After the Milwaukee Bucks defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers last night, reporters asked Damian Lillard to speak about Adrian Griffin, who was fired by the Bucks.
Milwaukee fired Griffin despite having the second-best record in the Eastern Conference. Doc Rivers, who has coached the Orlando Magic, Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Clippers and Philadelphia 76ers, is replacing Griffin.
“There has been a lot of expectation of our team. Things have been expected to look a certain way,” Lillard said. “We’ve kind of had a bumpy road to our success, which is sometimes a part of the process, but like I said, I was surprised. It is part of the game. People get traded, people get waived, people get fired and it’s never something you want to see.”
Shams Charania, Sam Amick and Eric Nehm of The Athletic reported that Lillard struggled with how the offense functioned under Griffin. Lillard, though, talked highly of Griffin after the Cavs game.
NBA NEWS & RUMORS: Damian Lillard, Adrian Griffin, Milwaukee Bucks Updates
“As a person, you never want to witness somebody having to go through that and experience that and pick up their life and just move on to the next thing because at the end of the day, we all go home to our personal time and our personal lives and we deal with our emotions and our experience,” Lillard said. “So you don’t wish that on nobody. … ‘Griff’ was a great dude. I enjoyed being around him. He was very accommodating to me and a lot of my personal situation, so I appreciate him and I appreciate the time that we had together.”
Lillard is averaging 25.3 points, 4.3 rebounds, 6.8 assists, 1.1 steals and 0.1 blocks this season while shooting 42.6% from the field, 34.7% from 3 and 92.2% from the free-throw line. The future Hall of Famer put up 28 points against the Cavaliers in the Bucks’ first game without Griffin.
NBA NEWS & RUMORS: Damian Lillard, Adrian Griffin, Milwaukee Bucks Updates
It will be intriguing to see if Lillard’s efficiency improves under Rivers, who won the 2008 championship with the Celtics over the Los Angeles Lakers. Lillard is shooting just 41.7% overall and 32.8% from beyond the arc over his last seven games.
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