Bucks say no bad blood with Scott Skiles
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Once again, an NBA team has parted ways with head coach Scott Skiles. Once again, veteran assistant Jim Boylan is being asked to pick up the pieces.
One day after Milwaukee and Skiles agreed it was time for a change, the Bucks said Tuesday that Boylan will coach the team for the rest of the season. General manager John Hammond downplayed the notion that Skiles had lost control of the locker room or otherwise felt friction with management.
“Scott and I did not have a frosty relationship. Scott did not hate this team,” said Hammond, who noted that more than half the season remains. “We’re not a team in dire straits … we’re expecting good things to happen.”
Boylan was expected to meet with reporters before Tuesday night’s home game against Phoenix.
If this sounds familiar, it should: Skiles was fired as head coach in Chicago on Christmas Eve in 2007 after the Bulls started 9-16. Boylan, an assistant in Chicago, took over and went 24-32. He was fired at the end of the season.
Hammond said he and Skiles had been having a number of conversations recently about the future of the team. He said there was no single factor in Skiles’ departure, and that no other assistant coaches were leaving.
“It was a mutual decision. We both agreed to make this decision,” he said.
Skiles had a 162-182 record in four-plus seasons with Milwaukee, with one playoff appearance — a first-round loss to Atlanta in seven games during the 2009-10 season. He was a hard-nosed, defensive-minded coach who sometimes seemed to have difficulty meshing with a roster built around volume shooters Brandon Jennings and Monta Ellis.
Skiles’ agent, Keith Glass, said it was hard to pinpoint when Skiles began thinking of stepping aside, but all parties agreed the timing was right.
“There was no blowup. There was no animosity going on. I think everybody made the right decision for their own respective sides,” he said.
Two other coaches, the Lakers’ Mike Brown and Brooklyn’s Avery Johnson, are also out of work in this young season. Brown was fired after five games and Johnson late … [For more on Bucks say no bad blood with Scott Skiles, click here.]
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