There's a lot to like about the Bucks' hiring of Adrian Griffin as head coach

The Adrian Griffin hire looks like it could be a good one for Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks.

While the 48-year-old isn’t the proven head coach with the rings – and wrinkles – to guarantee the Bucks a couple more championships (that's sarcasm, in case it didn't come across that way), Griffin has worked in so many different basketball circles in three decades of playing and coaching the game that he will be able to draw on countless personal experiences to help him in his first head coaching job.

That seems like an intriguing fit for the Bucks, who have, after all, enjoyed a great deal of success after drafting an unproven kid from Greece who made himself a two-time MVP and helped bring an NBA title back to Milwaukee for the first time in a half century.

Griffin has basketball experience in the NCAA, CBA, USBL and NBA.

“My journey has taken me through every facet of the game,” Griffin told The Sporting News in 2014. “I have been on the outside looking in, working my way up. I have been overseas, I was a starter in the league, I was buried on the bench, I have been cut – everything imaginable in the league, I have been through it.

"It helps me relate to players. I can tell them how to handle different situations. The NBA is a grind, the 82 games, the travel, the pressure, the expectations, so I call on my experience and past knowledge to build a bond with the players.”

More: What to know about new Milwaukee Bucks coach Adrian Griffin

Adrian Griffin brings plenty of coaching credentials to the Bucks

Yes, some think hiring Griffin - which has been reported, but not made official yet by the Bucks - is too big of a risk, given that Antetokounmpo is up for contract extension talks in a year or so. Maybe if the Bucks had reeled in Nick Nurse, the more conservative approach would be less open to criticism and second-guessing, but nothing is guaranteed even with high-pedigree hires, and anything can happen with that position anyway (remember Ime Udoka and Steve Nash). Maybe, to some, it's a red flag that no one pounced on Griffin sooner.

More: Milwaukee Bucks set to hire Adrian Griffin as their new head coach

Or, maybe pro sports tend to turn into coaching carousels of retreads, and the Bucks were just ready, after seeing potential in Griffin, to start fresh.

Griffin did everything possible to build his résumé and prepare for this job. He's played at every level. He's coached some of the best in the NBA. He's been working toward becoming the head coach for more than a decade. His experience makes him prime head coaching material. But this especially looks good, right off the bat:

~ Griffin has coached and worked with Hall of Fame players, including Kawhi Leonard, whom he won an NBA title with in 2019 in Toronto, and Kyrie Irving, James Harden and Steph Curry.

He worked with the latter three when he was invited to be on the staff for Team USA at the FIBA World Cup in 2014. The coaches then, Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Boeheim, Tom Thibodeau and Monty Williams, led the way; Griffin was invited to be a scout and staff assistant, and he traveled with the team.

~ Griffin played in Italy for a short time and he got a further glimpse of global basketball, giving him experience, knowledge and appreciation for the game outside the U.S. That helps. The NBA is a global game, and not just with the fan base; the MVP of the last five years has been awarded to three international players, Joel Embiid, Nikola Jokic and Antetokounmpo.

Even for a Midwest (Kansas) guy with a birthday on the Fourth of July, it's good that Griffin is familiar with as many international styles of play, and players, as possible.

~ Griffin worked as an assistant with successful coaches, and coaches who varied in style, approach and philosophy. From Nurse to Billy Donovan, he's seen a lot of white-board strategies from the bench.

~ But he distinguished himself. Griffin is credited with helping a young Jimmy Butler develop into an all-star years ago, when they were together with the Chicago Bulls.

Griffin could be good for development of all Bucks players

Development is a big deal in this league, despite the NBA's reputation of stars and bigger stars. The Bucks have a first-round draft pick in MarJon Beauchamp, who basically sat his rookie season despite showing a lot of potential in limited play early on. What can he do given the chance?

But development should be key for everyone, not just rookies. If Antetokounmpo wants to extend his career for another 10 years, he likely will continue to work on that jump shot – and making himself an outside scoring threat, even with the three-pointer – so he doesn’t have to sacrifice his body 30 possessions a game by running in, over or through a wall just to see the basket.

~ Griffin started in the 2006 NBA Finals for the Dallas Mavericks. He was a role player for most of his NBA career, and the Mavs lost to Miami that year, but Griffin does have that real-world experience from which to draw upon. Antetokounmpo has seemed grateful for the things he learned from Jason Kidd early in his career, when Kidd was one of his first head coaches. Antetokounmpo also seems to have a great deal of respect for players – those who do, not just those who teach.

Griffin's credibility is that he says he understands the league from the player's point of view, if not the MVP viewpoint. He has played in the CBA, USBL and with six NBA teams. That's a lot of exposure to a lot of basketball and a lot of first-person experience before he even became a coach.

~ Scott Skiles hired Griffin in 2008 and that's when he made his assistant coaching debut, in Milwaukee. This should not be undervalued. This was the Andrew Bogut and Michael Redd era. Griffin saw the good, the bad and the ugly in his two years in Brew City, from a losing season to the playoffs.

To fully appreciate The Giannis Effect, and how the Milwaukee franchise has changed internally since then, takes some level of knowledge of what things were like before.

The pretty Fiserv Forum and its very occasional courtside celebrity appearance, the charming Giannis and the never-appropriately appreciated players Khris Middleton and Brook Lopez doesn't change this fact: Milwaukee just isn't for everyone. If you're not from here, you either grow to love it here for other reasons, or Milwaukee is just something to tolerate until there's the opportunity to move on.

If Griffin can see the potential here – a devoted fan base, relatively agreeable media (without the pressure of say, New York, L.A. or Chicago), an easier life in a smaller city – he could be happy and focus on the extreme demands and pressures of coaching in the NBA.

~ Griffin has bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Seton Hall and a doctorate in leadership. Of course, a college education doesn’t translate into W's.

But Griffin's work ethic and curiosity for the world, as well as the pursuit of his professional and personal growth, does speak to the kind of person he is. It's more well-rounded, something very hard to achieve in the cult of basketball, and that aligns very well with Antetokounmpo in particular, and several of the Bucks in general.

Of course, these positive traits are just how things look now, on paper.

The Bucks hadn't even announced the hire as of midday Monday, and there certainly was no news conference. Every coach and player in the league not playing in the NBA Finals is unreachable right now, so there aren't ready ways to glean their expert opinions on Griffin.

No one knows yet how Griffin will handle the pressure of being the head coach. The head coaching duties of doling out starting positions, and minutes, on a Bucks team loaded with talent will be an enviable task, unless things go awry.

It wasn’t necessarily the fault of former coach Mike Budenholzer that Serge Ibaka and Jae Crowder ended their seasons unhappy with their playing time, but managing NBA personalities, finding a way to win the Game 1 of a playoff series, and holding the attention – and respect – of a veteran locker room is the challenge now.

With his experience, it is not hard to see why the Bucks hired Griffin for the job.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: New Bucks coach Adrian Griffin's résumé includes little of everything