The Milwaukee Bucks send two second-round draft picks to the Brooklyn Nets to make Jason Kidd the team’s new head coach.
Over the weekend, it was reported that Kidd asked Nets management for a promotion — to be head coach as well as president of basketball operations — a job usually given to more experienced, winning head coaches like Doc Rivers or Stan Van Gundy.
Now Kidd is in and Larry Drew is out. The Nets have a coaching vacancy.
Here are three takeaways from Kidd-Gate:
1. The Bucks got their man, accidentally?
Kidd was seemingly using the Bucks to gain more power within the Nets organization, but when his request for a promotion was rebuffed, Kidd had almost no choice but to go to Milwaukee.
Now Kidd has the same job but with a different team, one substantially worse than the Nets. And did so before the previous coach was even fired.
It’s a PR disaster for both sides really, and doesn’t put Kidd in the brightest of lights. He seemed overeager and went about things the wrong way. Now he’s stuck, fittingly, with one of the league’s most unsuccessful franchises.
2. Can another coach make Brooklyn better?
Lionel Hollins is the favorite to succeed Kidd in Brooklyn, according to reports, with George Karl, Mark Jackson and Ettore Messina also in the mix.
Hollins led the Memphis Grizzlies to the Western Conference Finals, and probably unfairly got the axe. He’s been in the fold for a bunch of NBA coaching vacancies this summer.
Perhaps a more seasoned head coach would be able to help Deron Williams bounce back and convince Kevin Garnett to remain unretired.
3. From New York to Wisconsin, it’s about to be a major fall down
The Nets sported the highest payroll in the NBA last year, with bonafide Hall of Famers in KG and Pierce, and perennial All-Stars in Williams, Brook Lopez, and Joe Johnson.
The Bucks have Larry Sanders and first-round pick Jabari Parker; now they have a head coach that looked like he figured out what he was doing in the latter part of his first season — kind of.
With Milwaukee, the task of luring free agents to a low-money organization where winning is especially rare is increasingly more difficult than figuring out a rotation with veteran stars. And if Kidd eventually does gain control of basketball ops, he’ll be the one that gets the blame if he can’t bring in the right talent. He single-handedly put himself in a lose-lose situation.
