Photo by Grace Beal/NBAE via Getty Images Josh Oppenheimer, Sidney Dobner, and DJ Bakker are out After presiding over what surely had to be one of the biggest coaching staffs in the league last season (11 deep at one point!), Milwaukee Bucks head coach Doc Rivers has begun whittling his support group down: As head coach Doc Rivers continues to shape his coaching staff in Milwaukee, the Bucks have let go of three assistant coaches.At @TheAthletic: https://t.co/0qjVraUHBM— Eric Nehm (@eric_nehm) May 10, 2024 Those three coaches are Josh Oppenheimer, Sidney Dobner, and DJ Bakker. Oppenheimer is likely the most interesting departure given his stature as something akin to a Giannis Antetokounmpo whisperer having first had a stint as a coach with the Bucks during the Jason Kidd era. He had built up a close working relationship with Antetokounmpo over the years, serving in previous offseasons as a sort of proxy for the team during Giannis’s summers away. That proxy role would eventually land him a spot as an honest-to-goodness assistant coach with Greece’s national federation in 2022 leading up to the Eurobasket competition of that summer. The implications of his departure are to be determined, but interesting to note nonetheless. Dobner was the other Mike Budenholzer era holdover having worked her way up from a video assistant to the first female assistant coach in franchise history before the 2022-2023 season. She’d been with Milwaukee since 2018 and so would’ve been one of the longer tenured employees left alongside Oppenheimer and assistant coach Vin Baker. DJ Bakker was hired on as part of Adrian Griffin’s initial staff and so his departure, and potentially the departure of the remaining Griff remnants — Joe Prunty, Patrick Mutombo, Trevor Gleeson, and Vin Baker — somewhat expected. It is worth noting, as well, that Budenholzer’s recent hiring by the Phoenix Suns means he will be in the process of assembling a coaching staff of his own. Don’t be surprised if some names we’re familiar with in Milwaukee start popping up in Arizona soon.
Source: https://www.brewhoop.com/2024/5/11/2415 ... -dj-bakker