Following Saturday’s loss at Houston, Dallas’ fourth straight defeat, Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd went on an expletive-filled tirade regarding media criticism of Kidd using Cooper Flagg as team’s de facto point guard to open his rookie season, writes Christian Clark of The Athletic.
“I don’t give a f— about the criticism,” Kidd said. “The criticism, that’s your opinion. You guys write that bulls—. I’ve done this. I’ve played this game. I’ve played it at a very high level, and I know what the f— I’m doing.”
As Clark observes, the Mavs went 2-5 and had the worst offensive rating in the league in the first seven games of the season before Kidd moved Flagg off the ball. But the Mavericks have once again been playing without a traditional point guard of late and the No. 1 overall pick has thrived the past two games, putting up 49 points and 10 rebounds on Thursday and finishing with 34 points, 12 rebounds and five assists on Saturday.
“I don’t give a f— what you guys write,” Kidd said. “Because you guys have never played the game before. I have built players. I know what the f— I’m doing. To take criticism, it only makes me better. Because if I wasn’t doing it right, you guys wouldn’t be poking holes at what I’ve done.”
According to Tim MacMahon of ESPN, Kidd also ripped the officiating crew following Saturday’s loss. He was particularly upset about a play with 25 seconds remaining, when Flagg drove down the lane and missed a left-handed layup that would have tied the game.
“I saw a foul,” Kidd said. “[Officials] Sean [Wright], Simone [Jelks] and Jason [Goldenberg] were awful tonight. The referees were unacceptable. It’s a foul, and he needs to be at the free throw line. Now, does he make both? That’s up to the player, but the referees did not do their job. They were terrible.”
Flagg set a record for a teenager when he scored 49 points and his 83 combined points are the most a teenager has scored over a two-game span in league history. The 19-year-old also became the first teenager to record consecutive 30-point double-doubles, per MacMahon.
“I definitely felt some contact, but at the end of the day, the refs are the ones making the call, so it is what it is,” said Flagg. “I mean, it’s tough. You just got to play through it. It’s part of the game. It’s not the first time in my life that I haven’t got calls, and it’s probably not going to be the last. So whatever it is, just got to keep playing through it.”
For what it’s worth, Dallas (15-of-26) attempted 11 more free throws than Houston (11-of-15), Clark notes.
Crybaby Kidd once again violently lashing out when he doesn’t get his own way. Get him away from Flagg.
He should have stepped away after Luka trade. He can’t coach and relies on a mega star, Flagg is putting in work but Kidd can’t coach defense or others.
Not a fan of Kidd but there’s really nothing wrong with running Flagg at PG. It helped Barnes’ development a ton, and Giannis is literally one of the all-time greats, getting those point guard reps early in his career helped him big time. If you’ve got a guy with that kind of size plus handles, you might as well let him cook. No cap.
I agree, in a lost season it can only help Flagg’s future game knowing how the floor looks from the point position, now he knows how to work with proper PGs and knows how the game looks from their viewpoint.
Thing is, Kidd was not behind that, he just literally had no other PGs available. Any coach could have done that.
“‘Because if I wasn’t doing it right, you guys wouldn’t be poking holes at what I’ve done.’”
Huh?
Curry says hold my coffee because Pistons was holding him all game long and not 1 holding call against Pistons. It happens every game.
What about that crazy 1-handed Curry finish when he folded and blew by Ausar Thompson though? A true magician. 1 of 1.
Curry’s finishing at the rim is superelite, but he literally just gets criminally assaulted on 99% of plays so the ball doesn’t go in as much as it easily could if the refs gave him the Harden/SGA whistle, and when he doesn’t get mugged we get that POY-level stuff from him.
When in doubt, attack the media. People hate free press when it doesn’t fit your narrative and isn’t nice to you. Primma Donna.