NBA: Top 5 Coach of the Year Candidates Entering 2015-16

6 of 7

Oct 17, 2015; Milwaukee, WI, USA; Milwaukee Bucks head coach

Jason Kidd

calls a play in the second quarter during the game against the Washington Wizards at BMO Harris Bradley Center. Mandatory Credit: Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports

No. 2: Jason Kidd – Milwaukee Bucks

When Jason Kidd was brought aboard as the head coach of the Brooklyn Nets a few seasons back, I was thrilled. My favorite player growing up was set to return to my favorite team as the man in charge, and they had a team built to win in the postseason. What could possibly go wrong I thought?

Fast forward a few seasons and I remain a bitter Nets fan who sees a light at the end of the tunnel, now a full NBA season away. Jason Kidd, however, is in an incredible situation far away from the chaos in the Barclays Center.

He is at the helm of a franchise with no real history of winning recently, and thus very few expectations surround him. He has a young, exciting team to coach that’s bursting at the seams with both talent and potential. He’s coming off a season where he was short listed for Coach of the Year honors and he ended a sizable playoff drought for the franchise.

The NBA Laws of Physics now entail that one of the following two things will happen:

  1. The Bucks seem to hit a plateau after last year’s success and either end up finishing with a similar record, and face a similar first round exit from the playoffs.
  2. The young guns on the roster see huge improvements in their games, and as a result the team as a whole improves and becomes a legitimate contender in the East.

Luckily for Kidd and the rest of the organization, many analysts agree that the latter is far more likely. This means that for a second straight season, all of the success and improvements of a young and talented team will be attributed to Jason Kidd.

Next: No. 1