Jason Kidd has established himself as one of the best up-and-coming coaches in the NBA. After taking two different teams to the playoffs in his first two years as a coach, his exceptional start tops some of his peers, and ranks highly among elite NBA coaches.
After playing his final season on the court with the New York Knicks, he crossed the East River and took over the Brooklyn Nets in 2014. He guided them to the playoffs as a six seed, and the Nets defeated the Toronto Raptors, the three seed and favorite in the matchup to advance to the Eastern Conference semifinals. Brooklyn lost there to the defending champion and eventual 2014 runner-up Miami Heat.
For the 2014-15 season, Jason manned the bench as the head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks. He turned the franchise around, jumping from 15-67 the year before to 41-41. J-Kidd took the sixth-seeded Bucks to a first round series against the Bulls. The Bucks fought valiantly in games four and five before falling to Chicago in six. However, Jason became the first coach to lead two different franchises to playoff berths in his first two years of coaching.
His former coach Rick Carlisle, with whom he won the 2011 NBA title, was impressed with the way he made such a smooth transition from the court to the bench, but the Dallas Mavericks head coach wasn’t surprised.
“He is very smart,” Carlisle said of Jason. “Let’s face it – he was always coaching anyway when he was out there. I felt like he had a very good idea, coming off his playing career as to how he felt the game should be played, and he’s coaching it the way he feels it should be played. You have to give him a lot of credit for that.”
Coach Kidd uses a team-first mentality and an aggressive, defensive-minded approach to wreak havoc on the opposition. Jason is cerebral when it comes to the game of basketball, so as we compare his hot start to the beginnings had by his peers, we start with his former coach, Carlisle
RICK CARLISLE
After 11 seasons as an assistant coach for the New Jersey Nets, Portland Trail Blazers, and Indiana Pacers, Carlisle got the head coaching gig with the Detroit Pistons in 2001. From there, he went to Indiana, then Dallas, where he captured that 2011 title with Jason, Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Terry and Co.
Like coach Kidd, Carlisle’s first two seasons as a head coach in Detroit were successful, posting a 50-32 both times. Mirroring Jason’s start, Carlisle’s Pistons beat the Raptors in Round 1 before bowing out to the Boston Celtics in the semifinals. The following year, Carlisle’s club topped Orlando Magic and Philadelphia 76ers, before falling to Jason’s New Jersey Nets in the Eastern Conference Finals. He had a .610 winning percentage in years one and two. Carlisle left one year before the Pistons won the NBA title in 2003-04, with Chauncey Billups, Rip Hamilton, and Ben Wallace.
STEVE CLIFFORD
Steve Clifford is at the helm of the Charlotte Hornets, and he started his year as a head coach the same year as Jason: 2013. Unlike Kidd, Clifford was a longtime assistant coach in the NBA from 2000-2013 with four franchises. Like Kidd, Clifford made the postseason in his first year as a head coach.
In year one (2013-14), Charlotte went 43-39 and were swept by the Miami Heat in the first round of the playoffs. Last year, however, Clifford’s team took a step back, finishing 33-49 and out of the playoff picture, as Clifford failed to keep pace with Jason’s hot coaching start.
BRAD STEVENS
Like Kidd and Clifford, Brad Stevens debuted in 2013-14 with the Boston Celtics after winning 77 percent of his games at Butler. Stevens turned a mid-major program into a yearly NCAA Tournament contender, but he experienced some growing pains in the Association.
In year one as an NBA head coach, the “C’s” were 25-57, 12th out of 15 teams in the East. Stevens brought them back to respectability last year with a 40-42 record, but his squad was swept in the first round by LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. His .396 winning percentage is below Kidd, who is at .518. Stevens added 15 victories to the Celtics mark from year one to year two. Jason added 26 wins to his Bucks squad from a year ago.
DOC RIVERS
Los Angeles Clippers head coach Doc Rivers is highly regarded in NBA coaching circles. However, his coaching start in Orlando didn’t go as smoothly as his time in Boston. Rivers went straight from the court to behind the bench, just like Jason. Rivers had a rocky first season in 2000 finishing 41-41, and unlike J-Kidd, Doc missed the playoffs. In year two, the Magic went 43-39, earning a seventh seed in the east before falling to the Bucks in four games. In 2003, he was let go by Orlando, and he began his tenure in Boston.
It took nine season for Doc to finally to advance past the first round of the playoffs. After a shaky first three seasons with the C’s, Rivers led his team to a NBA title in 2008 behind Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, Rajon Rondo and role players like Sam Cassell and Tony Allen.
GREGG POPOVICH
Gregg Popovich is the symbol of consistency and winning in this generation and an icon for coaches to strive to be. Coach Pop has led San Antonio to five titles in 15 years with players like “The Admiral” David Robinson, Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and Kawhi Leonard. At the helm of the San Antonio Spurs since 1996, his resume is highlighted by five NBA titles and an NBA Finals loss to the Heat in 2012-13. Popovich has won 50 or more games for 16-straight seasons.
However, even Coach Pop didn’t have the start that J-Kidd did. The Spurs struggled in his first year, posting a 17-47 record. However, it didn’t take long for him to transform the club into a contender. After adding Tim Duncan in the draft, the Spurs went 56-26 in year two and won an NBA title just won year later.
PHIL JACKSON
Phil Jackson started as an assistant coach for the Nets from 1978-81 before taking a break from coaching. He joined the Bulls coaching staff as an assistant from 1987-89 before taking control in the 1989-90 season. Phil Jackson’s first two years included a trip to the Eastern Conference finals, losing in seven games to the eventual champion, “Bad Boy” Pistons, and a NBA championship in the 1990-91 season, when the Bulls swept Isaiah Thomas, Bill Laimbeer and crew before crushing Magic Johnson and the Lakers in five games.
