Nurse, Atkinson, Griffin move to next step in Milwaukee Bucks head coaching search
The Milwaukee Bucks are narrowing their list of head coaching candidates this week, as the Journal Sentinel confirmed former Toronto head coach Nick Nurse, current Golden State assistant Kenny Atkinson and current Toronto assistant Adrian Griffin are part of a group that have advanced to the next stages of the interview process.
Other candidates may still be in play, per a league source.
ESPN first reported Nurse, Atkinson and Griffin moving to then next stage.
Milwaukee dismissed Mike Budenholzer on May 4 and undertook a wide-ranging search, speaking with nearly a dozen candidates with diverse coaching backgrounds.
Nick Nurse has a history of player development
Nurse was fired by the Raptors on April 21 after five seasons as a head coach and 10 with the organization, which included the 2019 NBA championship. The team won 53 games the next season and finished second in the Eastern Conference to Milwaukee, and advanced to second round in the “bubble.” The team then played the entire next season in Tampa, Florida, after COVID-related restrictions prevented them playing home games in Canada. The Raptors bounced back with a playoff berth in 2021-22 and then finished last season 41-41 before being eliminated in the play-in tournament.
In Nurse’s tenure as a head coach, Pascal Siakam developed into an all-NBA player and a two-time all-star and OG Anunoby developed into an all-defensive team member. Scottie Barnes won rookie of the year in 2021-22.
Nurse joined Dwane Casey’s staff in 2014-15, and in the four seasons before assuming the head coaching position the Raptors saw Kyle Lowry blossom into an all-star and a 37.7% three-point shooter after being a 35% shooter from distance in stops in Memphis and Houston and his first two seasons in Toronto. Fred VanVleet went from being an undrafted free agent to an all-star.
Guard Norman Powell was a second-round pick (no. 46) in 2015 and developed into one of the league’s most dynamic scorers off the bench.
Interestingly, Powell and the 2017 first-round pick that turned into Anunoby where Bucks’ draft picks that were part of the 2015 trade that brought Greivis Vásquez to the Bucks.
Kenny Atkinson blends development, analytics
Atkinson was hired off Budenholzer’s Atlanta staff to rebuild a foundering Brooklyn franchise in 2015-16. Atkinson brought the three-pointer to the Nets and helped push an all-star post player in Brook Lopez to the outer reaches of the court. Lopez took 387 threes that season after attempting 31 in his first eight.
Young players in Brooklyn that began to thrive under Atkinson were D’Angelo Russell, Caris LeVert, Bojan Bogdanović (who the Bucks were reportedly interested in acquiring last season), Spencer Dinwiddie and Joe Harris while veterans like Jeremy Lin and current Bucks assistant DeMarre Carroll and Garrett Temple had solid seasons as well.
After building the Nets from a 20-win team his first season to a 42-win playoff team in his third, the Nets went all-in on Kyrie Irving and an injured Kevin Durant in 2018-19. The team tumbled to 28-34 and Atkinson was fired.
He worked for Los Angeles Clippers head coach Ty Lue when they advanced to the Western Conference Finals in 2020-21 before moving to Golden State the next year.
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said in 2022, “One of the reasons I hired Kenny was his feel for analytics. To have Kenny as the liaison between the coaching staff and the analytics department has been massive.”
Kerr also considered Atkinson an “out-of-the-box thinker” who has a bit of an edge to his coaching style.
Adrian Griffin brings player perspective, development skills
Griffin was an undrafted player out of Seton Hall in 1996 and played in the United States Basketball League (USBL) and Continental Basketball Association (CBA) and in Italy before finally breaking into the NBA in 1999 with Boston. He played nine seasons for five teams before retiring after the 2008 season – which culminated in a trade to Milwaukee as part of a multi-team deal that brought Luke Ridnour to the Bucks.
He never played a game for the franchise and was transitioned to the coaching staff by Scott Skiles, as Griffin played for him in Chicago for parts of three seasons. Griffin stayed in Milwaukee for two years before moving back to the Bulls to work for Tom Thibodeau – and in that time Marquette alumnus Jimmy Butler won the league’s most improved player award.
He also helped in summer workouts for Team USA in advance of the 2014 FIBA World Cup (Thibodeau was an assistant for that team).
Griffin worked with Skiles again in Orlando in 2015-16 before joining Billy Donovan’s staff in Oklahoma City from 2016-18. Those Thunder teams featured real star power in Russell Westbrook, Paul George, Carmelo Anthony as well as young players such as Victor Oladipo and Steven Adams.
Griffin was then hired by Nurse for the 2018-19 championship season in Toronto.
Other candidates may still be in mix
The Journal Sentinel was able to confirm eight other candidates the Bucks have spoken to, and it appears only two of them are completely out of the mix as University of Houston head coach Kelvin Sampson said he anticipates a new contract being worked out with the college and the Journal Sentinel learned Portland Trail Blazers top assistant Scott Brooks is not having an additional interview.
That’s not to say there haven’t been more clandestine conversations with other candidates prior to this narrowing of the field, and some of the others previously interviewed might yet be in the mix for a second conversation.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Nurse, Atkinson, Griffin advance in Bucks' coaching search interviews
