By Joey Endres
After the heartbreaking series loss to the Miami Heat in the first round of the playoffs, the Milwaukee Bucks have a serious question to answer: Does Mike Budenholzer need to be fired?
While some blame can go towards Giannis’ injury and other Bucks players not performing to what’s expected of them, it is undeniable that Budenholzer’s coaching skill in the playoffs is awful. In Game 5 alone, Budenholzer decided to use his challenge early in the 1st quarter, neglected to call a timeout at the end of regulation despite having one. He had TWO timeouts remaining with nine seconds left while down two points and didn’t use ANY. These are only a few of the numerous coaching blunders on his part.
One larger issue throughout the whole series was the poor defensive plan for Jimmy Butler, who averaged 37.6 ppg across the series. For a team that had three Defensive Player of the Year candidates, even a casual fan would think that a better plan could’ve been made to cover the Heat’s best player. Instead, Bud was left clueless and allowed Butler to score and score and score. Perhaps this loss is the wake up call the Bucks need to shake things up, possibly roster-wise but most certainly, coach-wise.
Joey Endres is a Junior at UW Oshkosh majoring in Radio TV Film
