Any team should be happy with Bud. He is a great coach for an upcoming team. He is also stubborn and struggled to adjust in playoffs, but he has made teams better at both ATL and Milwaukee. If you want to make the playoffs I can't think of much better than Bud.
He's also really, really good at building a defense, even if the scheme he used here did have its weaknesses. By Def Rating, the worst we finished under Bud was 14th in the league, and that was the season where Brook was injured and our center rotation was out-of-position Giannis, Bobby, and ~15 games of washed DeMarcus Cousins and even more washed Serge Ibaka. Aside from that, we had a top 10 defense every season. Sure, it helps to have the defensive personnel we did, but I'm still comfortable saying that you're never going to have anything worse than an average defense under Bud over the course of a full season.
People on social media are currently in like round 5 of trying to rehabilitate the reputation of late-career Cousins and it’s frustrating because they obviously didn’t see what he was like defensively. Especially with us. Totally unplayable on any serious team.
There are very few jobs where he would have gotten fired from with his performance but the Bucks were unfortunately one of them. He’s a great coach and he loves his players. I’d be thrilled to get him.
And let’s be honest, we only fired him because of some unfortunate circumstances. Giannis injury, Heat popping off, new owner/partner offering more cash. Not to mention how his own performance may have been affected by his brother’s death. While the fan base may have called for his head every year, the team’s management seemed quite content with him.
Great coach who came in at the right time and helped to elevate the team from young playoff contenders to perennial title contenders. He had his problems, and in the end I think he lost hold of the ear of the locker room, but he had a great run here. It’s not that he was a bad coach by the end, some circumstances just turned a little sour and it was time to move on IMO
If Khris doesn’t slip against Chicago in 2022, I think we go on to repeat as champions, and then things are probably different
Jrue always had to shoulder way way more offensively than he ideally should have, largely due to injuries to either Giannis or Khris at different points (also the bench output often totally collapsing)
That’s why the Beasley signing made so much sense when it did. He was looking to come into a situation where he could be a 3rd option for his next contract. Meanwhile GA would move to the bench to bolster bench ball handling.
Based on where the bucks were as a team and the circumstances under which he was fired, it was a warranted move, far from dumb. And that's coming from a most-of-the-time Bud defender. A 4-1 loss to the 8 seed, involving multiple lead loss collapses where the same guy just torches you over and over without seemingly anything able to be done to stop him is a brutal pill to swallow and it's just not really acceptable to blow a Giannis prime season that way. That's not to say there are not other sources of blame \*cough\*roster construction\*cough\*
I think most of the folks that see it as the wrong decision see it that way due to the hindsight of swinging and missing on the hire after him. Had we not done the actually dumb part of the process and made the wrong hire in Griff followed by Break-glass-in-case-of-emergency Doc I don't think there'd be really anyone saying the Bucks messed up with the Bud firing in a vacuum.
Bud's brother died during that first round series. Giannis got hurt in game 1 and missed 2 and 3 entirely and was probably still hurt for games 4 and 5. Khris was typical 50% Khris.
I don't think Bud deserved to be fired. Did it suck? Ya. But you gotta consider the circumstances. The fact that both HCs this year were terrible makes this a no brainer in hindsight.
I think Bud is a top 5 HC at the moment. Kerr, Pop, and Spoelstra are probably the only active ones that have a better resume.
You can't use the hindsight of making a bad coach hire later to retroactively decide it was a bad decision to get rid of Bud to begin with. Decision analysis should focus more on the process that went into making the decision than a later outcome that is dependent on external factors. At the time of Bud's firing, basically everyone agreed it was reasonable the bucks did what they did. Even with limited/no Giannis, the Bucks looked unprepared and coughed up multiple winnable games. Playoff issues that had plagued the Bud bucks in the past reared their ugly heads again, and I think the question of Bud's standing in the locker room at that point is valid. Was it totally fair to bud? well that's a different question of course, I'd entertain no on that front, but barely anyone at the time thought the bucks made a bad *basketball* decision.
They absolutely screwed up with the Griff hire, but that's a separate decision from actually firing Bud. If they had hired, say, Nurse (or basically anyone that is baseline competent which Doc thankfully is) instead of Griff, are we having this conversation at all?
Soooo when Boston loses to Miami as well, can we then say that it was a terrible decision, hindsight or not? Lol
FWIW, the first three sentences of my post were all relevant "in the moment". To cherry pick the one sentence where I literally use the word "hindsight" seems a bit odd to be the main focus of your response. And "everyone" did not agree at the time. For I am at least one 😜
Budenholzer was a great regular season coach with the Hawks and the Bucks, so I believe he could do it again with another franchise. If the Hornets hire him, your defense will be solid, and everyone will know their role. Your record will improve. He’ll advocate for quality veterans to stabilize the locker room and help your young core. When you make to playoffs, he will stick to his schemes because they are statistically sound. He won’t counter his opposing head coaches adjustments. Without a generational talent like Giannis, the team will hit a ceiling. Every year when you crash out of the playoffs despite optimism, you’ll wonder if you should replace him, even if there’s no better options out there. And when he’s gone, you’ll miss him as your coach, warts and all.
