Doc Rivers takes blame for Bucks’ woeful start to season

The Milwaukee Bucks have been head-scratchingly bad to begin the 2024-25 NBA season. Last season's No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference finished with a 49-33 record, but the Bucks are now 1-4 through five games after Thursday night's 122-99 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies.

To make matters worse, aside from a victory in their opener over the Joel Embiid and Paul George-less Philadelphia 76ers, they've dropped four straight games.

After the loss, Bucks head coach Doc Rivers attempted to shoulder the blame for "everything" about the team's poor start, as The Athletic's Eric Nehm revealed.

“The defensive transition was still awful tonight and so that’s on me," Rivers said. "Everything is on me until we get it right. We gotta fix this.”

While Rivers attempting to shoulder the blame is fair and something many head coaches would choose to do, the Bucks' start to the season has been nothing short of a disaster. Each of their four losses has come by double-digits (11, 13, 11, 23) and the most recent defeat against Memphis was brutal nearly across the board.

The lone bright spot in the 23-point loss against Ja Morant and the Grizzlies was Giannis Antetokounmpo, who scored 37 points with 11 rebounds and four assists while shooting 17-of-22 from the field.

While Antetokounmpo did his part, the rest of the starters and most of the bench struggled to step up. Damian Lillard's awful night was a primary talking point, as he shot 1-of-12 from the field and 0-of-6 from three-point range. He finished with just four points, six assists, two rebounds and one steal in 33 minutes.

The Bucks need to find a way to fix this, or fans can expect to see some drastic changes in the near future.