It's official, Avery is gone.

[LonghornDub]

Originally Posted by Windmill360°

Avery did call Devin Harris his son.

God, you know, I really dislike Galloway. He draws the broadest inferences that require incredibly big logical steps in order to make his points. His little cronies do the same damn thing, too. At least Galloway sort of called them out for it there, though it sounded like they were pretty pissed at him.

Somehow, his cronies go from "Devin Harris was like a son to me" to "Avery did not support the Kidd trade." Talk about a leap.

[alexamenos]

Originally Posted by ProdigyDub

Somehow, his cronies go from "Devin Harris was like a son to me" to "Avery did not support the Kidd trade." Talk about a leap.

not trying to make the leap here, but maybe I should prepare to pounce down the road.

Not only has Avery referred to Devin Harris as someone like a son today, but he also went very far out of his way to talk about the relationship between Byron Scott and Chris Paul, especially commenting on the fact that Chris Paul was "very coachable" -- at the time it sounded like a shot at kidd (who ran off none other than Byron Scott while he was in NJ).

[LonghornDub]

Originally Posted by alexamenos

not trying to make the leap here, but maybe I should prepare to pounce down the road.

Not only has Avery referred to Devin Harris as someone like a son today, but he also went very far out of his way to talk about the relationship between Byron Scott and Chris Paul, especially commenting on the fact that Chris Paul was "very coachable" -- at the time it sounded like a shot at kidd (who ran off none other than Byron Scott while he was in NJ).

I think that's gotta be more a product of Avery trying to create a reason why things went wrong that absolves him (e.g. it's Kidd's fault) in hindsight than it is evidence of him not wanting to do the trade at the time.

[alexamenos]

Originally Posted by ProdigyDub

I think that's gotta be more a product of Avery trying to create a reason why things went wrong that absolves him (e.g. it's Kidd's fault) in hindsight than it is evidence of him not wanting to do the trade at the time.

certainly.

[sike]

Originally Posted by Windmill360°

Avery did call Devin Harris his son.

it was meant to be endearing....but it was a bit creepy and forced.

[Caseman]

Maybe Dave Tippett should coach both the Stars and the Mavs? At least he's getting it down finally.

[Dirkenstien]

Well I'm glad the future is bright for you Avery because we're left here with all kinds of crap to deal with.


Thanks for the mess.

[sbibi]

I don't like this move at all. I am one of the believers on the board who thinks Avery should go. However, the coaching market sucks at the moment. I like JVG and Carlisle, but Avery would be better fit than these two guys since they're defensive minded coaches and Avery knows the players better. We need Nellie back but unfortunately its not going to happen. Firing Avery is something that the Mavs will regret doing.

We went to the finals with him, we won 67 games with him. Now I know everybody is going to say that screwed us this year and last year's playoffs. This Maverick team is a difficult team to work with. I think Cuban should have waited for at least another 4 or 5 months just to explore his options. There are obviously going to be lots of roster changes, but he could have been a little more patient.

A different way to approach this was to make all the roster changes starting with getting rid of Jho. I think this team would do fine next year with a whole year Avery running the show. The Kidd trade will clearly be effective next year. This team clearly had no identity at this point. In order to obtain that, they will need at least another year together. I don't think we lost to NO because of the lack of athleticism. It was simply because of the lack of identity and heart (hence Jho).

[LonghornDub]

Originally Posted by sbibi

I think Cuban should have waited for at least another 4 or 5 months just to explore his options.

You do realize that coaches are actually people, and it's incredibly unprofessional to "bide your time" for 4 or 5 months while you leave someone in limbo, wondering if you're going to fire him, right?

[sbibi]

Originally Posted by ProdigyDub

You do realize that coaches are actually people, and it's incredibly unprofessional to "bide your time" for 4 or 5 months while you leave someone in limbo, wondering if you're going to fire him, right?

All I'm saying is that they should have taken their time to think about it and see if there's a coach who will be a better fit for this team. If not, then keep AJ. As simple as that.

[LonghornDub]

Originally Posted by sbibi

All I'm saying is that they should have taken their time to think about it and see if there's a coach who will be a better fit for this team. If not, then keep AJ. As simple as that.

That's just not really how these things work, though. Sometimes you fire a coach into a season, but if you're going to fire in the offseason, you do it right at the beginning. That's the only decent and efficient way to go about things.

[bobatundi]

Originally Posted by ProdigyDub

You do realize that coaches are actually people, and it's incredibly unprofessional to "bide your time" for 4 or 5 months while you leave someone in limbo, wondering if you're going to fire him, right?

I wish somebody would keep me in suspense for 4 or 5 months while deciding whether to fire me or not...while I know all the while that I'm getting paid $12MM regardless.

[birdsanctuary]

Again Birdsanctuary prognosticates correctly...

Want #2, its not too hard Jho is history, hopefully for a couple of draft picks....

[sike]

Originally Posted by birdsanctuary

Again Birdsanctuary prognosticates correctly...

Want #2, its not too hard Jho is history, hopefully for a couple of draft picks....

eh?

[Kidd Karma]

Wow he's doing this interview despite knowing his son was carried off on a stretcher at school.

