Jason Kidd has come to grips with two realities. One, the New Jersey Nets aren't very good. Two, their only chance of improving is to deal him.
"I'm not mad at anybody," he said Monday afternoon by phone. "Sometimes, when you ride a wave, you get to the end and that's all there is. That's where we are."
Kidd confirmed that his agent, Jeff Schwartz, has talked to Nets management about moving him by the Feb. 21 trade deadline, but he categorized the conversation as a continuation of something that started last All-Star break, when the Nets nearly dealt him to the Los Angeles Lakers for a package of players that included Lamar Odom and Kwame Brown. The sticking point was that Nets president Rod Thorn wanted Andrew Bynum and the Lakers refused.
While initial reports had Kidd, 34, insisting on being sent to a contender, he said Monday that he realizes there are no guarantees in any scenario. At this point, he simply wants to play for a team that can compete every night and utilize his talents.
"It used to be if I got a triple-double, that was an automatic win," he said. "That's just not the case now. We tried to make this work. We've found out it doesn't. It's time for us all to move on."
Kidd leads the league in triple-doubles this season with 11 and
has 98 for his career, third behind Oscar Robertson and Magic
Johnson. He passed Johnson for fourth place on the career list for
rebounds by a guard earlier this month and also became the sixth
player to reach 9,000 assists.
Nets president Rod Thorn told The Associated Press he hadn't talked to Kidd on
Tuesday, and declined to discuss which teams have expressed an
interest in the nine-time All-Star. He said he wouldn't be forced
into making a deal.
"The reality is we're only looking to make deals that make
sense for us," Thorn said, according to AP. "If every time someone said, 'I want
you to trade me,' you acquiesced, then you put yourself in a very
vulnerable position because you have a revolving door."
Thorn added that with the development of second-year guard
Marcus Williams as Kidd's backup, the Nets would "probably not"
require a point guard to be part of a deal for Kidd.
"We feel Marcus Williams has a future here and in the league,"
he said.
Schwartz, in exploring current options for his client with other NBA teams, has been told that with Vince Carter signing a new four-year, $61.8 million contract and Richard Jefferson having three years and $42 million left on his six-year deal, Kidd is the only moveable major asset New Jersey has. Kidd is under contract through the end of next season and will
make $19.7 million this year and $21.3 million next year.
There are a variety of teams that would be interested in acquiring Kidd -- Dallas and Denver have already reached out in the last week, a source said -- but it's a matter of what the Nets would insist upon in return. If draft picks are involved, weighing true value is infinitely easier after the May draft lottery, when the selection order is set and teams have a better idea of which players plan to declare their draft eligibility.
Ric Bucher covers the NBA for ESPN The Magazine. Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.