MILWAUKEE (AP) 鈥 The Milwaukee Bucks fired Adrian Griffin as coach on Tuesday after just 43 games despite having one of the league鈥檚 top records midway through his first season.
鈥淭his was a difficult decision to make during the season,鈥 Bucks general manager Jon Horst said in a statement announcing the move. 鈥淲e are working immediately toward hiring our next head coach. We thank Coach Griffin for his hard work and contributions to the team.鈥
Joe Prunty, who had been an assistant coach on Griffin's staff, will serve as the Bucks' interim head coach. Horst will speak at a news conference Wednesday, before the Bucks' home game with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Milwaukee is 30-13 to tie the Minnesota Timberwolves for the league鈥檚 second-best record entering Tuesday. The Bucks are 3 1/2 games behind the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference.
But the dip in Milwaukee鈥檚 defensive performance had raised concerns about the Bucks鈥 viability as a championship contender even after they had .
The Bucks rank 22nd in the NBA in defensive rating 鈥 down from fourth a year earlier 鈥 despite having two of the NBA's top defenders in Antetokounmpo and 7-footer Brook Lopez. Antetokounmpo was named the NBA's defensive player of the year in 2020, while Lopez finished second in last season's balloting.
Griffin his last summer after , who led the Bucks in 2021 to their . The Bucks had posted the most combined regular-season and playoff wins of any team during Budenholzer鈥檚 tenure and had the league鈥檚 best regular-season record in three of his five seasons on the job.
Budenholzer's firing came after the top-seeded Bucks 4-1 by the Miami Heat in the first round of last season鈥檚 playoffs.
Griffin, 49, had spent 16 seasons as an NBA assistant, including the last five with the Toronto Raptors. That followed a nine-year NBA playing career.
Taking over a squad with two members of the NBA鈥檚 75th anniversary team in Antetokounmpo and Lillard put Griffin under a major spotlight at the beginning of his head coaching career. An early warning sign regarding Griffin鈥檚 tenure came before the season with the .
Stotts had more than 1,000 games of head coaching experience, which figured to benefit Griffin as he began his own head coaching career. Stotts had called accepting the assignment a 鈥渘o-brainer,鈥 but he left the staff less than a week before the season opener.
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AP Pro Basketball Writer Tim Reynolds in Miami contributed to this report.
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