Bucks Welcome Coach Kidd

A new era has officially begun in Milwaukee.

The Milwaukee Bucks held a press conference on Wednesday afternoon at BMO Harris Bradley Center to formally introduce Jason Kidd as the franchise’s 14th head coach.

Joined by Bucks General Manager John Hammond and owners Wes Edens and Marc Lasry, Jason expressed his gratitude towards the Bucks organization and his plans to make Milwaukee a competitive NBA franchise.

“I would like to thank Wes and Mark for giving me this opportunity,” he said in his opening statement. “I’m very excited to be here in Milwaukee and to be a part of a young, talented roster… This is a family and I’m just very happy to be welcomed into this family. I’m looking for very good things to come in the future, but also today. This is about the Milwaukee Bucks and I’m very happy for this opportunity.”

Edens and Lasry purchased the Bucks on April 16, 2014, at the closure of the 2013-14 NBA season, and the sale was then completed a month later. They have since gone about attempting to rebuild the Bucks in short order, aided by the No. 2 pick in the NBA Draft, which they used to take Duke star Jabari Parker.

After the draft, the Bucks pursued and were granted the opportunity to speak with Jason, who spent his rookie season coaching the Brooklyn Nets. In order to get that permission, the Bucks sent two second round draft picks (2015 & 2019) to the Nets. After meeting, the sides hammered out a deal for Jason to become coach.

“Our number one goal when we bought the team was to hire people to run it that know what they’re doing,” Edens explained. “Jason is a person I’ve admired as a player for a long time. Being a New Yorker, he did a great job managing the Nets this year and we think he is the best young coaching talent in basketball.  We couldn’t be more excited about that.”

Lasry added, “For our organization, to be able to get someone like Jason is phenomenal. We’re really excited to have Jason be our coach.”

Jason has known Lasry since 2001 when Lasry was a minority owner of the then New Jersey Nets. Lasry later served as Jason’s financial advisor.

“Relationships are key,” J-Kidd said. “Knowing Marc and talking to Wes once we got the permission – that was the first time I met Wes…. You’re looking at two very successful people in business and in life.”

When the trio of Hammond, Edens and Lasry introduced Jason as Bucks coach, the excitement in the room was evident. Each of the three men articulated how they think the hire bodes well for the future success of the Bucks franchise.

“The last four days have been great days for the Milwaukee Bucks organization,” Hammond said. “I’ve been here six years, and I’ve never felt the kind of excitement that is surrounding our team… We think this is another part of us becoming a Championship team.”

In his second year as a coach, J-Kidd will face a wholly different challenge from what he experienced in his first go-around. Instead of a roster loaded with veteran experience like he had in Brooklyn, Coach Kidd will be tasked with helping a young roster develop into a championship contender. But Jason sees that as part of the job.

“I’m a coach and that’s what it’s all about. Wes and Marc and John are giving me the opportunity to coach a young team and I’m very honored to be here in Milwaukee,” he said. “They have a lot of talented guys and my job as coach is to bring out the best in them, but also teach them how to win and how to play at a high level.”

Other than the addition of Parker and any potential free agents they may sign or trades they may make, the young Bucks roster should remain very much intact from last year when the team went 15-67. Jason said it’s hard to expect an instant turnaround from a squad so young, but he believes the players will have learned a lot from last season.

“There are going to be some growing pains, but they can always be looked back upon as a learning experience and something that helps us get better each time we take the floor. That’s what makes this opportunity exciting and I’m looking to see it through to the end.”

As a second-year head coach, J-Kidd noted that he still has a lot to learn about his profession and hopes that the staff in Milwaukee can help him.

“Being able to get better as a coach — I’m still a young coach and I still have a lot to learn about coaching — I want to surround myself with guys like John and Wes and Marc and be able to learn from them and my coaching staff,” he said.

But one place where Jason can tap into a wealth of knowledge and experience is on the court, where he can draw from his long NBA career to help his young squad overcome some of the challenges that they are sure to face.

“As a player, my job was to make the guys around me better,” Kidd said. “I take the same approach as a coach, I want to make those 15 guys better. The one thing I told the guys last year was to trust me and to respect me. That’s what I had. I got to see a lot last year as a rookie coach. When you see the Shaun Livingstons of the world, to be able to have the season that he had, and the Alan Andersons, the guys that got better and they’re being rewarded. I feel I can do the same thing here.”

