The shake ups are starting. As certain NBA teams continue to struggle and blame starts to be placed, shake ups start to occur, especially at the quarterback position. As the New York Knicks mull the future of Mike Woodson, the Brooklyn Nets are changing up a few things as well. After hiring newly retired Jason Kidd as head coach, top assistant Lawrence Frank was expected to help in the transition. However, Kidd demoted Franks causing tension in the locker room.
It was due to philosophical differences. That was the excuse Kidd opted to use when he demoted Frank before the Nets lost to the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday night. He has opted to reduced Frank's role with the team. He will no longer be present on the bench during games and will have a limited role in practices. Sources tell ESPN.com the reason for the move was due to friction between the two coaches, something the players were starting to notice.
"Guys do notice it. I know I surely noticed it. Something just wasn't quite right," Joe Johnson said, via The New York Daily News. "But that has nothing to do with how we played (Tuesday night). That was just a carbon copy of our season, to be honest with you."
All of the players have sided with Kidd during the unexpected terrible start by Brooklyn. The head coach notes that the move was made and now everyone is moving on and focusing on what they can do to start winning games. Veteran Kevin Garnett agrees with the coach. He noted that the coaching move was nothing major and it was on the players to respond in a positive manner.
"[We're] soul-searching here," Garnett said. "We were trying to figure out how to patch this thing up, how to get this thing together; there's a lot of moving parts to this. ... I don't think anyone around here is having fun, and losing is definitely not fun. I think at this point, we are trying to figure out who we are and fix this. We are at home getting beat by 30, 40 points, and that's not want we want. That's not even close to what we predicted where we wanted to be."
Garnett is right in that the Nets certainly did not expect this type of season after adding Garnett, Paul Pierce and Jason Terry among others in the offseason. Will the Frank move help? That certainly remains to be seen, but the bigger issue is how the players will step up. The Battle of New York takes place on Thursday and with both teams struggling, there could be some desperation moves happening.
