Adrian Gryphon was removed from his head coaching position by the Bucks on Tuesday.

What a monumental error committed by the Milwaukee Bucks.

Following Adrian Griffin’s dismissal from the Bucks after just 43 games as head coach, the team looked to Doc Rivers, who is arguably the most unlikely candidate to live up to the high expectations and rising pressure in Milwaukee.

There are a lot of variables at play in Milwaukee, but none of them appear to be unique to Rivers. This 30-13 squad recently lost its head coach, so all of their moves, errors, hardships, and drama will be amplified. As a result, they need stable coaching to shield their players from the turmoil that goes on outside the locker room.

It is necessary to fully and correctly unlock the combo of Damian Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo. Rivers never succeeded in doing so when James Harden and Joel Embiid were together. not the trio of DeAndre Jordan, Blake Gryphon, and Chris Paul. And so forth.

The most crucial thing to remember is that you don’t fire a head coach who has one of the best records in the NBA unless you think he can’t also go deep into the postseason, which is something Rivers hasn’t done since his new players were in middle school.

This is not a trivial, passing phase of concern for this Bucks squad and their decision. Since helping the Boston Celtics win a championship 16 years ago, Rivers has repeatedly shown that he is not competent of guiding teams who aim to win a championship.

It’s also no secret among NBA players that they are hesitant to turn to Rivers.

Upon learning of Griffin’s injury and the possibility that Rivers may replace him, a rival NBA executive texted, “And the other Eastern Conference contenders breathe easier.”

That sense of relief is due to something.

In actuality, Rivers is among the coaches who have snatched defeat from the mouths of NBA postseason success the most times. Once more. once more. once more.

Only thirteen 3-1 series leads have been wasted in the NBA’s storied history, and three of those were, oddly enough, coached by Rivers. By far the most losses of any coach in NBA history, he is 6-10 in Game 7. Ten. That is obviously a significant amount. Additionally, he has a dismal 34% winning percentage (17-33) in games where his teams had the opportunity to win a playoff series. In NBA history, that is also the most defeats a coach has had in a similar situation.

For general manager Jon Horst of the Bucks and the other Milwaukee decision-makers, Rivers is an exceptionally poor choice for a variety of reasons. Above all, though, are Rivers’ nearly unbelievable postseason inadequacies since taking home that championship in Boston.

Fans of the Sixers will be familiar with his ceiling: despite playing for seven seasons with a star-studded Los Angeles Clippers squad, he never made it to the conference finals. Because throughout his three years in Philadelphia, coaching the man who just scored seventy points, Rivers’ teams were unable to get past the second round of the playoffs yet again.

Maybe that’s because Rivers’ teams have also lost four 3-2 series leads, including the one against the Celtics last year when he was still the Sixers’ coach.

That helps explain why Rivers is a confusing pick to lead the Bucks as well. The Heat, the revamped Pacers, and the scorching Cavaliers are just a few of the East’s many formidable potential postseason opponents. However, Milwaukee will have to overcome two formidable opponents in order to advance to the Finals.

The Celtics are one. The Sixers are the opposite team; they sacked Rivers the previous season after growing increasingly convinced of his lack of potential.

In other words, by selecting Rivers, the Bucks bypassed Nick Nurse in favour of hiring his assistant, whom they recently fired 43 games into his coaching career, and instead chose the player who Nurse has effectively replaced in Philadelphia.

With this history of losing series, the heartache and disappointment, and the whole optics of the situation, why would Milwaukee turn to Rivers? Why would you turn to this specific coach right now, when the pressure on those in Milwaukee has increased due to Griffin’s firing?

It’s challenging to determine. Maybe it’s the belief that he is a “winner,” a belief that is simply unsupported by the evidence. Maybe it’s because a lot of people think of him as a “culture” guy who can do magic in a locker room and with celebrities. If you propose that proposal to competing NBA executives and coaches, though, you’ll receive at least as many blank stares as affirmative nods. Rivers is not the “great culture” builder that so many in the media have attempted to convince us he is.

According to this perspective, Rivers has far too frequently thrown his players under the bus instead of guiding them towards true success. Since Boston, his most notable ability has been to survive rather than to succeed, to play the game rather than to win enough of them. Consult DeAndre Jordan. Consult Ben Simmons. And now, maybe ask Adrian Gryphon, who lost his job overnight.

Since Rivers was brought in to assist the inexperienced head coach “to serve as a veteran coaching voice to help Gryphon find a path forward through the season,” according to The Athletic.

How, exactly, did Rivers assist that head coach? It appears that by adopting a Dick Cheney persona and lending his voice to that group, he assisted them in seeing that Doc Rivers was what the Bucks actually required.

There are some genuine Game of Thrones references there. It also serves as a reminder that Rivers has the ability to transition from one fantastic circumstance to another, emerging as a contender after another.

However, he hasn’t actually won. Not in a long-term manner. Not during the postseason.

The Bucks have succumbed to Rivers’ seductive tactics, much like the Clippers and Sixers did before them. However, they will probably discover the same thing that Philly found not too long ago: that while Doc Rivers may be excellent at marketing his brand, he is an error waiting to happen when it comes to coaching basketball teams.