Jason Kidd is January's NBA Coach of the Month

Brooklyn Nets head coach Jason Kidd has been named NBA Coach of the Month for the month of January, just the third full month of his coaching career.

Maybe it's the beard.

After a catastrophic 10-21 start to the season, the Nets went 10-3 in January and 10-1 to start the month. Their record is now 20-25 after three straight losses.

With assistant coach Lawrence Frank taking a demotion in December, Kidd has taken the reins and put Brooklyn on the right track. In 2013, the Nets were 18th in offensive efficiency and 28th – third worst in the entire league – in defensive efficiency. In January, the Nets were the 13th-ranked offense in the NBA and skyrocketed all the way up to the 10th-ranked defense for that month.

Of note is that the last Nets coach to win this distinction was Avery Johnson, who won it in November 2012. He was fired just a few weeks later.

The Nets were victims of 12 blowout losses this season in 2013. Kidd came under more scrutiny than perhaps anybody else involved in the organization, which led to some desperate ploys like "reassigning" Frank, the "CupGate" incident, and employing more different lineups than any other team in the NBA.

Since then, the Nets have handed out several blowout victories of their own en route to a stellar January, which included high-profile wins over the Miami Heat and Oklahoma City Thunder.

The Nets look to avoid going 0-2 to start off February when they take on the Philadelphia 76ers at the Barclays Center tonight.

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