Bucks finalizing deal to hire Taylor Jenkins as head coach: Sources

The Milwaukee Bucks are finalizing a deal with Taylor Jenkins to become the team’s next head coach, league sources confirmed to The Athletic.

The 41-year-old was the head coach of the Memphis Grizzlies from 2019 to 2025 and led the franchise to four playoff appearances in his six seasons.

League sources told The Athletic the agreement comes at the end of a “full-court press” by the organization to secure one of the top names on the coaching market before other teams have a chance to enter the fray after postseason eliminations. As The Athletic first reported, general manager Jon Horst and both of the Bucks’ primary owners, Wes Edens and Jimmy Haslam, traveled to Memphis early last week to express interest in bringing Jenkins to Milwaukee.

Jenkins won 54 percent of his games during his time in Memphis. The high point was during the 2021-22 season, when Memphis tied a franchise record with 56 regular-season victories and also won a playoff series for the first time since 2015.

Before then, Jenkins served as a Bucks assistant coach under Mike Budenholzer in the 2018-19 season. He also coached under Budenholzer in Atlanta from 2013 to 2018.

Jenkins did not coach the Grizzlies in the last of those four playoff appearances because the organization fired him with nine games remaining in the 2024-25 season. Tuomas Iisalo, one of the assistant coaches the organization asked Jenkins to hire before the season, replaced him. In Jenkins’ most successful season with Memphis, the Grizzlies ranked in the top five in offensive and defensive efficiency, per Cleaning the Glass.

Overwhelmingly, however, Jenkins’ teams won with defense. While any great defense needs the proper personnel to be effective, Jenkins effectively leveraged the Grizzlies’ personnel to create one of the NBA’s most suffocating defenses.

Jenkins’ system successfully maximized the versatility and shot-blocking ability of Jaren Jackson Jr. to protect the rim. Jackson led the league in blocks per game twice and was named Defensive Player of the Year in 2022-23 under Jenkins.

Memphis’ defense also limited corner 3s, ranking in the bottom 10 in corner 3 frequency in five of Jenkins’ six seasons. They forced a lot of turnovers, finishing in the top 10 in turnover rate in four of Jenkins’ six seasons.

Outside of the 2023-24 season, during which Grizzlies star Ja Morant played just nine games, Memphis typically posted an above-average offense with Jenkins at the helm and finished in the top 10 in offensive efficiency twice during.

Jenkins was one of the first coaches to emphasize winning the possession battle, a tactical trend that other coaches have now embraced. Despite regularly finishing in the bottom 10 in effective field-goal percentage, Memphis put together above-average offensive efficiency numbers by relentlessly attacking the offensive glass. The Grizzlies were the NBA’s top offensive rebounding team in 2021-22, according to Cleaning the Glass, and finished top five in the category in four of Jenkins’ six seasons.

With the Bucks admitting they will consider trading Giannis Antetokounmpo this offseason, they needed a coach with a strong strategic approach. During his time in Memphis, Jenkins showed he could devise a set of tactics that worked for his specific personnel. He will need to do that again in Milwaukee to fix a team that finished 22nd in points scored per 100 possessions and 27th in points allowed per 100 possessions last season.