This feels very realistic for him and the team my hope now is to attend a playoff game for the team I love I'm 24 and haven't seen us in the playoffs in around 8 years and I never was able to attend the games because I live hours away.
No one cares about coach of the year especially since its heavily based on regular season and every Bucks fan will tell you only 1 championship out of the 2019-2024 era is underwhelming.
He did win the title and also have the bucks in an ECF another season so while he's got his flaws I think "low ceiling" may undersell him a little bit at least
Bud is a great system/culture guy for any team wanting to establish a winning identity. J Kidd was the coach prior to him and while the team was scrappy and talented, it felt like amateur hour way too often, so the switch to bud was apparent immediately. Floor raiser for any up and coming team. He was, of course, helped during his time coaching the Bucks by having a generational talent, but he put together multiple good seasons with the Hawks before that too.
His warts appear more prominently in the playoffs when consistently going up against other good coaches every game. He often takes too long to make adjustments for peoples' liking (though he can and has made them).
You are in really good hands. After last season I was one of the many Bucks fans that knew the team needed something to change if we were going to win another chip. Most of us thought the only realistic change was one of the head coach.
For me, and I'm betting a lot of Bucks fans, if we had known we'd be getting Dame this season, we would have said that's enough change, let's keep Bud and try this. This is even further solidified with how this season's coaching has gone.
Although I do have a small bit of hope that Doc might work out for us, too.
I hope you get Bud. He's a great man for the job.
Bud had some bad habits I think when playoff time came but I think he has always been a pretty stellar regular season coach and can definitely help a young team play better basketball
Bud comes from the Pop branch of the coaching tree so he's very much a "trust the system guy". He doesn't do many in game adjustments but will rather adjust game to game. Overall I think he's a great coach who absolutely deserves another job and a fair number of teams would be better with him at the helm.
He'd be a massive upgrade for Charlotte. The Hornets have long suffered from having mediocre, outdated coaching minds at their front. Budenholzer emphasizes letting threes fly and playing honest defense. Two things that the Hornets really need to improve on. I think he's going to be a really good pickup for whichever team snags him.
Won’t you won’t get:
Drama.
His interviews could be written by ChatGPT. He won’t throw his players under the bus.
There tends to be relatively little locker room friction with his teams. One of the Bucks, Bobby Portis, had way too much drama with teammates and fans until he came to the Bucks. Then he turned into a happy perennial 6MOTY candidate loved by the fans and his fellow players.
I’m not saying Bud is the only reason. I’m saying Bud encourages a drama free environment and a lot of players thrive under him.
Sounds like he is a good guy to steady a swaying ship. also love bobby portis i know a lot about basketball itself just didn't have all the context with coaches and how people felt about them
I personally liked bud, but when things went wrong I think most people were mad about him not making adjustments in the playoffs. I remember the year before we won people were calling for him to be fired for this. Last year was tough because his brother died, I’m not going to hammer anyone for having issues at work while dealing with that. I think a lot of our personnel changes have been because we don’t want to waste Giannis prime and we want to prove to him we are making changes to try and win.
This makes me feel better about hiring him his biggest issue came from immense family issues I don't blame him for that I am really liking him as a coaching prospect
We just moved Steve Clifford up to a FO position and he wasn't the best coach, but all the guys liked him I am really hoping we get another guy like that to keep the balance especially with Cliff still working in the same building, so this is all good news
He was very much vet leaning when he was with the Bucks, not sure how he’d coach a young roster honestly. I do think he’d do well with guys on the Hornets like Brandon Miller who could probably have similar actions to Khris called and Nick Richards who’d be probably featured in the heavy drop like Brook.
I’d be lying if I said I was extremely familiar with the hornets roster outside of Richards, Lamelo and Miller though
best part is Nick isn't our starting center Mark Williams is he was just hurt all year he projects to be a tremendous defender and even though he doesn't shoot them in the games I saw him shoot 3s in warmups and make them pretty consistently. we also picked up a few good guards in Micic, Tre Mann, and Seth Curry as well as Grant Williams at the deadline. We now have a mix of Veteran and Young talent and a culture is forming with guys like Grant and Brandon being vocal leaders on the court
Ah, gotcha!
From the sounds of it the core might work pretty well in Bud’s system. If he signs, expect a lot of Lamelo drive and kick - probably more than he already does. And I’d be very excited to see Miller blossom under his scheme too.
Hope the search turns out well for you guys!
