In just his second season as a head coach, and his first with the Milwaukee Bucks, Jason Kidd orchestrated a tremendous turnaround—and now, at season’s end, he is being recognized for a job well done.

The NBA announced this season’s Coach of the Year honors, as voted by the media, and Coach Kidd finished third, with Mike Budenholzer of the Atlanta Hawks taking first, and Steve Kerr of the Golden State Warriors coming in second.

Of course, the job is far from over for all three coaches. Jason currently has his Bucks entwined in a first-round battle with the Chicago Bulls in the Eastern Conference Playoffs. Kerr’s Warriors are up 2-0 on the New Orleans Pelicans in the Western Conference, and Budenholzer’s Hawks lead the Brooklyn Nets 1-0 in the East.

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Kerr, in his first season as a head coach, led the Warriors to the best record in the league, navigating the treacherous West to the No. 1 seed and a 67-15 overall record. Meanwhile Budenholzer guided his Hawks in capturing the No. 1 spot in the East at 60-22.

However, neither coach engineered the caliber of turnaround that J-Kidd did in Milwaukee. Last year, the Bucks were a mere 15-67: far and away the worst record in the league. He helped them to nearly triple that win total by going 41-41 in the regular season and securing the No. 6 seed in the East. Meanwhile, both the Hawks and the Warriors made the playoffs last year.

That, Bucks general manager John Hammond says, is worth of an outright Coach of the Year bid.

“I understand why Mike received the honor he did and Steve, with the win totals they had, they do deserve that,” Hammond told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “But in my eyes, what happened in Milwaukee, Jason Kidd was the coach of the year.”

Milwaukee Bucks v Chicago Bulls - Game Two

Jason received just one first-place vote and five second-place votes, but he led all coaches with 37 third-place nods—first-place votes translate to five points, second-place votes are worth three, and third-place votes equal one point, giving Jason a grand total of 57. In the eyes of the media, Budenholzer and Kerr were far ahead with 513 and 471 points, respectively.

Coach Kidd was asked recently about being in the running for Coach of the Year, but he deflected the attention back to his players, and the strides made by this franchise as a whole.

“It is about the players,” Coach Kidd said. “The players do the lifting. My job is to make sure they are ready to go to put them in position to be successful. Hopefully I’ve done that with everyone I’ve coached this year. The culture has hopefully changed for the better. That’s all that I’m concerned about.”

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According to Hammond, the way Jason shepherded his young players is exactly what made him worth of CoY. He got No. 2 overall pick Jabari Parker off to a Rookie of the Year-caliber campaign, only to see it end early due to injury.

He overcame that obstacle, as well as numerous other personnel changes, including the surprise midseason exit of Larry Sanders, and the trade deadline departure of leading scorer Brandon Knight. He welcomed in several new players at the beginning of the year, and then more at the deadline, including last year’s Rookie of the Year, Michael Carter-Williams.

The team experienced some road bumps through those issues, but Jason kept his squad on track through it all, and they lifted the franchise  into the playoffs, just one year removed from an abysmal 15-win campaign.

“The obstacles he went through, with Jabari going down and Larry’s situation, to lose two starters, tells you a lot about Jason and his ability to coach, his ability to lead,” Hammond said. “Also you have to look at Jason’s leadership with the veterans – Zaza (Pachulia), Jared Dudley, O.J. Mayo and Jerryd Bayless. We’ve had a nice chemistry within the team, and there’s no question whatsoever that Jason was the leader of this group.”

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