Which is why I clearly asked for "interim" choices until the end of the year. He had a fairly talented team at the time: Both Redd and KVH in their primes with a lot of depth, http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/MIL/2004.html, and only managed 41 wins. I think MIL firing him after just one year is telling.
Van Horn played 25 games that year. Tim Thomas was one of the better players on that team (which says a lot), and he only played half the season. TJ Ford was the best point guard on that team--as a rookie--and he missed 1/3 of the season. That team wasn't very good, had a lot of injuries, and they still went .500 and made the playoffs. And MIL didn't fire him after one year. He was there in '05 too, when the roster was even worse (no Ford, no Thomas, crappier KVH, Dan Gadzuric as starting center). He did about as well as most coaches would have in that situation.
Hm... maybe I should have done some more research on his time with the Bucks. I confused that PHX fired him after one year, not MIL.