MILWAUKEE, Wis. — Last year was so frustrating for the Milwaukee Bucks that they had to change coaches. For parts of the season, Adrian Griffin (30-13), Joe Prunty (2-1) and Doc Rivers (17-19) were all in charge.
Rivers is the man in charge heading into the 2024-25 season, and earlier this month he rounded out his coaching staff. He hired Darvin Ham and Greg Buckner while bringing back familiar faces like Dave Joerger, Rex Kalamian, Prunty, Vin Baker and Pete Dominguez as assistant coaches.
Rivers took over as head coach in late January of last season. He signed a four-year contract worth about $40 million that will keep him under contract through the 2026-27 season.
With the coaching staff now solidified, let’s take a look at what each assistant brings to a Milwaukee team that plans to compete for the NBA title this season.
After spending the last two seasons under the microscope as head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, Darvin Ham opted to join the Bucks staff under Rivers after being fired.
Ham is expected to return to Milwaukee after serving as an assistant coach with the organization from 2018-2022, where he ended up helping lead the Bucks to the 2021 NBA championship.
Over the past two seasons with the Lakers, Ham has gone 90-74 (.549) in the regular season, which has resulted in playoff berths, including a trip to the Western Conference Finals in 2023.
Prior to his first stint with the Bucks, Ham also served as an assistant coach with the Atlanta Hawks (2013-2018) and the Lakers (2011-2013). Between his 13 seasons as an assistant coach and head coach in the NBA, he managed to help his team earn 12 playoff berths, including four appearances in the Conference Finals.
As an NBA player, Ham played eight seasons. He appeared in 417 games with Denver, Indiana, Washington, Atlanta, Milwaukee and Detroit, helping the Pistons win the 2004 NBA championship.
Greg Buckner is Milwaukee’s other new coach. He joins the Bucks after spending the last four seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers. During his tenure in Cleveland, Buckner served as an assistant coach from 2020-22 before being promoted to associate head coach ahead of the 2022-23 season.
Prior to his time with the Cavaliers, the 47-year-old Kentucky native served as an assistant coach in Memphis for the 2018-19 season and spent five seasons in Houston as a player development coach (2011-16) and assistant coach (2014-16).
Much like Ham, Buckner also brings an extra layer of experience as an NBA player. He played 570 career games over 10 seasons. During his ten-year career, he played in Dallas, Philadelphia, Denver, Minnesota and Memphis between 1999 and 2009.
Signed by the Bucks last January, Joerger is expected to begin his first full season in Milwaukee.
Joerger is one of the assistant coaches Rivers brought with him from Philadelphia, where he spent three seasons as an assistant coach on Rivers’ staff from 2020-23. Prior to his time with Rivers, Joerger held head coaching positions with the Sacramento Kings from 2016-19 and the Grizzlies from 2013-16, where he reached the playoffs three times in Memphis.
His NBA coaching career began as an assistant with the Grizzlies from 2007-2013 after a successful minor league coaching career that produced five championships, two Coach of the Year awards and a 232-117 (.665) record while serving as a head coach in the International Basketball Association, Continental Basketball Association and NBA Development League.
Like Joerger, Kalamian will also make his coaching debut with the Bucks after joining the team as an assistant in January of last season. He began the year as a personnel scout with Brooklyn.
During his career, Kalamian has served as an assistant coach for multiple seasons since 1995, including one under Rivers with the Clippers from 2018 to 2020. His other stints as an assistant coach in the NBA include time spent with the Pistons, Kings, Raptors, Thunder, Timberwolves and Nuggets.
Of Armenian-American descent, Kalamian also brings experience gained as head coach of the Armenian men’s national team since January 2022.
Prunty returns for his sixth season as an assistant coach with the Bucks, joining the organization before the start of last year after also working with the team from 2014-18. Last season, Prunty served as Milwaukee’s interim head coach after Adrian Griffin was fired midway through the season, where he went 2-1 before Rivers took over.
Last year, Prunty wasn’t the only interim head coach to hold the position. In 2022-23, with Atlanta, Prunty led the Hawks to a 2-0 record after Nate McMillan was fired in February of that season. He also held another interim head coaching role for the Bucks in 2017-18, where he led the team to a 21-16 record over the final 37 games of the regular season, earning Milwaukee a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
Prunty will enter his 28th season in the NBA, including stints with the Hawks, Suns, Nets, Cavaliers, Trail Blazers, Mavericks and Spurs. During his nine seasons in San Antonio from 1996 to 2005, Prunty helped the Spurs win three NBA titles in 1999, 2003 and 2005. He was also part of the Mavericks team that reached the NBA Finals in 2006.
Former NBA All-Star and Milwaukee Bucks star Vin Baker is set to return for his eighth season as an assistant coach with the Bucks.
Baker, one of the coaches on the 2021 NBA championship team, reached the playoffs in all eight seasons as an assistant in Milwaukee. His assistant coaching tenure began in January of the 2018-19 season after beginning his coaching career with the Texas Legends of the NBA Development League in 2016.
A four-time NBA All-Star and two-time All-NBA selection, Baker played in Milwaukee for four seasons. The Bucks selected him with the eighth overall pick in the 1993 NBA draft. Baker played in 604 games between his stints in Milwaukee, Seattle, Boston, New York, Houston and the Los Angeles Clippers. He was also a member of the U.S. Men’s National Team that won the gold medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.
Pete Dominguez is another familiar face on Rivers’ staff. After being hired by the Bucks in February of last season, Dominguez is set to begin his first full season as an assistant coach in the NBA.
Dominguez has a close connection to Rivers as he previously served as head video coordinator for the Clippers (2018-20) and associate coach for the 76ers (2020-23).
Before joining Rivers midway through last season, Dominguez began the 2023-24 season as the head coach of Obras Sanitarias, a team in the Argentine National Basketball League, before joining Milwaukee as an assistant coach. He is also the head assistant coach of the Armenian men’s national team under Kalamian. Dominguez coached the Bucks’ Summer League team in Las Vegas in July.
