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There are several reasons Avery Johnson no longer has an office at the American Airlines Center. Avery's inability to make the most of Jason Kidd's talents ranks pretty high on the list.

Mark Cuban made the Kidd trade because he thought it made the Mavs legit title contenders. He hasn't given up on that hope despite the Mavs getting booted from the playoffs in five games.

Kidd was a nonfactor during the playoffs -- and pretty much since arriving for his second stint in Dallas. The franchise power brokers believe Rick Carlisle, who vows to give Kidd control on the court and run an open offense after studying Mike D'Antoni's system, will help Kidd return to Hall of Fame form.

"We need to find a way to make Kidd more efficient for us," Dirk said. "By just dropping the ball in the post and being a weakside shooter, I don't think that really suited his game. We did run some when the opportunity was there, but I think in the halfcourt offense beside posting him a little bit, we've got to find other ways for him to put his stamp on the game. I'm sure that's the coach's job."


And it's a part of the job that excites Carlisle. "He's kicked my ass many times," Carlisle said when asked about his relationship with Kidd, looking forward to working with him instead of coaching against him.

In fairness to Avery, he didn't have an offseason and training camp to figure out ways to get the most out of Kidd. (Not that it would have mattered, considering Avery's stubborn nature.)

"This training camp coming up in October is going to be the most important one in the Cuban era," Carlisle said. "We need to make sure we're going to put Jason in the best position to help our team and vice versa. Part of that is listening to what he has to say and his views of the game."

That's something that didn't happen enough under the previous coach.

Kidd said after the Mavs' playoff finale that we needed more time before judging the trade, which has to be considered a bust at this point. Maybe he just needed a new coach. The Mavs sure hope so.

http://mavsblog.dallasnews.com/archi...-carlisle.html