The Bucks shocked the NBA world on Tuesday when they elected to fire first-year head coach Adrian Griffin despite owning a 30-13 record, good for second-best in the Eastern Conference.
One day later, Milwaukee already found its replacement, hiring veteran head coach Doc Rivers to take the reins midseason.
After trading three first-round picks to pair superstar Damian Lillard with two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Bucks face title-or-bust expectations. The Rivers hire brings in a coach with 23 years of experience and pedigree, headlined by over 1,000 career wins and an NBA title in 2008 with the Celtics. In '22, he was honored as one of the 15 greatest coaches in NBA history.
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With the success also comes a historic number of playoff shortcomings. As The Athletic's Mike Prada pointed out, Rivers has blown three 3-1 series leads and five 3-2 series leads as a head coach. He is also 16-34 in his career with a chance to close out a playoff series.
Whether Rivers is the guy to get Milwaukee back to the NBA Finals is to be determined, but you can learn more about each of his head coaching stops below.
Doc Rivers coaching timeline
1999-2003: Orlando Magic head coach
After Rivers' 13-year playing career came to a close in 1996, he took three years off before he got into coaching. Rivers' first head coaching gig was with the Magic in 1999-00, where he would spend his first four-plus years.
The rookie head coach made quite the impression, leading an Orlando squad with no expectations to a 41-41 record to earn Coach of the Year in 2000.
The Magic finished at or above .500 in each of Rivers' four full seasons at the helm, reaching the playoffs three times. Orlando never made it out of the first round, though, most notably blowing a 3-1 lead to the Pistons in 2003.
When Rivers' Magic got out to a 1-10 start the following season in 2003-04, he was fired.
2004-2013: Boston Celtics head coach
Rivers took the remainder of the 2003-04 season off, spending the rest of the year as a commentator for NBA on ABC. He was hired ahead of the next season by the Celtics, where he would spend the next nine years of his career.
Boston struggled under Rivers at first, getting eliminated in the first round of the playoffs in 2005 before missing the postseason in '06 and '07. After finishing a disappointing 24-58 in '06-07, the Celtics famously traded for future Hall-of-Famers Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen to build a "Big 3" alongside All-Star Paul Pierce.
In the first year with a new superteam, Rivers led the Celtics to an NBA-best 66-16 record, going on to win the first NBA championship of his career after defeating the Lakers in six games.
Boston would only get back to that stage one other time under Rivers, falling to Los Angeles in the 2010 NBA Finals. In '12, the Celtics blew a 3-2 series lead against LeBron James and the Heat, losing in Game 6 at home before falling in Game 7 on the road.
Rivers went 416-305 over nine seasons in Boston, qualifying for the playoffs seven times.
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2013-2020: LA Clippers head coach
After a first-round exit with the Celtics in 2013, Boston traded Rivers to the Clippers for a '15 first-round draft pick (who later became R.J. Hunter).
Rivers was now tasked to take over a Clippers team headlined by Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, and DeAndre Jordan to go along with a cast of talented role players.
He led LA to a franchise-record 57 wins in his first year and helped the Clippers reach the Western Conference Semifinals in his first two seasons. L.A. would never get to the Western Conference Finals under Rivers, though.
Rivers and the Clippers famously blew two 3-1 series leads in the Western Conference Semifinals — once to the Rockets in 2015 and once to the Nuggets in the bubble in '19-20 in his first season coaching All-Star duo Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.
Rivers was fired after the latter, finishing with a 356-208 regular season record and six playoff appearances in seven seasons with the Clippers.
2020-2023: Philadelphia 76ers head coach
Rivers was scooped up quickly, taking over the 76ers head coaching job after Philly had been bounced out of the playoffs before the Eastern Conference Finals in three consecutive seasons with Joel Embiid and co.
The hope was that Rivers could get the most out of Embiid (and eventually, James Harden) and bring the Sixers back to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2001, but to no avail.
Philadelphia made the playoffs in all three seasons under Rivers, but it was eliminated in the Eastern Conference Semifinals each year. After an ugly 24-point loss to the Celtics in Game 7 of the East Semis in 2023, Rivers was fired by the 76ers.
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Doc Rivers coaching record
Rivers has a career coaching record of 1,097-763 (.590) in the regular season and 111-104 (.516) in the playoffs. He has one NBA title and two NBA Finals appearances.
You can find his record with each team he has coached below.
| Team | Seasons | Reg. Season W-L | Win Pct. | Playoffs W-L | Win Pct. |
| Magic | 5 | 171-168 | .504 | 5-10 | .333 |
| Celtics | 9 | 416-305 | .577 | 59-47 | .557 |
| Clippers | 7 | 356-208 | .631 | 27-32 | .458 |
| 76ers | 3 | 154-82 | .653 | 20-15 | .571 |
| Career | 23 | 1097-763 | .590 | 111-104 | .516 |
