WELCOME TO 2014! Brooklyn Nets New Year’s Resolutions

Jason Kidd

RESOLUTION: Oh boy. There’s a lot of fans that want your head on a stick today, Jason.

Want to know how many? I wrote that sentence before the Nets lost 113-92 on December 31st, the final day of the year, to the San Antonio Spurs. Check out these tweets I got:

@uuords AND THATS WHY KIDD NEEDS TO GET FIRED..NO RESPECT NO CONTROL
— bLaCk Ic0n (@NewmutantsWill) January 1, 2014

@TheBKGame they want kidd to get fired, no other explanation
— Bir Cisim Yaklaşıyor (@SahinAydin1903) January 1, 2014

@uuords do you mean as the coach, or alive? #TheProhkorovFactor

— Mason Asbury (@masbury12) January 1, 2014

@uuords I'm not usually one for call for a coach to get fired but there's no life in this team, it hasn't worked, fire Kidd and blow it up

— Paul Boehl (@Boehl7) January 1, 2014

@uuords could be a sign that the players are done with the Kidd mess…
— Ed Headlam (@ThatsHeadlam) January 1, 2014

That’s just a smattering. The boo birds come out stronger and louder with each passing loss, with each game that features constant confusion on offense and defense, with screens that go nowhere and open shooters on the perimeter. They expected you, the greatest leader in the franchise’s history, to continue that legacy of leadership into the playoffs.

Everything has gone wrong. Kidd’s once-powerful throne has been set ablaze by failure and now he’s rummaging through the rubble just trying to stand up again. The next step for most fans is to cut him loose.

But they won’t do that. There’s too much invested in Kidd. So instead, here’s some ways to improve upon these ruins: stop making changes as excuses. Pick an offense, and stick to it. Pick your coaching staff, and stick to it. Don’t say you’re simplifying the defense if the defense is already simple, and don’t say you’re bringing the bigs “up” on the pick-and-roll if there hasn’t been a significant change. I respect you for calling out your players for not bringing the effort, and a lot of the problems this team has had have fallen somewhat unfairly on your shoulders. But you’ve also deflected a fair amount of blame. With Kevin Garnett and a group of veterans, there’s no excuse for a bottom-feeding defense.

HIGH POINT: Relive the magic.

Save your indignation for Kidd’s insult to the integrity of the game. The cup spill was awesome. It was simultaneously hilarious and savvy. In a split-second, he gave the Nets a chance to draw up a bonus play and get in rhythm even without a time-out. He did something a veteran coach 30 years his senior might think up. Actually, he did something that a veteran coach 30 years his senior did think up: He said he got the idea from Del Harris.

Sure, it cost him $50,000, but the Nets almost won the game because they had the chance to draw up a bonus play. Worth it to me, worth it to you, worth it to the canon.

LOW POINT: Other than whatever he says at halftime that leads into the team’s third-quarter meltdowns, Kidd’s canned answers to even the easiest questions. Take a shot every time Kidd said the words “energy” and “effort” after a loss and you’d be dead before the post-game show ended.

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