The Brooklyn Nets hired Jason Kidd this past summer after his last stint as a player with the New York Knicks. Kidd, was an awesome floor general during his Hall of Fame career was expected to make an easy transition as a head coach for the veteran laden Brooklyn Nets. Kidd had a rocky start, and many thought the Nets wouldn’t make the playoffs after such a dismal beginning to the season.
After the firing of assistant coach Lawrence Frank, Kidd flourished as a coach during the regular season. The Nets had the best record in the NBA after the first half of the season was over. The Nets improvement had a lot to do with style of play and the development of some key players. When Kidd was hired many thought that Deron Williams would return to his old form, and to a surprise he didn’t. Williams is still a solid player, but not compared to what he was in Utah.
With Kevin Garnett moving like Uncle Ruckus, and the injury to Brook Lopez the Nets had to adapt. Kidd put the ball In Shaun Livingston’s hands and moved Paul Pierce to a small ball power forward, they began to make noise.
Despite making the playoffs it was pretty evident to see that there are some holes on the roster. Fast forwarding to the playoffs the Nets were ousted out of the playoffs by the defending champions the Miami Heat. The Nets were overmatched from the start of the series despite making some of the games interesting. Even though Kidd was out coached by Erik Spoelstra the Nets reached their pinnacle with this roster.
I think Jason Kidd did a pretty good job in his first stint as a head coach. I wish I could say the future is bright in Brooklyn, but with an aging and very expensive roster it’s hard to see the Nets improving in the next few years.
I think Kidd will get better as a coach over the years, but the problem is that the team he is coaching will regress. I think the Jason Kidd experiment was successful. The Nets reached the second round of the playoffs which was better than the previous year. It was their draw of bad luck that they had to match up against the Miami Heat. Hats off to J-Kidd to a good start to the crazy world of head coaching in the NBA.
Like you said J Kidd isn’t the problem its that old roster with no picks until 2030 that’s the problem, they have a lot of money tied up and hopefully the retirement of KG frees up a little but they still have a lot of money on the books for years to come. The only way something changes next year is if D Will goes to Europe and gets that Kobe surgery on his ankle and somehow returns to early Nets or Utah D Will which prolly won’t happen.