Former Milwaukee Bucks head coaches are on opposite sides of a growing national debate over 2x MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo’s basketball IQ and playstyle. Doc Rivers has found little support for his comments on Giannis, particularly his basketball IQ. The comments came at a perfect time. Making his ESPN debut on NBA Today, former Bucks and Dallas Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd had something to say about Doc’s comments.

The back-and-forth erupted after Rivers appeared on The Bill Simmons Podcast less than 24 hours earlier and detailed his frustrations from his two-and-a-half-year coaching tenure with Antetokounmpo in Milwaukee. Rivers claimed that despite Giannis’ elite passing traits, the superstar lacks high-level execution and a top-tier basketball mind.

When Malika Andrews asked if he saw validity in Rivers’ critique, Kidd, who coached Giannis from 2014 to 2018 and famously handed him point guard responsibilities early in his career, pushed back on the narrative.

“I don’t,” Kidd said regarding Rivers’ perspective. “I think when you talk about stars, they are hard to coach. But they want to be coached. But Giannis’s superpower is to get downhill, and he makes plays. And so, understanding Doc saying that his IQ, I disagree with that. I think Giannis understands how to play the game. His forcefulness getting downhill is what it’s all about, and so when he causes a problem, he’s one of the top five players in the league.”

Kendrick Perkins also agreed with Kidd and went a step further, comparing Giannis to his Boston Celtics championship teammate who has history with Rivers too.

“Listen, Giannis is a top five power forward of all time. All right? KG [Kevin Garnett] is one of the best power forwards to ever play the game of basketball… But Doc, it is unfair because I understand Doc. He coached KG. KG has one of the highest IQs that we’ve ever seen. KG was a guy that was coachable. KG lost himself in the team. KG is probably one of the most underrated guys when it come to IQ. And you can’t expect Giannis to beat KG when it comes to knowledge-wise. Giannis is a guy that, ‘I’m going out there and get it, Coach.’ Like, and you’ll go to war with him every single day, right?”

Kidd’s response: “That’s right. You want to go to war with Giannis.”

Right now, the war was ignited by Doc Rivers amid a turbulent start for Antetokounmpo in South Beach following the blockbuster summer trade that sent him to the Miami Heat alongside Bobby Portis for Tyler Herro, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kel’el Ware, Kasparas Jakucionis, and future draft assets.

Speaking to Simmons, Rivers suggested that Antetokounmpo’s single-minded downhill force makes it tricky for Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra to integrate him into the rotation.

“He’s not easy because he plays at this crazy downhill pace,” Rivers said on the podcast. “He’s really a difficult guy. I was telling someone this: he has this great passing ability, but he doesn’t necessarily have super IQ at the same time. It’s really a strange thing. And he really has one way. Downhill, force, like every play. He wants to force it. There’s times where I wish he did one thing… I wish he learned how to execute better.”

Rivers went on to assert that Antetokounmpo secretly wanted out of Milwaukee during the 2025–26 season, but hesitated to formally request a trade to avoid alienating Bucks fans. Ironically, Rivers spent that season denying Giannis demanded a trade and traded barbs with Shams Charania for reporting on it.

Trade or no trade, the comments on Giannis’ IQ were as blasphemous as refuting Taylor Swift’s Knicks’ cred. His comments caused a wave of disagreement and analysts pulling out the receipts.

Following a disappointing 97–103 record throughout his Bucks tenure that culminated in missing the 2026 postseason, as well as getting eliminated in the first rounds in 2024 and 2025, Rivers stepped down as coach and Giannis opted for a trade. While he expressed his love for Milwaukee, he wanted to be on a contending team. The Bucks opted to reset their franchise direction under new head coach Taylor Jenkins and new trade additions.

Analysts criticize Rivers for not taking accountability for his own shortcomings in Milwaukee and point to a larger pattern. Most bring back JJ Redick’s comments referencing his Clippers era under Rivers.

“I’ve seen the trend for years. The trend is always making excuses. Doc, we get it. Taking over a team in the middle of a season is hard… It’s always an excuse. It’s always throwing your team under the bus… there’s never accountability with that guy.”

While Antetokounmpo continues to post elite individual statistics, averaging 27.3 points, 12.7 rebounds, and 5.6 assists per game, Miami has stumbled out of the gate with a 3–6 record, most recently falling 120–100 to the Golden State Warriors. However, as the Heat look to stabilize their system around Antetokounmpo, Brian Windhorst’s comments piggybacking off Kidd’s defense for Giannis sum it up: “When you have a great player… there’s sometimes some baggage you got to deal with, it’s always a great bargain.”

The post "I Disagree With That": Jason Kidd Shuts Down Doc Rivers' Giannis Antetokounmpo IQ Claim as Former Bucks Coaches Clash appeared first on EssentiallySports. Add EssentiallySports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.