Milwaukee Bucks: 5 reasons Jason Kidd was fired

3. Poor in-game decision making

Jason Kidd was one of the best players in NBA history at reading the court and making quick in-game decisions that helped his team win. Move him off the court and onto the sideline, and suddenly that ability disappears into the night.

Without delving into the minutiae of time-outs and halftime adjustments, Kidd really blew up at the end of close games. While coaching, the Nets he famously instructed a player to knock his drink out of his hand in order to gain an extra timeout, but that’s more insanity than a tactical decision.

Except the tactical decisions border on insanity themselves. In one game, up four with less than 10 seconds in the game, Kidd instructed his team to intentionally foul an opposing Detroit player.

When asked about it after the game, Kidd reasoned “we’ll just play the free throw game with them” when sound tactical judgment leads to forcing the opponent to spend time scoring in a two-score situation.

Things didn’t improve as the season went on, but rather got worse. In a marquee win over the Cleveland Cavaliers just before Christmas, Khris Middleton went to the line to shoot his second free throw, with Milwaukee up three and just 1.4 seconds on the clock.

Make the shot, and the Cavaliers are out of the game with no four-point shot available. Instead, Kidd told Middleton to intentionally miss the free throw.

Again Kidd tried to outsmart everyone, including the rules of basketball, by getting “creative” at the end of a game. His response:

"“We talked about it as he walked to the free throw line,” Kidd said. “My first response was to miss the second one. We’ll take the bet of someone making it from the other side of the floor. … If we did make that free throw, our luck they get it in-bounds at half-court and we foul the 3-point shooter and it’s a four-point play. We’ll take our chances with them heaving a full-court shot.”"

Kidd, when faced with tough in-game decisions, went for the less-obvious and more-damaging option both times. His inability to develop as a coach or take good counsel from his assistants finally became too much and contributed to his dismissal.