Milwaukee Bucks: Mike Budenholzer falls short in Coach of the Year voting
Milwaukee Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer unsurprisingly came up short NBA Coach of the Year voting for the 2019-20 season.
As of Saturday morning, Mike Budenholzer is no longer the reigning NBA Coach of the Year.
The Milwaukee Bucks head coach came in second in this year’s voting, an honor that ultimately and overwhelmingly went to Toronto Raptors head coach Nick Nurse and rightfully so, given all the work he’s done with the second seed in the East.
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Nurse went on to receive 90 first place votes, which was followed by Bud’s five first place votes and Oklahoma City Thunder head coach Billy Donovan rounded out the top three with his four first place votes.
All of this comes after Budenholzer was named co-Coach of the Year, along with Donovan, by their peers in the National Basketball Coaches Association earlier this month.
But after winning NBA Coach of the Year on two separate occasions, first with the Atlanta Hawks in 2015 and then last year following his first season with the Bucks, it’s fair to say Budenholzer’s trophy mantle is quite full at this point.
That even comes with all of the success the Bucks have enjoyed this season and especially up until the season suspension where the Bucks were tracking with some of the best teams in NBA history. Even with the stumbles the Bucks had during their seeding games when the NBA returned late last month, the Bucks finishing the year 56-17 and with a 76.7 winning percentage stands as the highest mark in Budenholzer’s NBA coaching career.
Still, given the fact that Budenholzer and the Bucks were coming off a 60-win campaign last year and vastly changed the expectation surrounding the team and their foundation led by reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo only stacked the odds against Bud’s quest for a second consecutive honor.
Of course, there’s still one trophy that remains missing in Budenholzer’s highly decorated resume, that being an NBA championship.
Milwaukee will look to make good on that search to win a title this year down in Orlando and they currently hold a 2-1 lead over the Orlando Magic in the first round of the 2020 NBA Playoffs and will face some tough opponents just to get out of the East.
Consistency from Pat Connaughton could be an X-factor. dark. Next
It will be in this playoff run where Budenholzer can quiet some of the criticism he’s faced based on his previous runs and failures in the postseason, all of which resurfaced following the Bucks’ collapse. After all, the Bucks’ long-term future will only be determined by the outcome of the Bucks’ run in Orlando.