I hope whoever we sign fits our guys and we win Melo has missed most of the last 2 season as well as about 1/3 of our roster If we can stay healthy I think we have a much more optimistic outlook compared to other teams in the east like washington, detroit, chicago, brooklyn and Torono if we out perform them we will be in the play in and I also think atlanta might blow it up a little soon too.
>best part is Nick isn't our starting center Mark Williams is he was just hurt all year he projects to be a tremendous defender and even though he doesn't shoot them in the games I saw him shoot 3s in warmups and make them pretty consistently.
Bud *loves* stretch 5s. He will be shooting them a lot more if the Hornets make him the coach.
He took the bucks from around a .500 team to a 60 win team. Great regular season coach, great at game planning, not great at adjustments (although he makes them but regulars don’t really notice).
His interviews are stale. One of Giannis’ books had a chapter about him. He’s a very competitive guy but it doesn’t show. I think you guys will like him if he signs
Nothing but positive things for him. He was put in a tough position before he got fired with his brother dying mid series (Giannis hurt as well) and Khris getting hurt the season before that.
Patrick Beverly is currently staying at Buds house in Milwaukee since he didn’t have a place to stay once he got traded.
He took the team from a 44-38 and 7th in the East and a first round exit to a 60-22, 1st in the East and and to the East finals in his first year.
I think the biggest gripe most of us had was that he was slow with adjustments and that he did not give the rookies enough playing time.
I didn’t want us to fire Bud. Championship winner and success in multiple cities. He’s objectively one of the best possible coaches to have. And the vibes are immaculate.
We got annoyed by lack of adjustments. But I think the biggest problem is that when the playoffs started, every single shooter we have turns into just below average NBA caliber so Giannis and Khris always had to carry despite giving teammates insane looks.
The point is they were coached up by Bud and were doing a great job of getting those insane looks.
When the looks aren’t falling, I understand adjusting the game plan. But also, he put the guys in a position to succeed most times and poor execution led to needing the adjustments.
The point is they were coached up by Bud and were doing a great job of getting those insane looks.
When the looks aren’t falling, I understand adjusting the game plan. But also, he put the guys in a position to succeed most times and poor execution led to needing the adjustments.
I’d much rather have Bud than Doc or Griff (although I was excited for Griff at first).
Before he came we hadn’t won 50 games in a season in 15 years, then we did every year with him (had the winning % in 2020 but fewer games) including a sixty win season, and now we’re back to under 50 wins.
He won with the Bucks and the Hawks. How the hell is this guy not considered a mastermind? Because of armchair coaches? If you can get him you grab him immediately IMO.
He doesn't struggle with defensive schemes, he is just a bit rigid with it. His scheme works great over a large sample size in the regular season but it can be high variance in the playoffs because he is happy to let even good 3pt shooters take open above the break 3s.
He is a good coach overall. He struggles with in game adjustments and other decisions like when to call timeouts or challenge. He has a good offensive scheme but isn't as great on defense and would benefit from having good defensive players. He is passionate and isn't afraid to get in refs faces if they aren't calling a fair game.
He may not win you a chip without tons of talent but he will get you out of the basement and probably to at least a play in game.
I'm not a JJ hater by any means but Bud would be a much better choice than him from an X's and O's standpoint just because of his experience and proven record of success. I would have some concerns about Bud being the right guy to get the Hornets to buy in. Not a knock on Bud and I don't mean to kick your team when they're down, but they have a lot of immature kids that I think Bud would have a hard time relating to. His Hawks and Bucks rosters were both way more professional than what's cooking in Charlotte. Everyone already knew how to be a pro and was ready to win. From that perspective, someone younger like JJ may be a better choice. He knows what it's like to go from a cocky kid to a professional player in the league.
I dont want JJ as a head coach I want a guy with coaching experience I wouldn't mind him as an assistant I think he could thrive at that Bud would be good for helping our team acquire an identity
He's a great coach. I was never on the Bud must go bandwagon and I think people have seen this year that a lot of his "stubbornness" was at least in part due to his roster not being able to do much else, especially defensively. He's a floor raiser and will put your players in a position to be as successful as possible.
He is the best possible option for an up and coming team. Incredible program builder.
Having said that, there are some very clear negatives:
- He won’t play the younglings, and doesn’t have a history of developing young players either
- He is incredibly dogmatic: he will set up an incredibly well throughout way for the team to play and won’t veer from it come hell or high water
I could see him playing the young players
If forced to, but the rest will not change. They are what make him an incredible program builder and floor raiser, but also very predictable playoff coach.
The only thing I'll add in addition to what I've seen here is he will not grind down your best players in the regular season by overworking them.
I wish we hadn't fired Bud. When it happened I thought it was the right call, but then learning about his brother, and then us getting Dame I softened on that position a bunch.
Will build a good, winning system. When your team becomes a contender, he'll be a liability in the playoffs. Can't make adjustments during a series. We love him. We also don't regret moving on, for the most part.
