I don't have a dog in this fight at all, but I do recall when J. Kidd was viewed as a perennial loser with no jumpshot. That shift to the East when it was at its weakest just as the West became a monster did wonders for his legacy. I really, really liked Kidd as a player too. I also don't like Lowry at all. Just think Kidd's legacy is a lot like Reggie Miller's in terms of narratives and numbers not matching up, exaggeration of impact, and the privileging on a couple seasons over the total body of work.
And the funny thing through this all is, I didn't like Lowry at all either (I wouldn't ever consider myself a fan of his now), in fact I thought he was a bum, albeit a legit defensive player who could playmake, but a bum nonetheless. My perception of him changed drastically as he fine-tuned his offensive game over the last 2-3 seasons and turned into one of the better PGs in the league. He went from being an inefficent, low-end scorer to a highly efficient high-end scorer, improving his scoring skillset in almost every notable area tenfold, and proved it over an extended period of time that it wasn't just a fluke.
He's not going to be an all-time great PG when it's all said and done (mostly because his resume isn't all that flash), but I can safely say that this version of him is indeed a better player than Kidd ever was. Which I mean there's A LOT of PGs throughout the modern era who had a better peak than Kidd did, but that doesn't mean I'd rank all of them ahead of Kidd on an all-time list.
