Steve Fifer | 1250 AM Milwaukee; Podcast Host

Listen up.

I won't sugarcoat it. This is the longest cold flu analogy season we've ever seen, but we're not alone. We've got Instacart. Sure, you may be a coughing snot faucet who just wants mommy, but you're not giving up! Not when cold medicine, fragrant herbal teas, and honey shaped like bears can be delivered through Instacart in as fast as 30 minutes! Now let's go win the sick playoffs!

Daddy, I just want my soup. Oh, sorry. SportApp says it'll be here in a few minutes. Instacart for the win. JamesAllen.com is the online destination to easily design a customized engagement ring and save up to 50% compared to traditional stores. You pick a diamond. Whether it's lab-created or earth-created, JamesAllen has over 200,000 conflict-free stones.

Then you pick your ring setting and metal. And if you need some help, they have real-time diamond consultations available where an expert can walk you through it all. Get 25% off your order at JamesAllen.com Code Podcast. That's JamesAllen.com Code Podcast. We head to Milwaukee now, and from our affiliate there, AM1250 The Fan, we welcome Steve Pfeiffer. He also has a couple of podcasts. One that talks Packers and one that talks Bucks.

So Steve, let me ask you. The Packers run, nearly upsetting the 49ers, or the Bucks making this abrupt coaching change. What's the bigger story right now?

Rhys Hopkins. Signs with the Brewers. There's your positive story for Milwaukee. There's your positive story. They get the Phillies' first baseman.

I don't know. The Packers thing was awesome. I don't think anybody expected them to be in the playoffs. Nobody really expected them to go to Dallas and win in Dallas. Jordan Love proving, I think, damage out of a doubt that he's a franchise quarterback going forward and they'll get to pay him. You know, somewhere in the area, probably $45 to $50 million a year in an extension at some point next summer.

So the future is bright, windows wide open. The Packer fans are happy. They all want Joe Berry, the defensive coordinator, fired still.

So we'll wait to see if that happens. But besides that, I think everybody's pretty happy with how that went. The Adrian Griffin thing, I think everybody is kind of stunned. Don't get me wrong. There was a portion of the fan base that had been asking for Adrian Griffin to be fired for over a month. So I think the rest of us are stunned that they actually did it, didn't see it coming until you read the piece in the athletic and realized this was the whole thing that was coming over a month ago and we just didn't know. Why? What went horribly wrong that after half the season he's out the door?

This is the thing, right? If I hire you to do a job and then I tell you who you're going to hire to be around you and you don't know the people, you're really rolling the dice and you're saying two things. One, I don't trust you to hire your own people.

And two, I really hope this works out between you and whoever the other person is, because if it doesn't, then it's probably going to be a mess. Well, that's what they did. They hired Adrian Griffin, who was of the final three that the Bucks ownership and front office picked out, was the only one that had no head coaching experience at that point. And it was Atkinson, the Golden State assistant, Kenny Atkinson, it was Nick Nurse and Adrian Griffin.

Those were the final three that they apparently had Giannis talk to and so forth to see who he liked. Well, according to reports, he apparently does not like Nick Nurse and would not play for Nick Nurse. So he, again, according to reports, wanted to play for a guy that played in the league or whatever. So they went with Adrian Griffin, but then they told Adrian Griffin, you're going to have Terry Stotts, the former Bucks head coach, former Portland Trailblazers head coach, Damian Lillard's head coach. You're going to be his right hand guy.

You're going to have him. They didn't know each other, had no idea, never met, whatever, no clue. Well, guess what happened? Now the training camp comes and before the season even starts and pre-season or whatever, and they have a falling out in a practice, according to a report from the athletic where Adrian Griffin wanted the coaches to come together. According to the report, Terry Stotts wanted to talk to him out at the Milton a little. He yelled for him, Stotts ignored him.

He continued talking to him, according to the report. And then Griffin got really mad that he wasn't coming over. And then shortly thereafter that, Terry said, I'm out.

This isn't for me. I'm stepping aside. And he leaves. So then they play the season. And again, they got off a pretty good start. Defense has been an issue from the word jump because Adrian Griffin is changing the defense to more of what they played in Toronto with Nick Nurse, more of a switching type defense. And right away, the players went to him and said, we don't like Rick Lopez, our center, playing this style of defense. You've got to play more drop defense to play more to his strengths and so forth. Adrian Griffin said, fine, we'll do that.