I just wanna win games I’m not thinking about being a contender any time soon but if he can make us contenders I’ll be stoked maybe he will correct his mistakes but then
I hope he does. I'm hoping when it's all said and done that he's got some type of memorial at our arena. A bust statue in the hallway, or a mural with the championship team.
I thought he was a great coach and I know he had some major mistakes during the 2023 Heat series but that was not at all a reason to fire him. Look where Milwaukee is now. Someone obviously wasn't happy with Griffin and now we are in hell with Doc Rivers.
Way better than griff, probably quite a bit better than substitute teacher Doc, but I don't think he's a huge amount better than Doc actually given an offseason/practice/prep time. The body of work/results for both are pretty close.
The issue then of course is if you're going to fire bud you'd ideally want to improve on him which probably is not the case here (unless you're a believer in "bud got stale, they just needed a fresh perspective")
Only gripe was not making proper adjustments on the fly. Also not knowing when to call a timeout when a team is on a hot streak and making a comeback or run on you. Loved bud tho.
He's one of the most underrated coaches in the whole league. He is a better Doc Rivers with arguably more accomplishments. What he did with that Hawks team alone is impressive.
He's a data and stats guy who lives and dies by 3s. Boston is actually playing a very similar style to his. This will infuriate the stupidest among your fanbase who don't understand why certain threes aren't being contested or whatever.
He's fantastic and I defended him throughout his tenure here when dumb fans made idiotic claims about him without knowing what the hell they were talking about.
It's either him or Don Nelson for the best coach the Bucks ever had. I wish he was still here :(
Bud is a top 3 coach in the NBA. He made the Bucks one of the most respectable and consistent teams in the NBA. He had a flawed team and a flawed MVP player. Giannis can't shot in the modern NBA and had no post game. Giannis was a top 5 defensive player in the NBA with Bud. Without Bud Giannis looks as bad as Dame on defense.
Bud doesn't need a mvp like Giannis. Bud made the Hawks a top seed every year.
Bud is a coach you would love. Rivers is a coach you dread.
You're overrating how important Bud's contribution was to Giannis as a defensive player and overstating how "bad" Giannis is now. While he had his best years under Bud, Giannis is currently still one of the better defensive players in basketball (top 20 in drtg) and I would think his numbers are probably somewhat dragged down by having had to play in Griff's ["scheme"](https://www.sportskeeda.com/basketball/news-that-s-are-giannis-antetokounmpo-seems-iffy-bucks-defense) for half the season.
Additionally, while I would generally agree I prefer Bud to Doc (especially if the Doc you're getting is mid-season surprise apearance Doc), the difference between the two is not as great as you're making it out to be. Doc has had quite a bit of success over the years, at least comparable to Bud. I mean he isn't recognized as a top 15 all time coach by the NBA75 Team for nothing.
He may not be the best coach for a team that's already a true contender, squarely in their championship window, but how many of those teams are there? And of those, how many are actively in need of a new coach?
Bud would be an upgrade for a significant number of teams in the league.
Love coach Bud. Hated the decision to fire him when it happened, unlike all the hindsighters in the media and (some) fans who are now calling it a mistake.
He’s a great coach. Hornets don’t have enough foundation to pass up on Bud’s instant floor raising ability. You’ll have a competent franchise for the first time in a while. If you get to the playoffs and want to compete, be prepared to get frustrated.
Any team should be happy with Bud. He is a great coach for an upcoming team. He is also stubborn and struggled to adjust in playoffs, but he has made teams better at both ATL and Milwaukee. If you want to make the playoffs I can't think of much better than Bud.
He's also really, really good at building a defense, even if the scheme he used here did have its weaknesses. By Def Rating, the worst we finished under Bud was 14th in the league, and that was the season where Brook was injured and our center rotation was out-of-position Giannis, Bobby, and ~15 games of washed DeMarcus Cousins and even more washed Serge Ibaka. Aside from that, we had a top 10 defense every season. Sure, it helps to have the defensive personnel we did, but I'm still comfortable saying that you're never going to have anything worse than an average defense under Bud over the course of a full season.
People on social media are currently in like round 5 of trying to rehabilitate the reputation of late-career Cousins and it’s frustrating because they obviously didn’t see what he was like defensively. Especially with us. Totally unplayable on any serious team.
He's a floor-raiser and he will bring competence and professionalism into the role and build a winning team.
Don't forget stability. If your franchise only knows dysfunction, bud will be a breath of fresh air.
ah that sounds nice
There are very few jobs where he would have gotten fired from with his performance but the Bucks were unfortunately one of them. He’s a great coach and he loves his players. I’d be thrilled to get him.
