Milwaukee Bucks: What to expect from Joe Prunty’s Bucks

The recent firing of head coach Jason Kidd has left assistant coach Joe Prunty in charge for the reminder of the season. What should Milwaukee Bucks fans expect to see from a Prunty led team?

News broke on Monday afternoon that the Milwaukee Bucks had fired head coach Jason Kidd. While the move may not have come as a total shock considering Milwaukee’s underachieving first half of the season, the timing wasn’t entirely expected either.

General manager Jon Horst was adamant that the mid-season timing of Kidd’s firing was what was best for Milwaukee’s success not only this season, but moving forward.

For the foreseeable future, that future will see the head coaching position filled on an interim basis by long-time assistant coach Joe Prunty.

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Prunty has been an NBA assistant coach since 2000, joined Jason Kidd’s staff with the Brooklyn Nets in the summer of 2013, and then came with Kidd to Milwaukee in 2014.

That position, as confirmed by Horst during Monday night’s Fox Sports Wisconsin telecast against the Phoenix Suns, will be Prunty’s until at least the end of the season.

Milwaukee plans to hold a full, thorough head coaching search in the summer, and one that Prunty “has every opportunity to be a part of based on what happens going forward” according to comments from Horst.

The choice of Prunty to take over the team in the interim should come as no surprise. He was Kidd’s most trusted and respected assistant, has over 20 years of NBA experience, and has been the Bucks interim head coach before.

Of course, it’ll be fun to speculate about the next full time head coach, as many have noted the position could be the most sought after in the league come summer. What’s going overlooked though, is what this team will look like under Prunty for the rest of this season.

As mentioned, Prunty has been the Bucks’ interim coach for a brief period of time before. He coached the team for 17 games from late December 2015 to late January 2016 while Kidd was recovering from hip surgery.

The team posted an 8-9 record, which on the surface seems pedestrian, but was a step in the right direction from Milwaukee’s 10-18 start to the season. While the sample size is small, Milwaukee played some good basketball relative to the rest of their season during that stretch.

During those 17 games Milwaukee averaged more points (101.7), rebounds (43.5), assists (23.3), and had better offensive and net ratings (104.8, -2.3) compared to their regular season averages of 99, 41.7, 23.1, 102.2, and -3.5 respectively.

While it’s unlikely Prunty was the main reason behind the uptick in play schematically (he was filling in for Kidd not taking over),  it’s easy to see that the long time assistant has the respect of the players and staff to perform at a level they’re expected to.

Related Story: Milwaukee Bucks: Jon Horst, Joe Prunty hold press conference about Jason Kidd firing

The chemistry and solidarity this team has built over the years will be paramount in getting through this rocky patch. Now more than ever, Milwaukee will need to rely on each other to go out and get the job done while change and uncertainty swirls around the team. Monday night’s win against Phoenix was a good start.

Malcolm Brogdon dropped a career high 32 points last night and noted the support he continues to receive from his team

"“My teammates always celebrate me like last year when I got my triple-double [and] this year, tonight, with my career high. This is a great team. A great atmosphere. That shows our camaraderie.”"

Factors like chemistry and playing for the guy next to you sound like clichés, but you’ll start to notice that narrative played out more under Prunty, because he’s a big believer in it too.

In his first post game press conference since becoming the interim coach, the 48-year-old mentioned factors that don’t always show up in the stat sheet before referencing a very specific example regarding chemistry.

"“You can even look at somebody like Marshall Plumlee. This is a thing that doesn’t show up in the stat sheet. There is an assist, one pass to another guy, [Marshall] is not involved in the play and he is screaming great pass, great pass. And he just joined the team, so it’s something… that didn’t start today, that’s been going on for the season. This group will pull for each other. That’s what we need to do. That’s what we have to do, everyday, and that’s pull for each other and that’s how you get wins in this league.”"

It’s obvious that chemistry and camaraderie are going to be points of emphasis for this team moving forward this season, and evidence suggests Prunty is an excellent voice for that.

Next: Win In 6 Podcast #178: Goodbye, Jason Kidd

Milwaukee has shown once before they can play at a high level for Prunty, maybe all it takes is a fresh perspective, chemistry, and dare I say, a little energy and effort.