So it's been kind of a give and go. They get Damian Lillard. Kim and Giannis, that pick and roll thing has not really materialized at any point. The usage rate for Damian Lillard has dropped way off compared to where it was in Portland, which is going to drop off some because he's playing with Giannis now, but it dropped off significantly. And it's seven minutes less than what Giannis is getting on a night-to-night basis.

So that's an issue. Apparently Lillard was struggling with what they were trying to do on offense to begin with. The defense has been a mess the entire time. So as a reporter, what it goes from Sham Sharani and Eric name, uh, that in the NCAA tournament when they lost Indiana, apparently after that, uh, they went to Adrian Griffin and said, doc rivers. You know, doc, he's in the TV booth.

Yep. He's going to be your consultant going forward for the rest of the season. Doc meet Adrian Griffin, Adrian Griffin meet doc.

Guys get used to working together. Doc's going to help you be a coach the rest of the year. I believe on that day, Adrian Griffin was essentially fired because on that day, that's when they decided Adrian Griffin cannot do this. And we're going to have somebody else come in. And if this doesn't work and he can't figure this out, then doc is going to have the benefit of having how many days it takes for us to figure out if he can do it or not. In this case, it's been about 30 or so now doc knows everything. Cause he's been watching every game since then has an idea of what they're running, what works, what doesn't work, has a good idea of what the personnel can and cannot do. So now you give doc rivers a job. He walks in, he knows everything there is to know about this team.

He's got a month to study them and can implement what he thinks needs to be fixed and the way they go. And that's how this whole thing works out. And you know, I don't know, you can look at this however you want. To me, it's a little wrong, I guess, in my opinion, how this whole thing played out. Cause if you didn't trust Adrian Griffin and you didn't think you should do a job, then he never should have been in your final three that you essentially brought to Giannis to let him pick. You should have went with a more proven head coach in that final three. And instead you screwed this up and now, you know, fans are all fed because they think Giannis screwed this up by taking Adrian Griffin. But in reality, the ownership and front office screwed this up by having Adrian Griffin in the final three to begin with.

Well, and handcuffing him to different people that he didn't know and didn't have a relationship with. Steve Pfeiffer is with us from Milwaukee talking about this crazy twist in the Bucks season even as they sit in the top three in the Eastern Conference. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Here's the question that came to my mind as I'm reading all of this and of course you're telling it from a Bucks perspective. But if you wanted a veteran head coach, A. Why fire Mike Bütenholzer and B. Why not just hire Doc Rivers from the beginning? Right. The Doc Rivers point is a good one.

I don't know. The Bütenholzer point, again going back to Eric Namen, the athletic, the Bucks beat writer for them. When Bütenholzer was let go, there was an in-depth piece that he wrote that pretty much hinted at the fact that the year they went on to win that NBA title, remember they were playing the Nets.

And the TNT crew, Barkley and Kenny Smith and those guys were stealing Mike Bütenholzer in that series for pretty much not knowing what he was doing, just absolutely killing his coaching style. Well, they figure out how to get through that series. They go on to beat the Hawks for a young got hurt. They go win in the championship against Phoenix. But apparently everybody within the organization was mad at, but as far as how that series was going and if they would have lost that series, according to this report, he was gone.

He wasn't going to be back the following year. They were done and he wins a title. So now they stick with him for a couple more years because he won a title. And then they finally said, okay, enough is enough. You know, we've kind of worn out this whole thing here with this group of players. We need a new voice.

So they decided to go in a different direction at that point. Mike Bütenholzer has been criticized his entire career for not making adjustments in the postseason and losing playoff series because of being stubborn and not knowing how to adjust. So not being a great playoff coach outside of a one run. What is Doc Rivers known for exactly the exact same thing, getting our coaching playoff series and choking away leads in playoff series and costing themselves outside of one run early on with Boston. So you get rid of Bud, you make a mistake with Griffin, and now you're going to replace him with Doc, who essentially has the same flaws as Bud does when it comes to the playoffs. I can imagine this is a sticky situation for Doc, though, if he was there to support Adrian Griffin, if they developed any kind of a relationship.