And let’s be honest, we only fired him because of some unfortunate circumstances. Giannis injury, Heat popping off, new owner/partner offering more cash. Not to mention how his own performance may have been affected by his brother’s death. While the fan base may have called for his head every year, the team’s management seemed quite content with him.
im happy to be hearing all of this
Can raise the floor all the way to the ceiling as well
Damn right
Great coach who came in at the right time and helped to elevate the team from young playoff contenders to perennial title contenders. He had his problems, and in the end I think he lost hold of the ear of the locker room, but he had a great run here. It’s not that he was a bad coach by the end, some circumstances just turned a little sour and it was time to move on IMO If Khris doesn’t slip against Chicago in 2022, I think we go on to repeat as champions, and then things are probably different
If Jrue shoots 42%+ from three for us in the playoffs like he has in Boston this season, it might have been a three peat
Jrue was never as open with us as he is in Boston. He’s 4th/5th option most of the time.
Jrue always had to shoulder way way more offensively than he ideally should have, largely due to injuries to either Giannis or Khris at different points (also the bench output often totally collapsing)
That’s why the Beasley signing made so much sense when it did. He was looking to come into a situation where he could be a 3rd option for his next contract. Meanwhile GA would move to the bench to bolster bench ball handling.
Not so much sense in retrospect.
It was not time to move on. Firing him was just a dumb call.
Based on where the bucks were as a team and the circumstances under which he was fired, it was a warranted move, far from dumb. And that's coming from a most-of-the-time Bud defender. A 4-1 loss to the 8 seed, involving multiple lead loss collapses where the same guy just torches you over and over without seemingly anything able to be done to stop him is a brutal pill to swallow and it's just not really acceptable to blow a Giannis prime season that way. That's not to say there are not other sources of blame \*cough\*roster construction\*cough\* I think most of the folks that see it as the wrong decision see it that way due to the hindsight of swinging and missing on the hire after him. Had we not done the actually dumb part of the process and made the wrong hire in Griff followed by Break-glass-in-case-of-emergency Doc I don't think there'd be really anyone saying the Bucks messed up with the Bud firing in a vacuum.
Bud's brother died during that first round series. Giannis got hurt in game 1 and missed 2 and 3 entirely and was probably still hurt for games 4 and 5. Khris was typical 50% Khris. I don't think Bud deserved to be fired. Did it suck? Ya. But you gotta consider the circumstances. The fact that both HCs this year were terrible makes this a no brainer in hindsight. I think Bud is a top 5 HC at the moment. Kerr, Pop, and Spoelstra are probably the only active ones that have a better resume.
You can't use the hindsight of making a bad coach hire later to retroactively decide it was a bad decision to get rid of Bud to begin with. Decision analysis should focus more on the process that went into making the decision than a later outcome that is dependent on external factors. At the time of Bud's firing, basically everyone agreed it was reasonable the bucks did what they did. Even with limited/no Giannis, the Bucks looked unprepared and coughed up multiple winnable games. Playoff issues that had plagued the Bud bucks in the past reared their ugly heads again, and I think the question of Bud's standing in the locker room at that point is valid. Was it totally fair to bud? well that's a different question of course, I'd entertain no on that front, but barely anyone at the time thought the bucks made a bad *basketball* decision. They absolutely screwed up with the Griff hire, but that's a separate decision from actually firing Bud. If they had hired, say, Nurse (or basically anyone that is baseline competent which Doc thankfully is) instead of Griff, are we having this conversation at all?
Soooo when Boston loses to Miami as well, can we then say that it was a terrible decision, hindsight or not? Lol FWIW, the first three sentences of my post were all relevant "in the moment". To cherry pick the one sentence where I literally use the word "hindsight" seems a bit odd to be the main focus of your response. And "everyone" did not agree at the time. For I am at least one 😜
Budenholzer was a great regular season coach with the Hawks and the Bucks, so I believe he could do it again with another franchise. If the Hornets hire him, your defense will be solid, and everyone will know their role. Your record will improve. He’ll advocate for quality veterans to stabilize the locker room and help your young core. When you make to playoffs, he will stick to his schemes because they are statistically sound. He won’t counter his opposing head coaches adjustments. Without a generational talent like Giannis, the team will hit a ceiling. Every year when you crash out of the playoffs despite optimism, you’ll wonder if you should replace him, even if there’s no better options out there. And when he’s gone, you’ll miss him as your coach, warts and all.
This feels very realistic for him and the team my hope now is to attend a playoff game for the team I love I'm 24 and haven't seen us in the playoffs in around 8 years and I never was able to attend the games because I live hours away.
He's a tree house coach. High floor, low ceiling.
His ceiling is 2x coach of the year and championship. That is not a low ceiling.
No one cares about coach of the year especially since its heavily based on regular season and every Bucks fan will tell you only 1 championship out of the 2019-2024 era is underwhelming.
