The Milwaukee Bucks have fired coach Jason Kidd, the team announced on Wednesday.
Kidd compiled a 139-152 record in three-plus seasons in Milwaukee, leading the Bucks to a pair of first-round playoff exits in 2015 and 2017.
The Bucks currently own a 23-22 record, just a game ahead of the Detroit Pistons for the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference well below expectations, given Giannis Antetokounmpo’s emergence as an All-Star starter and MVP candidate.
Bucks assistant Joe Prunty will serve as interim coach, beginning with their game against the Phoenix Suns on Monday night. Prunty previously served as an assistant on the San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks, Portland Trail Blazers, Cleveland Cavaliers and Brooklyn Nets, winning a pair of titles with the Spurs in 2003 and 2005. He also served as head coach of the British national team from 2013-17.
Kidd spent his first season after retiring as a player as head coach of the Brooklyn Nets before a messy divorce landed him in Milwaukee in 2014.
Milwaukee sent Brooklyn two second-round picks in exchange for letting Kidd out of the final two years of his coaching deal. The Nets reacquired their own 2015 second-round pick, which they used in a deal to get Rondae Hollis-Jefferson’s rights, and also picked up Milwaukee’s 2019 second-rounder.
Following a loss to the Miami Heat last week, Kidd criticized his team for playing “selfish” and “bad basketball,” suggesting that the team’s struggles are a result of the team’s youth and inexperience.
New Milwaukee general manager Jon Horst, who took over the position at age 34, will now be looking for a coach who is more confident in his ability to get through to a young Bucks squad that is expected to become a contender in the East.
And there are few more attractive jobs than Milwaukee, where Antetokounmpo is a generational talent improving in each of his first five seasons. The Bucks also acquired talented point guard Eric Bledsoe this season to pair with a talented young core that expects to add Jabari Parker, coming off of another ACL injury, around the All-Star break.