Well, after the Mavs went quietly into the night – and it was quietly – losing to the Hornets 4-1, the Mavs and Avery have parted ways. In 3 ½ seasons as the Mavs head coach, Avery had a record of 194-70 in the regular season, but was under .500 in the playoffs with a record of 23-24 which was one of the main reasons for the separation. But there are several reasons for this move. I still think Avery is a good coach and a good guy but there really isn’t any way the Mavs could bring him back next year after 3 post season flame outs, 2 of which were among the biggest choke jobs in NBA history.
Many things are now coming to light about Avery’s management style with the team and it looks like he wore out his welcome. One such example came this past weekend. Avery had made the decree to the team that during the playoffs the players need to steer clear of partying and focus on what was in front of them. This was not an unreasonable request, especially given the past 2 post seasons. However, on the heels of discussing his Mary Jane use in the off season on a Dallas radio station and in the middle of being down 3-1 to the Hornets, Josh Howard handed out flyers to a birthday party he was throwing himself. Only a few players attended. However, on Monday before practice Avery asked all those to stand that disobeyed his decree, about not partying, and attended Josh’s fiesta. Avery lit into those that stood up and then cancelled practice altogether.
So, in an effort to show the team how mad he was at Josh, he ended up showing them how out of touch he was with them. He should have suspended any player that went to Josh’s party and then told the rest of the team to get ready for practice. Instead, he basically said, the heck with all you, I’ll see you on the plane. Didn’t Avery just finish a book on being a great motivator? The players knew they needed to practice so they held practice by themselves which didn’t look good on Avery.
This is only one example of things that are now coming out about how Avery has gone from the toast of the town 2 years ago to unemployed, despite the Mavs winning 73% of their games under his watch as the head coach.
The next question is who will get Avery’s job. Some names for Avery’s possible replacement being tossed around in the media include: Mavs assistant Mario Elle, Jeff Van Gundy, Tom Thibodeaux (Boston assistant), Flip Saunders, Rick Carlisle, fired Bobcats coach Sam Vincent, and Mike D’Antoni (who is reportedly also set to be given his pink slip in Phoenix). Whoever takes over will get a roster of expensive, aging players and unless Cuban wants to totally tear this thing down and start completely from scratch, which I don’t think will happen, we may not see any quick remedy to the roster which has many ill fitting parts on it.
Aside from Dirk who is still a top 5 player in my mind and still in his prime, Jason Kidd is 35 and likely will be back, since his $21 million contract is at the player’s option, and he knows he probably won’t get more than that (if even half that) on the open market. Other notable hard to move contracts are for Josh Howard who is the only player under contract who is in his 20s, Erick Dampier ($11.5 million), Jason Terry ($9.1 million) and Jerry Stackhouse ($7 million), and Eddie Jones who will be 37 next season and will likely exercise a $2 million player option. Dallas also has a team option on Brandon Bass, who at this point is their most promising youngster. So outside of Dirk, Bass, Terry and maybe Kidd (depending on if you like Kidd or not), there isn’t much to look forward to for next season. And to compound matters, the Mavericks don’t have a first-round pick this year or 2010, having traded them to New Jersey in the Kidd deal earlier this season. So more than likely, unless Donnie and Cuban really get creative with some of these huge contracts, we will see the same team next season that we just saw in the playoffs.
In truth, I doubt Avery wanted to be back in Dallas after all that happened this season, especially recently with Josh Howard. Sometimes it’s better to just part ways and start fresh, for both parties. I’m sure Avery will have success with the next team he goes to. That may translate into a championship and it may not. But the bottom line is, as much as it pains me to say this, he needed to go.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
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2 comments:
Blow it up. This team, although not to the level of the Rangers, SUCKS. Can't drive, can't dribble, can't defend, and can't grow a pair. Wait for Kidd's contract to expire. Trade the German for as many picks as possible, and blow this thing up.
Good blog! I truly love how it' s easy on my eyes and the facts are well written. I am wondering how I can be notified whenever a new post has been made. I have subscribed to your rss feed which should do the trick! Have a nice day!
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