He did win the title and also have the bucks in an ECF another season so while he's got his flaws I think "low ceiling" may undersell him a little bit at least
Bud is a great system/culture guy for any team wanting to establish a winning identity. J Kidd was the coach prior to him and while the team was scrappy and talented, it felt like amateur hour way too often, so the switch to bud was apparent immediately. Floor raiser for any up and coming team. He was, of course, helped during his time coaching the Bucks by having a generational talent, but he put together multiple good seasons with the Hawks before that too. His warts appear more prominently in the playoffs when consistently going up against other good coaches every game. He often takes too long to make adjustments for peoples' liking (though he can and has made them).
We compare well to that hawks team too I think we have potentially better players at their peak as well so I am feeling better and better
You are in really good hands. After last season I was one of the many Bucks fans that knew the team needed something to change if we were going to win another chip. Most of us thought the only realistic change was one of the head coach. For me, and I'm betting a lot of Bucks fans, if we had known we'd be getting Dame this season, we would have said that's enough change, let's keep Bud and try this. This is even further solidified with how this season's coaching has gone. Although I do have a small bit of hope that Doc might work out for us, too. I hope you get Bud. He's a great man for the job.
I hope we do too
The Bucks went from the worst rebounding team in the NBA to the best (by a lot) after getting coach Bud. He will fix your team's biggest weaknesses.
Bud had some bad habits I think when playoff time came but I think he has always been a pretty stellar regular season coach and can definitely help a young team play better basketball
Bud comes from the Pop branch of the coaching tree so he's very much a "trust the system guy". He doesn't do many in game adjustments but will rather adjust game to game. Overall I think he's a great coach who absolutely deserves another job and a fair number of teams would be better with him at the helm.
This has me excited
He'd be a massive upgrade for Charlotte. The Hornets have long suffered from having mediocre, outdated coaching minds at their front. Budenholzer emphasizes letting threes fly and playing honest defense. Two things that the Hornets really need to improve on. I think he's going to be a really good pickup for whichever team snags him.
Yea for sure I don't think we hire him I think we might go with new blood, but it is sounding like it might be a win/win
He’d be a massive upgrade for Milwaukee too.
Won’t you won’t get: Drama. His interviews could be written by ChatGPT. He won’t throw his players under the bus. There tends to be relatively little locker room friction with his teams. One of the Bucks, Bobby Portis, had way too much drama with teammates and fans until he came to the Bucks. Then he turned into a happy perennial 6MOTY candidate loved by the fans and his fellow players. I’m not saying Bud is the only reason. I’m saying Bud encourages a drama free environment and a lot of players thrive under him.
Sounds like he is a good guy to steady a swaying ship. also love bobby portis i know a lot about basketball itself just didn't have all the context with coaches and how people felt about them
I personally liked bud, but when things went wrong I think most people were mad about him not making adjustments in the playoffs. I remember the year before we won people were calling for him to be fired for this. Last year was tough because his brother died, I’m not going to hammer anyone for having issues at work while dealing with that. I think a lot of our personnel changes have been because we don’t want to waste Giannis prime and we want to prove to him we are making changes to try and win.
This makes me feel better about hiring him his biggest issue came from immense family issues I don't blame him for that I am really liking him as a coaching prospect
Yea I think anyone should be happy with getting bud as a new coach. Players like him too.
We just moved Steve Clifford up to a FO position and he wasn't the best coach, but all the guys liked him I am really hoping we get another guy like that to keep the balance especially with Cliff still working in the same building, so this is all good news
He was very much vet leaning when he was with the Bucks, not sure how he’d coach a young roster honestly. I do think he’d do well with guys on the Hornets like Brandon Miller who could probably have similar actions to Khris called and Nick Richards who’d be probably featured in the heavy drop like Brook. I’d be lying if I said I was extremely familiar with the hornets roster outside of Richards, Lamelo and Miller though
best part is Nick isn't our starting center Mark Williams is he was just hurt all year he projects to be a tremendous defender and even though he doesn't shoot them in the games I saw him shoot 3s in warmups and make them pretty consistently. we also picked up a few good guards in Micic, Tre Mann, and Seth Curry as well as Grant Williams at the deadline. We now have a mix of Veteran and Young talent and a culture is forming with guys like Grant and Brandon being vocal leaders on the court
Ah, gotcha! From the sounds of it the core might work pretty well in Bud’s system. If he signs, expect a lot of Lamelo drive and kick - probably more than he already does. And I’d be very excited to see Miller blossom under his scheme too. Hope the search turns out well for you guys!
I hope whoever we sign fits our guys and we win Melo has missed most of the last 2 season as well as about 1/3 of our roster If we can stay healthy I think we have a much more optimistic outlook compared to other teams in the east like washington, detroit, chicago, brooklyn and Torono if we out perform them we will be in the play in and I also think atlanta might blow it up a little soon too.
