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Fans of the New York Knicks and NBA as a whole certainly remember the dominance with which Jason Kidd played basketball from 1994 to 2013, but his coaching career has yet to see the same success.
He finished his professional basketball career (as a player) in 2013 under the bright lights of Madison Square Garden, averaging six points, 4.3 rebounds, 3.3 assists, and 1.6 steals for the last Knicks team to make the playoffs prior to this year.
It lead to him earning his first job as a head coach, and ultimately his latest new position across the country in the Western Conference, where he’s just been hired as the head coach of the Dallas Mavericks.
On The Rebound
He coached one season with the Brooklyn Nets, who saw their season ended at the hands of LeBron James and the Miami Heat in the second round of playoffs.
Then Kidd moved on to the Milwaukee Bucks, serving as the first coach of two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo’s career. They went to the playoffs in three out of his four seasons at the helm, but it wasn’t enough to maintain his position on the sidelines.
Most recently, Kidd’s served as an assistant coach for Frank Vogel and the Los Angeles Lakers, who did notably win last year’s championship inside the NBA’s quarantine postseason in Orlando, Florida.
Now, he’ll take on the daunting task of filling the shoes left by Rick Carlisle with the Dallas Mavericks.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski was first with reports of the hire:
The Mavericks are progressing on deals with Nike’s Niko Harrison to lead basketball operations and Jason Kidd to become head coach, sources tell @espn_macmahon and me.
Kidd will be tasked from jump with maximizing Luka Doncic and running mate Kristaps Porzingis, a former lottery pick of the New York Knicks back in 2015.
Porzingis, once heralded as the team’s heir apparent to Carmelo Anthony in New York, has found himself on the outskirts of the team’s future.
Whether this offseason or the next, his exodus from Dallas seems inevitable.
This certainly adds an element to the blockbuster deal that saw him traded from the Knicks to the Mavericks, in exchange for a package center around Dennis Smith Jr. and two first-round draft picks.
Is it possible that this could serve as the final blow to any argument that the Mavericks “won” the deal?
The Knicks Have Already Won the Porzingis Trade
When the New York Knicks pulled the trigger on the deal that sent Kristaps Porzingis to the Dallas Mavericks ahead of the 2018 trade deadline, it was done with intentions of landing big stars like Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant in free agency this subsequent offseason.
As you no doubt know, things didn’t go according to plan. Instead, Durant and Irving opted to join their neighboring team the Brooklyn Nets, where they’ve since been joined by 2018 MVP James Harden.
But the Knicks did get two first-round picks out of the deal, one slated for the 21st overall in this year’s draft. And the cap space they did have, they used to sign Marcus Morris Sr., who they traded at last year’s deadline for the draft pick that became rookie guard Immanuel Quickley.
Couple that with the fact that they’re not on the hook for $94.9 million salary Porzingis is owed over the next three seasons, and it’s hard to say they lost.
The New York Knicks have yet to land their superstar, that much is true.
But by parting ways with Kristaps Porzingis when they did, ahead of his signing that five-year, $158 million extension, they dodged a serious bullet, and continue to be in position to land the anonymous, aforementioned talent with their league-leading open cap.
Good luck, Coach Kidd.
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