Jason Kidd moving Paul Pierce to power forward helps Nets
The Nets are now 3-0 with Pierce in his new spot, Deron Williams playing off the ball and Shaun Livingston starting at point guard, after their 89-82 win on Saturday night over the dreadful, depleted Cavaliers.
Paul Pierce is now the Nets' Carmelo Anthony, playing out of position and thriving at power forward.
Hey, when you've bombed in your first coaching job, as Jason Kidd has been famously doing, and you're searching for solutions, you'll try anything. His latest brainstorm has proven to be more effective than, say, spilling a Coke on the floor to force a stoppage in play.
The Nets are now 3-0 with Pierce in his new spot, Deron Williams playing off the ball and Shaun Livingston starting at point guard, after their 89-82 win on Saturday night over the dreadful, depleted Cavaliers.
Kidd saw up close last season as a Knick how Anthony can present all kinds of matchup problems at power forward. Until Melo ran into the Pacers in the playoffs, with all of their physical big men, and flopped in all three fourth quarters of the Knicks' three losses out in Indianapolis, he was an absolute nightmare to cover. Maybe Pierce might be able to confound opponents in his new role, as he did out in Oklahoma City in the Nets' best win of the season, and as he continued to do at Barclays Center.
'Not that last year had anything to do with it,'' Kidd said, explaining the move. 'But the league, as a whole, has gone small at the '4.' So we've gone small at the '4,' too.''
Kidd survived a highly questionable move, deciding to give Kevin Garnett a 'rest day'' in a game that looked like a cinch win if KG had played. Cleveland didn't have Kyrie Irving, its difference-maker, out with a bum knee. Andrew Bynum, a cancer in a youthful locker room, is suspended and gone for good.
The Cavs came in with the same, pathetic 11-21 mark as the Nets. Yet, as Kidd noted, 'there is no easy game for us.''
This wasn't easy, either, as the Nets didn't put the Cavs away until the last half-minute. So why not make sure that Garnett was on the floor? When you need to win all the games you can, it's risky to start sitting players. Garnett has been averaging only 21.7 minutes a night, which may explain his limited effectiveness. So it's not as if he's already worn out.
Perhaps remembering how he was burned out last season by Mike Woodson by the time the playoffs rolled around, Kidd is looking ahead.
'I felt that we have five games this week,'' he said. 'So this would be a good opportunity to get him some rest going into the week.''
We'll see if Garnett has any extra lift when the Nets have to take on red-hot Golden State and LeBron James and the Miami Heat in the coming days. But without Garnett, the Nets nearly threw away this game via a hideous, 16-point third quarter.
They managed to recover, but Pierce was quick to remind everyone after going for 17 points and five assists that the game shouldn't have come down to a final, fourth-quarter surge.
'We still can't have those third-quarter lulls, especially against an injury-plagued team like Cleveland,' he said. 'When you have them down 13, 14 points, if you can just go ahead and put the nail in the coffin, and go up 20, 25 points, those type of teams really tend to give in. We gave them some confidence in the third. We've got to learn from this game, even though it's a win.'
The Nets learned that Pierce can be effective in his new spot. He is now needed at power forward because of the negative ripple effect of Brook Lopez's season-ending injury. The center had surgery on Saturday, which included moving a bone around in his damaged foot. That sounds like nothing but more trouble down the road, but as for Pierce's shift, Cleveland coach Mike Brown fully understood.
'Unfortunately for them, Brook Lopez is out, but Jason Kidd is a guy who is not going to sit still,' he said. 'He is going to keep searching until he finds something that works for them. Part of that is playing small. They played small and played well against Oklahoma City. So why not keep going?'
It's not as if anything else had been working.
'I think you just have to put your best five on the court,' said Kidd's boss, GM Billy King. 'Not everybody is big anymore. Miami did it and New York did it last year. Defenses are better so now you can go smaller and get a little more creativity offensively.'
Kidd used to create on the court when he played. Now he's done it on the locker-room grease board. Maybe the guy can coach, after all.
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