Jason Kidd’s NBA Head Coaching Options Revealed by Chris Broussard [WATCH]

Getty Jason Kidd

Will Jason Kidd become an NBA head coach next season?

The Hall of Famer and current Los Angeles Lakers assistant coach is raising his profile by the day and if LA wins this year’s NBA Finals against the Miami Heat, the profile could be even higher.

Appearing on the Heavy Live With Scoop B Show, I asked Fox Sports’ Chris Broussard if Kidd could make the jump back into a head coaching position next season; he was candid. “Not next year necessarily,” he said.

“But, I do think he’ll get another shot. I think assuming they win the championship; that always looks good, you were on the championship staff… I think he did a really good job with Giannis. People forget that Giannis averaged 7ppg as a rookie and then I think 12-14ppg and he gradually improved and that was under Jason Kidd, and the team wasn’t bad. It got bad by the time they got rid of him but, you know, he did a good job with the Nets so, yeah I think he deserves another shot and I think he’ll get it eventually.”

That line of thinking goes with what Kidd’s son, TJ Kidd said this week to Mikey Domangala via Inside Buzz. “It’s gonna be interesting,” he said. Who knows. We saw it with Steve [Nash] in Brooklyn. Nobody saw [Nash] as a candidate. [Then] he’s head coach. [My dad] will be a head coach again some day.

Shortly after retiring from basketball as a player, Kidd was named head coach of the Brooklyn Nets, in 2013.

Kidd lasted one season in Brooklyn and guided a Nets team that had Deron Williams, Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce to a 44-38 record. The Oakland, California native guided the Nets to an Eastern Conference semifinals appearance against the Big Three-era Miami Heat of Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh.

The Heat beat the Nets in five games and advanced to the NBA Finals where they’d lose to the San Antonio Spurs.

That summer, Kidd and then-Nets GM Billy King were at odds because Kidd desired more management power within the Nets and the team wasn’t interested in giving it to him. As a result, Kidd forced his way out of Brooklyn and became head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks.

While in Milwaukee, Kidd guided the Bucks to the NBA playoffs in three out of the four seasons that he was there.

In year one, Kidd guided the Bucks to a 41-41 record in his first year as head coach. He became the first coach in NBA history to lead two franchises to the playoffs in his first two years as a head coach. He also finished third in voting for the Coach of the Year Award behind Mike Budenholzer and Steve Kerr.

Kidd was fired midway through the 2017-18 season. Upon his firing,the Bucks were the eighth seed with a 23-22 record.

Since the Bucks days, Kidd did some TV analyst work before being hired as Frank Vogel’s assistant with the Lakers.

Kidd has used that time to grow and Lakers assistant coach.

Appearing on the Scoop B Radio Podcast this spring, Lakers assistant coach, Phil Handy shared that Kidd has what it takes. “I’ve known J since we were in high school,” he told me.

“So our history goes back to Oakland. But I think just his mind; Jason has a really unique mind to the game of basketball and his perspective of interacting with players and coaching. He’s got a unique mindset approaching the game and how he looks at the game from a player’s side and a coach’s side so, being able to see and listen and learn how he thinks and see the game, that’s been big for me because I’m always trying to grow and learn and you know, continue to see how other people view the game and their stratagies so, just his mindset man, that has been really big for me; how he approaches the game from a player’s standpoint and a coach’s standpoint. Having being somebody that played in the league for a long time and then went right into head coaching. I also liked what Jason said to me one day that was really profound and that when he retired, he went straight into being a head coach, right? And so he said to me, ‘Phil man, I just want to learn to be a good assistant coach. I didn’t have the opportunity to do that in Brooklyn when I took that job. So, I didn’t know what assistant coaches do. I want to really learn it, kill it and I think that it will help me be a better head coach.’ And that was profound in that he really wanted to go through that process.”

Handy and Kidd’s Lakers under head coach, Frank Vogel play Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Wednesday against the Miami Heat.