If Kidd continues to look good, the calls will come. And there will be reports streaming in from across the NBA landscape – Dallas, Minnesota, Portland, Denver, Memphis . . .
CLEVELAND – So it was the day after the night before – the night Jason Kidd returned to the Nets and looked so very much like Jason Kidd. Let the bidding begin.
Nets president Rod Thorn probably couldn’t get off the phone with all the precincts reporting in with offers. So how busy were the phone lines?
“You know something? Not at all. To tell you the truth, not at all,” said Thorn before the Nets sought a – gasp!! – three-game winning streak last night against the Cavaliers.
“I’m used to it [trade rumors] now, so it is what it is.”
Thorn repeated the stance he has taken throughout – that any trade for Kidd will be a management call, not a player demand.
Kidd, of course, was ticked off when the Nets were dismantled over the summer, and told team brass he wanted to go to a contender.
Principal owner Bruce Ratner wants to keep Kidd. Thorn wants to keep Kidd. The players want to keep Kidd.
“As you heard me say many times, the only time you trade anybody is if it’s something that’s good for you,” said Thorn. “I don’t imagine what could be good for us, what could possibly be really good for the team [in trading Kidd]. I’m like you [media] guys. I’m waiting every day to see how the team is going to play. I think we’ve got a chance to get better.”
One prevailing thought was that Kidd, who underwent microfracture surgery on his left knee July 1, would play his posterior off upon his return in an attempt to show everyone he is back and healthy. If one game is a gauge, then, yes, he is back and he is healthy.
Kidd, in Monday’s 88-86 victory over Toronto, moved better than at any time last season and directed the Nets while in a minutes-limited role. Still, he made huge play after huge play in the endgame.
“He was moving around the court as if nothing had ever happened to him. He played last year the last two months of the season with his leg bothering him and he didn’t move like that,” Thorn observed.
“He was moving side to side. He had a great burst of speed, so he moved well so it appeared as if his knee were healthy, which is obviously a big deal for him. He’s a great player in his prime and if healthy he’s going to play great.”
So if he continues to look good, the calls will come. And there will be reports streaming in from across the NBA landscape – Dallas, Minnesota, Portland, Denver, Memphis . . .
You get the idea. Everybody would be intrigued at the thought of adding a player of Kidd’s caliber.
“He’s one of the four or five players in this league that raises not just the level of play but the spirit of his teammates,” said Lawrence Frank.
Kidd for his part has sidestepped the issue. He has neither proclaimed publicly his love or hatred or lukewarm feelings for New Jersey.
“The offseason is the offseason,” said Kidd. “That’s over. It’s the holidays. We have to be joyful for what we have and we have to play with the guys we have.
“It’s just the business side of basketball. Not just I, but we have to go out there and play.”