Milwaukee Bucks: Get to know head coach Mike Budenholzer

Background

A native of Holbrook, Arizona, Budenholzer is the youngest of seven children from a family with a coaching pedigree. His father, Vince, was head coach of Holbrook High School’s basketball team for over 20 years and is in the Arizona High School Athletic Coaches Hall of Fame.

That influence certainly wasn’t lost on Budenholzer, as he noted in a 2012 profile for the San Antonio Spurs’ website.

"“I remember as a really young child, watching his energy on the sideline and watching him get excited, his body movement, the way he reacted. … I watched my dad and learned a lot about a lot of things, not just basketball. But I must admit: what he shared with me about basketball has undoubtedly helped me more than I could ever put in words.”"

The family influence on Budenholzer’s career doesn’t end with his father, though. Two of his brothers had attended college in a little known school in California, and played for Pomona-Pitzer under a little known coach. Budenholzer opted to take that same route, but by the time he arrived that same coach had left for the NBA. Pomona’s Gregg Popovich had taken a job with the Spurs on Larry Brown‘s bench.

Although there are stories that Popovich successfully recruited Budenholzer, the now legendary Spurs head coach disputes that.

"“I didn’t even know who the hell he was. He had family at Pomona so he was just coming to the school.”"

According to his official media guide bio from his time in San Antonio, Budenholzer eventually left Pomona as a four-year letterman in both basketball and golf, with a bachelor’s degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics. He headed for Europe from there, where he spent a single season in Denmark, averaging 27.5 points per game for Vejle and got a taste of coaching with the club’s youth teams.

Upon returning to the U.S., Budenholzer’s father encouraged him to contact Popovich in search of work.

"“He said he didn’t have anything to do and that if I ever wanted help, he’d be available,” said Popovich. “I figured he was someone else I’d have to bring in my office and talk to a bit and then get rid of him. I didn’t have time for this stuff, but he did go to Pomona. So he comes in and I immediately liked him. Engaging young man. I talked to him and then said I had work to do and wished him good luck. Tried to get him out of my office. But he wouldn’t leave. He said he’d do anything.”"

Budenholzer got his first taste of NBA work in the film room in Golden State, as Popovich was then a part of Don Nelson‘s Warriors’ staff. When Popovich left the Warriors to return to San Antonio and move to the front office, Budenholzer was one of just two staff — the other being long-time Spurs general manager R.C. Buford — to accompany him.

Alongside Popovich in San Antonio, Budenholzer worked his way up from the video room to a spot on the bench when Popovich assumed a coaching role. Budenholzer spent the next 17 years in that role as a key cog of a staff that oversaw teams that included the likes of David Robinson, Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and Kawhi Leonard.

The reward was four championship rings and a rising profile around the NBA. During the 2013 Finals, Budenholzer was hired by the Atlanta Hawks as their next head coach, meaning his last action in San Antonio was to lose a seven-game series best remembered for Ray Allen‘s Game 6 shot.

Although Atlanta had been a consistently steady presence in the middle to lower tier of the Eastern Conference playoffs for a number of years, Budenholzer arrived at a time of great change.

Danny Ferry had been hired as general manager the previous summer and the intention was to start a rebuild of sorts, completely transforming Atlanta’s style of play.

Among Ferry’s first actions was moving on from the team’s All-Star Joe Johnson in a move that equated to little more than clearing cap space. Marvin Williams, a former second overall pick and a key starter was also offloaded at that same time, and Josh Smith would leave the following summer in free agency as Budenholzer arrived.

In short, the Hawks Budenholzer inherited were very different to the group that went before him.

In spite of incredibly low expectations and Al Horford‘s season being cut short to just 29 games due to injury, the Hawks snuck into the East’s eighth seed with a record of 38-44 in his first season in charge. That was in large part thanks to the dramatic improvements and development of Paul Millsap and DeMarre Carroll, who were both signed as free agents the previous summer.

A spirited seven-game series against the top seeded Indiana Pacers gave impetus for the Hawks to be better the following season, but nobody expected quite the jump they were about to make.

Budenholzer’s Hawks finished the 2014-15 season with a franchise-record 60 wins and the Eastern Conference’s first seed, they made the Conference Finals for the first time since the league introduced the modern conference format, and they ran off an incredible 19-game winning streak.

The Hawks achieved this without a consensus star, let alone superstar, and yet they had four players named to the All-Star team that season. Unsurprisingly that led Budenholzer to coach the Eastern Conference All-Star team and later be named Coach of the Year.

The timing of that run proved to be challenging for Atlanta as both Carroll and Millsap hit free agency. Although Millsap was brought back on a deal that was double his previous contract, the Hawks opted against competing with Toronto’s offer for Carroll, which saw the swingman’s salary increase by 700 percent as a Raptor.

The Hawks’ 2014-15 season was all the more impressive as it came against the backdrop of colossal internal strife.

Tensions and in-fighting had escalated amongst an already dysfunctional and convoluted ownership group in 2014, ultimately leading to a race scandal involving owner Bruce Levenson and the eventual sale of the team. Shortly after, Ferry became involved in similar controversy and was effectively placed on leave for the duration of the 2014-15 season, eventually stepping down at the end of the year.

That change thrust Budenholzer, as the sole figure of stability, into a new role as he assumed the title of President of Basketball Operations alongside his coaching responsibilities.

In spite of the various changes, the Hawks continued to perform at a high level. Although they failed to reach the heights of the previous year, the 2015-16 season ended with a record of 48-34, and the fourth-seeded Hawks falling to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Conference Semi-Finals.

Dwight Howard was signed in the summer that followed, but it came with the bitter blow that Horford had opted to end his nine-year stay with the Hawks in favor of signing with the Celtics.

Unsurprisingly, the Hawks weren’t the same team any more with Horford and Howard standing as markedly different players. The team’s decision to trade point guard Jeff Teague in order to create space to retain Horford and Kent Bazemore in free agency backfired too, as Dennis Schröder failed to offer the steady presence Teague had provided.

The Hawks’ trajectory had changed, and with a new ownership group making decisions, a change of direction seemed inevitable. Following a first round exit to the Wizards in 2016, Millsap left for Denver, and a full rebuild was initiated in Atlanta. That decision coincided with Budenholzer stepping down from his front office role.

Budenholzer led a young Hawks group to a record of 24-58 in his final season, with plenty of signs of his signature player development evident among a young and relatively unknown core.

Deciding his preference was to find a chance to compete at the top level again rather than coach through a full rebuild that he was never fully onboard with, Budenholzer and the Hawks parted ways at the end of April.