In the past two offseasons, the Brooklyn Nets made move after move to shrink their window of contention, as it cracked that smaller window open a little more. Joe Johnson may be on the wrong side of 30, but he can still shoot for now. Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce may only have one year left, but they’re an upgrade for that year. Young players disappeared, replaced with veterans ready to unite under one common goal, a goal that needed to be quickly realized. Everything was done with “now” in mind.
Except hiring Jason Kidd.
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Kidd was the biggest wild card move the Nets made, bringing on a 40-year-old with zero coaching experience at any level. He had never managed personalities as an authority figure in a suit. He had never exerted control over assistant coaches and gameplans. He had been an executor of the game for 19 years, but never a tactician from the sideline. It was an enormous risk by King, one he hoped would pay off in both the short and long term.
28 games into Kidd’s coaching career — the same amount of time Avery Johnson got in his third season with the Nets before getting the axe — Kidd’s coaching style may be wearing thin on the organization.
From Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports:
The Nets had tried to be supportive of Kidd, but patience is running low on the belief he can deliver the structure and organization desperately needed. As the Nets have devolved into chaos, Kidd has increasingly isolated himself within the locker room and organization, sources told Yahoo Sports. From management to players, Kidd has shown an inability to manage crisis and keep the respect of his players.
Rifts exist between old players and new, trust eroded with every humiliating loss in this 9-19 season.
And yet, somehow, Kidd believes he can keep publicly eviscerating his players’ character and desire, and spare himself blame and responsibility. For those around the Nets with a sense of history and irony, they remember Kidd running ex-coach Byron Scott out of his job for offenses born of this failed playbook.
Here’s the question management is grappling with: Does Brooklyn start unloading its star players and stay the course with the coach, or unload the coach and let someone else coach these star players?
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More than once, sources said, players have stood in the locker room and told Kidd they don’t understand their roles, that there’s confusion about their principles. When the Nets players keep insisting they don’t have a team identity, they’re offering code words for Kidd’s inability to give them clear structure, organization and vision.
Wojnarowski also delved into Kidd’s fractured relationship with former lead assistant Lawrence Frank, alleging that he needed Frank as a scapegoat for the team’s issues and did not listen to the pleas of his assistants:
Long before training camp in September, the coaching staff met for hours and hours, discussed a defensive system and Kidd then worked with Frank to implement it in the preseason. Soon, Kidd changed his mind. Suddenly, the authority he had given Frank to be a strong voice had been rescinded.
Suddenly, Kidd the player was back with the Nets. In crisis, he wanted a scapegoat. This was such a players’ mentality: Trade Frank, cut him – just don’t make me deal with the issue. As a head coach, the job is to manage a staff, work through problems. Kidd refused, and it’s deeply contributed to how lost he has become now.
Of course, Kidd had been warned. Before Kidd pushed out Frank, sources said, other assistant coaches pleaded with him: Please don’t do this. The message to Kidd was this: Even if you think you don’t need him, the rest of us do. Kidd didn’t listen to his staff, nor management on this impulsive act.
Now, the Nets are living with the consequences.
One thing worth noting: Kidd is also a minority owner of the franchise, having bought Jay-Z’s shares after the rapper-mogul became involved in player representation and sold the shares to comply with NBA rules.
Read the full article below on Yahoo!.
Full Article: Jason Kidd losing support within Nets’ locker room
