I think the word "everything" basically sums up the Nets season. They never used their FA acquisition in Magloire, Krstic couldn't get back to form in time, Kidd half-assed it most of the time, Frank made terrible coaching decisions as a coach, they held on to Kidd for too long as well. Basically....everything sums up what went wrong.
Comparing today's team to the Finals NJ teams of yesteryear, there is one big difference that many people glance over. Back then, Kidd was 31, and thus in his "prime". There was also Kerry Kittles, whose pesky defense was the reason for NJ selecting him ahead of Kobe. What I'm trying to say is: Perimeter defense. Boone and Williams will get dominated on the inside once in awhile, but they're good enough to hold the fort - almost. Kidd and Carter on the other hand, are just too slow laterally to defend the perimeter. Add in the fact that RJ's focus has shifted from defense towards shooting in the last few years, you have a team that has consistently got burned from the outside and off the dribble. I'm ok with Kobe getting 30 on us. I'm not okay with no name PGs having a field day with us time after time.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Astral @ Apr 14 2008, 02:56 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Comparing today's team to the Finals NJ teams of yesteryear, there is one big difference that many people glance over. Back then, Kidd was 31, and thus in his "prime". There was also Kerry Kittles, whose pesky defense was the reason for NJ selecting him ahead of Kobe. What I'm trying to say is: Perimeter defense. Boone and Williams will get dominated on the inside once in awhile, but they're good enough to hold the fort - almost. Kidd and Carter on the other hand, are just too slow laterally to defend the perimeter. Add in the fact that RJ's focus has shifted from defense towards shooting in the last few years, you have a team that has consistently got burned from the outside and off the dribble. I'm ok with Kobe getting 30 on us. I'm not okay with no name PGs having a field day with us time after time.</div> Well Kidd was on the 2nd ALL NBA Defensive team, and was 2 votes away from being on the 1st team. Raja Bell had 25 votes over Kidd's 23. So last year Kidd was considered a Top 2 defensive player at PG. Top 3 among guards. Even if he is a little older, other than Kobe and Bell, he's the best defensive guard in the league.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Lavalamp @ Apr 14 2008, 10:55 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Astral @ Apr 14 2008, 02:56 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Comparing today's team to the Finals NJ teams of yesteryear, there is one big difference that many people glance over. Back then, Kidd was 31, and thus in his "prime". There was also Kerry Kittles, whose pesky defense was the reason for NJ selecting him ahead of Kobe. What I'm trying to say is: Perimeter defense. Boone and Williams will get dominated on the inside once in awhile, but they're good enough to hold the fort - almost. Kidd and Carter on the other hand, are just too slow laterally to defend the perimeter. Add in the fact that RJ's focus has shifted from defense towards shooting in the last few years, you have a team that has consistently got burned from the outside and off the dribble. I'm ok with Kobe getting 30 on us. I'm not okay with no name PGs having a field day with us time after time.</div> Well Kidd was on the 2nd ALL NBA Defensive team, and was 2 votes away from being on the 1st team. Raja Bell had 25 votes over Kidd's 23. So last year Kidd was considered a Top 2 defensive player at PG. Top 3 among guards. Even if he is a little older, other than Kobe and Bell, he's the best defensive guard in the league. </div> Please dont use all defense teams as support for your arguments. They are more like popularity contests than actual rewards of defensive skills.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Lavalamp @ Apr 14 2008, 09:55 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Astral @ Apr 14 2008, 02:56 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Comparing today's team to the Finals NJ teams of yesteryear, there is one big difference that many people glance over. Back then, Kidd was 31, and thus in his "prime". There was also Kerry Kittles, whose pesky defense was the reason for NJ selecting him ahead of Kobe. What I'm trying to say is: Perimeter defense. Boone and Williams will get dominated on the inside once in awhile, but they're good enough to hold the fort - almost. Kidd and Carter on the other hand, are just too slow laterally to defend the perimeter. Add in the fact that RJ's focus has shifted from defense towards shooting in the last few years, you have a team that has consistently got burned from the outside and off the dribble. I'm ok with Kobe getting 30 on us. I'm not okay with no name PGs having a field day with us time after time.</div> Well Kidd was on the 2nd ALL NBA Defensive team, and was 2 votes away from being on the 1st team. Raja Bell had 25 votes over Kidd's 23. So last year Kidd was considered a Top 2 defensive player at PG. Top 3 among guards. Even if he is a little older, other than Kobe and Bell, he's the best defensive guard in the league. </div>Kidd is a good defender. The question is what is he good at? The answer is that Kidd is an excellent team defender. He's one of the best when NJ needed to frustrate Bosh in the playooffs last year. But Kidd could not (physically) stay in front of an average NBA PG. I'm not talking about ultra fast PGs like Paul or Ford. I mean an average run of the mill NBA PG today. If Kidd had Tim Duncan on his team, his defense would have been absolutely invaluable. Without that consistent last line of defense, Kidd's perimeter D was just absolutely atrocious. Even in his prime, Kidd could not stay in front of the fastest PGs because of his size (6'4" /210).
At this point Kidd is better at defending two guards than points, and Dallas has him defending 2s a lot. Kidd had some very good nights where he held Billups and a couple of other pgs scoreless last year, and I think that's what got him all those defensive votes, and it obscured the big picture that he had lost a step or two defensively. Astral makes a great point, their perimeter D was abysmal this year. Teams could drive and kick so easily, which led to them giving up so many open 3s. Teams absolutely made it rain on them this year. I don't know what happened to RJ's D, it was bad. Sometimes he's looking to leak out early, so he's not in there for defensive boards. The fact that he can't average at least 5 boards is inexcusable. He's an athletic forward who plays almost 40 minutes a night, he should get 6 boards in his sleep.
