The Milwaukee Bucks have won six of their last seven games, and they were operating at their full potential on Sunday, walloping the Brooklyn Nets by the score of 109-94. What happened seven games ago? Milwaukee fired Jason Kidd.
There were a lot of reasons that the Bucks fired Kidd, but perhaps the most tangible on-court change is the defense. Under Kidd, Milwaukee ran with a trapping defense that gambled on length and athleticism to force enough turnovers and extra passes to put the Bucks toward the top of the league.
It was a good idea in concept — and as FiveThirtyEight wrote, it worked about as well as could be expected. (I’d recommend reading that piece, which is excellent.) Milwaukee did force more passes and more turnovers — just not enough for it to matter.
Mired in the bottom 10 throughout this season, Milwaukee has reverted to a more conservative style under interim head coach, Joe Prunty, who frequently uses switches, more in line with what most modern defenses run. Since firing Kidd on Jan. 22, it has worked — the Bucks have the second-best defense in that time frame, allowing 98.9 points per 100 possessions.
The Bucks probably won’t win six out of every seven going forward, and their defense probably won’t finish second in the league. But it seems like Milwaukee is trending upward since the Kidd firing. That defense is a good explanation why.
