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02-20-2007, 12:14 PM

Nets Working to Find a Way to Trade Kidd
Mike Blake/Reuters

By JOHN ELIGON and LIZ ROBBINS
Published: February 20, 2007
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J., Feb. 19 — The Nets are more serious than ever about trading their star point guard, Jason Kidd, by Thursday’s trading deadline, several Eastern Conference officials said Monday.

The Los Angeles Lakers are the front-runners, but their offer of young players, expiring contracts and a draft pick is probably not enough to get a deal done.
But according to three officials in the Eastern Conference who spoke on the condition of anonymity because no deal had been completed, the Nets have been trying to involve at least one other team in the deal.

Multiteam deals are difficult to make at the trading deadline and usually happen around the draft or before the season starts.

The Nets may also be hoping that other teams interested in Kidd will counter the Lakers’ offer with a better one.

Possible offers from the Lakers could include centers Chris Mihm and Kwame Brown as well as point guard Jordan Farmar. The Lakers have been unwilling to trade forward Lamar Odom, their No. 2 player behind the All-Star Kobe Bryant, or Andrew Bynum, their young center.

Ultimately, the Nets’ decision comes down to this: If they take that first big step toward rebuilding by trading Kidd, can they stay competitive after the breakup of a team that once had lofty expectations?

Trading Kidd, who is to make $40 million over the next two seasons, would probably lead to the end of Vince Carter’s time with the Nets as well. Carter, who is owed more than $16.3 million next season, can opt out of the final year of his contract at the end of the season. There is already a widespread belief that he will do that, regardless of what happens with Kidd.

And if Carter is gone, then keeping Kidd could stall the growth process as the team approaches its move to Brooklyn.

Rod Thorn, the Nets’ president, said that before the season, Carter told him he would like to be a free agent. Trading Carter by Thursday could be difficult because most teams interested in Carter would also want assurances that he would re-sign. If the Nets do not trade Carter and he does opt out at the end of the season, the Nets could still use a sign-and-trade to get a player in return.

On Monday, Carter repeated that he had not been thinking about his contract this season. He said he hoped to talk with Thorn but was uncertain when that would happen.

“I wish I had something to tell you, but I don’t,” Carter said. “Honestly, I don’t. I don’t want to come out and say something that I haven’t thought about.”

Many executives throughout the league predicted that Kidd seemed the more likely to be traded of the two. But two Eastern Conference executives said they did not expect the Nets, who are not out of the running for a playoff spot, to trade either player.

Kidd and Carter returned to practice Monday night from their All-Star weekend activities, each saying that he was unaffected by the trade talk and that he was eager for Thursday’s deadline to pass.

“I’m an employee until they tell me otherwise,” Kidd said. “That’s the way this business works. Things change fast, and you just got to go with it.

“Come Thursday, it can’t come soon enough, all that stuff dies down and we try to make it to the playoffs.”

Kidd played basketball Monday for the first time in eight days because of a strained lower back that kept him out of the Nets’ final two games before the All-Star Game break.

During that time, the Nets (25-29) had a peek at what life would be like without him, and it was not pretty. They lost handily to the San Antonio Spurs and the Toronto Raptors, who are four and a half games ahead of the Nets in first place in the Atlantic Division.

Although Kidd is having one of his best seasons in years, the Nets may have a reason to move him.

According to one Eastern Conference official, the Nets’ owner, Bruce C. Ratner, was concerned about the negative publicity surrounding Kidd’s contentious divorce from his wife, Joumana. But Ratner is said to be close to Kidd. He also has an affinity for Carter, who helped rescue the Nets two seasons ago in the wake of the franchise’s letting go of Kenyon Martin.

With the Nets expected to move to Brooklyn as early as the 2009-10 season, this could be the time for them to start rebuilding. Even without Kidd and Carter, they have a solid young core in small forward Richard Jefferson, center Nenad Krstic and the rookie point guard Marcus Williams. Those three may be able to bridge the gap and keep the Nets competitive until the move.

“I think it could happen,” a conference official said of the Nets’ trading Kidd. “It seems to make some sense right now if they don’t feel like they can get to where they want to get to.”