Jason Kidd said he was pleased with what he saw during Friday’s “dress rehearsal” against the Knicks.
“It went well,” Kidd said of the Nets’ last preseason game before they open up against the Bulls on Wednesday.
What Kidd liked most were the variety of options he had when it came to getting the ball into the paint. With the contributions of newcomers like Jamaal Magloire, Malik Allen and Sean Williams, the development of Josh Boone and the recovery of Nenad Krstic, Kidd thinks the Nets are considerably more diverse than they have been and that’s something he plans to take advantage of.
“It gives you more to choose from, so you don’t always have to rely on jumpers,” Kidd said. “It gives us more flexibility. We have more dimensions now.”
Because Kidd has a knack for finding teammates’ strengths, it’s no surprise he already has begun to figure out how best to involve this new talent.
“Athletically, Sean is off the charts. (Magloire), you can throw into him and play off of him. We can run our offense through him,” Kidd said. “Malik Allen is great at pick and roll and can knock down the jumper. We have a lot of bigs who can do a lot of different things and that’s an added weapon.”
Lawrence Frank made light of many of the recent predictions that have come out that dismiss his team’s chances of reaching the postseason again.
“Based on (those) we actually filed an application with the NBA to be reinstated to the NBA,” Frank said. “A couple of magazines had us ranked 31st out of 30.”
But he knows why people see his team that way.
“The Atlantic Division has gotten a whole lot better,” Frank said. “We’ve got to raise our level of play.”
The performance of players like 6-foot-11 Magloire and the 6-10 Allen (who practiced yesterday after recovering from a left foot injury) will be an important part of that.
“They give us a chance to play inside and out and takes pressure off of us being a jump-shooting team,” Kidd said.
Not surprisingly, Frank opted not to disclose his starting lineup for the opener, but did not rule out inserting Magloire, either now or later in the season.
“Can Jamaal be a starter? Sure he can be a starter,” Frank said. “It’s a long season. If he doesn’t start, doesn’t mean he won’t.”