Steve Mitchell – USA Today Sports Images
Future NBA Hall-of-Fame point guard Jason Kidd announced his retirement on June 3 in somewhat of a surprising move even though his skills had noticeably declined. However, it didn’t take him long at all to find his way back into headlines as he announced that he would like to venture into head coaching. It appears that he is going to get his wish.
Kidd emerged recently as the frontrunner for the vacant head coaching position with the Brooklyn Nets after meeting and interviewing with the team. He reportedly impressed the Nets’ front office, and the assumption since yesterday has been that it was his job to lose, even with Brian Shaw still interviewing with Brooklyn.
Per a report from Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski, Kidd and the Nets are in the middle of finalizing a three-year deal that will make the 40-year-old their head coach.
Considering that Kidd retired from playing just nine days ago, he obviously has no experience as a head coach. However, he’s already been aggressively pursuing high-profile assistant coaches like Lawrence Frank and Tim Grgurich to join his staff and help usher him into the coaching ranks at the professional level.
There are obviously mixed opinions on how Kidd will fare as the next head coach of the Nets. Some people believe that his lack of experience won’t be good for Brooklyn, while others point to the job that Mark Jackson, another former NBA point guard, did with the Golden State Warriors with no prior head coaching experience.
One of the things that Kidd could bring to the Nets is to help get Deron Williams back to playing at an All-Star level, something he didn’t do this past season. With Kidd’s vast experience as a high-level point guard in this league, he should be able to guide and impart knowledge to Williams on how to more effectively lead this Nets team.
There’s no telling how Kidd will perform in terms of making adjustments and in terms of strategy and scheme, but his experience as a point guard certainly bodes well for him as he has been a leader on the floor for so many years. Whether you think he’ll succeed or not, though, the Jason Kidd era is about to begin in Brooklyn.
Cody Williams is an NBA Blogger with Rant Sports. Follow Cody on Twitter @TheSizzle20 and like his Facebook page.
