The new Milwaukee Bucks head coach Adrian Griffin has confirmed the hiring of Terry Stotts as one of his assistants, and he is excited to team up with the veteran bench tactician.
“To get a guy like Terry is a home run. He brings a lot of experience. And yes, he is a mastermind on the offensive end, but he’s well versed,” said Griffin per a report by Eric Nehm of The Athletic.
Stotts is a former head coach of the Bucks, while Griffin started his coaching career with Milwaukee as an assistant to Scott Skiles from 2008 to 2010.
Feeling good with Stotts
In their second tour of duty with the Bucks, Griffin believes Stotts will bring a lot to the table.
“He brings a wealth of experience. He’s coached elite players in (Damian) Lillard and (CJ) McCollum, so I don’t just see him as an offensive coach. He’s going to be someone that I lean on,” said Griffin.
Having not just an experienced coach but also “a really good human being” is what makes Griffin “feel good” about working with Stotts.
“I think one of the most important things that just makes me feel good is that I did my research and my due diligence, and I’m calling around, and every response was the same, and that was he was an extraordinary person. That he’s a really good human being and treats people well, and that’s important to me, how you treat people,” Griffin said.
Griffin said the opportunity will come to people who treat people right, something that he experienced first-hand, as the new Bucks coach narrated his time with the Chicago Bulls as an assistant to Tom Thibodeau.
Griffin espouses treating people right
According to Griffin, former Toronto Raptors coach Nick Nurse, then head coach of the Iowa Energy, would regularly go to the Chicago practices.
“He’d email me all the time, and I easily could have brushed him off,” said Griffin.
Nurse would eventually break into the NBA when he was hired by Toronto as head coach. He then brought in Griffin as his assistant.
“He called me and offered me the job, and he said he remembered how I treated him back then, that I was always nice and kind and respectful to him, and we ended up winning a championship that year. So it’s a lesson in that story: how you treat people matters,” Griffin said.
As head coach of Milwaukee, Griffin aspires to have “high character” people, and bringing in Stotts fits the goal.
“I told you that one of the most important things is having guys that have high character on our staff,” he said.
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