Jackson’s triangle offense worked wonders with Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, and Steve Kerr three-peating from 1991-93; and again from 1996-98. Jackson then moved to the Los Angeles Lakers where Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant led him to another three-peat from 2000-02. He won two more with Kobe in 2009 and 2010. A Hall-of-Fame coach, inducted in 2007, Jackson is now an executive with the New York Knicks, the team he played for. Simply put, he’s the greatest coach of all time: an exception to the rule.
JERRY SLOAN
Jerry Sloan played 10 seasons in the NBA for the Baltimore Bullets and Chicago Bulls. He averaged 14 points and 7.4 rebounds per game. After finishing his playing career in 1976, Sloan headed to the bench as an assistant coach for the Bulls and was eventually promoted to the head position in 1979.
Unlike Kidd, Sloan’s head coaching career started with two poor seasons in three years from 1979 to 1982. He missed the playoffs in Year 1 with a 30-52 record. His Bulls followed that with a 45-37 finish and a 2-0 sweep in the first round of the playoffs. However, a 4-0 sweep in the semifinals followed, and Sloan was fired after a 19-31 start the following year.
Sloan landed on his feet in Utah, where after four seasons as an assistant coach, he really made his mark with the Jazz. He didn’t make it back to the conference semifinals until 1990, and he didn’t really make his mark with the Jazz until the mid-90s. Sloan’s best two years were in the 1996-97 and 1997-98 seasons when the Jazz were Western Conference champions. Unfortunately for Sloan, his teams ran into Jackson and Jordan’s Bulls, losing both series four games to two.
LARRY COSTELLO
J-Kidd will try to be the first Milwaukee coach since Larry Costello to win a championship. Costello’s 1971 Bucks squad featured Hall-of-Famers Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Oscar Robertson. But while he has gone where no Bucks coach has ever gone, Costello started off slowly in Milwaukee, going 27-55 in his first season.
He was less successful than Jason in his rookie campaign, but jumped to 56-26, going 5-5 in the postseason in his second year. In year three, 1970-71, Milwaukee went 12-2 in the playoffs and won the championship. Costello was able to make the NBA Finals in 1973-74 when the Bucks lost in seven games to the Celtics.
DON NELSON
Inducted into the Hall-of-Fame in 2012, Bucks legend Don Nelson commanded the huddle for 31 seasons. He started his career with the Bucks and has worked with the Golden State Warriors, Knicks, and Mavericks.
Nelson went 27-37 in 1976-77, his first year as a head coach—far off what J-Kidd managed in his first in Brooklyn or his first in Milwaukee. In Year 2, the record leapt to 44-38 and ended in a conference semifinals loss. With three East finals appearances in a four-year span from 1982-86, Nelson brought great success to the Bucks.
His two best seasons were 1980-81 and 2002-03 when he took the Bucks and Mavs to identical 60-22 campaigns. In 2002-03, he lost the Western Conference finals to the eventual champion Spurs. Jason will try to do what Nellie could not: win a title in Milwaukee.
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING
J-Kidd left the floor in 2013 as one of the greatest NBA point guards of all time. His 12,091 assists and 2,684 steals rank second behind Utah Jazz guard John Stockton, he is a 10-time NBA All-Star, shared Rookie of the Year honors in 1994 and he won a championship ring running the 2010-11 Dallas Mavericks.
While he has enjoyed success both on the court and behind the bench, Jason is not satisfied with where he’s been in his first two years. And, great coaches are recognizing Jason’s competitive spirit, knowledge, and confidence level behind the bench.
“He is not somebody that thinks about losing,” Popovich said. “He is a competitor at the highest (level). He is knowledgeable and knows what it takes, and is comfortable in his own skin. He is going to be fair, but he is going to demand any kind of battle as far as doing it the right way, and will win the battle. I think that a young team is probably a great situation in that regard, because they are in need of knowledge and learning and how it all comes together. He is a guy that knows how that works.”
“He is a great competitor,” Carlisle said. “When you talk about guys that were the most competitive guys in the history of the game, he is, in my opinion, in a small handful of guys like Jordan and Bird. He is one of those guys that had an internal fire to win and he had an uncanny resourcefulness as a player.”
Jason finished third in the Coach of the Year voting last year, behind Mike Budenholzer of the Atlanta Hawks and Steve Kerr, who won the NBA title after inheriting a strong Golden State Warriors squad.
Bucks general manager John Hammond said afterword that, in his eyes, Jason was the coach of the year in 2014-15 after administering a tremendous turnaround of a Milwaukee squad that finished last in the NBA before his arrival. J-Kidd didn’t comment on the voting, but he simply said that Milwaukee’s journey doesn’t end with a playoff berth in Year 2.
“I think it feels great for those guys in the locker room to be able to obtain a goal, and that was to make the playoffs,” Jason said late last season. “But the journey doesn’t stop there.”
RELATED LINKS
- Praise from Peers: NBA coaches take notice of Kidd’s work (Bucks.com, May 18, 2015)
- Jason Kidd still not satisfied after masterful coaching job (NY Post, April 12, 2015)
- Jason Kidd finishes third in NBA’s Coach of the Year Award (Brew Hoop, April 21, 2015)
- Jason Kidd finishes third in coach of the year voting (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Apr. 21, 2015)
