Despite a 22-29 record entering Tuesday's home game against Minnesota, New Jersey holds the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference - and it appears the Nets will attempt to reach the postseason with star guard Jason Kidd continuing to lead the team.
Kidd, the biggest name on the NBA's trading block, looks like he will be staying in New Jersey - at least through the end of the season.
The trading deadline is Feb. 21, and despite Kidd's agent, Jeff Schwartz, basically demanding a trade - and only to a contender - the team likely won't pull the trigger.
Kidd, 34, has long been rumored to be on his way out of New Jersey. When earlier this season he missed a game with a migraine headache, the New York/New Jersey media reported Kidd used it as a trade-me protest. Kidd denied the reports and said he just took a paid sick day.
But last week Kidd, who has a league-leading 12 triple-doubles, finally made public his desire to be traded.
"It used to be if I got a triple-double, that was an automatic win," Kidd 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."LeBron James is lobbying for the Cavaliers to make a move for Kidd, and the Mavericks began talking to the Nets after Kidd's comments.
Reports said a three-team, seven-player deal was in the works, with Portland being the other player. But the Mavericks, who supposedly were to part with Devin Harris, Jerry Stackhouse, Brandon Bass and/or DeSagana Diop, now reportedly are debating whether that's too steep a price to pay.
"For us to make the numbers work in a deal like that, we'd have to trade away half the team," Mavs owner Mark Cuban said. "We're not doing that, so it just doesn't work. And, we like our team. We've got a lot of room for improvement and we hope to get better. But right now, I just don't see anything happening."
In addition, the Nets are playing better, coming off an impressive 101-82 win over those Mavericks for their second straight victory since center Nenad Krstic returned to the starting lineup. Krstic had been out since November to rehab his surgically repaired left knee.
"We've said plenty of times, Nenad is not the savior," Nets coach Lawrence Frank said. "We all need to work harder, I need to work harder. ... But I think (the last two games) our guys are working harder, they're playing harder and I think they're enjoying it."
New Jersey can put together its first three-game winning streak since early January by beating the sorry Timberwolves on Tuesday night; Minnesota is 2-22 on the road this year.
The Nets have won six of their past seven home meetings with Minnesota, with Kidd averaging 17.8 points, 9.8 assists and 7.0 rebounds in those games. He has four career triple-doubles against the Timberwolves.
Bet on the NBA at WagerWeb.com
No comments:
Post a Comment