Lakers Rumors: Analyzing Jason Kidd as a head coach

Reports of recent Lakers rumors are that the Los Angeles Lakers might be interested in Jason Kidd. How has he done as a head coach so far?

Well, it seems that Los Angeles Lakers rumors will be the engine running Lake Show Life after the Los Angeles Lakers were officially dismissed from playoff contention by the Brooklyn Nets on Friday night.

Well, it seems that the Lakers always have rumors to steal the NBA headlines. It makes one wonder how many rumors will be floating around during the NBA playoffs with LeBron James either watching the games from home or accepting Charles Barkley‘s invitation to join TNT.

The biggest narrative surrounding any Lakers rumors after April 14th (the start of the NBA playoffs!) will be about the coaching replacement of Luke Walton when he gets fired after the season.

According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, it seems that Jason Kidd is in “serious consideration” for the Lakers job after Walton’s ouster.

But take a gander at Woj’s colleague, Marc Spears’ tweet that shines the light on possible college options that Jason Kidd has at his disposal. This tweet should tell the Lakers front office all they need to know.

Jason Kidd does not need to be the next coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. Let’s discern the tweet, shall we?

In college, universities have to get those coaches locked up as soon as possible because potential recruits are paying attention as well. If the University of California locks up their most famous player to coach their team, it is a selling point to the major blue chippers leading into the next season.

Jason Kidd does not want to coach college. He wants to coach the Lakers. He is using this college opportunity as a bargaining chip which means he is the still the same opportunist that will manipulate and cause havoc in the front office just like he did in Brooklyn the one year that he coached and his underachieving tenure in Milwaukee.

Lakers fans, I am well aware of the business model of your basketball team. Make a splash by getting big name free agents and coaches. I’m going on record telling Magic Johnson, Rob Pelinka and especially Jeanie Buss, do your homework extensively and move on to someone else!

The Lakers do not need a big name to coach next year. They need somebody to coach the “big name”, LeBron James. I get Jason Kidd is a Hall of Fame point guard that is a world champion (2011 over LeBron’s Miami Heat) and the only NBA player that has never lost an Olympic game. Then, there’s that narrative that he can get Lonzo to the next level with his “Point God” experience.

Well, there’s already one of those in the front office in Magic Johnson. How well has that turned out this season?

Lake Show Life has already stated that Tyronn Lue should (…and most likely will!) be the logical choice, 30 seconds after he was fired by the Cleveland Cavaliers.

We are not going to deal with the personal stuff that many other sites may get into, this discussion will deal with only his basketball history.

Introducing Lakers’ coaching candidate, Jason Kidd!

The unprofessional way Jason Kidd landed the Brooklyn Nets job!

The one thing that will be constant through this history lesson is that when it’s time for Jason Kidd to leave a franchise, there is usually a huge mess left behind with the franchise holding the bag.

We’ll start in his 19th and last year in the NBA (We could go back further but it would take too long). After agreeing to a deal with the Dallas Mavericks, Kidd changed his mind and signed with the New York Knicks. At the time, he was brought in to be a veteran presence to Jeremy Lin and it was reported that Lin was on the move to the Rockets over salary concerns.

By playoff time, Kidd offered little production for the Knicks, which led to only 11 minutes total in his last two games in the Knicks second-round loss to Indiana. New York had a good reason, as J-Kidd missed his last 18 shots. Kidd then surprised the Knicks by retiring, leaving money on the table.

His thoughts on retirement, according to ESPN.

"“I think it is the right time,” Kidd told ESPNNewYork.com. “When you think about 19 years, it has been a heckuva ride. Physically, I want to be able to participate in activities with my kids so it has taken a toll. It is time to move on and think about maybe coaching or doing some broadcasting."

Ten days later, Jason Kidd gets the Brooklyn Nets job over a candidate that Lakers should know quite well in Brian Shaw. Now, remember, he backed out of a deal with the Mavericks for a potential starting job in New York. When that dream went away, he started looking for an out.

Now for the Brooklyn Nets. They were looking for the same big name splash blueprint that the Lakers are using now. They had just moved across the pond from New Jersey into a beautiful new arena in Brooklyn. They traded basically everything but the kitchen sink in players and future draft picks (Does this practice sound familiar?) for Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Jason Terry.

Big names, big excitement and behinds in the seats of a new arena. With a 44-38 record and a second-round push in the playoffs, the bottom fell out.

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.

Milwaukee welcomes Jason Kidd into the fold, nobody told the acting coach!

