You know I forgot lol. It was used in every possible way on this board already. Posters like Yaozer killed it. Now I don't know what the real quote is.
What if D'Antoni gets fired and the Mavs hire him, and Avery gets hired by the Suns? That would be interesting...
Whatever. That team IS NOT as talented as it has ever been. They have players that refuse to play defense no matter what, and are not tough or clutch. There's nothing a coach can do if a player isn't tough. I mean you contradicted yourself when you say he road the guys 24/7 and they tuned him out. That is on the players NOT the coach.
Do you have evidence of that, or are you just assuming and making that up so you can rip Avery Johnson? Last I checked Avery Johnson wasn't the GM. If you give in to everything the coach wants then you're going to have issues. If you're a GM and you anything about basketball you're not going to make that deal. Besides, do you have evidence that Avery wanted that trade so badly? I'm pretty sure that Cuban wanted worse then Avery since Cuban is all about superstar players and selling tickets.
My gut feeling says Paul Westphal will get the job. Westphal knows how to coach. He had some great years with the Phoenix Suns and he is a genuinly nice guy. I think the players will listen and respond to him. He also seems like the easy going kind of coach that Cuban can get along with while Cuban calls his own shots. Bottom line though is that, I don't think any coach can help them with the Jason Kidd problem. He is eating up all that salary just to be a Chuck Hayes on that Dallas team. Teams cringe and run away from Jason Kidd when he is about to take a shot. They all want that defensive rebound. While Kidd is getting some nice passes and finds, he is clogging the lane for everyone because his guy is always the one coming with the double teams.
LOL. This is why I've always maintained that it's a waste of time hating the Dallas Mavericks because they will ALWAYS find a way to shoot themselves in the back so why even bother? But to answer your earlier post: Cuban couldn't fire the players nor did he dare fire himself so Avery gets to be the goat this time. Next year, it will be Donnie Nelson and then I predict that they will resign Roy Tarpley and Sam Perkins.
Couldn't agree with you more. The talent Cuban has traded way from this team is unbelievable. And the quality coaches he is running away from this franchise is off-the-charts. This franchise is just killing itself from the inside-out.
both Cuban and Avery wanted that trade. Cuban likes making big moves and big names - he can't stand still. And Avery bailed on Devin Harris and told Cuban he couldn't win with him. Heck, even Dirk was making noises about the deal - recall how positive he was about it right after. Blame them both for that catastrophe. If Jason Kidd didn't get to play in the Eastern Conference for the last few years when it was nightmarishly bad he'd be known as one of the biggest playoff failures in the league.
Can you explain to me how I contradicted myself? Just because he continued talking doesn't mean they continued listening. Simple enough?
I have been hearing a lot about a Josh Howard for Carmelo Anthony based deal. Where is Nuggs4? I could see it working for both teams. But me, I would trade Dirk for Anthony. But y'all know how I feel about Dirk.
I think your memory of Westphal is faulty. Yes, he's a nice buy but he was not a good NBA coach. The Suns got to the Finals his first year because of Barkley, but it was a downhill slide from there partly because Westphal had no idea what he was doing. I hope Cuban hires him because that would cement the Mavs fall into mediocrity or worse. Westphal clearly doesn't have the brains and leadership ability to be a head coach.
Westphal did fine managing contrasting personalities of Kevin Johnson and Barkley. He took his team to 6 games in finals and was seconds and a Horace Grant block on Johnson shot away from forcing it to game 7. The following two years they eventually lost out to eventual champion Rockets in game 7s. So when you look at it, in 3 years his team lost to the eventual champions in game 6, game 7, and another game 7 respectively. This despite being Barkley injured in the 2 of those seasons. After those 3 seasons, both Kevin Johnson and Barkley were too injury prone and had lost their steps. How is that bad coaching? Could some others have done a better coaching? Sure, but not too many. His fault like D'Antoni's is that he never could coach defense. But he was a terrific offense minded coach and was very good at handling people. So once again, can the Mavs do better than him? Sure, but he is not a bad choice. Like I said though, eventually it might not even matter with Jason Kidd still on the Mavs.
In retrospect, they should have traded Josh Howard. He reacted very, very badly to some personal issues and to Harris being traded. I think it's a tough situation in Dallas where you have such a visible and meddling owner. I'll tell you this- Devin Harris showed more heart in showing up to support his former team during the playoffs than anybody there. Jason Kidd was once a great player, but the way he threw the Nets franchise under the bus *after* orchestrating this trade was deplorable.
Yeah, if Cuban didn't want to trade for Kidd he wouldn't have. But the way I see it was a win-win situation. Harris wasn't cutting it (Dirk was pretty much left for dead before the trade. Just look at his numbers after the Kidd deal. That guy alone saved the Mavs this year). So either you win now or you end up having 22+ million to spend on another big name next summer. That's the best part of the deal. People here keep thinking that Mavs are stuck with Kidd. I know it's wishful thinking but he might now realize how hard it is to keep up with the pg's in the west and decide to not pick up his player option. I know, who the hell am I kidding? Avery lost this team man. It's as simple as that. He took over for Nellie and distilled the idea that defense wins games. They bought into his philosophy while still being a force on the offensive end. Not only do they now play ZERO defense, Avery only has one play in his offensive play book. I mean seriously, any coach that puts a lineup of George, Stackhouse, Jones, and Barea on the court at the same time during the playoffs must be a complete idiot. The best part was Avery telling the team not to party during the playoffs. And then you have Josh Howard handing out fliers IN THE LOCKER ROOM to his party that he's hosting for his birthday! Hilarious. It's time for a disciplinarian; I'm sick of BS. That or NBA and the players association could just get rid of guaranteed contracts.
Nuggs4 gets his rumors (an insider posts there) from this Nuggets fan forum: http://www.nuggets.proboards1.com/index.cgi Funny thing is he hasn't posted on that board in years.
Kidd is not going to drop his player option. So the earliest time Mavs can start shop him is end of next season. And you can't just "end up having 22+ millions to spend". Because Mavs is way over the cap, they have to trade him to a team that needs salary relief. So the Mavs is either going to gain or loose big time for that contract depending on who is available at that time. But either way that's 1 more season of no significant improvement. Dirk is 30 this year, Terry and Stackhouse are getting old fast. I don't know how big of window the Mavs have. They could very well end up blowing up the team and start rebuilding in 2010.
Please explain to us the advantage of waiting until the 2008-09 season is over to trade a player who by then would have an expired contract? Seems like any time is the right time with the Trade Deadline being prime time.
