The Milwaukee Bucks took their first, major step forward into the 2026-27 season by deciding on Taylor Jenkins as their next head coach, but it’s his strong connection to a championship past that could help the organization rediscover a culture and North Star that has recently been lost.
Jenkins was part of Mike Budenholzer’s initial Bucks coaching staff in 2018-19 when Budenholzer was hired following the firing of Jason Kidd and a 44-win season. In a short summer, the Bucks suddenly became a team with a firm identity and direction, and steamrolled the NBA to 60 wins and an Eastern Conference final. Of course, in two years the Bucks would win a championship.
This came after Jenkins was a much younger assistant on Budenholzer’s staff in Atlanta where, in one season, they flipped the Hawks from 38 wins and pushing the eventual Eastern Conference finalist Indiana Pacers to seven games in the first round in their first season to 60 wins and going to the conference finals themselves in their second. In five seasons in Atlanta, three players made their first all-star games.
That background helped Jenkins get the head coaching job in Memphis in 2019-20, where he took over a team that was about to rebuild around a dynamic rookie point guard in Ja Morant and a group of young players like Jaren Jackson Jr., Grayson Allen and Dillon Brooks.
In that COVID-19 pandemic-shortened season, the Grizzlies finished 34-39 and Morant was the Rookie of the Year. In a pandemic-shortened 2020-21, the team climbed to 38-34 and made the playoffs.
By Year 3, the Grizzlies won 56 games and had one of the league’s best offenses and defenses, and made the second round of the playoffs. The 2022-23 team won 51 games but fell in the first round.
In that time, Morant also became the league’s Most Improved Player, an all-NBA guard and two-time all-star. Jackson became a three-time all-defensive team member and Defensive Player of the Year. Brooks also made an all-defensive team.
In short, Jenkins has a long, proven track record of being able to come into a building, establish an identity and maximize the talent on the roster.
The Bucks had clear direction
The culture setting − and winning − made Jenkins one of the most-sought-after head coaching candidates this offseason. But make no mistake, the Bucks were not going to let Jenkins be chased by others. They had a list of potential candidates, of course, as outgoing head coach Doc Rivers signaled for some time he was not going to return to the bench.
But Jenkins was the candidate.
General manager Jon Horst was empowered to get the job done, a process that ramped up quickly after Rivers formally stepped away on April 13. Bucks co-owners Wes Edens and Jimmy Haslam visited Jenkins in Memphis that week, and then Jenkins was in Milwaukee to revisit the practice facility on April 21. This was not going to be the monthslong, sprawling search that landed the team Adrian Griffin in 2023.
This also was not like courting Rivers midseason in 2024 after Griffin was dismissed. Options were limited then, and Rivers was clearly hesitant − he opened his tenure publicly wondering if it was a good idea.
This time, the organization’s focus was clear, and the goal was met. The Bucks got their guy.
Time will tell how successful Jenkins will be, but the veracity of the pursuit and the success in hiring a very, very qualified candidate has gotten the offseason off to a good start.
What can Taylor Jenkins bring to the Bucks?
The Bucks have gotten worse each season since winning a league-best 58 games in 2022-23. Not only have the wins dissipated, but the foundation of that winning culture had gradually become unsettled, so much so that players were gladly running to various media outlets to speak about their discontent over the way a 32-win season unfolded in 2025-26.
It was the Bucks’ worst season in a decade, on many levels.
Jenkins represents a strong branch on the Budenholzer coaching tree, one with a proven track record of winning (250-214 record) and developing young talent. The Grizzlies under Jenkins were a group that played hard, with a chip on their shoulder and wanted to defend.
The Grizzlies were uneven offensively in Jenkins’ tenure, though, as the team never had a bevy of solid 3-point shooting options to complement one of the best paint-scoring teams in the league. Half-court offense was a consistent struggle, largely because the team didn’t have multiple shot creators outside of Morant.
Paint touches before a shot was a core practice principle of Jenkins, and in games attacking the rim was so important that Morant, at 6-foot-2, led the NBA in paint scoring in 2021-22. But, Jenkins also preached the same disciplined 3-point spacing Budenholzer did.
In the Grizzlies’ practice facility, a “4-point” line and deep corner boxes were painted on the floor to accentuate proper spacing. Unfortunately for Jenkins and the Grizzlies, Desmond Bane was the only regular who was an above-average 3-point shooter.
That said, Jenkins also was able to pull his teams together through the inevitable in-season adversity of injury. Despite the lack of dominant individual scoring outside of Morant, Jenkins was able to get the Grizzlies to win quite a bit when his star player was unavailable: From 2021-23, Memphis went 33-17 when Morant was off the court. Core pieces of that formula included an emphasis on offensive rebounding and creating turnovers, which helped them become one of the top-scoring transition teams in the NBA during his tenure.
