When Jason Kidd helped lead the Dallas Mavericks over the Miami Heat in the 2011 NBA Finals, it was a triumph of mind over matter. At 37, he no longer had the speed or quickness that had made him one of the best players in the league. Miami had the athletic edge at almost every position in that series, but Dallas pulled off the upset by controlling the tempo and out-executing them in the halfcourt. Kidd was at the center of everything, orchestrating their attack on both sides of the ball.

Unfortunately, the Mavs weren’t able to defend the title, as Mark Cuban broke the team apart to clear cap space. Two years later, they are still the only team to defeat LeBron James and the Heat in a seven-game series. Kidd, meanwhile, is the new head coach of the Brooklyn Nets, transitioning to coaching as soon as he hung up his sneakers. Interestingly enough, his new team has the personnel to recreate the game-plan he executed to perfection in 2011.

No one has been more active this offseason than the Nets, who have shown no fear of the new luxury tax penalties. Brooklyn pounced when the Boston Celtics decided to rebuild, acquiring Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Jason Terry for contracts and future first round picks. They bolstered their bench by re-signing Andray Blatche and adding Andrei Kirilenko and Shaun Livingston, creating one of the most expensive teams in NBA history in the process.

The result is a group with as much talent as anyone in the league. All five of their starters -- Deron Williams, Joe Johnson, Pierce, Garnett and Brook Lopez -- have made an All-Star team, with 35 appearances between them. And while Pierce, Garnett and Johnson are past their prime, they have aged gracefully because they are good shooters with excellent size for their positions. Brooklyn can get shooting and post scoring from all five positions on the floor, making them nearly impossible to defend.

The Nets won’t have anyone you can leave to double. That, in and of itself, makes them dangerous. The NBA Finals were all about floor spacing and Brooklyn will have some of the best floor spacing in the league. Last year, Williams, Johnson and Pierce all shot at least 37 percent from three-point territory on 4+ attempts. Garnett is one of the best mid-range shooters of all-time. Lopez, at 7’0 260, is one of the NBA’s best post scorers. A defense has to give up something.

In the playoffs, the Chicago Bulls gave up Gerald Wallace and Reggie Evans. Since neither could punish the Bulls for being left open, Tom Thibodeau had his players doubling the Nets stars at will. Brooklyn was essentially playing 3-on-5. The same thing happened to the Memphis Grizzlies with Tony Allen and Tayshaun Prince. The changes in the illegal defense rules have made it almost impossible to hide poor shooting, especially from non-centers.

No team used zone defenses to their advantage more than Kidd’s Mavs. As an older team full of guys in their 30’s, they couldn’t play a lot of pressure defense. They had to defend as a unit. “If you look at the good teams on the defensive side of the ball, they all have team concepts of helping one another,” Kidd told the New York Times. “The principle of helping one another has become really big with the rules now, and that’s kind of what we did in Dallas.”

That does no good, though, if Miami can turn you over and get the game in the open court. There isn’t a team in the NBA who can beat them in transition. In 2011, Kidd’s ability to control the tempo of the game was crucial to the Dallas victory. He averaged 7.3 assists on 2.7 turnovers in the playoffs, but it’s more than that. His size (6’4 210) and confidence with the ball meant that the Heat could never speed him up. Kidd could slow the game down whenever Miami had any momentum.

Williams, for all the criticism he receives, is one of the best PG’s in the NBA. He’s a 29-year-old who hasn’t had a PER below 20 in the last six seasons. Last year, he averaged 7.8 assists on 2.7 turnovers. He will be able to keep the game in the halfcourt, where Brooklyn will have a serious size advantage on Miami. Lopez and Garnett aren’t Dirk Nowitzki and Tyson Chandler, but they can have a similar impact on the game, as two 7’0 who can force the Heat to match up with them.

Miami would much rather play small-ball. They’re most dangerous with Chris Bosh at center and more three-point shooting around LeBron and Dwyane Wade. As the Indiana Pacers showed in the Eastern Conference Finals, they can look mortal against bigger teams. The Heat had Roy Hibbert, who averaged 12 points a game on 45% shooting in the regular season, looking like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Their undersized big men will have no answer for Brook Lopez.

Of course, matching up well with Miami means nothing if you don’t face them in the playoffs. A number of things could go wrong for Brooklyn, with injuries being the most likely. Next season, Garnett will be 37 and Pierce will be 36. Lopez, Johnson and Williams aren’t quite as old, but all three have had significant health issues in the last few years. If the 2011 Mavs are the best-case scenario for an older team, the 2013 Lakers are the worst. The NBA season is a long, brutal grind.

Kidd, no matter how great he was as a PG, has a huge adjustment period in front of him. In the regular season, he’ll need to carefully manage minutes while still playing his best line-ups enough to develop chemistry. The Nets bench will be crucial, particularly Blatche, who had an eye-popping 21.9 PER last season, as well as Kirilenko and Terry. If Kidd can get anything from the young legs of Tyshawn Taylor and Mason Plumlee, it would be a huge bonus.

The only thing crazier than Brooklyn’s reckless approach to team building this offseason is that it just might work. Championships aren’t won on paper, but if everything goes right, all the pieces are in place for the Nets to make a deep run in the playoffs. While Kidd had his fair share of off-court issues, he was unquestionably one of the best leaders and basketball minds of his generation. If he winds up in another series against the Heat, don’t count him out.