Milwaukee Bucks: 3 players with everything to prove in the NBA playoffs

Milwaukee Bucks with something to prove in the NBA playoffs: Mike Budenholzer

While the best two Milwaukee Bucks players have plenty to prove, head coach Mike Budenholzer is reportedly coaching for his job. Regular season success doesn’t mean much when you flame out in the playoffs, especially when that postseason failure can largely be pinned on your own rigidity as a coach.

Some coaches would rather lose “their way” than win by being adaptable, but it seems like Budenholzer is taking steps to shed that image himself. After dogmatically holding firm to his drop-coverage defensive strategy in years past, he’s used this regular season as a time for experimentation and implementation, working a more traditional switching scheme into the playbook.

Drop works fine against plenty of teams, but once you get into the playoffs, too many elite teams have players that can take advantage of the defensive seams and pull up for mid-range jumpers. Good luck defending Kyrie Irving or Kevin Durant in the NBA playoffs with drop coverage.

Whether he sticks to it in the playoffs remains to be seen. It’s promising that Budenholzer is thinking outside of his own rigid box, but the results are going to have to come if he wants to remain the coach of this team next season.