Doc Rivers Assigns Blame For Bucks Missing Playoffs

Doc Rivers laments 'disappointing' Bucks season

Speaking to reporters after being mathematically eliminated from playoff contention, Doc pointed to health, lack of depth and some off-court distractions as the reason the season went the way it did.

“It’s been disappointing, obviously,” Rivers said, via The Athletic's Eric Nehm. “Since I’ve been here, I haven’t had a healthy stretch, and it’s been your key guys. It’s been Giannis. It’s been [Damian Lillard]. And you hope you can play through that, but we just haven’t had the ability."

"This year, having only one quote-unquote star, every other team has two and three. We needed health. We were thin. We knew that before the season started, and it just didn’t go our way. All the talk and all that stuff probably didn’t help either,” the coach admitted.

Rivers tries to find 'silver linings' in 2026 failures

Still though, the former NBA champion attempted to look at the positives of '26 — of which there were very few.

“Ryan [Rollins] is one of them. Pete Nance is another one. Ous [Dieng] is one of them. We gotta rehabilitate or get AJ Green going again. He’s a good player,” Rivers explained. “He’s played too many minutes. We’ve had no choice, and I think that’s put him in a tough spot, and I feel bad for him at times."

"Bobby [Portis] was Bobby," Doc added. "He’s been a pro throughout this year. We had a great talk today about it before the game. I’m just so proud of him as a leader. He tries to do the right stuff. He tries to say the right things in the locker room. So, there’s some good things in there.”

The Bucks' elimination has only added fuel to the Giannis trade rumors — which has fans imagining the Greek Freak hooping under Orange & Blue skies in the very near future.