Adrian Griffin, the Bucks’ coach, is fired after 43 games.

Adrian Griffin, the Bucks’ coach, is fired after 43 games.

Midway through his rookie season, Adrian Griffin had one of the best records in the league, but the Milwaukee Bucks sacked him as coach Monday after just 43 games.

In a statement announcing the decision, Bucks General Manager Jon Horst stated, “This was a difficult decision to make during the season.” “We are starting the process of selecting our next head coach right now. We appreciate Coach Griffin’s dedication to the squad and his hard work.”

Head coach Joe Prunty, formerly an assistant coach under Griffin, will lead the Bucks in the interim. Before the Bucks’ home game against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday, Horst will make a statement at a press conference.

Milwaukee are 30-13 to tie the Minnesota Timberwolves for the league’s second-best record. The Bucks are 3 1/2 games behind the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference.

But the dip in Milwaukee’s defensive performance had raised concerns about the Bucks’ viability as a championship contenders, even after they had acquired seven-time all-NBA guard Damian Lillard before the season to team up with two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo.

The Bucks rank 22nd in the NBA in defensive rating — down from fourth a year earlier — despite having two of the NBA’s top defenders in Antetokounmpo and 7-footer Brook Lopez. Antetokounmpo was named the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2020, while Lopez finished second in last season’s balloting.

Milwaukee had given Griffin his first head coaching job last summer after firing Mike Budenholzer, who led the Bucks in 2021 to their first title in half a century. The Bucks had posted the most combined regular-season and play-off wins of any team during Budenholzer’s tenure, and had the league’s best

regular-season record in three of his five seasons on the job.

Budenholzer’s firing came after the top-seeded Bucks were stunned 4-1 by the

Miami Heat in the first round of last season’s play-offs.

Griffin, 49, had spent 16 seasons as an NBA assistant, including the last five

with the Toronto Raptors. That followed a nine-year NBA playing career.

Taking over a squad with two members of the NBA’s 75th anniversary team in

Antetokounmpo and Lillard put Griffin under a major spotlight at the beginning

of his head coaching career. An early warning sign regarding Griffin’s tenure

came before the season with the abrupt departure of assistant coach Terry Stotts.

Stotts had more than 1,000 games of

head coaching experience, which figured to benefit Griffin as he began his own

head coaching career. Stotts had called accepting the assignment a “no-brainer”,

but he left the staff less than a week before the season opener.