>best part is Nick isn't our starting center Mark Williams is he was just hurt all year he projects to be a tremendous defender and even though he doesn't shoot them in the games I saw him shoot 3s in warmups and make them pretty consistently. Bud *loves* stretch 5s. He will be shooting them a lot more if the Hornets make him the coach.
wont mind that if he can do it at a consistent clip
He took the bucks from around a .500 team to a 60 win team. Great regular season coach, great at game planning, not great at adjustments (although he makes them but regulars don’t really notice). His interviews are stale. One of Giannis’ books had a chapter about him. He’s a very competitive guy but it doesn’t show. I think you guys will like him if he signs
I think I will like him if he does too this thread has gotten me excited for him if we sign him
Nothing but positive things for him. He was put in a tough position before he got fired with his brother dying mid series (Giannis hurt as well) and Khris getting hurt the season before that. Patrick Beverly is currently staying at Buds house in Milwaukee since he didn’t have a place to stay once he got traded.
He took the team from a 44-38 and 7th in the East and a first round exit to a 60-22, 1st in the East and and to the East finals in his first year. I think the biggest gripe most of us had was that he was slow with adjustments and that he did not give the rookies enough playing time.
I think he will have to play all the young guys on such a young team
Excellent, measured, accurate points, all, so I'll make the joke: Bud could take 12 of us on this sub and win 41 games lol.
Need that so bad
I didn’t want us to fire Bud. Championship winner and success in multiple cities. He’s objectively one of the best possible coaches to have. And the vibes are immaculate. We got annoyed by lack of adjustments. But I think the biggest problem is that when the playoffs started, every single shooter we have turns into just below average NBA caliber so Giannis and Khris always had to carry despite giving teammates insane looks.
Yea I get that
The point is they were coached up by Bud and were doing a great job of getting those insane looks. When the looks aren’t falling, I understand adjusting the game plan. But also, he put the guys in a position to succeed most times and poor execution led to needing the adjustments.
thats good man we struggle to get shooters open at times so this will all be nice
The point is they were coached up by Bud and were doing a great job of getting those insane looks. When the looks aren’t falling, I understand adjusting the game plan. But also, he put the guys in a position to succeed most times and poor execution led to needing the adjustments. I’d much rather have Bud than Doc or Griff (although I was excited for Griff at first).
Before he came we hadn’t won 50 games in a season in 15 years, then we did every year with him (had the winning % in 2020 but fewer games) including a sixty win season, and now we’re back to under 50 wins. He won with the Bucks and the Hawks. How the hell is this guy not considered a mastermind? Because of armchair coaches? If you can get him you grab him immediately IMO.
I hope so
He doesn't struggle with defensive schemes, he is just a bit rigid with it. His scheme works great over a large sample size in the regular season but it can be high variance in the playoffs because he is happy to let even good 3pt shooters take open above the break 3s.
Awesome I’m going off what I vaguely remember the complaints being about when he was fired
Good coach to lift a moribund team before handing off to a coach who can actually outcoach good coaches in the playoffs.
Bud will bring your youngsters to the playoffs for the first time
thats all i want man 
He is a good coach overall. He struggles with in game adjustments and other decisions like when to call timeouts or challenge. He has a good offensive scheme but isn't as great on defense and would benefit from having good defensive players. He is passionate and isn't afraid to get in refs faces if they aren't calling a fair game. He may not win you a chip without tons of talent but he will get you out of the basement and probably to at least a play in game.
I just want to be competitive man sounds like he will do that for us
Absolutely, he'd be a great hire for you guys. He'll bring much needed consistency and a high floor
Bud is a great floor raiser for mediocre/bad teams which we were for years. The exact type of guy the Hornets can use.
yea bad to mediocre sounds like my beloved hornets
I'm not a JJ hater by any means but Bud would be a much better choice than him from an X's and O's standpoint just because of his experience and proven record of success. I would have some concerns about Bud being the right guy to get the Hornets to buy in. Not a knock on Bud and I don't mean to kick your team when they're down, but they have a lot of immature kids that I think Bud would have a hard time relating to. His Hawks and Bucks rosters were both way more professional than what's cooking in Charlotte. Everyone already knew how to be a pro and was ready to win. From that perspective, someone younger like JJ may be a better choice. He knows what it's like to go from a cocky kid to a professional player in the league.
I dont want JJ as a head coach I want a guy with coaching experience I wouldn't mind him as an assistant I think he could thrive at that Bud would be good for helping our team acquire an identity
Honestly he’s a top 5 coach imo, he can be stubborn when it comes to making adjustments but his system works
dope
He’s a pop guy so he’s solid, his rotations can be questionable. But he won us a title and we love him forever.
I forgot he was a pop guy makes me like him even more
He's a great coach. I was never on the Bud must go bandwagon and I think people have seen this year that a lot of his "stubbornness" was at least in part due to his roster not being able to do much else, especially defensively. He's a floor raiser and will put your players in a position to be as successful as possible.
sounds all good to me!