Okay, follow me on this because there should be a pop quiz afterward that would confuse you like a chemistry experiment. After the Nets allowed Jason Kidd to talk to the Bucks, Kidd was soon hired as coach.

There was only one problem here; the Milwaukee Bucks already had a coach in Larry Drew, who they had just hired in the previous offseason. Here’s where it gets good. It was reported that Drew and most of the Bucks front office had no clue that the negotiations were going on. The Bucks compensated the Nets with two second-round draft picks.

Jason Kidd won the Bucks over with accepting the challenge of coaching Milwaukee’s No. 2 overall draft pick, Jabari Parker, out of Duke. Based on Kidd’s second-half performance and playoff run, it looked like a very good idea to all involved.

Except to Larry Drew, who got thrown under the bus and fired in an ugly mess.

The next season, Jason Kidd coached a young Milwaukee Bucks team to the playoffs that featured Giannis Antetokounmpo winning the NBA’s Most Improved Player award and Malcolm Brogdon winning Rookie of the Year honors. A seven-game push of the Toronto Raptors also occurred.

Kidd became the first coach to lead two different teams to the playoffs in his first two years.

Kidd was given a ton of credit of developing the “Greek Freak” and grooming him into the dominant dunk-filled player that we all know and love today.

Eventually, the roster got stronger with Parker getting better. With a second straight playoff appearance, the Bucks were looking for big things in the third year, especially when they pulled a good trade, bringing Eric Bledsoe in from Phoenix.

There was one thing, though.

Old habits die hard; excuses, dysfunction and what about that challenge that was promised?

By the third season, the Milwaukee Bucks took a major step back based on the talent that was on this roster. The Bucks were playoff contenders, but the only problem was the team did not play like it.

The Bucks lacked offensive creativity (Does this sound familiar?) with a lot of one on one plays packed with isolations. This led to long scoring droughts and very bad losses to teams most thought the Bucks should be blowing out.

Jason Kidd would blame the losses on the team’s youth.

That excuse probably would fly any other year because it’s an oldie but goodie!

Just not last year.

You see, there was this team in Boston, who happens to reside in the same conference as the Bucks, who seemed to be thriving under Brad Stevens with younger players than the Bucks had. Giannis was young, but the team had Khris Middleton, John Henson, Tony Snell and the aforementioned Bledsoe.

Plus, the Bucks could not stop a soul on the basketball court. Many of the issues stemmed from Kidd’s inability (or unwillingness) to make adjustments to improve the defense. After the last three months, does anyone need this?

Boston had lost Gordon Hayward and filled in the gap with Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Terry Rozier and we all know the run they had when Kyrie Irving went down before the playoffs. To top all of that off, the Celtics were one of the best defensive teams in the NBA last year. Stevens’ performance made Kidd look unprepared and lazy.

Remember when Kidd won the Bucks brass about that “challenge” of working with Jabari Parker? By the time of Kidd’s ouster, they weren’t even speaking.

At the time, Parker couldn’t stay healthy suffering knee injuries, but at the time he was on the floor, the Bucks considered him a cornerstone of the future. By that time, Kidd was gaining enemies in the front office over the roster (Really dude?) and the Bucks made the move to fire Kidd earlier than expected.

After all, Mike Budenholzer took this roster currently to the number one seed in the conference and Giannis has become an MVP candidate one season removed from Jason Kidd. Are we seeing a trend here?

Jason Kidd does not overcome dysfunction…he causes it!

LeBron James is considered a reputable “coach killer” after this disastrous season for the Lakers. Jason Kidd had his moments as well before his career. Dick Motta got fired after one season when the two couldn’t get through minicamp without beefing.

Jim Cleamons, Phil Jackson‘s protégé, did not last a year without getting fired. (I could bring up the Jimmy Jackson, Toni Braxton beef but that was never confirmed! But it has shot to mythical proportions!)

After going to two straight NBA Finals, Byron Scott got fired after a huge falling out.

People skills, Lakers fans, people skills!

The franchise dynamic is already a total dumpster fire with Magic Johnson and LeBron’s people wanting Luke Walton fired, but the owner Jeanie Buss supporting him for the rest of the season.

How about the trade rumors for Anthony Davis with half the team on the block plus the Kobe Bryant and Shaq statues?

The complete bottoming out of the team with the cracks being shown for the world to see on numerous occasions during the season.

The Lakers do not need a coach like Jason Kidd with this type of track record to be the next head coach.

Things will only get worse.