Brooklyn Nets: Don’t Dismiss Jason Kidd as Coach Too Quickly

Jason Kidd just retired as a player. Now, he wants to be the next coach of the Brooklyn Nets. Photo Credit: Mark Runyon, Basketball Schedule

Yahoo Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski reported Sunday, June 9, that recently retired Jason Kidd is interested in coaching the Brooklyn Nets and sources told Wojnarowski that the prospect has been kicked around at the highest levels of the organization.

At first glance, it seems crazy, right? The guy just took off his uniform last week and now he wants to have the big dry-erase board?

ESPN.com’s Marc Stein confirmed on Sunday night the Brooklyn has added Kidd’s name to its list of potential replacements for P.J. Carlesimo and Kidd is scheduled to meet with general manager Billy King this week to pitch his bonafides as an NBA head coach.

Kidd has a deep history with the team. He is one of the greatest players in the history of the franchise and probably its greatest player since the Nets joined the NBA from the ABA in 1976. Kidd’s arrival to the then-New Jersey Nets in the summer of 2001 paid off immediately with back-to-back appearances in the NBA Finals in 2002 and 2003.

Indiana Pacers assistant Brian Shaw is considered to be Brooklyn’s top choice, but the Los Angeles Clippers and Denver Nuggets are said to be hotly pursuing Shaw, as well.

Kidd retired as the No. 2 man on the NBA’s all-time assists and steals list and his 19-year NBA career included an Olympic goal medal and an NBA title with the Dallas Mavericks in 2011.

Count San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich as one who thinks Kidd could succeed on the bench.

"When you’ve played for a number of coaches, he’s pretty much seen everything that the NBA can offer. So he does have experience. If he’s crazy enough to want to be a head coach in this league, I wish him all the best.He certainly has the intuitive skills to know what’s going on out there. Obviously, he would be able to have relationships with the players that he’s had with his coaches throughout. So if that’s what he wants to do and that’s who [the Nets] want to hire, I think he’s got an opportunity and a possibility to be really, really good at it."

There are a couple of relatively recent examples of great point guards who turned to coaching without any experience as assistants. One of those has worked out well. The other? Not so much.

Isiah Thomas did not fare well as an NBA coach, lasting three seasons with an underachieving Indiana Pacers team and two years with a terrible New York Knicks club. (Flickr.com photo by Keith Allison)

Isiah Thomas retired from the Detroit Pistons in 1994 and immediately became part-owner and executive vice president for the expansion Toronto Raptors. He left the post in 1998 and was responsible for the franchise drafting Damon Stoudamire, Marcus Camby and Tracy McGrady.

Then he ran the Continental Basketball Association into the ground before taking over for Larry Bird as coach of the Indiana Pacers. In three seasons, Thomas took a team that had just reached the NBA Finals to a 41-41 mark and a first-round playoff exit.

As general manager and later coach of the New York Knicks, he was a disaster, creating a salary-cap nightmare from which the Knicks took several years to emerge, in part because of signed players such as Jerome James and Jared Jeffries to larger contracts than they ever should have been offered.

He also had a three-year stint as a collegiate coach, going 26-65 at Florida International.

On the other hand, Mark Jackson retired from the NBA in 2004 after 17 seasons as a player and turned almost immediately to broadcasting. The Golden State Warriors hired him as head coach in 2011 despite his complete lack of coaching experience.

In his second year, the Warriors won 47 games and upset the Denver Nuggets before losing to the San Antonio Spurs in the second round of the playoffs.

So what’s the difference between Thomas and Jackson? Jackson surrounded himself with an assistant coaching staff that could make up for his lack of experience. Indeed, Mark Malone raised his profile working for Jackson to the point that he is now the head coach of the Sacramento Kings.

Mark Jackson, third from left, has succeeded as coach of the Golden State Warriors in part because he supplemented his own lack of coaching experience with a good staff of assistants. Jackson’s staff in 2012-13 included, from left, Darren Erman, Pete Myers, Kris Weems (back row), Mike Malone and Bob Beyer (back row). Player Draymond Green is at far left. (Flickr.com photo by Matthew Addie)

A source told Stein that Kidd would only be considered for the Brooklyn job if he were able to assemble “an all-star cast” of veteran assistants to support him.

Considering that is what Kidd would need to be successful anyway, maybe it’s worth a look at Kidd. He has a close relationship with point guard Deron Williams and would also be the splashy, big-name hire owner Mikhail Prokhorov so desperately covets.

Coach Kidd? It’s sort of got a ring to it.