How does the Jenkins hire affect Giannis Antetokounmpo?
As a reminder, Giannis Antetokounmpo is under contract through the 2026-27 season and holds a player option for 2027-28. He is eligible for a contract extension on Oct. 1.
Antetokounmpo won his first MVP with Jenkins on the team, and though team sources said the star was not part of the search process like he was in 2023, they acknowledged Horst would have had little doubt as to how Antetokounmpo felt about Jenkins as a person and his ability.
In terms of Antetokounmpo’s overall outlook on the team following a year in which he was a constant subject of trade speculation and welcomed a league investigation into the club’s handling of a March 15 knee injury, that is to be determined.
But in his season-ending interview in Philadelphia on April 13 when told of Rivers’ impending departure, Antetokounmpo said, “Oh, that changes a lot then,” before ultimately complimenting Rivers on a hall of fame career.
Multiple team sources said Antetokounmpo and Rivers often did not see eye-to-eye over the past two-plus seasons, and the hiring of Jenkins not only sets the team in new direction, it offers inherent alignment with the star forward.
Antetokounmpo also said he would not rule out signing another contract extension should he still be on the team and offered one come October.
That followed an interview with the Journal Sentinel in which he “100%” saw a path toward a reconciliation and pointed to a strong head coach as an example of guide post.
“Everything about my decision is based on winning; culture,” Antetokounmpo said near the end of the season. “Like you saw, I talked with [Boston] coach Joe Mazzulla. I said, ‘you had so many opportunities to make excuses, but you didn’t.’ [The Celtics started the season slow.] And he said, ‘Oh, they’re good players.’
“I said, no. It’s about the mentality that you instilled in your place. Vassilis Spanoulis − the same thing. That why I love Spanoulis. It’s about the mentality that he’s instilled in the [Greek] national team, that we are here to give everything that we have. We are here to bond together. We are here to figure out ways to win. No excuses. Move as a group and you move as a unit. So, I love that.”
On the court, should the club elect to keep Antetokounmpo and continue its reboot around him under Jenkins, one would think the team would operate in a familiar way offensively: with Antetokounmpo putting pressure on the rim and one of the league’s best 3-point shooting teams firing away. “Let it fly” would re-enter the daily Bucks lexicon.
Antetokounmpo no longer is an all-defensive team player but can turn it up in key moments. So, a stronger defensive mindset and skill level is needed around him. It would appear the team is set in the front court, though, if Jenkins feels Myles Turner was underutilized (or miscast in some instances) and can indeed complement Antetokounmpo as a rim protector. Throughout his time in Memphis, Jenkins deployed differently skilled big men together.
Ultimately, the team still must decide its overall direction in terms of having Antetokounmpo on the roster but, at the outset, the hiring of Jenkins is not an impediment toward a happy return.
What’s next for the Bucks?
The Bucks must be as clear about their vision going forward as they were in targeting Jenkins to coach the team.
That, of course, includes a decision on Antetokounmpo.
“Whether you have an actual commitment and you offer an actual extension, it’s way more about sentimentality and alignment and togetherness and path,” Horst said in an early April interview. “You either have an alignment and an understanding and not commitment necessarily, but a path forward together that you understand and you go execute it. You could call that an extension or you try to figure out the best win-win that you possibly can moving forward via a trade.”
But in the near term, the next key date on the NBA calendar for the Bucks is the May 10 NBA draft lottery, where they will find out their draft position for June 23. They are hoping for some lottery luck, as they currently hold a 13.9% chance at winning a top-four pick and an 86.1% chance of landing between Nos. 10-12 (Note: New Orleans can swap positions with Milwaukee should the Bucks win a lower draft slot than the Pelicans).
“We have to get that right,” Horst said. “We either have to draft the right player and have that be a big part of how we go forward and compete or we have to execute a trade using the value of that.”
Then, before the June 23 draft and the opening of free agency, Horst and Jenkins must be aligned on what the coach needs roster-wise to execute his game plans. Perhaps it means a culture- and system-fitting trade like the 2017 deal for Eric Bledsoe or the 2020 acquisition of Jrue Holiday. Or, perhaps it’s more targeted, under-the-radar signings like the 2018 additions of Brook Lopez and Pat Connaughton or the 2020 signings of Bobby Portis Jr. and Bryn Forbes.
The Bucks are not that far from finding their way out from under the “dark clouds” that have hovered over this team since Griffin first noticed them in 2023 to Portis’ constant observations this season. But they must keep moving confidently forward, with a clear end goal in sight.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Taylor Jenkins could impact Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Bucks future | Analysis
Reporting by Jim Owczarski, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
