Kidd & (no) Play

I don't think anyone needs a reminder on how huge a NBA fan I am. But there is a difference between being a NBA fan and just being a fan of your home NBA team.

Usually "homer fans" can't be objective. They make excuses for their home team or apply logic to other teams but won't apply it to their own. Case in point: the Brooklyn Nets. Since my home team is the Chicago Bulls, I'm gonna use them as my example of this, but feel free to insert whatever team you love. Now, Jason Kidd is a first year head coach who has no prior experience. He was dealt, on paper, a projected top-4 Eastern conference team in the Brooklyn Nets. Unfortunately, before the season even started his starting point guard Deron Williams went down with an injury, so Kidd had to go through training camp and preseason without the "quarterback" of his team.


Williams wasn't the only injury Kidd and the Nets faced. They also lost one of their key additions off the bench in Andrei Kirilenko. AK-47, as he's called, has only played 4 of their 12 games this season. Besides AK-47, add to that injury list Williams, Jason Terry and Brook Lopez. Williams and Lopez are starters whereas Terry and AK-47 were suppose to be the first two off the bench. The Nets are currently 3-9 but with the bottom of the East being so bad, they're only a game and a half out of the playoff picture, which is still a ways away.

The Nets have only played 12 out of 82 games and there are lots of people throwing red flags and blaming Kidd's inexperience. Some are "experts" on TV/radio while others are just casual fans. Those casual fans I've spoken with happen to be Bulls fans seeing as I live in the Chicago-land area. This is where the homer fan comes in. If the Bulls had come into the season without their starting point guard Derrick Rose, then their starting center Joakim Noah went down with an injury, plus a vital bench piece like Taj Gibson only played 4 of their 12 games so far with their backup guard Kirk Hinrich also missing games due to injury, no Bulls fan would be blaming their coach Tom Thibodeau for the team starting 3-9.

All you Bulls fans (even critics) out there would quickly point out all the injuries the Bulls had sustained. Well I think the same logic applies with the Nets. No one should be blaming Kidd for having a depleted team. Plus, they still have plenty of time to turn it around. Last year, people wrote off the Lakers early after they sustained key injuries. They ended up still making the playoffs and that's in a much harder conference.

Some people who give their opinions on situations like these don't even watch NBA games. If their home or favorite team isn't playing then they can care less. I, however, watch the televised games as well as the ones on League Pass. I love me some Chicago Bulls, but I also love me some NBA period.

One thing that occurs often in the NBA that changes its landscape is injury. If Lebron James tore his ACL today then the Vegas odd makers would go nuts. So don't be so quick to call for Jason Kidd's head when he hasn't had a run with his full team intact. Give the Kidd a chance (see what I did there). One last thing, as a Bulls fan I just wanna say: I MISS YOU NATE ROBINSON!!! I wish we still had you & Marco Belinelli instead of Mike James & Mike Dunleavy. But I digress.