Just days after being reunited with one of his longtime players, head coach Terry Stotts shocked the basketball world by announcing his sudden and unexpected resignation from the Bucks coaching staff. In new details that emerged this week, NBA insider Shams Charania shed some light on an incident that happened during team practice on Tuesday when the Bucks coach was caught yelling at Stotts to join the coaches’ huddle.
“When the players and coaches broke the huddle, Stotts went in the opposite direction of the coaches’ huddle and instead started walking toward players,” wrote Shams. “As Stotts attempted to start a conversation with Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo, Griffin called to Stotts to join the coaching huddle. When Stotts asked for some time with the players, Griffin yelled for Stotts to join the coaches’ huddle. The incident occurred in front of the entire team, those sources said.”
The incident described seems relatively minor for an assistant coach to abandon his post so close to the season, and it’s likely there’s more to this story than has been reported so far. Nevertheless, the Bucks have no choice but to move on without Terry, who is expected to be a top candidate for head coaching jobs in the future.
Stotts Was Struggling To Accept Secondary Role
Terry Stotts was actually a head coach for decades before joining the Bucks as an assistant. With an all-time record of 517-486, he’s had varying levels of success during his stints with the Atlanta Hawks, Milwaukee Bucks, and (most notably) the Portland Trail Blazers. Stotts found a long-term home in Portland, where he coached the franchise for nine years — all of which were with Damian Lillard.
Usually, a coach that accomplished would wait for another head coaching job instead of agreeing to join as an assistant, but Stotts decided to take the job anyway and it could explain why he struggled to adapt to a bench role under Griffin, who is a first-time head coach. Whatever else happened behind the scenes, this is a notable blow for the Bucks and their campaign to win the championship this season.
Bucks Are Still The Favorites To Win The East
The latest coaching move has already been cleared across the organization and while Griffin will be expected to assign a new head assistant, the loss of their top coaching mind has not changed their ambitions. With two of the top stars in the game, in their primes, the Bucks cannot afford to let this talent go to waste with another subpar season.
For Giannis in particular, he knows that the Bucks will be out of excuses if they fail to get the job done in 2024. Whether it’s with Terry Stotts or without him, the Bucks still have more than enough to win the title on the backs of Lillard, Giannis, Brook Lopez, and Khris Middleton.
The biggest question of all going into this new season is about Adrian Griffin himself and whether or not he’s up for the task of leading the East’s new superteam. Trouble has already started in the ranks of his own coaching staff, and there will be doubts about his ability to control the locker room.
But until we, the new-look Bucks, play for ourselves, it’s impossible to make any conclusions about their trajectory this season.
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