Jason Kidd power move shows Bucks owners' inexperience
The Milwaukee Bucks' new owners stepped in a mess, blindsiding general manager John Hammond and coach Larry Drew by asking the Brooklyn Nets for permission to speak with their coach, Jason Kidd.
And though the Bucks' lame statement said, "We're not going to comment on rumors or speculation," the story was neither. The honeymoon might not be over for new owners Marc Lasry, a former Nets minority owner who is close to Kidd, and Wesley Edens, but they ruined dinner one night and the vacation is almost over.
They are not the first owners to take over a team and make a few missteps along the way. It happens. But it's interesting that these two savvy and smart people think that because they were able to protect secrets in one line of work think they can do so in the NBA.
They'll learn, sort out their internal mess and move on, likely with Kidd. And now the Nets are expecting to hire a coach for the second time in 13 months. Lionel Hollins is a front-runner, but George Karl could also have a chance, according to a person familiar with process.
Kidd's tenure in Brooklyn apparently will be short, as he is thought to have had a Bucks job in hand when he went to Nets executives — above general manager Billy King's head — and asked for control of basketball operations, according to a person familiar with the situation.
The person requested anonymity because there is no resolution yet as the Nets try to get compensation from the Bucks, and the Nets are set on a first-round pick.
Kidd's power play backfired. He certainly had Russians in his corner. That's in part how he got the coaching job with Brooklyn. Kidd's agent, Jeff Schwartz, sold the idea of his player-to-coach transition to Dmitry Razumov, who is not listed in the Nets' media guide but is a trusted adviser to owner Mikhail Prokhorov. King was against hiring Kidd, telling Sports Illustrated before the season that his initial reaction was, "Absolutely not." But Razumov had interest, and Kidd won King over in the interview.
The relationship wasn't smooth at first, especially when the Nets dropped to 10-21 after a New Year's Eve loss to the San Antonio Spurs. Growing pains for Kidd as a coach were expected, but King also expected more after assembling the high-priced roster.
How seriously King considered a coaching change is unknown, but it had to have crossed his mind. Then the Nets beat the Oklahoma City Thunder on Jan. 2 and won 10 of their next 11 games. The Nets were headed in the right direction, and ended up being one of the better teams in the East from Jan. 1 through the end of the regular season.
Along the way, King and Kidd found common ground. King said Kidd "needed me to be there and to listen and be a sounding board and have an understanding of the kind of players he wants." They communicated regularly.
The Nets finished with the sixth seed, beat the Toronto Raptors in the first round and lost to the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference semifinals. After that series, Kidd sounded like a coach ready to return to the Nets next season. Sometime between then and now, the idea to have more control of basketball operations became a priority.
But Kidd underestimated that King had key Prokhorov advisers on his side, too, and the coup failed. King played it right the entire time, from hiring Kidd to letting Kidd make the wrong moves.
Contributing: Sam Amick