Less than two weeks after Doc Rivers stepped down as the Milwaukee Bucks coach, the franchise has his replacement.
Taylor Jenkins is being hired as the new Bucks coach, according to the Journal Sentinel.
The 41-year-old Jenkins last coached for the Memphis Grizzlies in 2025.
Jenkins is no stranger to Milwaukee and Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo. Jenkins, who comes from the Greg Popovich-Mike Budenholzer coaching tree, was an assistant on the Bucks’ 2018-19 squad that won 60 games.
Much is unknown about the Bucks’ roster that Jenkins will oversee, including whether Antetokounmpo will be on it, but the hire is the first domino in a critical offseason for a franchise that’s missing the playoffs for the first time in 10 years.
Who is Taylor Jenkins? Here’s more on the Bucks’ next head coach:
Taylor Jenkins age
Jenkins is 41 years old. He turns 42 on Sept. 12.
After having one of the oldest head coaches in the NBA in the 64-year-old Rivers, the Bucks will now have one of the youngest in Jenkins.
Taylor Jenkins with the Bucks
Jenkins was only in Milwaukee for a season as an assistant head coach under Budenholzer. But the 2018-19 season was one of the best in franchise history.
That season, the Bucks won 60 games, the most for the franchise since 1980-81, and were the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
They advanced to the conference finals before falling in six games to the eventual NBA champion Toronto Raptors.
Antetokounmpo earned his first NBA MVP that season.
Taylor Jenkins NBA coaching record
Jenkins landed his first head coaching job with the Memphis Grizzlies at 34 years old after that 2018-19 season with the Bucks.
In nearly six full seasons in Memphis, Jenkins had a 250-214 record.
But he was fired late in the 2024-25 season despite the Grizzlies holding a 44-29 record and being in position to make the playoffs for a fourth straight time under his leadership. The Grizzlies went on to be the eighth seed in the playoffs that year.
The Grizzlies had two 50-win seasons under Jenkins and were the No. 2 seed in the playoffs both seasons.
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Taylor Jenkins in the NBA
The Bucks’ new head coach didn’t play college basketball or in the NBA.
But he’s been a part of the league since getting his start as an intern with the San Antonio Spurs’ basketball operations department during the 2007-08 season.
Jenkins has an economic degree in economics from Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Jenkins was an assistant coach on the Spurs’ G League team for four years before taking over as head coach for a year. He then spent the next five years on Budenholzer’s staff in Atlanta. The team went to the playoffs in four years, including a top-seed and a 60-win season in 2014-15.
Jenkins followed Budenholzer to Milwaukee for a season in 2018 before he secured his first head coaching job with Memphis, where he coached Ja Morant. He was the second-youngest head coach in the NBA at the time.
Jenkins was out of coaching last season.
Bucks coaching history
Counting interim head coaches, Jenkins will be the team’s 19th head coach in franchise history. Jenkins is the team’s third hire in less than three years after the firing of Budenholzer following the 2023 playoffs.
Here are the team’s last five head coaches:
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Who is Taylor Jenkins? Meet the Milwaukee Bucks’ new head coach
Reporting by Christopher Kuhagen, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
