Why Kidd's in New Jersey

By Steve Goldstein Sports Central Columnist

Since his father, Jerry Colangelo, has been busy building the world champion Arizona Diamondbacks, Bryan has been in charge of the Phoenix Suns. By all accounts, Bryan is hard-working, open-minded, and dedicated. But he'll never live up to his father's accomplishments, so he'd be wise to move on. Since he won't, it's a writer's duty to go through his recent failures.

The story that received the biggest headlines across the NBA nation was Colangelo's trade of Jason Kidd to the Nets for Stephon Marbury. In part, Kidd was dealt because of a domestic violence situation with his wife, but that doesn't address the entire story.

As compelling a player as Kidd was for Phoenix, the organization was tired of its best player being mostly unable to hit a big shot to win a game. That's not because Kidd was unwilling to take it (usually), but because he's a poor shooter.

The vicious cycle began when the Suns tried to make up for the free agent loss of forward Antonio McDyess to Denver.

Phoenix had planned to build around the athletic duo of Kidd and McDyess, but McDyess felt "disrespected" by former coach Danny Ainge and departed the scene. That put the Suns' plan in disarray and led to acquiring two players who simply didn't fit Kidd's style.

Tom Gugliotta was still a good player when the Suns signed him as a free agent, but even before Gugliotta's health problems, he was a halfcourt player, not what Kidd needed. Penny Hardaway was picked up for Pat Garrity, a lopsided deal if one just looks at talent. However, Hardaway, too, didn't mesh with Kidd. Hardaway was convinced he should be the point guard and played like an All-Star caliber guard in his first season in Phoenix.

That, however, was Kidd's only injury-plagued season. So, knowing that Gugliotta and Hardaway were killing the Suns' salary cup number and were impossible to trade, they instead swapped their best player.

Stephon Marbury had a pretty good season for Phoenix. He was never afraid to take a big shot at the end of a game, and he hit a few of them, too. And, contrary to popular belief, he passed the ball willingly and smoothly. But Phoenix is a team without any inside talent (though Jake Tsakilidis is improving), and Marbury isn't the rebounder Kidd is.

So Marbury was playing 40 minutes a game and getting punished defensively; and, on the offensive end, he was one of two Suns -- along with forward Shawn Marion -- who was willing to go inside. As former Sun Kevin Johnson found out, that's a dangerous place for a six-foot tall point guard.

I'm sure that Nets fans had a great time with Kidd on their side. The Nets did have a strong year in a weak conference, but Kidd may be moving on soon to San Antonio to join Tim Duncan.

Meanwhile, Bryan Colangelo will go about trying to rebuild the Suns. The team does have two first-round picks to see how they fit with Marbury, Marion, and Tsakilidis. Then, if Phoenix can return to being a playoff contender, Bryan Colangelo and Kidd can reunite in another NBA city. That is, if Jason has taken care of that middle-finger problem he has when Bryan's in the vicinity.

Article courtesy of Sports Central.