Brooklyn Nets coach Jason Kidd has offered Lawrence Frank the opportunity to be an assistant coach on his staff.
"The invitation is out there, so it's up to him," Kidd said Friday on ESPN Radio's "Mike & Mike."
"He's in a special situation. He's at home, his wife is sick, so I understand coming off of coaching [the Detroit Pistons] and [possibly] wanting a year off with his family, so I respect that. The big thing is he knows how much I love him and how much I need him, but family comes first, and I respect that."
Frank lives in New Jersey. His wife underwent emergency surgery in March for an undisclosed illness, and Frank said then that she faces a long recovery.
Kidd says he's in the recruiting process of trying to put together his staff.
"There's a lot of people that have come out publicly saying that I need to get a seasoned staff, and that's what I'm looking at, people who maybe have been head coaches in this league or have been assistants and understand what it take to have some success so I can learn on the job," Kidd said. "One of those candidates is Lawrence Frank that I'm trying to get because we get along well, I trust him and I think he understands what it takes to have some success in this league."
Frank coached Kidd when he was a player with the New Jersey Nets from 2003-08. Frank was fired by the Pistons in April after going 59-94 in two seasons there.
"Jason and I are going to be going through and talking to potential candidates for an assistant coaching job," general manager Billy King said on WFAN radio. "There are guys that we've targeted and we're going to reach out to them and talk to them. It's interesting now a lot of names are out there. Some are true, some are false. But we're gonna try to move as quickly as we can and get a staff in place for him that can assist him and help him and compliment his positive attributes and the areas where he's weak."
Kidd was hired by the Nets just 10 days after announcing his retirement from the NBA as a player. He said there is no chance he'll play for the Nets next season.
"No, there will be no uniform under my suit," he said.
Kidd said he won't be a "yeller" while he's coaching.
"I wasn't a yeller as a player. I'll be very respectful, and hopefully I can get my point across during timeouts when the game is going on," Kidd said.
Kidd will get his start on the bench next month when he coaches the Nets summer league team in Orlando, King said on WFAN.
"I think it's the best thing to get right into it," Kidd told ESPN NewYork 98.7 FMs Stephen A. Smith and Ryan Ruocco. "I know that a lot of times head coaches don't coach summer league, but this gives me time to work on different parts of the game, learning to be a coach, but also my philosophy and plays and the defensive stuff that I'll get to put in as my system, so I get to see if it works. If it doesn't work (I get to see) what changes I have to make and work from there."
Kidd beat out Brian Shaw, a seasoned assistant, as the Nets' hire.
"He will get a job," Kidd said. "He's a friend of mine. I know he works extremely hard, and I know he'll be a head coach in this league."
Kidd said he's still getting used to being called Coach and added that Thursday he was correcting people to call him Jason.