Mavs coach Kidd takes patient, positive approach
DALLAS >> Jason Kidd looked down and smiled.
He thought about how he would’ve handled the Mavericks’ Wednesday night overtime heartbreak against the Lakers back when he was head coach in Milwaukee.
“Yeah,” the former Cal star said with a nod. “We would’ve practiced really hard (the next day).”
After an especially trying two weeks for the Mavericks, the short exchange embodied how Kidd has tried to evolve as a head coach since returning to Dallas this summer, shortly before new stories about his demanding, harddriving past surfaced.
Through the first two months of this season, Kidd has presented a vibe of patience and positivity in interactions with players, reporters and others in and around the franchise.
That hasn’t appeared to waver, even as Dallas had lost 10 of 15 games since mid-November, including two major fourth-quarter lapses at home against the Eastern Conference-leading Nets and All-Star-laden Lakers over the last 10 days.
“(I) was positive,” Kidd said of his locker-room demeanor after the Lakers hit two last-second 3-pointers on Wednesday.
“The guys did everything to execute the game plan. We got great looks. We just made mistakes at the wrong time.”
Rather than requiring a physical, grueling session Thursday as punishment for those lapses — which included allowing Los Angeles 33 first-quarter points, wrestling and losing the final rebound of regulation, and failing to use their last foul in overtime — Kidd instead held a succinct practice in American Airlines Center’s basement court.
Players did some shooting, and reserves scrimmaged with staff members. Most did a brief lift in the weight room and received some treatment with trainers.
“Then enjoy your day off tomorrow” he told players.
After no practice Friday, the Mavericks returned to practice Saturday ahead of Sunday’s game in Minnesota.
The post-loss timeline marked a major difference from anecdotes released this summer in the Giannis Antetokounmpo biography Giannis: The Improbable Rise of an NBA MVP by Mirin Fader.
One chapter included details of Kidd, as Milwaukee Bucks head coach in 2014, demanding players cancel travel plans to hold a Christmas Eve practice after what he deemed was a poor loss the night before. Interviewees said the three-hour session included excessive running and physical conditioning and degrading comments.
Kidd later said he “won’t pay attention” to the accusations in the book because the Bucks’ MVP wasn’t involved, highlighting his close relationship to Antetokounmpo.
His demeanor with the Mavericks’ isn’t all laid back.
Assistant coach Jared Dudley, who played for head-coach Kidd in Milwaukee and assistant-coach Kidd with the Lakers from 201921, has taken initiative to alert players when Kidd’s “not in a playing mood” and they need to “bring it.”
Mavericks have learned Kidd’s strict side, too.
“When he feels like we’re not playing our hardest and we’re not playing well because of that, then he gets on our ass,” Maxi Kleber said. “Games like (the Lakers) when we played well, right intentions, everybody fought and tried to win, he’s very positive, trying to push us because he knows that everybody wants to win and did the right thing.
“It’s basketball. He’s played the game for a long time himself, so he’s trying to push us, stay positive and come back like (Thursday) and practice to get better.”
Kidd hasn’t hesitated to publicly discuss shortcomings, such as when Luka Doncic’s frequent complaints to officials hampers his transition defense or when players “hang (their) heads” and allow shooting slumps to disrupt other aspects of their game.
But Kidd has also remained steadfast in his belief that his team is deep enough to weather Doncic’s extended absence with left ankle soreness.
And that the Mavericks’ 3-point shooting woes will correct with patience and probability: After all, he has said, the gulf between generating the fifth-most “open” 3-pointers (15.9 per game), according to the NBA’s short dashboard, but making them at the third-worst clip (28.8%) can’t grow much wider.
As his warmer front, sense of humor and relationship with the Mavericks’ superstars has contrasted to former coach Rick Carlisle’s, so has Kidd’s approach inhouse.
“The way it is now, we talk open-minded,” Kleber said. “We address problems openly, like in front of everybody. If there’s issues with, like, how we play or what individuals do, this or that, it’s a very open locker room.”