RealGM

Jason Kidd is undoubtedly one of the best point guards of all time and a top 50 player in NBA history.

That being said, what could he have done differently to had an even BETTER career? Championship(s) would obviously be an answer, but during his career the league has been ruled by a small number of teams and many, many all time greats went titleless over that period.

Would would've made Jason Kidd retire with a better legacy?

EDIT: Where would you rank Kidd All Time and on the All Time list of PGs?

I think the only thing would be not having microfracture surgery.
Imagine that monster.....

He could have beaten the Spurs.

That series was a LOT LOT LOT LOT LOT LOT LOT LOT LOT closer than everyone thinks it was.

He could have went to a team with a legit center.

Not even close.

For one, he could have worked on his outside shooting early in his career, which he admitted not to doing as much as he did when he got older as he started to lose his athleticism.

Secondly, Kidd could have really benefited from playing with another legit franchise player. Of the top PGs in the history of the NBA, there's always that guy that you can associate them with.

Magic had KAJ
Stock had Malone
Nash had Dirk/Amare

You can go on and on and on with that list. The closest Kidd ever had to those kinds of weapons were his early Dallas years with a young Jim Jackson and Mashburn. Of course, at the time, both players looked like perenial all-stars, but now we know that JJ ended up becoming just a solid starter, and Mash's career was derailed by injury. Who else did he have?

Pho - McDyess for one year. Broken down Penny. Tom freakin Gugliotta. Rex Chapman.
NJ - Keith Van Horn, Kenyon Martin.

The next closest star he played with was Carter, which was after his prime (after microfracture surgery), and obviously, Dirk with his 2nd stint with Dallas (when Kidd is obviously well past his prime).

Give Kidd a legit #1 option, take away his micro surgery (longer prime years for him), and he'd have a much much better career.

SpeedyG wrote:Not even close.

For one, he could have worked on his outside shooting early in his career, which he admitted not to doing as much as he did when he got older as he started to lose his athleticism.

Secondly, Kidd could have really benefited from playing with another legit franchise player. Of the top PGs in the history of the NBA, there's always that guy that you can associate them with.

Magic had KAJ
Stock had Malone
Nash had Dirk/Amare

You can go on and on and on with that list. The closest Kidd ever had to those kinds of weapons were his early Dallas years with a young Jim Jackson and Mashburn. Of course, at the time, both players looked like perenial all-stars, but now we know that JJ ended up becoming just a solid starter, and Mash's career was derailed by injury. Who else did he have?

Pho - McDyess for one year. Broken down Penny. Tom freakin Gugliotta. Rex Chapman.
NJ - Keith Van Horn, Kenyon Martin.

The next closest star he played with was Carter, which was after his prime (after microfracture surgery), and obviously, Dirk with his 2nd stint with Dallas (when Kidd is obviously well past his prime).

Give Kidd a legit #1 option, take away his micro surgery (longer prime years for him), and he'd have a much much better career.

/thread

You killed my thread. Couldn't have waited until like page 3, man?

He should've joined the Spurs back when Duncan was in his prime (think he even said the same). IIRC the Spurs had a lot of interest in him and they told Tony Parker that they'd dump him for Kidd several years ago. Kidd also could've developed a higher % jumpshot. He also got into some less than desirable off the court stuff. He had a lot of hate for being a wife beater and all that jazz which isn't good for your career path, period.

nm

@FullCapacity

His off court stuff was so minor that's almost anon issue now. It's fairly obvious it wasn't true as he and his wife stayed married for years after and she eventually went on Basketball Wives.

I don't think Kidd didn't try, I think he tried his ass off (and led two other than him poopy teams to the Show. He just didn't develop a long range game because he couldn't. Some guys just can't click with a shot until they get to the right team/shooting coach.

No. He had Richard Jefferson and Kenyon Martin. Lol. Still made it to the Finals with them, though.

An aspect of it depends on what teammates he could have had, since he was always a great playmaker and would have had increased assist totals if surrounded with the right players.

What if... K-Mart stayed and worked to become more than an ally oop target, then Vince Carter still came to NJ.

Dr Pepper wrote:He should've joined the Spurs back when Duncan was in his prime (think he even said the same). IIRC the Spurs had a lot of interest in him and they told Tony Parker that they'd dump him for Kidd several years ago. Kidd also could've developed a higher % jumpshot. He also got into some less than desirable off the court stuff. He had a lot of hate for being a wife beater and all that jazz which isn't good for your career path, period.

Pretty much. Tony at the time was telling everyone he wanted to stay in SA, and that he'd become a better player. Kidd never came (he visited the installations and all...), and well Parker did become a way better player.

Prime Kidd with prime Duncan, and prime Ginobili? would have been awfully nasty. I never clearly understood why he didn't come. But way, he did say that he should have come...

His injury clearly set him back a little.

His off court issues were factors in him being moved around, which may or may not have made his career worse.

I think if the Nets had kept Kerry Kittles things would have been better in NJ.

And clearly if he had eneded up with the Spurs with Duncan that would have been rather ridiculous.

And like someone else said, he should have worked on his outside shot earlier in his career.

I remember Kidd said he was really thinking about the Spurs, but wanted to see if he can carry a team on his own without duncan or another superstar.

Imagine if Jason Kidd and Shawn Marion actually were traded to the Lakers to play with Shaq.

His biggest mistake was not going to SA imo.

That would have been incredible.

I still love watching him play. He could easily play for another 2 yrs. His smarts alone can get him through 25 mins in a back up role in this league.

I rate him extremely high. A big fan.

Anyone find it funny that all the "Never had a legit big" (ie: Kaj, Malone) talk would mean that Kidd most likely would have never gotten as many triple doubles as he has?

gino_giode wrote:Anyone find it funny that all the "Never had a legit big" (ie: Kaj, Malone) talk would mean that Kidd most likely would have never gotten as many triple doubles as he has?

You can probably say that about Oscar Robinson too, and Wilt. I am too young to have seen them play, but they racked up their stats when they were "the man", without a second star on their team to distribute the stat numbers.

And on the Nets at least, were I saw most of Kidd's play, while getting TDs as a Net was definitely helped by being the leading rebounder of the Nets because the Nets next best rebounder was Kenyon Martin and Nets centers just do not rebound. Kidd was a phenomenal rebounder -- on a typical game, he'd steal 4 or 5 rebounds from the opposing team. Plus all his steals, he'd give his team like 8 extra possessions they otherwise would not have. Taken away from the oppositon, that's 12 possession swing.

But Kidd also just missed out on many TDs on the assist end, because the Nets were just a poor shooting team. And also, the Nets played low possession, ball control, shot clock running down, defensive Eastern Conference style ball, with fewer possessions, making it tougher to hit volume statistical marks like TDs. At Kidd's best, the Nets offense was middle of the pack, less than 96 PPG. Kidd's defense is what made the Nets one of the top defensive teams in the league. The Nets generated most of their offense with defense and running the fast break down the throat of opposing teams, never in the half court.

Dr Pepper wrote:... Kidd also could've developed a higher % jumpshot. He also got into some less than desirable off the court stuff. He had a lot of hate for being a wife beater and all that jazz which isn't good for your career path, period.

This. His 3 got a lot better later into his career. If he had more early on, he'd have been even more scary. Mashburn, Jackson and Kidd fighting over the same woman back in Dallas didn't help either.

The people who say Kidd should have gone to SA are forgetting the honor of loyalty. Kidd stayed with NJ and in that my mind makes him better. Going to join Duncan would have been the Lebron move. If you can't beat them, join em.

Thats not what makes a player great.