Milwaukee Bucks: Mike Budenholzer is the right choice for head coach

The Milwaukee Bucks made a wise choice in hiring Mike Budenholzer as head coach, as he’s an all-around excellent fit for the franchise.

When the Milwaukee Bucks began their head coach search two weeks ago, it’s fair to say they cast a wide net. Milwaukee considered a plethora of former NBA head coaches: Steve Clifford, Monty Williams, David Blatt. The team also interviewed every living person with some sort of connection to the San Antonio Spurs and the esteemed coaching tree of Gregg Popovich.

From the early stages of the search, one candidate stood out: Mike Budenholzer. Budenholzer had just finished a highly successful five-year stint with the Atlanta Hawks, during which he earned Coach of the Year honors in 2015. For good measure, he, too, descends from the Popovich tree.

Budenholzer had everything the Bucks should have been looking for in a coach: developmental prowess, a focus on defense, and penchant for motion on offense. To me, Budenholzer was the clear choice to serve as the Bucks’ next head coach.

Apparently, I’m some sort of oracle:

According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Budenholzer has signed in Milwaukee for four years, and it appears reinforcements will be coming with him:

Milwaukee got its man, despite competition from another desirable opening in Toronto. Not that that should necessarily be a surprise. With Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton in tow (plus a cast of, at worst, intriguing, characters up and down the roster), Milwaukee’s vacancy was always going to draw the best of the best among available coaches.

I’m not here to pretend that Budenholzer will be the cure-all for Milwaukee’s myriad of issues—he’s not Brad Stevens, after all (I kid…mostly). I have some reservations about Budenholzer as an in-game tactician, and as we were all made witnesses to LeBron James’ public execution of former Raptors head coach Dwane Casey in the playoffs, that deficiency should not be underplayed.

However, Budenholzer’s about as good as it gets in a macro sense. The man knows how to engineer a defense, as his Atlanta Hawks finished fifth, second, and fourth in defensive rating from 2014-17.

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While his offenses have not always excelled to the same extent, Budenholzer’s Hawks did produce above-average half-court offenses in 2013-16, only falling off once the perennially under-appreciated Al Horford migrated north. Budenholzer will incorporate the motion Milwaukee’s half-court offense needs so desperately.

Developmentally, Milwaukee could not have found a better option. In Atlanta, Budenholzer made a habit of enriching wings who appeared headed out of the league. Guys like DeMarre Carroll, Kent Bazemore and Taurean Prince (though he’s yet to be rewarded as handsomely as the other two) owe Bud small fortunes.

To the fringes of the league, Budenholzer extended scholarships to “Hawks University,” where he taught a dying breed of shot-less wings the NBA’s most valuable trade.

It’s always hard to attribute credit in the development department. Certainly, the players deserve credit, as do some assistant coaches (in the Hawks’ case, Budenholzer’s former assistant and current Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson is widely considered a development maven), but Budenholzer’s impressive resume indicates he must be doing something right.

Development on the wing is precisely what the Bucks need. I’ve written on a few occasions about Milwaukee’s need to surround Antetokounmpo with versatile shooters on the wing. If anyone’s going to maximize guys like Sterling Brown, Tony Snell, D.J. Wilson, and hopefully some other yet-to-be-found diamonds, it’s Budenholzer.

Defensively, offensively, developmentally, Budenholzer offers just about everything the Bucks could have hoped for in a head coach. He’s experienced, and his track record, while far from flawless, is impressive.

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Milwaukee left no stone unturned in its head coach search. All along, though, Mike Budenholzer was the natural choice to fill the head coach vacancy. The Bucks are not magically the Golden State Warriors now, but they’re a better team than they were two weeks ago when their season came to an untimely end, and that’s worth celebrating.