He is the best possible option for an up and coming team. Incredible program builder. Having said that, there are some very clear negatives: - He won’t play the younglings, and doesn’t have a history of developing young players either - He is incredibly dogmatic: he will set up an incredibly well throughout way for the team to play and won’t veer from it come hell or high water I could see him playing the young players If forced to, but the rest will not change. They are what make him an incredible program builder and floor raiser, but also very predictable playoff coach.
Love to hear this
The only thing I'll add in addition to what I've seen here is he will not grind down your best players in the regular season by overworking them. I wish we hadn't fired Bud. When it happened I thought it was the right call, but then learning about his brother, and then us getting Dame I softened on that position a bunch.
Will build a good, winning system. When your team becomes a contender, he'll be a liability in the playoffs. Can't make adjustments during a series. We love him. We also don't regret moving on, for the most part.
I just wanna win games I’m not thinking about being a contender any time soon but if he can make us contenders I’ll be stoked maybe he will correct his mistakes but then
I hope he does. I'm hoping when it's all said and done that he's got some type of memorial at our arena. A bust statue in the hallway, or a mural with the championship team.
He deserves it!
I thought he was a great coach and I know he had some major mistakes during the 2023 Heat series but that was not at all a reason to fire him. Look where Milwaukee is now. Someone obviously wasn't happy with Griffin and now we are in hell with Doc Rivers.
Yea yall would have probably benefited just keeping Bud but I am supporting yall I think yall can win
He’s a top 10 coach and without a doubt better than either of the coaches we replaced him with.
Way better than griff, probably quite a bit better than substitute teacher Doc, but I don't think he's a huge amount better than Doc actually given an offseason/practice/prep time. The body of work/results for both are pretty close. The issue then of course is if you're going to fire bud you'd ideally want to improve on him which probably is not the case here (unless you're a believer in "bud got stale, they just needed a fresh perspective")
Really hoping my hornets pick him up
Only gripe was not making proper adjustments on the fly. Also not knowing when to call a timeout when a team is on a hot streak and making a comeback or run on you. Loved bud tho.
He's one of the most underrated coaches in the whole league. He is a better Doc Rivers with arguably more accomplishments. What he did with that Hawks team alone is impressive. He's a data and stats guy who lives and dies by 3s. Boston is actually playing a very similar style to his. This will infuriate the stupidest among your fanbase who don't understand why certain threes aren't being contested or whatever. He's fantastic and I defended him throughout his tenure here when dumb fans made idiotic claims about him without knowing what the hell they were talking about. It's either him or Don Nelson for the best coach the Bucks ever had. I wish he was still here :(
For a building team he is good. If you gone have problems with him, as the Hornets you are already happy.
Bud is a top 3 coach in the NBA. He made the Bucks one of the most respectable and consistent teams in the NBA. He had a flawed team and a flawed MVP player. Giannis can't shot in the modern NBA and had no post game. Giannis was a top 5 defensive player in the NBA with Bud. Without Bud Giannis looks as bad as Dame on defense. Bud doesn't need a mvp like Giannis. Bud made the Hawks a top seed every year. Bud is a coach you would love. Rivers is a coach you dread.
You're overrating how important Bud's contribution was to Giannis as a defensive player and overstating how "bad" Giannis is now. While he had his best years under Bud, Giannis is currently still one of the better defensive players in basketball (top 20 in drtg) and I would think his numbers are probably somewhat dragged down by having had to play in Griff's ["scheme"](https://www.sportskeeda.com/basketball/news-that-s-are-giannis-antetokounmpo-seems-iffy-bucks-defense) for half the season. Additionally, while I would generally agree I prefer Bud to Doc (especially if the Doc you're getting is mid-season surprise apearance Doc), the difference between the two is not as great as you're making it out to be. Doc has had quite a bit of success over the years, at least comparable to Bud. I mean he isn't recognized as a top 15 all time coach by the NBA75 Team for nothing.
He may not be the best coach for a team that's already a true contender, squarely in their championship window, but how many of those teams are there? And of those, how many are actively in need of a new coach? Bud would be an upgrade for a significant number of teams in the league.
Bud won us a championship, or helped
Love coach Bud. Hated the decision to fire him when it happened, unlike all the hindsighters in the media and (some) fans who are now calling it a mistake.
Shoot, I would be okay with Bud coaching the bucks next season. The Hornets should offer him whatever he wants.
Bud lifer wherever he ends up
He might literally be the perfect coach for y'all. He will certainly be very good for your situation.
He’s a great coach. Hornets don’t have enough foundation to pass up on Bud’s instant floor raising ability. You’ll have a competent franchise for the first time in a while. If you get to the playoffs and want to compete, be prepared to get frustrated.
He’s better than Doc Rivers.
Get ready to play random.