At a glance, it’s easy to say the New Jersey Nets made the right move in the trade that sent Jason Kidd to the Mavericks.

But things are never what they seem at first glance.

The benefits for the Nets seemed great. They loosened up payroll, acquired an All-Star caliber point guard in Devin Harris and got two first-round draft picks.

What they failed to realize, though, is that J-Kidd isn’t just a great player. He’s one of those great players who makes the players around him great.

In a post for NBA Blog, Ball Don’t Lie, Kelly Dwyer took to Re-evaluating Jason Kidd.

"But the deal? The one that appeared so clearly and obviously wrong for Dallas from the outset? We were wrong about it. It didn’t matter that Kidd was royally abused by Chris Paul(notes) in the playoffs immediately following the trade, and it didn’t matter that Harris clearly trumped Kidd last season by any meaningful measure save for, yeah, playoff success and a statistical formula that the Mavericks use that we’re not privy to.

What matters is expectations. And how we need to get better at realizing that these humans take games off. That while the overwhelming majority of them follow the same standard career arc, we can never accurately adjust for players suddenly giving two wits."

The difference, writes Dwyer, between a player like Jason Kidd and a player like Devin Harris, can’t be found in a stat sheet. It’s more intangible than that:

"Harris? He took off last year, freed from Avery Johnson’s steely grip. This season? He’s just taking it off.

He’s certainly not as loutish as Kidd, and his non-basketball foibles won’t make the back page any time soon, but he’s not nearly the player he was last season. Injuries have a lot to do with that, no doubt, but just watch this guy in a screen-and-roll (either working or defending one). There’s no attack there. He’s just going through the motions, waiting for this miserable season to end.

The problem with that is this doesn’t have to be a miserable season for the Nets. It can merely be "pretty awful." Harris doesn’t want to take that next step. The result? We’re soon to hit February, and the Nets have won three times. Pinning it all on Harris? No way. And you certainly can’t blame him for acting uninspired. Money can’t buy you love. But he is the only Net who could clearly do something about this embarrassing run.

Kidd’s the bigger issue here, though. This guy runs an absolute clinic most nights. The Dallas offense isn’t among the league’s best, and it certainly isn’t nearly as flashy or fast-paced as the Suns or Warriors attacks, but you can tell Kidd is pushing his teammates and this roster to the absolute limit."

Jason’s mentality shifted 180 degrees when he donned a Mavericks jersey again. His personal matters stay off the court. At age 36, No. 2 is running the Mavericks offense like a coach with decades upon decades of experience.

THE EYES HAVE IT
The Mavericks don’t have the best offense in the league, not by a long shot, but they are sitting on top of the Southwest Conference with a less than stellar offense thanks to J-Kidd’s picture-perfect passes.

No. 2 has a gift to put the ball exactly where he wants it exactly when he wants it. He turns a game of intricate complexities into a simple game of dribble, pass and shoot. This isn’t to say he overlooks the game’s complexities. He has internalized them so deeply that he is able to make them look simple. Very few NBA players can say the same.

Dwyer believes it has to do with his eyes:

"It’s a game of centimeters and milliseconds, and Kidd’s eyes just see levels of complexity that we mortals can’t understand.

And then his hands and wrists do something about it. And all within a mediocre (13th ranked) offense, mainly led by an superstar who usually does his best work in an isolation situation that doesn’t require an immediate helping hand from Kidd. And you don’t talk about Kidd getting beat on defense any more. He’s still probably slower than just about any point guard in this league, but he’s not getting beat. Why is that? Where’s the adjustment? How impressive is it that he was able to change so severely?"

J-Kidd’s gift of precision is displayed perfectly in this video put together by The Two Man Game.

And to read what the entire piece by Dwyer, a must for an J-Kidd fan or admirer, click here.

NEXT UP
No. 2 takes his revitalized game back home as the best of the Southwest Mavericks, fresh off their road trip host the Milwaukee Bucks tonight at 7:30 p.m. CST on Fox Sports Network.

RELATED STORIES
Re-evaluating Jason Kidd (Yahoo Sports, Jan. 25, 2010)
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/Re-evaluating-Jason-Kidd;_ylt=Avt1Ah9BKv5U6HYD7KFie0IFPKB4?urn=nba,215556