Jason Kidd is no longer a candidate to be Pelicans head coach

As enjoyable as it must have been for Jason Kidd to win a championship in his first season as an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Lakers, it’s no secret that he has bigger ambitions in mind: he wants to be a head coach in the NBA again.

The good news for Kidd is that there are a handful of head coaching vacancies around the league. Even after the announcement that Nate Bjorkgren will be the new head coach of the Indiana Pacers, there are still three teams that are in the market for a new head coach: the Houston Rockets, the New Orleans Pelicans and the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The bad news for Kidd is that he’s no longer being considered by one of those teams. According to a report by Shams Charania of The Athletic, the Pelicans have moved on from Kidd as a potential candidate to replace Alvin Gentry:

The Pelicans have four finalists for their head coaching job, including Stan Van Gundy and Ty Lue who are meeting in New Orleans with team officials this week and are seen as the expected choices to be offered the job. Two more finalists are expected to interview next week, sources said. Sources added Lakers assistant Jason Kidd is not part of the Pelicans’ process right now.

That’s a pretty substantial shift in tone from Marc Stein of the New York Times’ report in August, which stated that Kidd was a “prime candidate” for the Pelicans job.

With Kidd seemingly out of the running in New Orleans, his last two opportunities for a head coaching gig are in Houston and Oklahoma City, and so far he hasn’t been tied to either team. That’s notable when you consider he was linked to both the New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets before they filled their positions.

Perhaps the key to Kidd’s head coaching future is not getting linked to the job he’s interested in. If not, he’ll probably be back on Frank Vogel’s bench next season. Given his close ties to a certain impending free agent, that might not be the worst thing.

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