THE smiles were in full supply on the dais inside Nets headquarters, everyone making nice, making like dinnertime at the Cleaver house. Joumana Kidd had an armful of roses. Jason Kidd had a pen in his hand, and at 12:06 p.m. signed his name to the bottom of a $103 million contract, a moment so many Nets fans swore they’d never see. Rod Thorn had his franchise player, his legacy as a franchise savior intact.

And Byron Scott, he still had a job. For now.

All in all, a delightful day for the Nets, photo ops all around, a nice cake with “The Kidd is Back in Town” cleverly stenciled on the top. All that was missing was a group hug, and some cleansing tears, followed by a couple verses of “Kumbaya.”

You should take a few snapshots of this day with you, stow them in a drawer somewhere for safekeeping. Let them sit awhile, and wait. Wait for December, and the first four-game losing streak of the season. Wait for January, the first time people start asking, “So, what’s wrong with the Nets?” Wait for February, if things haven’t progressed precisely according to plan, and things in Pleasantville suddenly don’t look quite so picturesque.

And listen to what Jason Kidd has to say then. Because that’s when we’ll know how genuine the long, rambling, non-denial denial he issued yesterday as a pre-emptive strike against questions regarding his relationship with Scott really was. Listen then for Kidd’s strong endorsement of Scott, his declaration of loyalty, his insistence that there’s no man he’d rather play for. Listen hard.

Because if past performance is any indication of future behavior, you aren’t going to hear any of that. Not that Kidd will remain quiet on the subject, of course. Anyone who spent more than five minutes around the Nets this year could instantly decipher the rift that had grown between coach and superstar. The fact that the Nets made the Finals didn’t make that suddenly disappear. Nor does the document Kidd autographed yesterday.

In fact, while Kidd railed against “unnamed sources” yesterday, and insisted “I don’t have the personality to do something like this,” and generally lambasted the very notion that he might have sought a replacement for Scott, for whom it is obvious he has precious little respect, he never got around to praising the idea of a permanent partnership, either.

In his opening remarks, Kidd never even mentioned the words “Byron Scott.” He thanked a whole lot of people. But never got around to even referencing his coach until it was time for questions and answers. Because he knew what the questions were going to sound like. And still hadn’t concocted a terribly user-friendly answer for any of them.

“Here’s what I wonder,” one league source with intimate knowledge of the Nets saga told me a few days ago. “If the accounts of the Jason/Byron thing were so wrong, why not just shrug them off and say, ‘You know how the media is?’ “

Or, as an old sports columnist named Billy Shakespeare once wrote in the Stratford-Upon-Avon Post: “Methinks he doth protest too much.”

We’ll see. Kidd did say later on that he hopes Scott receives a contract extension, something Thorn hasn’t gotten around to doing just yet. Of course, a long-term deal won’t save Scott if his most prominent player pipes up again, the same way a long-term deal didn’t rescue Lou Campanelli all those years ago when Kidd plotted the coup that ousted him at California (apparently, he did have the personality to do something like that as a college freshman).

But Scott has to understand that the ground under his feet is shakier than the sand at the Jersey Shore. Again: nothing new there. Kidd has long been dismissive of Scott’s work habits, his X-and-O acumen; and Kidd made no secret of his affinity for Eddie Jordan before Jordan left for Washington.

Of course, if we are to believe what Jason Kidd said yesterday, then Scott should have nothing to worry about when that first losing streak hits next year. Scott’s smile sparkled yesterday. Let’s see what it looks like in December.