Jae Crowder Justified to Say Adrian Griffin Firing Was Bucks’ Turning Point

The Giannis trade rumor cycle has reached its peak hype once again.

Speculation on what happens next remains endless — and incredibly ridiculous — and it’s difficult to see anything but a Giannis trade rumor or proposal from insatiable fans on Twitter.

Jae Crowder Speaks His Mind

One tweeter not associated with that was former Buck Jae Crowder, who offered a glimpse into what happened two seasons ago, when the 30-13 Bucks dismissed head coach Adrian Griffin.

“We were 30-13 by the way. To bring in Doc. This is what started the avalanche.”

A fan immediately replied to Crowder, pointing out that the Bucks appeared to be in a much better mood the night of the switch, to which Crowder answered with, “We weren’t dancing because he got fired. We danced to try and shake the vibes in a positive light because we were all blindsided and had a game to play without a head coach. What were we supposed to do, be sad on the court and get blown out?”

Adrian Griffin Firing Justified?

It’s been just over two years (Jan. 23, 2024) since the Bucks said farewell to Adrian Griffin. At that time, the Bucks’ 30-13 record was the second-best in the NBA. Milwaukee then stumbled to a 19-20 finish and swift exit from the 2024 postseason.

Things were different then. The roster and mindset were different. At the time of his hiring, Griffin was set to lead a trio of Jrue Holiday, Khris Middleton and Giannis. 

That all changed when the Bucks swung for Damian Lillard and said goodbye to Holiday in September 2023.

Implementing a vision shift from top defense to top offense certainly changes a lot. You spend an entire offseason planning, only to not have a key piece of that plan heading into your first season as a head coach— on a team that is “always on the clock“, according to Bucks General Manager Jon Horst.

There was still hope behind a Lillard, Middleton and Giannis trio— even if Griffin didn’t have the locker room, and was already consulting Doc Rivers (among others) for help.

Has there been much of that same hope this season? There was excitement about Myles Turner being a younger Brook Lopez while salvaging some of the lost Dame Time.

What Jae Crowder said remains a fact— the Bucks have not been the same since Doc Rivers became the head coach.

“It’s The Hope That Kills You”

Perhaps the hope lay in the thought: “When you have a Giannis, you always have a chance.”

But it’s hard to say there was that same aspirational hope like there had been in the couple of seasons following the Bucks’ title in 2021. We got an ultra-thin glimpse of it in the very early days of this season. The Bucks started 4-1 behind back-to-back wins over formidable opponents in the New York Knicks and Golden State Warriors. 

Since the calendar flipped to November, however, that early hope and hype quickly wore off.

The Bucks have gone 14-26 since the first full month of the season. Injuries, of course, seemingly always play a part with this team. There’s plenty of “what if?” surrounding the Deer this season, and since their title run.

The unavoidable difference, though, between previous seasons and this has been that the Bucks have not had a defined No. 2 option since the departures of Khris Middleton and Damian Lillard. There has been very little synergy alongside Giannis— even if they had been one of the best three-point shooting teams in the league.

It was Kevin Porter Jr. for a quick minute, but his own injuries, questionable shot selection, careless turnovers and lack of accountability has effectively eliminated him from that role. 

Ryan Rollins is a Most Improved Player Award candidate, but growing pains have been inevitable. While Giannis has never called out a specific teammate in his postgame pressers, saying that young guys “gotta listen” after a game last week narrows it down to only a few.

“[Veteran leadership] is important. But as a younger [player] you gotta listen though. You gotta listen. If you keep on making the same mistake over and over again, and you try to do it on your own and you’re hard-headed, it doesn’t matter what people say, what people do. You gotta be able to take feedback. Take criticism. I feel like when I was younger I took that. From OJ Mayo, Jerryd Bayless, Caron Butler, Jared Dudley, Wesley Matthews, George Hill, Zaza Pachulia, Ersan Ilyasova, Kyle Korver, Marvin Williams, like all those guys whenever they said something there was never a day where I did not listen to them. Obviously there’s going to be times when you’re going to compete and your fire, your stubbornness will take over. But at the end of the day, you gotta be able to take that criticism and feedback because they have been in your position, they’ve done it. They see things you may not be able to see. We just gotta be better.”

We all remember the Kyle Kuzma playoff disasters last year. And while he’s found a semi-comfortable role this season, do you trust him when it matters most? I don’t.

It’s the hope that kills you. What was once a hopeful dynasty has quickly come to a halt.