The Milwaukee Bucks are finalizing a contract agreement with Taylor Jenkins and will hire him as their new head coach, sources tell ESPN’s Shams Charania and Ramona Shelburne.
Milwaukee had been in the market for a new coach after the franchise parted ways with Doc Rivers at the end of the regular season in a move that Rivers stated was “100%” his decision.
According to Charania, Jenkins was viewed as the “top available commodity” on the coaching market this spring.
The Bucks are high on his track record of player development, culture-setting and competitiveness.
Even before Rivers split with the Bucks, Jenkins was being linked to Milwaukee, and reporting from The Athletic earlier this week indicated that the two sides had met since Rivers’ departure. Charania says the first meeting happened last week in Memphis before Jenkins and that the Bucks met again this Tuesday to engage in more serious discussions about the job.
A former assistant in Atlanta and Milwaukee under Mike Budenholzer, Jenkins was hired in 2019 as the head coach of the Grizzlies. He led the team to a 250-214 (.539) regular-season record across nearly six full seasons before being dismissed with only about two weeks left in the 2024-25 campaign.
Although Jenkins helped guide the Grizzlies, who had registered consecutive sub-.500 seasons prior to his hiring, back to the playoffs, the team was never able to get over the hump during his time in Memphis. The Grizzlies advanced to the second round in 2022 but experienced first-round exits in 2021 and 2023. Under Jenkins’ replacement, Tuomas Iisalo, Memphis was also bounced in the first round in 2025 and now appears headed for a rebuild.
Whether the Bucks may be headed for a retooling phase of their own remains to be seen, but it’s probably safe to assume that Jenkins accepted the position without any assurances that Giannis Antetokounmpo will still be on the roster when the 2026-27 season tips off.
Bucks co-owner Wes Edens suggested last month that the superstar forward figures to be either extended or traded within the next year, and that was before a late-season disagreement between Antetokounmpo and the team about his knee injury created even more tension between the two sides. For what it’s worth, Giannis later expressed that he wasn’t thrilled about Edens’ comments either.