Bucks put on ‘full court press’ to hire Taylor Jenkins before market heated up

The Bucks didn’t just land Taylor Jenkins as their next head coach. They went out and got him.

According to Eric Nehm and Sam Amick of The Athletic, Milwaukee made a “full-court press” to secure Jenkins before the rest of the league’s coaching carousel really got going.

That meant action, not patience.

League sources told The Athletic that general manager Jon Horst and owners Wes Edens and Jimmy Haslam traveled to Memphis early last week to meet with Jenkins face-to-face and make their pitch. The goal was clear. Get in early. Close it out before other openings started to come into play after postseason exits.

It worked.

Jenkins had been viewed by Milwaukee as the top available coach on the market, a sentiment echoed in earlier reporting from Shams Charania of ESPN. Around the league, his reputation as a program builder and player development coach has remained strong even after his departure from the Grizzlies late last season.

There’s also familiarity here. Jenkins previously worked under Mike Budenholzer in both Atlanta and Milwaukee, including a stint with the Bucks during the 2018-19 season.

That background, combined with his track record in Memphis, made him a natural fit for a team looking to reset without starting from scratch.

Milwaukee didn’t wait around to see how the market developed. They pushed. They traveled. They closed.

Now comes the harder part.