Bucks head coach Jason Kidd apparently carries a lot more clout within the team than his official title would suggest.
According to NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports in a recent edition of his “The Vertical Podcast with Woj”, Kidd, who is out indefinitely as he recovers from hip surgery, is the main man calling the shots in the Milwaukee front office as well.
“He goes to Milwaukee with the title of head coach, but since the day Jason has arrived there, he’s been in charge of personnel,” revealed Wojnarowski. “That’s not a secret.”
Wojnarowski also hinted that Kidd might be considering a move into a full-time front office position after he is finished recuperating and upon the completion of the 2015-16 season.
“Jason Kidd has left the team for apparently six weeks to two months to have hip surgery,” Wojnarowksi said. “A lot of people around the league and people I talked to in the aftermath of this wonder – could this be the beginning of Kidd’s escape hatch to maybe just moving up to a full-time role in the front office, whether he finishes up coaching this year and then tries to move up next year?”
John Hammond is the official general manager of the team, but this latest revelation paints him as little more than a figurehead in the Bucks front office dynamic. Meanwhile, the 42-year-old Kidd’s grandiose ambitions are well-known as we saw in 2014 when he forced his way to Milwaukee after a failed power grab in Brooklyn.
To his credit, Kidd has improved mightily as a head coach in Milwaukee. His bumbling tenure with the Nets will best be remembered for the absurd “Spillgate” incident. But Kidd actually placed third in Coach of the Year voting in his first season with the Bucks last year as the team made a 26-win improvement from the previous season.
However, the Bucks are now a disappointing 14-23 this season with a slew of poor personnel moves piling up (the trades for Michael Carter-Williams and Greivis Vasquez, the departures of Jared Dudley and Zaza Pachulia for nothing, and, as Wojnarowski also mentions, the selection of Rashad Vaughn over Bobby Portis in last June’s draft). In light of all that, it’s worth wondering if Kidd is in over his head. As the Stan Van Gundys and the Doc Riverses of the world will tell you, there are just not enough hours in the day to succeed as a head coach/general manager hybrid in the NBA, de facto or not.
Granted, Kidd has had his fair share of decent transactions as well, namely the Greg Monroe signing and retention of Khris Middleton on a cost-effective deal. But if he’s going to be the one running the show anyway, perhaps that full-time move to a front office gig would be in everyone’s best interest. Interim coach Joe Prunty is doing a solid job coaching the team in Kidd’s absence, and given his health issues and the current downswing of the Bucks as presently constructed, it may force Kidd’s hand.
