Bizarre comment from Bill Simmons

[jthig32]

From Simmons Friday article:

...has been one of the most random shockers of this season, right up there with Vince Carter looking like Vintage VC again; Jason Thompson being a great pick; Jason Kidd morphing into a Nash-like defensive liability; Marc Gasol being semi-competent; the poor Hawks fans getting suckered in by one of Flip Murray's infamous November hot streaks; the fact that Alexis Ajinca could ever get drafted in the top 20 of an NBA draft; and Tim Thomas being involved in a trade that was delayed because someone else had a heart problem.

First of all, I realize Simmons loves to over dramatize things. And I realize he latches on to things and drives them into the ground. Right now one of his "latches" is the Kidd trade.

But come on. Anyone, even the biggest Kidd hater, that watches this team regularly has to see the positive affect Kidd has on our defense, right? He can't keep up with the faster PG's but he makes up for it with his team defense, not to mention the fact that he guards a lot of really good two guards.

Even if Simmons hasn't watched many games, how does he figure we have one of the best defenses in the NBA right now with Dirk, with Terry playing a ton of minutes, with Josh missing a bunch of games, and a "defensive liability" at PG?

I don't get it.

[Kidd Karma]

One of the things that makes Kidd great is his basketball IQ, that will keep him in this league for another 2-3 years. His ability to be in the mind of the other 9 players is what separates him from the other points who rely on athletic ability. Kerry Kittles will go down as the best 2 guard to play alongside Kidd because of his ability to guard either guard spots, freeing Kidd to play free safety.

[craggmac]

Great players adapt to the environment that they are playing in. Kidd is a great player.

[LonghornDub]

Kidd did a pretty damn good job guarding Tony Parker for most of the game in SA. I have no idea what Simmons is talking about. Love his stuff, but he's wrong on this one.

[dude1394]

Simmons is being an idiot on this one. Parkers strength is driving the ball and jkiddo is smart enough to make sure he doesn't get picked off and stays in front of him. He forces him to be a jump-shooter which is what more folks should do.

It's a different defensive philosophy than the littlest colonel had. Avery wanted a switch on every pick...jkiddo is more comfortable fighting through it, going under or beating the player to the pick. It was another reason jkiddo had a hard time adjusting to avery.

[grndmstr_c]

Stats confirm what all but Simmons' eyes see: Coming into tonight the Mavs were giving up only 101.7 points per 100 possessions in Kidd's on-court time, 9.4 pp100 better than when he's off the court, including allowing only 43.8% effective shooting, and grabbing 72.7% of available defensive boards. The effective fg% of opposing point guards when Kidd's been on the court has been similarly low, at only 40.5%. Simmons isn't even in the ballpark on this one.

[ghazi]

Yeah, that's trash.