NBA scores 2018: Jason Kidd’s firing has revived the Bucks

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 their length and athleticism to force enough turnovers and extra passes to put them towards 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 that frequently uses switches, more in like 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 upwards since the Kidd firing. That defense is a good explanation why.

Kent Bazemore is a serious trade chip

He’s still making too much money, but January was Bazemore’s best month in a while. The 28-year-old swingman averaged 14.9 points and 2.8 assists with a 58.5 percent True Shooting Percentage, and he followed it up with a great start to February, too. His 19 points was crucial for Atlanta’s comeback win against New York, specifically this triple from the corner.

Someone should snatch up Bazemore if they can stomach his $37 million left over the next two seasons. (Oh man.) For a desperate team like Cleveland, that might be worth it.