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Before his career-best 40.7 percent shooting from 3-point range this season, and before he led the NBA with 205 3-pointers off the bench, and before he tied an NBA record with five games of at least seven 3-pointers off the bench, there was Atlanta. “Rock bottom?” Hardaway repeated before a long pause. “It was Atlanta. One-thousand percent.” It was his third NBA season, in the summer of 2015 after he had been traded to the Hawks from New York, which moved on after taking him with the 24th pick in 2013. After averaging a little more than 23 minutes a game in New York, Hardaway thought he was headed for a bigger role with the Hawks. Instead, he found himself sitting in Budenholzer’s office, getting a lecture. “Bud was like, ‘You’re not gonna play the first 25 games. I don’t care if people are injured or not. Like, you won’t see the floor. We’re trying to make you into the player we want you to become,'” Hardaway remembered.
He sensed this was the beginning of the end. He wondered if he was destined for the leagues in Europe. He said he called his agent daily, as well as his Hall of Famer father, point guard Tim Hardaway Sr., fretting about his future. “It was my lowest point; I didn’t know if I was going to be sticking around,” Hardaway said.
Budenholzer’s office sermon played on repeat in his mind. Today, Hardaway remembers the entire conversation as if it was yesterday. Budenholzer wanted him to be in better shape so he could not only shoot, but also defend. He wanted him to be on time. He wanted him to work on his game outside of team practices and shootarounds. He wanted him to start eating better and taking care of his body. “He really gave me the blueprint of how to stay in the league,” Hardaway said.
An assistant for Mike Budenholzer at the time, in his second NBA stop, Atkinson didn’t know much about Schröder. But he learned quickly. And when thinking back to those early days with Schröder, Atkinson still chuckles about a brash turnover-prone teenager eager to make his NBA mark. Perhaps a bit too eager. “Dennis is, how should I say, extremely competitive and maybe wasn’t aware of all the nuances of the NBA — or he just didn’t care,” Atkinson told cleveland.com “He came to the NBA in full force. He wanted to take everybody’s job, which we loved about him. We had a really structured system in Atlanta from player development to team stuff, and I think he struggled with that as a rookie because the demands were extremely high.
“What kind of coach are we thinking he wants? Like, what vibe are we looking for next?” Bobby Portis: “I would say something like a Mike Budenholzer type of vibe, you know? Something that’s close to that. Something that’s about coaching, you know what I’m saying? Something that’s about holding guys accountable. Something that’s about standing for the right things. Something that’s about creating a culture and an identity. I don’t think this year we really had an identity. When you go out there on the court and you play the Miami Heat, you already know exactly how they’re about to play. When you play the Celtics, you know exactly how they’re about to play. When you play OKC, you know exactly how they’re about to play. Even when you play Toronto this year, you know exactly how they’re about to play.
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The growing expectation within league circles is that Doc Rivers won’t be Milwaukee's head coach next season. Instead, there’s a belief that Rivers could pivot to an undetermined role in Milwaukee’s front office. As for potential coaching candidates, the Bucks have an internal candidate in Darvin Ham who will also be sought after by the Pelicans, according to league sources, this summer. Taylor Jenkins will almost assuredly draw interest from Milwaukee if their head coaching job becomes available. Jenkins will arguably be the most sought-after coach on the market and was previously an assistant coach under Mike Budenholzer when the Bucks advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2019. Another name to potentially consider is Pelicans interim head coach James Borrego, who previously interviewed for Milwaukee’s head coaching job when Adrian Griffin was hired, and will also be available this summer.
This is something that's always bothered me. I asked you this directly the day coach Adrian Griffin was fired - how involved you were with that. And you said, you give an opinion, but you do not make the decision. Giannis Antetokounmpo: “1000%.” Nobody believes you. Nobody believes me. Antetokounmpo: “I'm telling you the truth. I see, of course; I interview, but I don't make the decision. That's everyone, not just me. All the players, well not all of them - for the longest time it was Bud [coach Mike Budenholzer], Giannis and Khris [Middleton]. But I don't make a decision. I was the youngest player on the team.”
RC Buford: “I think we had many coaches over the last 10 years who could have stepped into that role. Ime Udoka was with us, along with James Borrego, Brett Brown, Mike Budenholzer, and Will Hardy. There were many people with us who could have stepped into that role, but the longer Coach Pop stayed, the more those coaches moved on to other opportunities. When we needed Mitch to step up, he did so in a big way. It was incredibly emotional for him to take on that role. ‘Interim’ is probably the wrong word, because at the time of Pop’s stroke, we didn’t know whether Pop could come back. Mitch had that year to show the players—and all of us—who he could be as a coach.”
Duane Rankin: "Incredible mind. Always prepared, always thinking. He was so smart. So intelligent, so detail oriented." Suns coach Jordan Ott when asked about Hawks coach Quin Snyder as both were on Hawks staff under Mike Budenholzer. On Grayson Allen (right quad contusion) being out: "Just the swelling. Knee to a quad. Kind of regulating the swelling."
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Jim Owczarski: Doc Rivers joined Giannis Antetokounmpo in emphasizing that the #Bucks need to do a GREAT video tribute to Khris Middleton on Wednesday. Last year, Antetokounmpo voiced his displeasure that Mike Budenholzer did NOT get a tribute when he returned to Milwaukee for the first time.
Law Murray: Former 🏆 Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer has been a visitor at Clippers training camp this week Asked Brook Lopez about Bud: "He picked me up at a point in my career where I wasn't sure what was going to happen. I didn't have very many contract offers… he gave me a lifeline" pic.x.com/TzpUvX0iyx
Mike Budenholzer and Tom Thibodeau are here at Clippers training camp today. pic.twitter.com/dAfJWlqEL0
— Justin Russo (@FlyByKnite) September 30, 2025
The Suns are now being led by first-year NBA head coach Jordan Ott. While Thibodeau doesn’t have any known connections to players or staffers in Phoenix, it appears that the team has tabbed him to help provide some insights to their rookie coach Ott (who took over in June for the fired Mike Budenholzer). Thibodeau, now 67, was himself fired by the New York Knicks in June after five seasons in charge (being replaced by Mike Brown). Though Thibodeau won a Coach of the Year Award with the Knicks in 2021 and just led the team to their first Eastern Conference Finals berth in a quarter-century, that was still not enough for him to keep his job in New York. It is unclear if Thibodeau intends to coach in any capacity during the 2025-26 season or if he plans to use it as a gap year. But Thibodeau was graceful even after his firing by the Knicks, and he shouldn’t have any trouble finding a new NBA coaching job of some sort if he so desires.
