to believe in what the coach is asking of them and what he wants from them. Like old-school NBA, keeping it real with guys and telling guys it may not be what you want to hear but it’s what’s best for the team. I highly respect him for that. One of my first times in my career, really, of just really sitting down for a practice, sitting down before the second half of the season starts and really just reflecting on where we are now and where we want to go and what we can do – and what everyone in the room can do to help everyone get there.”

Pat Connaughton: “I think it’s something that doesn’t happen collectively, in front of everybody, as much. It’s a very – to be honest with you – kind of a very dangerous thing to do for a coach in my opinion. I’ve always felt like NBA coaching, as great as every coach is, that has gotten to this level with Xs and Os and game plan and things like that, I’ve always felt from my experience in the NBA, the No. 1 thing a coach has to do is manage people. It’s manage people who work for him, it's manage people who play for him. I think, to me, to do it in front of everybody, that’s dangerous because you don’t know how people are going to react if you haven’t done it individually prior to. But I thought he did a great job of it.

“I thought it showed his leadership and showed his ability to be like, hey, look, we can have open and honest conversations, and if there’s disagreement we can talk about it. But this is how I see it, this is how I think it’s going to work best for the team based off of each person’s individual role. And I think it set the tone for hey, a lot of guys on this team that can do a lot of different things, there’s a lot of guys on this team that can score 15-plus points a night if they got 10 shots. But there’s only one basketball and in order for our team to be the best team that we need and want to be, there’s going to have to be defined roles and guys are going to get more shots than others and we’ll see how that works.”

Thanasis Antetokounmpo: “It means a lot. It means a lot. First of all, it means he’s setting a tone and it means that we’re going on a run, it means that we’re going on a new journey. Obviously he is a great communicator because he did that. So, people can actually, everybody can hear and everybody can keep each other accountable because now you don’t have an excuse to say like, oh, I didn’t know, when everybody heard, what we need to do and what each and every person needs to do. The other thing as well is it made everybody feel a part of the team and important.

“It gets the in-between out of the way. The indecisiveness. It gets it out of the way and everybody knows their goal and what they’re striving for to do as individuals, as a team and in connection with each other.”

AJ Green: “I think really just laying out the expectations for each guy and what their job is and what they need to do and can bring in order for the team to be successful. Because it takes everybody. So I think it kind of just got everybody on the same page, able to hold each other accountable now knowing what he expects from us and that we can expect that from each other as well. I think that’s what’s helped us out of the break to build in the right direction.”

Chris Livingston: “I think it was pretty good just from the piece of him acknowledging each and everybody, the acknowledgment of going down the line, expressing that we need everybody in this gym. I think from that point I think that was really important for him to be inclusive of the group, whether you were a rookie, a vet. He really talked to everybody and told them what he expected from them. I think that was pretty good.”

The talk was something recent Bucks additions Pat Beverley and Danilo Gallinari had heard before from their head coach when they were in Los Angeles with the Clippers, but they remained appreciative of it.

“It’s something that I honestly like it as a player,” Gallinari told the Journal Sentinel. “Not a lot of coaches that I’ve had in my career they do that, but as a player I like it. I think the more direct you are then the better it is because as a player you know what to expect in the next day, the next game, the next practice. You know your role.”

But Beverley added that while the message is consistent and universal, once Rivers gets to the individual he will find what that player may need to hear, or how to hear it. For example, Beverley said he gets cussed at all the time, but that’s based on their lengthy history and Beverley’s personality. But he knows that won’t be the case for others.

It’s part of what makes the messenger deliver strong messages.

“He’s a legendary coach,” the point guard told the Journal Sentinel matter-of-factly. “He’s what, (expletive) eighth all-time (in wins). His word is everything, his voice is everything.”

That voice has had a trickle-down effect also.

Players agreed early on with Rivers that the Bucks were a low-communication team – but that has since begun to change. And it’s been a two-way conversation, too.

“It’s all about practices, our film sessions, our walkthroughs – we all need to speak up with a question,” Khris Middleton said. “I’m not the only one. But if I don’t understand something I’m going to ask the coach. I’m going to stop practice and make sure I have it and make sure we’re all on the same page because we all have to be on the same page out there when it comes to a certain action or a certain play, whatever. It could be in the middle of the game or the last possession of the game, we all need to know what we’re expected to do.”

Rivers called veterans together during losing stretch

Then, on April 6, Rivers had another conversation with the players – but this time he winnowed the group down to, basically, his nine-man playoff rotation. The team was mired in a slump, losers of three in a row and five of six at the time.

Rivers took the temperature of the room.

“I had great team talk and to a man, and they meant it, this team hasn’t lost any belief,” he said the next day.

Antetokounmpo and his teammates agreed their belief was still there, but Middleton told the Journal Sentinel it was a necessary check in, for coach and players to air out whatever they are seeing and feeling in a healthy way.

The players also appreciated the fact Rivers waited until that moment also – just like waiting until after the all-star break to address them the way he did in Minneapolis. It proved to them he was measured, and not panicking over the spate of rough play.

“He want to know what the truth is,” Lillard told the Journal Sentinel of that meeting. “He want to know what’s going on, what are you thinking? He want to be connected. Because I think to win big you gotta be connected and it can’t be no sugar coating and it can’t be no feelings being hidden and agendas and all of that. That’s what he wanted to know – what’s going on? What do you y’all think? What’s the problem? This is what I see. It was one of those situations, it was one of those type conversations.”

Afterward, Rivers decided to put Beverley in the starting lineup and shifted Malik Beasley to the bench. He leaned into Green and, occasionally, Andre Jackson Jr. for “play hard” sparks.

This week in preparation for the playoffs, Rivers is going to have to have hard discussions with his team about how too often it has broken into isolation basketball on the offensive end, which needs to stop if the team is going to make the run it believes it can.

And, depending on matchups, Rivers has shown he’s not afraid to shuffle lineups or minutes. It could create hard decisions in crucial games and moments – but ideally, no hard feelings.

“Doc’s done a great job since he’s got here by telling people what he expects from ‘em and then making sure he holds them accountable if he doesn’t – but also building them up in a way that they want to play for him,” Connaughton told the Journal Sentinel. “They will be put in positions to have success and they will be ready for it because mentally they’re not mad at what he said, they’re not frustrated, they’re not taking it personally. They understand that at the end of the day, Doc can’t play.

“He’s trying to put the pieces in there to win the game no matter what happens. That might be different on any given night. He might be asking different things of different people, it might be different combinations of people and I think that’s powerful. His ability to keep it real, keep it straight with people but also not lose them and still make them the best version of themselves or do things people didn’t see.”

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Doc Rivers' tough conversations have led to buy-in from Bucks