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Originally posted by: SeriousSummer
There'a clearly some truth in the idea that the coaching strategy last year led to Dirk being less effective.
Still, given Nellie had to coach a team with Antoine Walker and Antwan Jamison, two players with considerable ability, I think Nellie had at least to try to find a way to make use of them. To some extent, Nellie may have been too creative for his and the team's good. He may also have stuck with the effort too long.
But how many choices did he have? Bench Walker for the entire season? Play Dirk at small forward? The structure of the team Nelson had to coach was untenable. Bradley is effective in a reserve role--and he might be an effective center in a larger role if playing with a brute of a power forward. Somebody has to do the muscle work, and neither Bradley nor Dirk are well fitted for that role.
At the beginning of the year, before Quis and Josh came along (for which I credit Nellie), Dallas had a team with Nash, Finley, Bradley and five power forwards as its best players (Dirk, Walker, Jamison, Fortson and Najera--Delk was hurt and Best wouldn't run the ball up the court).
Nellie, at least in hindsight, could have done better. But doing so would have meant giving up on finding a way to make use of the talent he did have. In the end, the best you might have accomplished was getting by Sacramento to the second round. As it turned out, there was no way to get any further with the particular talent on last year's team. I still prefer that Nellie made the effort to make something special out of the odd team he had, because the alternative was just to settle for mediocrity.
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Again, I see little logic in negatively impacting one of the most unstoppable offensive forces in the NBA in such a manner as Nellie did last year. It makes absolutely no sense. There is no justification for that. At the end of the day, regardless of the changes around him, the Mavs still had the big 3. Perhaps it would have been a good idea to incorporate the Twans around the Big 3 instead of saying to hell with what occurred the last half of the season in 02-03.
Any coach that would think that it's a better idea to go with Antoine Walker as the point forward instead of riding the giant that Nowitzki was quickly becoming...well, there is no excuse for Nellie's decision. There's no justification for Nellie's decision. Sure, he had to do something to incorporate the 'Twans, but that does not mean you go to as drastic of an extreme as what Nellie did.