Bucks' envy is only growing over Celtics' franchise-altering move

The Milwaukee Bucks were doomed the moment they hired Doc Rivers as head coach, replacing the fired Adrian Griffin. Jae Crowder knows it, and so do fans. Not just Bucks fans. The whole league knows. It has been an utter embarrassment. 

Meanwhile, the Boston Celtics fired Ime Udoka following a 2022 NBA Finals berth and installed Joe Mazzulla in his place. Talk about a slam dunk success. 

It's especially painful to think about this year, without the Bucks' own playoff concerns to distract them. They were supposed to be the better team. Nope. 

The agony of their own franchise-altering hire only grows each day as the organizational gap widens between the Bucks and their one-time postseason foes. 

Bucks' gaffe only looks worse as Mazzula shines brighter

Since hiring Mazzulla, the Celtics have won 72 percent of their regular season games, an NBA title, and seven total playoff series. Arguably, his most impressive coaching feat has come this season, turning what was supposedly a gap year into second place in the Eastern Conference. 

After beating the Suns 120-112 on Monday, Boston sits 45-23. Entering Tuesday's action, they are 3.5 games behind the first-place Pistons. Now Jayson Tatum is back from a torn Achilles. Far from winding down in a gap year, Mazzula's squad is preparing for another deep playoff run. Incredibly. 

Incredibly, as well, the Bucks have stuck with Rivers even as his lineup decisions, stubbornness, and questionable belated adjustments have helped sabotage the season. At 28-39, the Bucks are a prayer and a miracle away from a Play-In spot. It's not happening. 

Infamously, Griffin coached the team to a 30-13 record before being dismissed midway through 2023-24. Under Rivers, Milwaukee is 93-92 in the regular season. The Bucks have gone 3-8 in playoff games, losing in the first round to the Pacers both times. 

Ironically, Rivers was brought in specifically to get them over the postseason hump with his experience handling star-studded rosters in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and, way back when, in Boston. He hasn't coached a team past the Conference Finals since the 2009-10 Celtics. Asking to guide the Bucks back to the promised land was a dubious decision at best. 

Rivers and Mazzula produced opposite results in imperfect scenarios

Whereas Rivers has extracted the least success possible from an admittedly flawed roster, Mazzula maximized his own depleted pool of talent. Say what you want about Giannis Antetokounmpo's injuries, Tatum only returned in March. He isn't up to 100 percent and probably won't be until next season.

Yet, missing its best player, a team that entered the year without a presentable excuse of a frontcourt stormed up the standings, fueled by a starting duo of Neemias Queta and Sam Hauser and a bench rotation no one outside Massachusetts would have recognized.

Queta leads the team in win shares. Jaylen Brown is an MVP candidate. The Celtics now have Nikola Vucevic, a trade deadline acquisition from the Bulls, coming off the bench at the five. Credit the players, of course, but it all happened under Mazzulla's watch.

That team is scary. The Bucks are anything but. We all know, or hope, that Rivers is just a sitting duck, but even that offers little comfort. What would help, if only a little, is finally choosing the right successor.