[G-Man]

AJ should be one of the big stories this All-Star weekend. Flip stepped into a proven championship team and just opened up the offense a little bit. AJ took a team with a horrible reputation on defense, and changed the mindset, the style, the offense, everything. He also got the entire team to buy into his vision. He's juggled his starting lineup, and is winning with 2 starters who the league saw as worthless scrubs until the moment Avery started coaching them. He's getting solid production out of Dampier, and he's so far sucessfully managing minutes on a team that has too many players good enough to play. Just about everything thats hard for a coach to do, he's doing.

Compare that to the job the great Phil Jackson is doing with SuperKobe. He's teaching the guys Kobe ignores how to whine. How about the great Pat Riley, struggling with just 2 all-stars? Unlike Phil, he does have the class to give AJ his props. Only Phoenix is getting similar results from good coaching, but I don't think Nash will get the credit, even though he may be more the coach than D'Antoni.

It will be interesting to see how much publicity he, and the Mavs get during All Star weekend. It will also be fun to see how the all-stars, who've allplayed against him, react to his coaching style. Kobe will crap when AJ sits him for hogging the ball.