Kidd could definitely identify the other team's defense strategy and make adjustments autonomously; such confidence came from the Zen Master's unwavering presence.
Kidd noticed that the opposing team's defensive focus was under the basket, with mostly single coverage and switches on the perimeter, but he didn't choose to "face the difficulty head-on" by forcing a drive to the basket.
The main reason was the lack of "facing the difficulty head-on" conditions, their strongest players for basket drives included Kobe, Kwame Brown, Garnett...and that was it, just those three with strong high schoolers' driving force.
Kidd naturally didn't want to use Kobe as a point for off-ball driving to the basket, it was too wasteful. If Kobe were to drive to the basket, it would be better to give him the ball to make a solo breakthrough, creating opportunities for the whole team rather than setting up conditions for Kobe to make an off-ball cut to the basket.
