With only the laughingstock Knicks separating the 5-18 Nets from the basement of the NBA’s Atlantic Division, neophyte head coach Jason Kidd deemed assistant Lawrence Frank surplus to requirements Tuesday, a move allegedly hastened by the latter badmouthing the former. On Wedenesday, the New York Post’s Tim Bontemps and Fred Kerber suggested that Frank might seek to negotiate an exit from the organization :
In the wake of being officially “reassigned” by Kidd prior to Tuesday’s blowout loss to the Nuggets in Brooklyn, Frank is in the process of retaining “high-powered” legal counsel, presumably to settle a buyout with the franchise, a league source told The Post.
When the Nets hired Frank — Kidd’s former head coach with the Nets, and who Kidd had publicly pursued to be one of his assistants after taking the job in June — they gave him a six-year deal worth a total of roughly $6 million, according to league sources, making him the highest-paid assistant coach in the NBA.
A former Nets team member said when Kidd played for Frank, “we did what Jason wanted” and that Kidd resented some of the long practice sessions.
As for the mess the Nets now find themselves in, a league source said, from his outside view, “blame can go from top to bottom. At the top, they hired an inexperienced coach. And remember that Lawrence and Jason had a relationship before where essentially the roles were reversed now.”