NBA Swing: Bucks Fire Adrian Griffin, Heat Trade for Terry Rozier

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With the halfway point of the 2023-24 season here, the NBA has been very active off the court. On Tuesday, the league saw two big moves happen in the span of a few hours. In the morning, the Miami Heat made a trade for Charlotte Hornets guard Terry Rozier. Just a few hours later, the Milwaukee Bucks fired head coach Adrian Griffin in a move that was expected by some and caught others off guard.

Bucks Fire Griffin; Doc Rivers to be Next Head Coach?

In one of the most surprising moves of the 2023-24 season, the Milwaukee Bucks have fired first-year head coach Adrian Griffin. In a move that has caught the basketball world off guard, Milwaukee has dismissed their head coach, first being reported by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. At the time of Griffin’s dismissal, the Bucks are second in the Eastern Conference with a 30-13 record. The Bucks have the second-best offense in the league but have a middle-of-the-pack defense. After spending over a decade as an assistant in Milwaukee, Chicago, Orlando, OKC, and Toronto, Griffin had just landed his first head coaching role with the Bucks.

Reports earlier in the season suggested there was a bit of frustration with Griffin due to the team’s slow start, but Milwaukee quickly became one of the best teams in the league this season. The team started slow due to changes made right before the season started, with the Damian Lillard trade shaking things up. Around the time of the In-Season Tournament and the Bucks loss to the Indiana Pacers, reports started to suggest that there were questions internally about whether Griffin could coach this team to a championship. So far this season, Griffin is the only coach to be fired and the first first-year coach to be fired in well over a decade.

Being reported by The Athletic’s Sham Charania, veteran NBA coach and current broadcaster Doc Rivers is in talks for the job. Spending 24 seasons as a head coach for four different teams, Doc Rivers has only missed one of the last 25 seasons as a head coach: the 2023-24 season. Doc has brought some of the best performances out of the players he’s coached, including Joel Embiid, Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, and more. Although many of his teams have not seen great success in the playoffs in recent years, Doc Rivers led teams are typically successful in the regular season. In the interim, assistant Joe Prunty is expected to be head coach, something he did when Jason Kidd was fired six years ago.

Miami Heat Trade for Terry Rozier

In a trade that came out of nowhere, Miami has traded for Charlotte Hornets guard Terry Rozier. The trade goes as:

Miami Heat Receive:

Terry Rozier

Charlotte Hornets Receive:

Kyle Lowry
Protected 2027 first-round pick

After missing out on several big names in the offseason, the Heat acquired Rozier in what many are calling a steal of a trade. Scary Terry is currently averaging 23.2 PPG and 6.6 APG in the 30 games he’s played so far this season. Under contract until 2026, Rozier will be a significant piece for Miami as several teams in the middle of the Eastern Conference have made big moves in the last month. Terry Rozier will likely start for the Heat and join a starting lineup including Jimmy Butler, Tyler Herro, and Bam Adebayo.

In addition to Terry, the Heat can get off of Kyle Lowry’s expiring deal. Making $29 million this season, the nearly 38-year-old is far from the player he was even a season ago. Averaging 8.2 PPG, 4.0 APG, and 3.5 RPG, Lowry is on the decline, but could still provide for a title contender. While the Hornets get a protected 2027 first-round pick, the Heat are typically a good team, with that draft pick likely ending up later in the draft. Even though reports have suggested that the Hornets have no intentions of buying out Lowry and are looking to flip him for more assets, the odds of Lowry being bought out between now and the trade deadline will only grow.