Who could be the next Milwaukee Bucks coach? Here is a list of candidates

The Milwaukee Bucks are looking for their fourth head coach in five seasons, and they will be looking for a leader who can re-establish the team as a consistent winner in the NBA’s Eastern Conference.

Since ending the 2022-23 season as the conference’s top team with 58 wins, the club gradually has won fewer and fewer games and won a total of four playoff games before missing the postseason entirely in 2025-26.

Along with Doc Rivers, the team still is paying Adrian Griffin for next season as well. It wouldn’t be the first time ownership paid three head coaches at once, though. After Rivers’ hiring, the club was paying him, Griffin and Mike Budenholzer during the 2023-24 season.

Here is a look at who the Bucks could be looking at:

Established head coaches

Memphis Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins watches his team play against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Taylor Jenkins

Age: 41

Record: 250-214 regular season, 9-14 playoffs (Memphis)

Need to know: Jenkins was part of Mike Budenholzer’s staff in 2018-19 that saw Giannis Antetokounmpo blossom into an MVP. Jenkins then went to a Memphis team that featured a roster that was beginning to be shaped around a 20-year-old high draft pick named Ja Morant. Memphis became one of the league’s best offensive and defensive teams and had a clear identity under Jenkins. But after Morant missed 72 games and Desmond Bane missed 40 in 2023-24, the team faltered to 27-55 and Jenkins was forced to change his assistants. Ultimately he was fired in 2024-25, despite going 44-29, in favor of Tuomas Iisalo (one of the assistants who was brought onto the staff).

Milwaukee Bucks assistant coach Darvin Ham was a head coach with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Darvin Ham

Age: 52

Record: 90-74 regular season, 9-12 playoffs (Los Angeles Lakers)

Need to know: An eight-year NBA veteran, Ham was a member of the Bucks’ 2001 Eastern Conference finals team. He moved into coaching shortly after and was part of Budenholzer’s staff from 2018-22, helping the Bucks become one of the league’s best teams. Hired by Los Angeles in 2022, he won the inaugural NBA Cup and led the team to the Western Conference finals. Dismissed after just two seasons, Ham returned to Milwaukee under Rivers in 2024.

Rookie head coaches

Sean Sweeney

Age: 42

Need to know: Sweeney was an assistant under Jason Kidd while in Milwaukee from 2014-18 and formed a bond with Antetokounmpo while also being the top voice in implementing the team’s defensive schemes. He spent 2018-21 in Detroit under head coach Dwane Casey before reuniting with Kidd in Dallas from 2021-25. This season, in a new role as associate head coach under Mitch Johnson, Sweeney helped the San Antonio Spurs win 60 games and build one of the league’s best defenses around Victor Wembanyama.

Chris Quinn

Age: 42

Need to know: The Bucks received permission from Miami to interview Quinn in their 2023 coaching search. Quinn played in the NBA with Miami, Brooklyn and Cleveland before getting into coaching at the college level at Northwestern in 2013. He joined Erik Spoelstra’s staff in Miami in 2014 and was promoted to associate head coach in 2024.

Check back for more as this story develops.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Who could be the next Milwaukee Bucks coach? A list of candidates