The third head mid-season coaching change of the season is upon us.Falling to a 23-22 record and the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference, only one game ahead of the ninth-placed Detroit Pistons and underwhelming after a 15-10 start, the Milwaukee Bucks has fired head coach Jason Kidd, who will not now complete what would have been his fourth season with the team. Kidd leaves the Bucks with a 138-148 record and a .483% winning percentage. The Bucks in turn are left with the twelfth-best offence in the NBA, yet also the 25th best defence, and a recent stretch of games featuring more losses than wins, some of which were very heavy.In particular, the defensive decline was of concern. In his first season with the Bucks, Kidd's frenetic defensive style designed to prevent shot attempts rather than merely contest them saw them rank fourth in the league on defence, and while a significant lack of offensive talent saw them ranking fifth-worst on that end and mired in a .500 record, Kidd initially built on the good defensive team he inherited and gave the team a rugged, uncomfortable identity with which they became a tough out.Initially, at least. But that has dwindled away ever since. The defensive rating plummeted to 23rd the next season, rebounded to 19th last time out, yet has now fallen away even further, and whle the offence has improved, it merely offsets the defensive decline. The Bucks would still be a likely tough first round out if the status quo had remained, but the demands need to be higher than that, especially with the talent available. Teams with much worse individual defensive personnel - say, for example, the New York Knicks - are still playing much better team defence than Kidd's Bucks, and that buck (sorry) will always stop with coaching.Amid rumours of fractured relationships with both some of his players and the front office, Kidd could no longer get any defensive buy-in. Combined with an offensive playbook that was never impressive or efficient, and the consistent giving of a concerningly large amount of minutes to his best players (Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton are first and second in the league in minutes per game), Kidd ran out of time. While Giannis has developed considerably, for which he must take some credit, the Bucks nevertheless have not developed and remain in the same sort of win range as they did without Kidd, for which he must take some blame.

Kidd's replacement is likely to be short term. Wojnarowski is reporting that Joe Prunty will be named the immediate interim, a tag that will probably stay until the end of the season. If that names sounds familiar to British viewers, that is because Prunty is also the head coach of the Great Britain men's senior national team.

Head coaching roles are usually filled during the offseason, for the market is stronger then, with assistant coaches for other teams much more willing and able to prepare for the necessary lengthy interview process at that time. At that time, the market should be strong. The opportunity to coach unique transcendent talent Giannis Antetokounmpo is a lure unto itself, and with fellow talents Middleton and Eric Bledsoe on board, along with a return soon for Jabari Parker, the Bucks have a lot of the pieces in place to be further up the Eastern Conference standings than they actually are right now.

Despite how much the Bucks originally sought after him, Kidd couldn't do it. The Bucks will now start looking around for who can.