Bucks Notes: Griffin, Dragic, Draft

Adrian Griffin said that he’s honored to be taking over a Bucks team that won the championship two years ago, Steve Megargee of The Associated Press writes.

“Let’s be real,” he said. “What first-time head coach gets to coach the Milwaukee Bucks, with all the special talent on this team? I’m extremely humbled.”

Griffin was assistant with the Raptors the past five seasons. All other recent coaching vacancies around the league have been filled by former head coaches.

“(Assistant GM) Milt Newton said throughout this process after we met with Adrian, ‘Adrian’s a head coach. He just hasn’t gotten the opportunity yet,’” GM Jon Horst said.

We have more on the Bucks:

• Griffin got the job after making a strong impression on everyone he met in the organization, according to Eric Nehm of The Athletic. “…We interview him, and he blew us away in the interview. And then we bring him back for a second interview, and we get to the chalk talk and get on the board and watch the film, and he blows us away again,” Horst said. “Then he meets with our staff: the front-office staff, the medical staff and the business side. Players. Ownership. And he blows them away again. And then he’s in the big moment. You’re the guy that needs to go for the final interview with the owners. Like, don’t mess it up, right? And he did it again.”
• Goran Dragic, who is headed into free agency, doesn’t plan to play for the Slovenian national team this summer in the FIBA World Cup, Sportando relays. Dragic, 37, could be contemplating retirement. “I’ll be at home (laughs). I’m not going to play, it was enough, 16 years, plus the NBA and everything else,” he told MozzartSport. “Maybe I will go to Japan to support the national team, but I will hardly play.”
• The last pick of this year’s draft belongs to the Bucks (No. 58 overall). JR Radcliffe of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel takes a look at nine prospects they might consider at that spot.