I know it's the nature of the business, but Steve Pfeiffer with us from Milwaukee, it's after hours on CBS Sports Radio. How would you change the usage of Damian Lillard or change the way that he is fitting with Giannis or not fitting with Giannis? They haven't effectively run that pick and roll with him and Giannis like everybody was expecting to see since they've been together. They've attempted to run it and they haven't run it well. I mean, you could argue that really Lillard and Brook Lopez probably run it better. Well, they do run it better, way better than what him and Giannis do.

For whatever reason, it's been a struggle, both of them, and they don't run it that much. Lillard, when he first started, didn't like the rotation minutes he was getting as far as how Griffin was using them, and went to Griffin and said, I want to play the whole first quarter and then I'll come out in the second quarter. Griffin said, fine. I mean, that's one thing about Adrian Griffin, he's pretty much said fine about everything that's been reported as far as what the players wanted.

Whatever they wanted, you let them do. So, what happened was, for a part of the season, when Giannis and Lillard were on the floor, Lillard kind of just held back and let Giannis go be that aggressive guy. And then when Giannis would check out about five, six minutes into the game, then Lillard would kind of take over when Giannis won out, when it was him and Chris Milton, or just him on the floor. Now, as the season has went on, he's become a little bit more aggressive in the first quarter, and you don't see that necessarily as much, but his field goal percentages down, all of his numbers are kind of down across the board since becoming a member of the Bucks compared to what he was doing in Portland. And originally it's like, well, he's off to a full start, he'll figure it out, he'll get it going. Well, halfway through the season now.

And we're still kind of having the same conversations. And you have an NBA trade deadline coming up, right? That's only a couple weeks away. I would love to know how much Doc Rivers has been asked about what he wants at the trade deadline prior to today, compared to how much Adrian Griffin was asked what he wanted at a trade deadline. My gosh. And just to clarify, when they say the window and the sense of urgency, is this about the Bucks trying to win a title this year?

It has to be. I mean, Damian Lillard is the top 75 player. You just traded for him and gave up all those assets. You've got to keep Giannis happy, obviously.

It has to be about winning a championship. Look, this is, to me, when you have a Giannis, a LeBron, a KD, those type of players, they should be championship or bust every single year. Even if they had Drew Holliday and they didn't have Damian Lillard, it should still be championship or bust because those players are only around for so long. And you've got a guy that's won multiple MVPs. While you have him, you know, you can't take it for granted that he's always going to be there. Otherwise, you end up like Cleveland and LeBron James walks away.

You have to always be pushing the envelope. And John Horst, to his credit, the GM of the Bucks, has done that for the most part with Milwaukee. And now you make this type of move because you didn't see this being a championship caliber team. I agree. It didn't look like a championship caliber team to me either, watching this team play here for the last month. But again, I was stunned and shocked. I thought they'd give Griffin through the playoffs if it fell apart, then they'd move on in the summer.

I did not think they'd move on this quick. How and where did they miss Drew Holliday? Probably defensively to a certain degree, for sure. And Lillard hasn't been all that offensively, but he's still better than when Drew Holliday is offensively.

Yeah, Drew will give you a die where he'll get you 25 or 30. But Drew will give you a lot more of those 12-point nights and he's going to give you the 25 or 30-point nights, you know. And Holliday works when he's that defensive guy.

Like, Boston is perfect because you have Tatum, you have Brown. Porzingis has been a great addition for them too. So Holliday kind of fits into that third, fourth-roll score.

There's not a ton of pressure. With the Bucks, if something happens to Giannis, he's got to be that first or second guy. And Milton keeps getting hurt on and off. So there was more pressure on him offensively. And when you get to the postseason, Holliday wasn't always that guy consistently there. He had big moments in the postseason in a game here or a game there for the Bucks, for sure.

But he wasn't that reliable, consistent guy that can go get you 25 or 30 in a big game. Lillard is definitely that guy. They've got to figure out, you know, how to share the basketball and figure out a defensive scheme that obviously works. You have Brooke Lopez, who is a defensive player of the year candidate coming in, blocking shots all over the plate. Giannis is the same type of player. And with that, you're one of the worst defenses in the NBA.

That should not be the case even if it's Damian Lillard over Drew Holliday at the guard position. So Reece Hoskins, then. Yes. Now let's dial up something positive and happy.

Yeah, let's talk about it. Reece Hoskins, that's the new cleanup hitter for the Brewers. Hey, man, coming into the offseason, I thought the Brewers were going to blow this thing up. I mean, Corbin Burns, last year at his deal, they can't afford to sign him after the upcoming season. Willie Adams, last year at his deal, if he has a good year, they can't afford to sign him either. So I really thought that when they decided after Woodruff's injury that they were just going to let him walk and not bring him back because you don't know how long he'll be out. He could miss the whole year, whatever.

