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| Yep, this guy's our coach now, not back-up point guard. I know, hard to believe |
Remember a few days ago when it was just a faint and very out-there rumor that linked former Net great Jason Kidd to the team's open head-coaching position? Well, that rumor turned out to be the whole truth, as future Hall-of-Famer and recent NBA retiree Kidd has been hired by the Nets to serve as their new coach, the first one to be hired in Brooklyn and not New Jersey.
Moving very quickly on Wednesday, the story evolved from a few rogue reports citing the Nets being on the "verge" of hiring Kidd to them even meeting with other candidate, Pacers assistant Brian Shaw, before deciding to go with Kidd in one of the franchise's most important decisions ever. Now, he will go from playing against the Nets as an opponent on the court, as he did with the Knicks in the 2012-13 season, to coaching them. A transition that hasn't been done since 1990 in this amount of time.
The deal, guaranteed for three years, came as a massive surprise to the NBA community as Kidd was mainly viewed as a "nostalgia" choice for the early part of the coaching search, and didn't even enter into the discussion until around a week ago. But clearly, the Nets' brass saw enough of Kidd when they interviewed him to think that he has the ability to coach this team well and lead it all the way to the top of the league.
It's rare that former players with absolutely zero prior coaching experience are given head-coaching jobs their first time around, but then again, Jason Kidd isn't like most players, he's someone who led the Nets to back-to-back Finals appearances in the early 2000s and is one of the team's most recognizable historical players. Also, as one of the most prolific floor generals in league histoy, he possesses the pure in-game basketball knowledge that could be easily transmitted to the Nets' un-retired point guard, Deron Williams. D-Wil can use Kidd, a relative contemporary of his, as a treasure trove of information on how to play the position as successfully as the Cal-Berkeley grad did in his time.
A really bold and brash move by the Nets to hire someone like Jason Kidd, but it feels more risky than beneficial, to me, at this exact moment. I'm excited for him and the Nets to prove me wrong this upcoming season, but there's no doubt that roadblocks that face any new coach with a new team will get in the way of the Nets this year, and how well they fare will be determined by how well they get through those obstacles.
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