Brad Stevens took responsibility for the Celtics' underwhelming season, saying he did a "bad job" after their campaign came to an end Wednesday.
The Celtics suffered a 116-91 defeat to the Bucks to bow out in the Eastern Conference semifinals with a 4-1 series loss.
Boston had been expected to be among the championship contenders this season, only to endure a difficult campaign.
Speaking after their Game 5 loss, Stevens accepted he would take some of the blame for Boston's season.
"I've been a head coach for 12 years and we let go of the rope more and cracked more than we probably should've and we need to be better than that," he told a news conference.
"But the team that doesn't crack usually wins and these guys just kept pounding at us.
"I'll be the first to say that this, as far as any other year that I've been a head coach, it's certainly been the most trying. I think I did a bad job.
"At the end of the day, as a coach, if your team doesn't find its best fit together, that's on you, so I'll do a lot of deep dives into how I can be better."
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) May 9, 2019
Numerous Celtics players, including Kyrie Irving, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, have been at the center of rumors surrounding their futures throughout 2018-19.
Stevens felt that had some impact on Boston, saying it was difficult for players to ignore.
"There's no question. They have TVs, they have phones, they hear everything," he said.
"To be quite candid, when you live in it, you do your best to kind of just block out the noise and do your best to focus on what you can control, but these guys are also young men.
"There's a lot of pressure to live up to all these expectations, to put on a cape, to do all those things and that's hard to do."