{"id":575745,"date":"2026-02-01T20:24:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T20:24:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/575745\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T20:24:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T20:24:19","slug":"jason-kidd-had-fiery-response-to-criticism-about-playing-cooper-flagg-at-point-guard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/575745\/","title":{"rendered":"Jason Kidd Had Fiery Response to Criticism About Playing Cooper Flagg at Point Guard"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5v\">After the Mavericks drafted Cooper Flagg with the No. 1 pick last June, head coach Jason Kidd decided that he would play Flagg at point guard at least some of the time. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5y\">That decision has resulted in criticism from some over the first half of Flagg\u2019s rookie season, but Kidd couldn&#8217;t care less. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"61\">A reporter began asking Kidd about the backlash he\u2019s gotten for that decision after the Mavericks\u2019 111-107 loss to the Rockets on Saturday. Kidd interrupted and said,  &#8220;Criticism? That\u2019s your opinion. You guys write that bulls&#8212;,\u201d Kidd said in response to a question. &#8230; I\u2019ve done this. I\u2019ve played this game. I played it. I know what the f&#8212; I\u2019m doing.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Jason Kidd was asked by <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RonKnowsSports?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@RonKnowsSports<\/a> about the national criticism for playing Cooper Flagg at point guard.<\/p>\n<p>Kidd: &#8220;Criticism? That\u2019s your opinion. You guys write that bullshit. That\u2019s not \u2014 I\u2019ve done this. I\u2019ve played this game. I played it. I know what the fuck I\u2019m doing.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/NovR3R0PTV\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/NovR3R0PTV<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Grant Afseth (@GrantAfseth) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GrantAfseth\/status\/2017816270154903763?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">February 1, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"67\">\u201cI don\u2019t give a f&#8212; what you guys write because you guys have never played the game,\u201d Kidd continued. \u201cI build players, so I know what the f&#8212; I\u2019m doing. So if I take criticism, it only makes me better, because if I wasn\u2019t doing it right, you guys wouldn\u2019t be poking holes in what I\u2019ve done.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6a\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/jason-kidd-unveils-uncomfortable-plan-cooper-flagg-mavericks-offense\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kidd explained back in June<\/a> that he wanted to play Flagg at point guard \u201cto make him uncomfortable and see how he reacts being able to run the show.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6d\">He added in June, \u201cBeing able to play the 2, play the 3, he&#8217;s comfortable playing that. But we want to push, and I think he&#8217;s going to respond in a positive way. It&#8217;s all right to fail, it&#8217;s all right to turn the ball over. We&#8217;ve talked about that. Just understanding the guys that I&#8217;ve been around that have been young from Giannis, giving him the ball and he failed, but he wanted to come back and have the ball.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6g\">Through his first 45 NBA games, Flagg has averaged 20.8 points, 6.6 rebounds and 4.1 assists while seeing time at point guard. He\u2019s been especially hot over the last two games, scoring a career-high 49 points in Thursday\u2019s loss to the Hornets and 34 points in Saturday\u2019s loss to the Rockets. <\/p>\n<p>More NBA on Sports Illustrated<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After the Mavericks drafted Cooper Flagg with the No. 1 pick last June, head coach Jason Kidd decided&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":575746,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3793],"tags":[7,686,149,4057,166,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-575745","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas-mavericks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-mavericks","11":"tag-dallasmavericks","12":"tag-mavericks","13":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115997250599414884","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}