NBA

Are the Nets ‘bush league’ or ravaged by injuries?

SAN ANTONIO — When Jason Kidd called Gregg Popovich for advice this summer, Popovich kept it simple.

“Stay positive,” Kidd said before Popovich’s Spurs crushed his Nets, 113-92. 

Staying positive after these first two months of the season for the Nets is no easy feat. Between the team’s 10-20 record entering last night’s game, myriad injuries and tumult on his coaching staff, the Nets have led the league in distractions, if nothing else.

“They’ve had everything hit them,” Popovich said. “They’ve had a gazillion new players. They’ve had injuries that are ridiculous. You can almost not even begin to deal with that. You have to have all your bodies there.

“And even if you had them all there, it takes time to put in a system and get used to each other. They haven’t had an opportunity to do any of that.”

The Nets’ hurdles would have been difficult for an experienced coach to deal with, let alone one hired less than two weeks after retiring from a 19-year Hall of Fame playing career.

But Popovich said Kidd’s vast experience as a player makes his transition to coaching different than an average player.

“Jason is different from Joe Blow being a new coach,” Popovich said. “He’s played for a lot of guys and he’s learned from each stop — things that wanted to do and things he wouldn’t want to do as a coach — and he’s going to gain instant respect for the guys on his team because they played against him for most of his career.

“But it’s not a complicated game. It’s about repetition and execution and consistency. That’s what he was in his career.”

Given the way things have gone for the Nets this season, it hasn’t been hard for people to criticize the way they’ve gone about their business. The latest to do so was former Magic coach Stan Van Gundy, who defended Kidd but criticized the organization in a radio interview Monday night.

“I think with all the injuries, it’s been hard to evaluate Jason Kidd,” Van Gundy said. “It’s been easy to jump on him not just because of the record, but the things coming out of their locker room, the situation with Lawrence Frank, the incident of spilling the drink on the floor.

“I mean, this has looked like a bush-league organization much of the year. They don’t play with much effort at all, a very uninspired team. But at the same time, they had so many people hurt you just don’t know, and now they are not they are not going to be healthy all year. … You can do whatever you want with the coaching situation, but it is not going to change the situation with their roster.

“They just don’t have a lot of options — they don’t have draft picks, they are way over the salary cap. They are probably in the worst situation of any team in the NBA right now.”
For his part, Kidd said despite the rough start he still believes in this group.

“I think we have one of the best owners, and so I’m confident,” Kidd said. “We’ve got a group of guys in there that are fighting, and we can only take care of one thing and that’s tonight’s game.”