Point Guard: Jason Kidd
Jason — Ason, actually — landed with the New Jersey Nets prior to the 2001-02 season and it came without giving up much. Kidd and Chris Dudley were exchanged for Stephon Marbury, Johnny Newman, and Soumaila Samake, and the latter two never even laced up for Phoenix.
The former Cal Golden Bear was traded in the middle of his prime, and the then-28-year-old averaged 14.6 points, 9.1 assists, 7.2 boards and almost two steals a game over the course of his seven-and-a-half-year career.
His ability to pass the basketball is rivaled by only the all-time greats, and Kidd was undoubtedly the NBA’s best defensive point guard during his tenure in Jersey.
Kidd’s size (6-4) and sneaky athleticism made him an outstanding rebounding guard, and his blend of skills made him a constant triple-double threat. He controlled the Nets offense entirely and recorded 49 triple-doubles between 2002 and 2007 — that’s 37 more than Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett, who tied for second with 12 each, according to Basketball-Reference.
New Jersey became contenders immediately and went to the Finals in Kidd’s inaugural season. They got swept by the San Antonio Spurs. Kidd finished second in MVP voting that year, along with being a first team member on both the All-NBA and All-Defensive teams.
To this day, no Net has gotten more All-Star nods (Five), handed out more assists (4,620), picked more pockets (950) or made more threes (813, which is really ironic for someone whose career was made fun of for his atrocious shooting ability).
