April 30: A week after it was first reported, the Bucks officially confirmed that they have hired Jenkins as their new head coach, announcing the news in a press release.
“Taylor’s attention to detail, toughness and communication skills make it clear that he knows how to cultivate a winning culture,” Bucks owners Wes Edens, Jimmy Haslam, Dee Haslam, and Jamie Dinan said in a statement. “We are excited to work together toward our collective goal of sustained success and winning championships.”
“Taylor is an innovative and driven coach who embodies the culture of winning and hard work,” said general manager Jon Horst. “His basketball intellect, comprehensive experience and leadership ability have played a key role in building successful teams throughout his career. He’s the right fit to take our team to the next level.”
April 23: The Bucks are finalizing a contract agreement with Taylor Jenkins and will hire him as their new head coach, sources tell ESPN’s Shams Charania and Ramona Shelburne (Twitter link).
Milwaukee had been in the market for a new coach after the franchise parted ways with Doc Rivers at the end of the regular season in a split that Rivers stated was “100%” his decision. According to Charania (Twitter link), Jenkins was viewed as a top candidate on the coaching market this spring, with the Bucks high on his track record of player development, culture-setting, and competitiveness.
Even before Rivers’ exit, Jenkins was being linked to Milwaukee, and reporting from The Athletic earlier this week indicated that the two sides had met since Rivers’ departure. Charania says the first meeting happened last week in Memphis before Jenkins and the Bucks met again this Tuesday to engage in more serious discussions about the job.
A former assistant in Atlanta and Milwaukee under Mike Budenholzer, Jenkins was hired in 2019 as the head coach of the Grizzlies. He led the team to a 250-214 (.539) regular season record across nearly six full seasons before being dismissed with only about two weeks left in the 2024/25 campaign.
Although Jenkins helped guide the Grizzlies, who had registered consecutive sub-.500 seasons prior to his hiring, back to the playoffs, the team was never able to get over the hump during his time in Memphis. The Grizzlies advanced to the second round in 2022 but experienced first-round exits in 2021 and 2023. Under Jenkins’ replacement, Tuomas Iisalo, Memphis was also bounced in the first round in 2025 and now appears headed for a rebuild.
Whether the Bucks are headed for a retooling phase of their own remains to be seen, but it’s probably safe to assume that Jenkins accepted the position without a guarantee that Giannis Antetokounmpo will still be on the roster when the 2026/27 season tips off.
Bucks co-owner Wes Edens suggested last month that the superstar forward figures to be either extended or traded within the next year, and that was before a late-season disagreement between Antetokounmpo and the team about his knee injury created even more tension between the two sides. For what it’s worth, Giannis later expressed that he wasn’t thrilled about Edens’ comments either.
Once the Bucks formally finalize a deal with Jenkins, it will leave the Bulls and Pelicans as the two teams actively seeking a new permanent head coach, though more clubs could join that list as the spring progresses.
Great Hire.
Great coach to take on this trainwreck, worst case scenario is he is there at the start of the rebuild to guide them back to relevancy best case is he works with Giannis and makes him want to stay and they bounce back next year, which will likely require removing Turner and Kuzma from the roster.
Lmfao I love ur verbiage … removing Kuz as if he’s a tumor. Which is accurate tbh
Was turner that bad this year? Didn’t watch much Bucks. Ik he had a down year but is he really at Kuz level of atrocity ?
Yep
My theory about the Bucks is that their ownership wants to rebuild and cut ties with Giannis, so over the last 2 years they did every single thing they could to get him to ask for a trade, one such thing was telling him (and the Bucks fans, with a straight face) that their “Big 3” was going to be Giannis/Turner/Kuzma, which obviously will not work, and did not work, and the owners knew it.
Turner works on some other teams, but not a Giannis-led one. Kuzma is one of the highest paid/worst quality players in the league. The Bucks FO literally said “We are going to make him our 3rd-highest paid player!” Even with Dame, that is still a terrible big 4. Just a FO who isn’t trying…because they want to rebuild, not win.
Those 4 players were never on the team together. The Bucks waived Lillard (and stretched his contract) in order to be able to sign Turner as a free agent.
Exactly, they are the 4 highest paid players on the roster, they are still on the hook for Lillard this season. Regardless, that’s a terrible “4 highest paid players on your team”. This should be obvious based off what I wrote so thanks for being asinine though!
“removing Kuz as if he’s a tumor.”
They’re excising him.
Every other team with a head coach vacancy blew it. Good hire, not sure of the circumstances quite yet.
Yeah classic Bulls. Getting ready for a college hire who will clog the toilet for 3 years then crawl back to NCAA
Can’t give too much credit to a team that chose doc rivers but this is a good hire
Once Portland is out of the playoffs there should be a healthy push for Splitter now that Jenkins is off the market.
I agree… Splitter is gonna make a great lead assistant or Associate Head Coach! 🏀
With Wemby out, the Blazers might be able to steal a game or two. The fact that Tiago took over under the worst circumstances, and maybe forced out under worse, makes him a really interesting hire.
If the Warriors don’t hire Splitter, fire everyone
Jenkins is a good coach but his 1 downfall is not discipline his players enough. Now that he has a 2nd chance he needs to make sure to set standrads and not allow the players to take control. I am betting Ja Morant will get traded to the bucks now.
Jenkins got fired because players lost respect for him because of the new system being ran in Memphis. Ja Morant was a big factor in the change
He is just a yes man
Kinda shocked that the Bucks made a good decision
Starting to trickle out that ownership was meddling in most of the dumb decisions they’ve made the last few years. Including both Rivers and Lillard.
There was nothing wrong with trading for Lillard. They definitely needed some offensive punch and thought that Lopez, Giannis and Middleton would be good enough to cover on D. Middleton just wasn’t himself anymore and it didn’t work out.
Wes Edens is that you? There is most definitely a problem with trading half your roster and a first round pick for a 32 year old max salary player who can’t do anything but shoot.
Stay hot, Dunleavy. You clown! Bring Splitter to the Warriors now!!!
Splitter, Iguoadala and Golden as the big 3 in charge = chip next year
Borrego best Coach available
Look at his picture, looks like someone just rolled out of bed and put whatever on
Yes men replaced all the real coaches
Great Coach, Great Hire.