Milwaukee Bucks coach Scott Skiles told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on
Scott Skiles
Tuesday that he’ll be back to coach another season, his 5th with the franchise.
Skiles is 144-164 in four NBA seasons with the Bucks, who have failed to make the playoffs in each of the last two seasons.
Skiles has one year left on his current contract, which was extended in 2010.
The Bucks consistently beat teams below them in the standings (22-5 vs. sub-.500 teams) but couldn’t beat the teams at the top of the Eastern and Western conferences. The Bucks were 3-17 against the top six teams in the East.
Scoring wasn’t the problem. The Bucks improved from 30th to 5th in that department, but defense was an issue. Scott Skiles is a defensive coach. He preaches defense all of the time. But his players never consistently got that message.
The Bucks lacked size down the stretch and that hurt them. The Bucks sent 7-foot center Andrew Bogut to Golden State in return for guard Monta Ellis and forward Ekpe Udoh. They were never able to replace the size of Bogut.
The other thing that hurt the Bucks was no real training camp. The NBA lockout took that away. Skiles will have a full off-season, training camp and potentially some more size to throw in the mix, trying to get the Bucks back into playoffs again.
AUDIO: Bucks owner Herb Kohl on Scott Skiles returning for another season :20