Billy King didn't panic early with Jason Kidd and it's paying off

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Everyone knows the story of the Brooklyn Nets this season and how bad it got in November in December (10-21) until the team found itself and started to play like a team and not individuals.

The real question is who is to be applauded for the turnaround and how did it happen?

Nets management took a serious hit from the fans and media in the first two months and two people stayed the course and didn’t waiver and that was Billy King and head coach Jason Kidd.

The Twitter world was going crazy calling Kidd a bust and King clueless as the losses mounted and the blowouts came night after night but King and Mikhail Prokhorov stayed quiet and let things play out.

The team took longer than expected to get comfortable with each other and learning a brand new system from a brand new coach didn’t happen overnight either.

Reading King’s comments in the Boston Globe just reinforced what I thought from the very beginning.

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“I think if you look at it, it took us a long time. We had the new players, the new coach, new style, and we had injuries,” Billy King said. “I just thought we’d play well. I think we’ve played extremely well since the first of the year. Defensively has been the key.”

“I think some of the young guys have developed and the biggest thing with Jason is we have a system and identity,” King said. “So now putting a team together, I know which players to add. That’s something we’ve been searching for for a while, is getting an identity so now in the offseason, Jason and I have already talked about the type of players he wants and have a feel for.

“That’s the key, you have a system. A lot of the credit, the players have played well, but Jason has been amazing. That one scout that took a shot at him early in the year, I wish he’d speak up now because it’s easy to criticize somebody when you have injuries, you have a new team, and you’re trying to put it together. Now, nobody’s saying how great of a job he’s done.

“A lot of success that we’re having is directly related to him.”[/quote_box]

The bottom line is this –

Kidd is changing the way this teams plays and the way this team thinks from the two previous iso-heavy coaches.  Kidd is running something very similar to coach Rick Adleman’s “corner offense system” after the Brook Lopez injury made the team get smaller and it is working to perfection for Brooklyn right now.

This team has a number of interchangeable parts and players that can play multiple positions and Kidd couldn’t be happier with the roster.  It doesn’t seem to matter to the players which player scores the most or gets the most accolades but only that they win.

It took a couple of months for Kidd to get this “sharing mentality” or “identity” across to his new team but right as the playoffs are about to begin this team is playing with confidence and defensive intensity which means bad news for other teams.

Coach Kidd’s Mantra – “No one cares who scores, it’s all about Brooklyn.”

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