Lakers Rumors: Analyzing Jason Kidd as a head coach

Jason Kidd suddenly gets ambitious, leaves Nets

Even though the Nets made the playoffs in Kidd’s only year as head coach, the tenure was a total disaster. First, Kidd convinces the Nets to go out and get Lawrence Frank to be his top assistant. The Nets then gave Frank a record six-year, $6 million contract. Before both of their contracts had gotten into the computer system, Frank was demoted.

Maybe Kidd has his own reasons for not letting his top assistant fill-in when he had to serve a two-game suspension, but things went south less than 20 games into the season. The final straw was when the two had an explosive tirade that half the building could hear.

After the demotion, Lawrence Frank was never heard from again (Can anyone justify paying $1 million annually for filing “daily reports”?) until the Los Angeles Clippers hired him as the General Manager working under Jerry West. The guy that helped orchestrate the Ivica Zubac trade? Point? Lawrence Frank was very qualified.

Then there was that soda-gate thing that they had to pay a fine for. Remember this, Lakers fans?

The Nets started the season a woeful 10-21 before hitting a stride finishing the season 34-17. I remember writing my very first article about how dysfunctional his style was at the time.

After the season, according to reports, Jason Kidd was looking for more “Juice” than Tropicana in the Nets front office.

"According to a league source, Kidd recently approached ownership with a series of demands, including the role of overseeing the Nets’ basketball operations department in addition to his head coaching responsibilities. The source said Kidd didn’t want general manager Billy King to be dismissed, but wanted to be given a title and placed above him in the organizational hierarchy. Ownership declined to grant Kidd that kind of power, which is rare for any coach in the league to have. The source said ownership felt Kidd wasn’t ready for that kind of responsibility after having only one year of coaching experience — the team finished his first season on the bench with a 44-38 record, good for sixth in the Eastern Conference — and allowed Kidd to seek other opportunities."

Let’s be clear here. Kidd saw power and dollar signs.

His way out the door was being close with one of the Milwaukee Bucks co-owners, Marc Lasry.