"This is the passive-aggressive generation" - Bucks coach Doc Rivers slates modern players for letting tensions fester in team disputes 

Last season, the Milwaukee Bucks brought in Doc Rivers to replace Adrian Griffin midway through the year. The move was one that was somewhat shocking to many members of the NBA community given that the Bucks had posted an impressive record with Griffin at the helm.

After going through an adjustment period last season and being unceremoniously eliminated from the playoffs amid an injury to Giannis Antetokounmpo, the team has their sights set high for the 2024-25 season.

While speaking in an interview with The Athletic this week ahead of the start of the season, Doc Rivers spoke about how the communication style among players has shifted drastically. When he was in the league, there was no hesitation to call out a teammate.

“This is the passive-aggressive generation," Rivers said. "It’s amazing. From my standpoint in coaching, it’s the biggest difference. When Dominique didn’t pass me the ball I’d say, ‘Nique, what the f—?’ And he would literally say, ‘Yeah, I saw you open. But I think I’m the better option.’ We would laugh about it.

"It wasn’t me being mean. But now, we don’t get a lot of that. So we’re trying to encourage just more communication.”

Doc Rivers uses film session example to highlight the importance of communication

Doc Rivers also used an in-game clip as an example to drive home his point.

As he explained in the aforementioned interview, during a team film session, he showed a clip where a player took an ill-advised shot rather than passing to an open teammate.

Rather than one teammate calling out the other for missing the smart pass, the teammate just ran down to the other end of the court to play defense. Rather than calling out the player who took the ill-advised shot, Doc Rivers turned to the player who ran back down to the other end of the court without saying anything:

"I stopped it, and I said to the guy who didn’t get the ball, ‘OK, what were you thinking?’ He said, ‘Well (shrugs), he’s got to throw the ball.’ So I said, ‘OK, but you didn’t tell him.’ I was like, ‘Guys, we’ve got to get to the point where we [talk]. It’s not a difficult conversation," Rivers said.

"There’s nothing wrong with saying, ‘Hey!’ And you know what? The guy’s going to say, ‘I missed you.’ Or he may not receive [the message] well, and then you’ve got to get through that too. But when you get through all that, you become a made team. There’s no f—— issues anymore.”

Rivers hopes that the in-game example drives home the importance of communication among the team as they look to make a deep postseason run this year.

The team will play their final preseason game on Thursday, before then tipping off the regular season with a road game against the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday.