Paradise wrote:Livingston is a much better player than last season.
Livingston this year:8.2 PPG 3.2 APG 47% FG 55% TS 14.8 PER in 26 minutes
Livingston with cleveland last year:7.2 PPG 3.6 APG 50% FG 56% TS 14.6 PER in 24 minutes
i really dont see how that is "much better". sure he has started instead of being a 6th man and has been really good defensively and with his intangables, so maybe he is a bit better. but certainly not much better. And statistically i mean thats basically identical from minutes, to scoring, to shooting, to efficiency. And whatever improvement there is could easily be attributed to be 1 more year removed from his injury.
Thornton was averaging 38% and 32% shooting in Sacramento before the trade.
Marcus Thornton with the Nets this season:43% FG 38% 3PT 56% TS
Marcus Thornton for his career:43% FG 36% 3PT 54% TS
I mean he is basically shooting at exactly his career averages. a tick higher but also a small sample size. This is also a guy who has started and averaged 19 PPG a couple years ago. I dont think Kidd turned him into a much better player. I think the more likely scenario is he is no longer in a toxic environment on a losing team and the change of scenery helped him get back to what he has done in the past.
Mirza is a much better player as well
Mirza is playing better this season for sure. He hasnt been great and is still inconsistent but he has shot it better then last season. He still has some big issues where his rebounding and defense kind of go in the toilet when his shot isnt falling but still an improvement from last year.
That said, is the improvement because Kidd developed him into a better player, or is it because its his second year and he was a rookie who played for 2 coaches last season and didnt get much burn? again, somewhat speculative either way.
Plumlee is the best rookie big in the draft class right now when he was expected to be in the D-League.
Hard to really assess Plumlee since he is a rookie. is it Kidd or is it just that plumlee is a decent player. Or is it that he is a finisher who plays next to 4 guys who can get him the ball? Either without anything but NCAA basketball to go off it is all just speculation.
It's pretty obvious Kidd did help them develop into better players.
I think its pretty obvious Kidd did NOT develop Livingston and Thornton into better players. Livingston is playing at the same level he did for cleveland last season and Thornton is playing at his career average. I think it is a stretch to say that either of those guys are playing much better then they have prior.
Plumlee and Mirza, I think you can say he developed them... I mean, at the very least he was willing to give them heavy rotation minutes, which PJ and Avery werent going to do. So thats nice to see.
Either way, its not like he turned career bench fodder into solid rotational players.