Despite having a generational superstar in Giannis and a talented roster around him, Kidd and the Bucks have remained stagnant at 9-9. Is it time for a change at head coach in Milwaukee?

Moving along in year four of the Jason Kidd coaching era in Milwaukee, it is time for a change. The Bucks have began the year 9-9, and currently rank 24th in the league in point differential. Despite having an NBA superstar in Giannis and a fairly talented roster built around him the Bucks have not managed to play good basketball thus far.

When it comes to Kidd in Milwaukee, he has done a good job bringing in the necessary assistant coaches to develop the roster. Under Kidd, Giannis has transformed into a superstar and players like Brogdon, Middleton, and Snell who were brought onto the roster with zero expectations have become good core rotation players. The problem with Kidd is not player development, it is his coaching. With the talent the Bucks have on the roster right now next to Giannis like Bledsoe, Middleton, Brogdon, and soon to be Jabari the Bucks should not be a team in the bottom half of the league. An NBA superstar and a decent surrounding cast should be enough in the current landscape of the NBA to be a 50 win team in the east. Yet, the Bucks are somehow playing worse than any year of the Jason Kidd era.

One reason for this has been Jason Kidd’s failure to adapt to the modern NBA. In his first and most successful year as head coach with the Bucks, he managed to get a bad team to the playoffs relying on this new defensive scheme of double teams and rapid switching. Kidd managed to get the players to play hard and the defensive scheme worked great. Teams did not care to figure out the scheme in year one as the Bucks had the perception of being one of the worst teams in the league coming off a league worst 15-67 season. It was a truly remarkable feat to go from worst to being a playoff team and a big part of that was the new defensive scheme that opposing teams struggled against greatly. Since, the defense has consistently gotten worse in Kidds four years. (4th in 2014 to 23rd this season). Despite the roster being longer and more defensively talented than ever, the scheme is failing. And no, it is not because of energy and effort. The modern NBA is based around the idea of the three point shot, and the Bucks defensive scheme gives them up in a big way. This year they rank dead last in opponent three point percentage at 40.7%, a mark that has not been surpassed since the 2010 Cavaliers. The purpose of the Bucks scheme is to use their length and trade the open shots they might give up for turnovers, but the Bucks this season rank only 14th in turnovers. Even with all of the evidence that the defensive scheme is extremely awful. Kidd, stubbornly has refused to change it.

The defense has not been the only thing Kidd has failed to adapt to in the modern NBA. Another big area that needs to be talked about is offensive rebounding. It is no secret that Kidd has placed a huge emphasis on getting back in transition and sacrificing offensive rebounds, and the Bucks do rate extremely well in transition defense. But, recent studies have proven that the benefits of crashing the glass on offense far outweigh the benefits of transition defense. This season, the Bucks rank 28th in the NBA in offensive rebound percentage, as well as 22nd last season. Teams like the Celtics and Spurs, who are probably the two best coached teams in the league, put a heavy emphasis on crashing the glass and the results are hard to ignore. In order to get away with not crashing the glass at a high rate, you need to have great shooting, which the Bucks just do not have. Teams like the Warriors can get away with not crashing the glass, the Bucks meanwhile need to put themselves in a position to get as many second chance points as possible on offense.

The problem with getting rid of Kidd is that it is just not likely. The entire Jason Kidd tenure has been rather uncomfortable within the front office since before he was even hired. Jason Kidd was close friends with Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry prior to him coming to Milwaukee. Lasry then went behind GM John Hammond’s back and the decision to hire Kidd came as a surprise to Hammond and the entire front office. This off-season, John Hammond suddenly left a month before the draft almost as if to say “f you” and ownership had to scramble to find a new GM. The Bucks interviewed six candidates eventually settling on three finalists for the job, including the GM in waiting Justin Zanik before hiring mystery guy Jon Horst who was never even part of the interviewing process or a finalist for the job. Horst, in a recent interview with the Vertical talked about how great him and Jason Kidd’s relationship is. He described how cool it is to work and talk with Jason Kidd everyday. This has created a dynamic where the owner is great friends with Kidd, the GM seems to have a great relationship with Kidd, etc. Horst as a young general manager who sort of lucked his way into a job is probably not going to go out and fire hall of fame player in Jason Kidd his first year as Bucks GM. Their is a clear issue brewing within the front office where I just can not see the Bucks actually getting rid of Kidd, despite all signs pointing to him not working out as a coach in the NBA.

If the Bucks are going to take the next step and become a team that contends in the future, it is time to move on from Jason Kidd. Kidd has refused to adapt in his four years as Bucks head coach and he is clearly not the guy to take the Bucks to the next level. This Bucks roster is talented with the likes of Giannis, Bledsoe, Jabari, Middleton, Brogdon, etc. Kidd has done a great job when it comes to player development and changing the culture in Milwaukee but with a generational superstar in Giannis, we need to do everything in our power to move towards making this team a contender. If Milwaukee is serious about winning a championship one day, it is pretty obvious Kidd is not the guy to lead them there.