I was like, okay, well, now here's your opportunity. You trade Burns, you trade Adonis, and you kind of rebuild this thing because they have a ton of young outfielders that came up last year and played a little bit. They're all going to have major roles this year. One of the top prospects in baseball, Jackson Chirio.

I think he was one or two, depending on the list you looked at. They expect him to be on the major league team at some point this year, maybe opening day. There are a lot of comparisons of him to Ronald Lacuna Jr., so we'll see if that pans out or not. So there's a lot of young talent, but it's going to probably take a little while for them to get going. Instead, they decided, no, they're going to try and compete and win a division title one more year. Then they very well may let Burns and Adonis walk for nothing. So with that mentality, they desperately needed a first baseman because they've been horrible at first base for the last couple of years.

Hoskins coming up, ACL didn't play last year for Philly. He's going to hit 30, 35 home runs at American Family Field easy and be a true clean-up hitter for the Brewers. I think it's a big signing. Defensively he sucks, but offensively he can hit. As you say, positive news.

That's where we'll end. Jordan Love had an incredible second half of the season. What a validation for Matt Leflore in terms of his coaching. Would you keep Barry or would you make a change?

Oh, he'd be gone yesterday. But look, him and Leflore are guys. That's why Leflore hired him because they've been friends for a long time. Barry was under fire here. Baker Mayfield had a perfect quarterback rating at Lambeau Field.

The first guy ever to come into Lambeau and have a perfect quarterback rating, Baker Mayfield. At that point, everybody that was kind of, I don't know about Joe Berry, everybody was like, okay, time to go. That's it.

We've seen enough. And they did it. Then they gave up 30 points to the Panthers. That offense has been horrible this year. They won the game, but they gave up 30.

So that was another sign. And then Matt Leflore got a little bit involved, like he did last year coming out of the bye week. And this defense turned around, like he did last year coming out of the bye week once he got involved in having his voice heard in defensive meetings or whatever was going on. And then the defense played really well the rest of the way up. You can't blame the defense for what happened.

You heard he had a big drive there at the end, fine. But to that point, you did a heck of a job keeping that offense intact. You had every chance to win that game against San Francisco. You kept that big Cowboys offense average 37 a game at home, completely in check and minimize for the most part. And so you pulled off the dogs there and what was it the fourth quarter?

And then, you know, gave up a couple of touchdowns for the most part. You did your job. I think that's enough for Matt Leflore to tell Brian Gudekunz that anybody else that wants to fire Joe Berry, look at what this guy did here the last four or five games. He did what he was supposed to do. We figured it out. He'll be good for next year.

Trust me. And he's done a contract. It's not like they have to give him a new contract. He's still got another year under contract here. So they just bring him back, then you move forward. Now, Leflore did not commit to him coming back. Last year, the end of the year press conference, he said pretty much everybody's coming back. That's the end of it. This year, he didn't do it.

So I don't know. There's a conversation that needs to happen between him and others in the organization to convince them to keep Joe Berry. But the longer you keep Joe Berry, the more defensive coordinator candidates are going to go off the board of these other coaching staffs.

So if they're going to move, they need to move quickly so they don't lose out on some more guys. Steve's got a couple of podcasts that deal with all things Wisconsin sports. So Curtin Long is the Packers podcast. But you're going to want to get green and growing about the Bucks and this twist midway through the season. You can find him on Twitter at Sparky Radio.

Steve Pfeiffer from Milwaukee. Thank you so much for a couple of minutes and all of the insight. Always fun.

Anytime. Around New Year's, we get a little obsessed with changing ourselves and forgetting the things we're already doing right. Like taking our supplements every morning or scheduling me time into our day. Therapy helps you recognize those victories and keep up the good work in the new year without changing everything. BetterHelp offers affordable online therapy so you can try new year same you with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash grow today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp H-E-L-P dot com slash grow. Call 562-314-4603 for complete details. When something happens to your car, you might say, No!

My car! But what you really need to say is something that can actually help. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. And just like that, State Farm is there to help you file your claim right on the State Farm mobile app. So just remember, like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. State Farm, Bloomington, Illinois.