Amir Coffey's audition for meaningful minutes might be over so early into the season.
After getting opportunities early, he's completely fallen out of Doc Rivers' rotation in back-to-back games against Charlotte and the Lakers.
Coffey went from competing for backup wing minutes to watching from the bench as Gary Harris absorbed his role entirely. Harris logged 26 minutes against LA and 23 against Charlotte and proved he's still got something left despite looking washed in the preseason.
The shift happened silently but decisively.
Amir Coffey is slowly losing his opportunity to find a role
The advanced stats don't paint the most flattering picture. Coffey is in the 8th percentile in offensive rating (where the Bucks are -11.6 points per 100 possessions when Coffey plays), while he's in the 36th percentile on defense, giving up +2.2 more points per 100 when he steps on the floor per Cleaning the Glass.
"I'm just sticking to my game and what the coaches want from me. Doing your job every night, you know, don't worry about minutes and roles and everything and just try to contribute," Coffey said of his headspace in a recent media availability.
On the flipside, Harris dropped 10 points in Milwaukee's 147-134 win over the Hornets, showing flashes of the two-way contributor the Bucks hoped they were signing. His shooting looked confident, his defensive rotations were solid, and most importantly, he didn't make the kind of mistakes that get you benched permanently.
Right now, Harris is looking like he has a lot of fuel in the tank after all as a 3&D role player. The preseason struggles apparently were just rust, not decline. Once Harris shook off the cobwebs, Rivers had no reason to keep experimenting with Coffey in competitive games.
Coffey's rough showings sealed his fate quickly. A few defensive breakdowns, some missed open shots, and suddenly Rivers lost whatever faith he had in the camp invite turned roster player. That's NBA life. You get a handful of chances to prove you belong, and if you don't seize them immediately, someone else will.
The brutal part is Coffey probably could've helped Milwaukee if given more runway to adjust. But championship contenders don't have the luxury of extended development timelines. Rivers needed production now, and Harris started delivering it while Coffey was still figuring things out.
Coffey isn't off the roster yet, but he's effectively been demoted to emergency depth. Barring injuries or a complete collapse from Harris, those rotational minutes likely aren't coming back any time soon. Rivers has seen enough to make his decision, and that decision is Harris over Coffey for the foreseeable future.
Sometimes experiments end not with dramatic failure but with quiet benching. Coffey got his shot, Harris proved he's still got it, and Milwaukee's moved on without looking back.
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