Surrounded by Scorers, Kidd Has Found His Candy Store
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

Last season, when Knicks point guard Stephon Marbury made his ill-conceived boast about being the best point guard in the league, most dissenters pointed to Steve Nash, Phoenix’s eventual MVP, as the obvious leader at the position. With Nash having such a breakout year, most hoopheads overlooked the Nets’ Jason Kidd, who’s been an obvious candidate in any discussion about top point guards for the past decade. At the time, Kidd was wending his way back from microfracture knee surgery, and both the caliber of his play and his future with the Nets were still very much in doubt.
Ten months later, both issues have been laid to rest. After a month long warm-up phase, Kidd returned to his old high standards in 66 games last season, notching 15.6 points, nine assists, and eight rebounds per 40 minutes. This season, Kidd’s accomplishments will begin to take on historical perspective.
Kidd currently ranks ninth all-time in assists with 7,283. By Christmas, he should pass Maurice Cheeks’s 7,392, and before season’s end, he will likely pass Rod Strickland’s 7,987 (yes, that Rod Strickland; he spent most of his career playing for mediocre teams in Portland and Washington, but he always posted good numbers).
Good rebounding point guards tend to age better than their shorter counterparts, so if the 32-year-old Kidd follows the path of prototypes Gary Payton and Oscar Robertson, he should finish his career right around the 10,000 assist mark, placing him third all-time behind John Stockton (15,806), Mark Jackson (10,334), and Magic Johnson (10,141).
As these milestones come into focus, the bad memories of last winter, when Kidd whined incessantly and demanded to be traded, will begin to fade. It didn’t take a lot of hoops savvy to see that the early edition of last year’s Nets – when they were little more than Richard Jefferson and a bunch of journeymen – were playing solid defense; they just needed a scorer, and two good ones (Vince Carter and Paul Pierce) were on the market. But then again, Kidd’s demand that the Nets sign Alonzo Mourning as a prerequisite for his own re-signing in 2003 suggests that his vision is far better on court than off.
But how do you measure that vision? Assists are one of the least precise measures of a good passer. There are some plays where two assists should be awarded instead of just one, and plays where an assist is awarded for something that took little foresight.
Consider the following sequence: Kidd dribbles down court and sees Jefferson charging down the left side. Kidd fakes his man, draws Jefferson’s defender to him, and whips a pass to Jefferson as he’s streaking toward the basket. Vince Carter’s man, seeing Jefferson running free, moves over to protect the rim, leaving Carter open. Jefferson passes to the open Carter, who nails a 3-pointer. Kidd initiated the play, but gets no assist, and although Jefferson’s pass resulted in a 3-pointer, his credit is the same as if he set up a deuce. Conversely, there are plays where the ball is simply rotated around the perimeter and often the player who last touched it before the shooter gets an assist.
Kidd’s value can be seen in metrics that aren’t so useful for fantasy players: Offensive and Defensive Efficiency (points per 100 possessions). He’s played on three teams – Dallas, Phoenix, and New Jersey – and improved each in that regard. The 1993-94 Mavericks were dead last in Offensive Efficiency and 27th on defense. During Kidd’s rookie campaign, they improved to 15th and 20th, respectively. Kidd was traded to Phoenix early in the 1996-97 season. In the season before he arrived, the Suns finished eighth in Offensive Efficiency and 22nd on defense. Kidd’s arrival improved them to sixth and seventh, respectively. Kidd’s arrival in East Rutherford took the Nets from 24th and 26th to 16th and second in his first year.
Two things jump out from those numbers. Kidd’s effect is greater at the defensive end (Kidd, like Payton and Robertson before him, is a great defender and often takes the harder of the two backcourt assignments), and although he’s nearly a brand name for the highlight clip pass leading to a basket, his teams have often struggled offensively.
Why? Kidd has lacked what most of his historical peers have had: a great finisher. Stockton had Malone, Mark Jackson had Patrick Ewing and Reggie Miller; Magic had Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. If you put Kenyon Martin and Kerry Kittles into that group, you must be a relative.
This season will be different. Kidd will have two potent offensive weapons in Jefferson and Carter, as well as a supporting cast of good shooters in Nenad Krstic, Marc Jackson, Zoran Planinic, Lamond Murray, and Scott Padgett. This group will transform the typical Nets game from a 94-89 grinder with a handful of SportsCenter-worthy dunks into 103-96 game with even more pizzazz. And not a moment too soon – the Nets haven’t ranked in the top 10 of Offensive Efficiency since the John Calipari-coached team of 1998.
With Kidd still in his prime and a host of weapons at his disposal, this season’s Nets might actually conform to their image as a high-flying scoring machine. If they do, it will leave no doubt about who’s the best point guard in the region and perhaps the league.