So … in the great New York basketball parlor game in which the Final Jeopardy question is “Which coach will be the first to pay for the sins of dueling November calamities …”
Well, as the great Warner Wolf might put it: “If you took Mike Woodson or Jason Kidd, you still lost.”
It’s probably too simple to say that somehow Kidd has retained his talent as a coach killer even after he’s become a coach himself (although as the kid in the AT&T ad says, “That’s what makes it funny”) and closer to the truth to say that, from body language to buzz, the relationship between Kidd and Lawrence Frank had been souring for a while.
So Frank is reassigned “to doing daily reports,” to no longer sitting on the bench or working practice, and suddenly the notion of Kidd having one of the deepest support staffs in the sport is all part of the past tense.
Frank has a contract for six years and $6 million, a big reason Kidd was able to coax him to join his maiden voyage. As with anything that happens for the Nets, the money is incidental thanks to Mikhail Prokhorov’s bottomless pockets; it’s nice work if you can get it. The cause is a lot more interesting.
And the effect will be downright fascinating.
“Just different philosophies,” Kidd said Tuesday night, a few hours before the Nets would absorb their first post-Frank pounding, 111-87, at the hands of the Nuggets. “That’s all.”
It makes sense Kidd would want to spin this as a routine transaction because what was already looking like an abbreviated honeymoon has officially become barely a weekend getaway.
Look, it was silly and remains silly to think Kidd should find his way onto the griddle if the Nets’ season keeps cratering. Prokhorov and Billy King knew precisely what they were hiring in June: a rookie coach who’d never even spent time assisting his kids’ summer league teams.
The Nets’ brass said all the right things when they hired Kidd over Brian Shaw — who in a serendipitous twist was at Barclays Center Tuesday night with Denver. They understood, they said, the craft of coaching professional basketball players isn’t a talent you pick up in a week, a month, even a season.
If Kidd’s task changed once King overhauled the roster in a flurry a few weeks later, his job description never should have. Kidd has had his moments, and there have been whispers across the league that maybe he isn’t exactly Mozart as a coach, more project than prodigy.
Didn’t matter. There is one coach in New York who merits a hot seat after a month and change of season, and it isn’t Kidd.
Although this certainly alters the landscape.
Kidd pursued Frank across the summer after Frank was fired as coach of the Pistons, as he dealt daily with personal matters. Frank coached Kidd with the Nets (after the point guard forced Byron Scott to walk the gangplank) and Kidd spoke effusively of their relationship. Once he was wooed, Kidd publicly confirmed Frank would be in charge of the defense, John Welch the offense.
The Nets entered Tuesday night 29th in defensive rating (actually two slots lower than the matador Knicks), so that was surely an issue — and this game didn’t exactly boost that ranking. There were murmurs of rancor, and a careful inspection of the video of the soda incident last week shows Frank looking decidedly incredulous as the whole thing unfolds.
Six days later, he became a handsomely paid adviser.
And this was how Kidd chose to describe the Nets’ new reality: “I’ve been doing this from Day One. I understand what it means to be a coach and having your guys ready. That’s what I’ve been doing since summer league.”
That’s disingenuous at best, dishonest at worst, and utterly besides the point moving forward. It does seem Frank, an NBA head coach for parts of nine seasons, was the one whose transition from Alpha dog to ensemble player was the more difficult adjustment.
And to Kidd’s credit, he owned this decision, as well as the most succinct summary of Thursday’s Showdown From Hell with the Knicks: “Both teams stink.”
Now he owns the Nets’ bench in practice as well as principle. He still deserves time to find his legs and his voice. But there’s little doubt the ground rules have changed. And his grace period is suddenly substantially less gracious.