Milwaukee Bucks Rumors: Latest updates on Mike Budenholzer’s future
One of the last remaining questions for the Milwaukee Bucks’ offseason is the contract status of head coach Mike Budenholzer.
There is some news regarding a potential extension, as ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported on The Jump that the Bucks and Budenholzer have “started to discuss a contract extension.” Budenholzer has one year remaining on his contract, which was signed when he was first hired in the summer of 2018 and it appears as though he will be coaching the Bucks for at least a few more years beyond this coming season.
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Since taking over as Bucks coach, Budenholzer has gone 162-65 (71.4 winning percentage) in the regular season and 31-17 (64.6 winning percentage) in the playoffs. Both marks are currently the highest winning percentages in Bucks history.
He’s tied with Scott Skiles for 5th in wins as Bucks head coach and could soon pass Don Nelson for most playoff wins in Bucks’ head coaching history (42).
Reactions to Mike Budenholzer’s potential contract extension with the Milwaukee Bucks
This really shouldn’t come as much surprise to anyone after Budenholzer led the Bucks to their first NBA title in 50 years this past season. These last three seasons have been the best in a long, long time for the Bucks franchise so it makes sense to keep Budenholzer around for as long as he wants to be here.
Budenholzer joked on ESPN’s Zach Lowe’s podcast that he wanted a 20-year extension, so it’s obvious that Budenholzer does want to stick around and coach this team for a long time.
Aside from the championship, Budenholzer won the Coach of the Year Award after the 2018-19 season, where he led the Bucks to their first 60 win season since 1980-81. He has also won Coach of the Month four times in his Bucks tenure.
Despite his regular season success, there was much debate about whether Budenholzer was a long-term fit as coach after the team flamed out in the second round of last year’s playoffs. He was constantly categorized as only a regular season coach, but all of those doubts should be put to rest now after an incredible playoff run.
After many jokes about his stubbornness and inability to make adjustments in and between games, Budenholzer changed just about everything this past season. He experimented with different styles of defense throughout the regular season, going between switching everything to zone to his traditional drop coverage to help this team reach the mountain top. Not too many coaches can say that they have led the Bucks to a title, and although there were certainly some bumps in the road down the way, it was all worth it in the end as the Bucks are world champs.
Bucks fans should be ecstatic that Budenholzer will be here to stay, the only question now is how long will the extension be. A three or four year extension would make sense to me and would line up his contract with the Bucks’ trio.
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He has turned this team into a perennial contender and the partnership with general manager Jon Horst doesn’t appear as though it will be ending any time soon.