Giannis defends Doc Rivers: 'He's Doc f*ing Rivers. He knows his s**t' / News - Basketnews.com

Giannis said Rivers brought tactical improvements and peace of mind to him personally. Antetokounmpo defended Rivers' record as a coach despite the recent slump before the All-Star break.

Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports - Scanpix Credit Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports - Scanpix

Since Doc Rivers replaced Adrian Griffin as the head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks, the team has won just three games in ten contests, drawing increased criticism of the move. The squad's biggest star, Giannis Antetokounmpo, is ready to defend the new coach.

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Giannis recently spoke in an interview with Eric Nehm from The Athletic, where he expanded on what the move brought to the organization and him personally and explained his stance.

"Some peace of mind," Antetokoumpo said about the biggest change he's witnessed so far. "He’s tough. He's Doc f*ing Rivers. He knows his s**t. Same thing for Coach Bud[enholzer]. Same with Joe Prunty, J-Kidd. And Coach Griff was a great coach, a great person to work with, but, at the end of the day, it was his first time.

He was figuring things out, how to lead a group of guys, how to operate with star players, and sometimes, that might be hard. I think everybody did a good job. His coaching staff did a good job too, helping him and making him adjust, and I think he did a tremendous job leading us to a 30-13 record, but Coach Doc has won 1,100 games. So it's totally different," Giannis explained.

The Greek Freak admitted he had to be more vocal at the start of the season and assume a vivid leadership role in the organization. Following Rivers' arrival, the superstar forward says he no longer has to worry about it.

"Now it's almost like I don't have to do that anymore. I just have to keep the guys together and try to go out there and try to win," Giannis said.

"Coach Doc, he's a great guy, been in the league for a lot of years, won a lot of games. Like, you go to bed, you sleep well at night. Win or lose, you know that the coaching staff is going to be prepared. And not just him, from Rex [Kalamian], from Dave Joerger, like come on, man, Joe Prunty, we have guys that are extremely smart and know the game of basketball. So, from that aspect, you don't have to worry anymore," he explained.

One of the biggest changes was tactical, the player admits, despite the recent slump.

"Coach Doc's coached great players, he’s coached great teams. But our team is different, it's unique. [There are] things that have been working and things that haven't been working. They've added so many new things that we're like, 'Oh, s**t. We can take advantage of this.'" Antetokounmpo said. "And there are some things that we have to recover."

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