JT’s PJs Could Fuel Nellie’s Fire

[sike]

a pox upon all who click this..or an article at least

Pajama Game
JT’s PJs Could Fuel Nellie’s Fire

By Mike Fisher -- DallasBasketball.com
We explain why Nellie’s picturing playoff success while we’re picturing Jason Terry in his pajamas:
Let’s start with JET, whose enthusiasm must be used for good and not evil.
Before Thursday’s 112-74 preseason victory at home over the Knicks, Jason Terry took the PA microphone and addressed the crowd. He had the audience chanting “Big D,’’ part of a pledge to play better defense. He screamed into the mike about how happy he is to be here. His grin wrapped so widely around his face it appeared from a distance that he was wearing two headbands.
A child borne of a union between Oprah Winfrey and Tony Robbins couldn’t have done it any better.
Some of the earlier sloppiness in Dallas’ preseason games can be attributed in part to Jason’s full-throttle enthusiasm. He was pushing as hard as he could, but pressing hard, too. He has been much more under control recently; in the Knicks game, he scored 17 points in 25 minutes, with six assists, two steals and no turnovers – a perfect Nellie point guard night.
Jason is a guy who, while at the University of Arizona, wore his game uniform to bed on the nights before games. He tried the same cute-and-superstitious trick while in Atlanta, until he learned that Hawks players (and NBA players in general) don’t get to take their uniforms home with them.
Note to Mark Cuban: Forget the kid’s DVD player, the seat on the private jet and the lux towels. Just get him permission to take his uni home.
We want Terry’s effervescence funneled in the right direction. We want Devin Harris following the same path, as the rookie did Saturday when he led the Mavs to another preseason win, this one back home in Harris’ native Wisconsin, where he started and scored 20 points, with five assists and an astounding five steals in the 91-89 decision.
Starting JET is the right thing to do, for now. Giving Devin a look before the home folks is the right thing to do, too. How do the Mavs continue to properly stroke, whip and harness these two?
We think we’ve got the right guy for the job.
Start here: Don Nelson, it should be noted, can judge more than just talent.
Now, Nellie’s long-standing habit of announcing that newly-acquired journeymen stiffs are “cornerstone players’’ (everybody from Anstey to Pack to Rigadeau) is now dead. Still, those comments haunt him in the eyes of critics who wonder how sound a judge of talent he is.
Well, give the man this: You cannot question his judge of character.
Donnie Nelson said this the other day: “We want to have a team full of players that your son or daughter – and my son or daughter – can look up to, and be proud of looking up to.’’
Sounds corny until you watch Avery Johnson work. Nellie has judged AJ’s ability to lead this team brilliantly. It’s a very unorthodox role, maybe even an unprecedented one: The 14th man on the roster, and the fourth guy down on the coaching staff, is the team leader?
But everything he does – every word he utters, every step he takes – suggests that when this team hands out Team MVP votes next spring, Avery Johnson will deserve a mention.
AJ teaching JET and Devin how to harness their energy? Perfect. The two point guard sitting down together to study films of how Steve Nash pleased Nellie when he was here? Genius. And despite the occasional moaning over the departure of Nash (get over it fellas, before oft-expressed admiration devolves into whining), those three are among the reasons Mavs brass is now expressing a cautious optimism regarding the growth of this squad.
Assistant coach Charlie Parker – who worked closely with Harris all summer -- said this on the radio to me the other day: “I think we’re preparing to get off to a slow start, but by midseason we’ll get healthy and we’ll get rolling and we’ll be a heck of a playoff team.’’
It’s an interesting quote because it’s a multi-tiered prediction, something most coaches are reluctant to do. But there’s more: It sounded familiar.
Yup. There is it. Page 130 of Sports Illustrated’s NBA Preview edition. The mag picks Dallas to finish sixth in the West (behind the Rockets and Lakers?!), and quotes Nellie as saying, “I think we’ll stub our toes early, but by midseason or a little after we’ll probably be a really good playoff team.’’
Is there an echo in here? Is this tempered approach a good thing, or does it sent too conservative a message?
Are Nellie and staff playing CYA here? Is this prediction some sort of orchestrated company line? Will the prediction become a self-fulfilling prophesy, for better and worse? Is Nellie just playing it cool, low-keying it, in a way that, say, Jason Terry, cannot?
While AJ needs to help Terry harness his engine, we might also call on AJ to stoke Nellie’s engine.
We recommend Nellie and everyone else start by wearing their uniforms to bed on game’s eve.

[fin4life]

I really liked that article and it really makes me excited about our new PGs. I agree with Parker and NElson on the fact that we are a team built for the playoffs.

[sike]

we are a team built for the playoffs.

they better be...the owner and the fans are not accepting 50+ regular season wins and first round exists any more...

[Don_Didi]

Fish should learn how to spell "prophecy" though. Oh well, you can't have it all in life, now can you?

[FineCubanCigar]

Fish is a crappy writer, very misleading title to the article. Infact, the title has nothing to do with the actual article. Gimme Lord anyday, Fish is a gimmick writter.