On July 5th, the Milwaukee Bucks decided to name Josh Longstaff as the team’s new assistant coach underneath new head coach Mike Budenholzer.

Longstaff made quite the name for himself last year as the head coach for the Erie BayHawks in the G League, leading the team to the Eastern Conference Finals. The BayHawks are the G League affiliate for the Atlanta Hawks organization, so Budenholzer worked closely with him.

Prior to being the BayHawks’ head coach, Longstaff began his NBA career with the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2010 as player personnel and video coordinator. He remained in that position until he became the video analyst and player development coach for his final three seasons with the Thunder.

In 2014, Longstaff left the Thunder organization and became an assistant coach for the New York Knicks organization where he was employed until 2017.

Despite only being 35 years old, Longstaff definitely has a lot of basketball work experience which should translate well for future endeavors with the Bucks organization. His experience as a player development coach should pay dividends when it comes to maximizing the potentials of Milwaukee’s extremely young roster.

Longstaff also has a bit of experience internationally since he joined the Latvia national basketball team for EuroBasket 2017. In his time abroad, Longstaff was able to work with Kristaps Porzingis and might have played a factor in Porzingis’ improvement as a player in his first couple of seasons in the NBA.

Although Longstaff is an expert in player development, it is important to note that assistant coach Taylor Jenkins will still serve as the team’s Summer League coach due to his five-year connection with Budenholzer in Atlanta.

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