Lasry, Edens and Hammond expressed that the unique knowledge that Jason brings to the game—having been in the NBA and playing at the highest level for almost two decades—set him apart as a coaching candidate.

 “I learned early on that no one knows this business like players,” Hammond said. They call it a player’s league, but it’s more than that. Those guys, they feel the game, they see the game, and they see the game in a way that’s different than a coach. You look at a guy like Jason and after having watched him play for all these years with a ball in his hand — they talk about that kind of terminology, the “coach on the court” here’s the best example of that.”

Jason noted throughout the press conference that he learned a lot from serving as the coach of Brooklyn’s veteran roster last season. Like the Bucks, the Nets got off to a rough start to the season, losing 21 of their first 31 games. But from January 1st on, they were one of the best teams in basketball, compiling 34-17 record over the final 51 games of the season to reach the playoffs, where they made it to the second round. Coach Kidd told reporters on Wednesday that his season in Brooklyn taught him about the patience required in the coaching profession.

“As a player, I could have the ball in my hand and dictate what happens….as a coach, it’s about being patient and that’s going to be big for me as a young coach with young players,” he said. “Sometimes I’m going to see things and they’re not going to be able to see what I see, so it’s about being able to translate that and help them see what I’m seeing.”

J-Kidd will have his work cut out for him,as he attempts to become the fifth coach in Milwaukee history to earn and maintain a winning record, and he’ll be doing so in a much smaller market with different resources than he left in Brooklyn. But Jason made a point to note that what the game of basketball boils down to has little to do with the size of the market they play in.

“It’s not about the market it’s about being able to teach,” Kidd said. “I have a great opportunity in Milwaukee with a young roster. I’ve played in small markets and I’ve played in big markets. Basketball is inside the arena. It doesn’t matter what market you’re in. It’s about wins and losses and that’s the way I approach it.”

The Bucks currently have a strong core, led by the draft selection of Parker, who Coach Kidd likened to a couple NBA greats.

“I talked to Grant Hill and I told him, ‘I played against you a lot and now hopefully I’m getting to coach a player like you. Jabari has the opportunity to be a special player in this league,” he said. “

[Jabari] can eventually be a LeBron (James) in the NBA.”

In addition Jason will get to mentor a highly touted young point guard in Brandon Knight, a pure scorer in O.J. Mayo, and two talented swingmen in Khris Middleton, who was the only Milwaukee player to play all 82 games last season, and “The Greek Freak” Giannis Antetokounmpo, who emerged as a breakout rookie last season.

“It’s exciting. They still have a long way to go. They haven’t seen anything of the NBA even though he (Antetokounmpo) has played a year,” Jason said. “His upside is big. From what I understand he’s grown two inches. That doesn’t happen too much in the NBA. It didn’t happen with me….You couldn’t ask for a better opportunity to teach and try to make these guys better.”

The Bucks starting frontcourt is also set with veteran talent in big men Larry Sanders and Ersan Ilyasova. The next step according to Coach Kidd is to bring all that talent together and make the most out of it. It’s doing that, no matter the market, that he believes will attract even more talent to Milwaukee in the coming years and allow the Bucks to build a championship team.

“My job is to try and get the players that I have better and then when we go into free agency being able to have that attraction because we’re winning,” Kidd said. “It’s about winning… It’s not about the market. It’s about Milwaukee. Milwaukee has a lot of great things to sell. I think it’s the talent and being able to win a championship.”

RELATED LINKS

• Kidd ready to take the reins as Bucks coach (Milwaukee JS, July 3, 2014)
• Sweeney will coach Bucks summer league team (Milwaukee JS, July 2, 2014)
• Jason Kidd introduced as Bucks Head Coach (Brew Hoop, July 2, 2014)
• Milwaukee Bucks formally introduce Jason Kidd (FOX 6, July 2, 2014)
• Jason Kidd introduced by Bucks (Associated Press, July 2, 2014)
• How Kidd’s longball lineup could help the Bucks (D.C. Post, June 30, 2014)