Jason Kidd unsure of how he'll use Nets' big man depth

The Nets have acquired something completely different than what they thought after Brook Lopez was ruled out for the remainder of the season: depth at the center position.

With Kevin Garnett starting at the center and both Andray Blatche and Mason Plumlee playing behind him, Jason Kidd is having trouble figuring out exactly how he is going to get all three opportunities to play in the playoffs.

“I don’t know if I can play all three of them, but we’ll try to play all three,” Kidd said before Sunday’s win over Orlando. “But coming up on the playoffs, and especially the first round with it spread out, [Garnett will have] a little bit more rest, so we’ll see.

“Sometimes there might be an odd guy out, that’s just the way it goes.”

Both Blatche and Plumlee have certainly earned the chance to play, and that is probably what is so difficult for Kidd. 

At this point, it seems like Andray Blatche might be the "odd man out" in this situation because of Mason Plumlee's emergence when Garnett missed 19 consecutive games with back spasms. In eight games this month, the high-flying Plumlee is averaging 11.6 points on 82.6 percent(!!) shooting. That is not a typo.

“I’m just anticipating when guys are going to hit me,” Plumlee said. “They’re hitting me in stride.

“It’s all [shots] right around the rim, so they’re shots I should be hitting at a high percentage.” 

Blatche certainly hasn't pushed himself out of the rotation. He's averaging 9.7 points on 59 percent shooting in his last 10 games. Plumlee's stellar play has made it difficult to find consistent minutes for Blatche. Before missing three straight games, Blatche found himself to be in foul trouble quite often, and that led to even more minutes for Plumlee, who took advantage of those extra opportunities. 

Now with the playoffs beginning soon, and the fact that the Nets will be faced up against either Chicago or Toronto, two teams who feature actual big men, there's a chance the Nets may return to playing a bigger lineup for the first time since the success of the small-ball lineup.

“We haven’t done it in a while, so I wanted to see how it looked,” Kidd said. “We have different guys playing with one another, and it was all right.

“We haven’t played big, so that’s something we have to get used to if we’re going to do that in the playoffs.”

There are just two games remaining on the regular season schedule for the Nets, tonight against the Knicks and tomorrow in Cleveland, and it looks like the resting of the starters will begin tonight, as Deron Williams, Shaun Livingston, Joe Johnson, and Paul Pierce have all either been ruled out or ruled as a game-time decision.

Source: New York Post

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