[sike]

Plus I might really love Bird if Westphal and Del Harris were his gurus respectively...Let Bird motivate and cast a vision and a huge shadow....and let Harris and Westphal do their things.

[purplefrog]

Originally Posted by sike

Plus I might really love Bird if Westphal and Del Harris were his gurus respectively...Let Bird motivate and cast a vision and a huge shadow....and let Harris and Westphal do their things.

I could get excited about that tandem!

[sike]

Originally Posted by purplefrog

I could get excited about that tandem!

indeed.

[craggmac]

Well..... hmmmmm

[sike]

Originally Posted by craggmac

Well..... hmmmmm

you're a genius.

[LSMF]

I want Paul Westphal and Del as the assistant coach. Both are veteran coaches, Del provides the defense and Paul orchestrates the offense.

[monty55555]

http://www.hoopsworld.com/video/inde...47&play_clip=Y

http://www.hoopsworld.com/video/inde...7&play_clip=Y#

[sike]

Originally Posted by monty55555

http://www.hoopsworld.com/video/inde...47&play_clip=Y

http://www.hoopsworld.com/video/inde...7&play_clip=Y#

what is time for a change?...I guess.

Dirk (who is pure class) is not hurting by this move.

"should not have made him a weak side spot up shooter"...."But Avery believed in his system" on how the offense fit or didn't fit Jason Kidd.

EVERYONE WATCH THIS VIDEO

[mkat]

dirk is a class act..

[jthig32]

"We probably could have done more than have Jason be a weak side shoooter"

Dirk being honest, and you can just tell it kills him to second guess Avery in the media. He loves that dude.

"You don't want to go beack to the Nellie days where you just run and gun."

[monty55555]

Originally Posted by jthig32

"We probably could have done more than have Jason be a weak side shoooter"

Dirk being honest, and you can just tell it kills him to second guess Avery in the media. He loves that dude.

I agree. He really didn't want to say anything bad about Avery but his honesty comes out once in a while. He mentioned several times about the need "to open up the offense" and about making Kidd a weak side shooter.

[alby]

Originally Posted by jthig32

"We probably could have done more than have Jason be a weak side shoooter"

Dirk being honest, and you can just tell it kills him to second guess Avery in the media. He loves that dude.

"You don't want to go beack to the Nellie days where you just run and gun."

Dirk for coach?

[nikeball]

I feel so bad for Dirk..

He looks and sounds so down...

SIGHHHH...

[Locked_Up_Tonight]

Callin' out around the world
Are you ready for a brand new beat?
Summer's here and the time is right
For dancin' in the streets
They're dancin' in Chicago
Down in New Orleans
Up in New York City

All we need is music, sweet music
There'll be music everywhere
There'll be swingin', swayin' and records playin'
And dancin' in the streets

Oh, it doesn't matter what you wear
Just as long as you are there
So come on, every guy grab a girl
Everywhere around the world
There'll be dancin'
They're dancin' in the street

This is an invitation
Across the nation
A chance for the folks to meet
There'll be laughin' and singin' and music swingin'
And dancin' in the streets

Philadelphia, P.A. (Philadelphia, P.A.)
Baltimore and DC now (Baltimore and DC now)
Yeah don't forget the Motor City (can't forget the Motor City)

All we need is music, sweet music
There'll be music everywhere
There'll be swingin', swayin' and records playin'
And dancin' in the street, yeah

Oh, it doesn't matter what you wear
Just as long as you are there
So come on, every guy grasp a girl
Everywhere around the world
There'll be dancin'
They're dancin' in the streets

Philadelphia, P.A. (Philadelphia, P.A.)
Baltimore and DC now (Baltimore and DC now)
Yeah don't forget the Motor City (can't forget the Motor City)
All the way down in L.A. California
Not to mention Halifax Nova Scotia
Manchester
Alexandria, Virginia, Virginia

[Locked_Up_Tonight]

I wonder if Avery even understood his firing? Or was he muttering "Iso! Run an iso for Stack! Howard!" to the tune of "Who's on First?" through the whole press conference.

[horse900703]

good luck AJ~

[rakesh.s]

avery is good for one thing and one thing only -- beating the spurs....anything else, and the mavs are going to get outcoached

[WraithXx]

this fisher person wrote an article

dbmrfish, whoever he is, has a tired one-sided slant

this fish person could make Jesus sound like Ozzy Ozzbourne if he wanted to

my favorite part is the knock on Avery Johnson's body of work and the part about the perennial contender remaining status quo

Coach of the Year, Finals appearance, fastest coach to 150 wins EVER, 4th most wins in NBA history (67), and screwed by the refs out of a ring

4 playoff losses b/c Josh Howard decided doobie green looked cooler than Maverick green, 4 losses b/c Jew Boy Sternish decided Salvatore's dick tasted better than Cuban's

he wasn't perfect, but the Mavericks have never done better under any other coach

[twistaeffect2004]

I was on the fire Avery bandwagon, but whether we want to admit it or not, we did did see amazing times with Avery Johnson at the helm. We beat the Spurs in the playoffs, we made it to the NBA Finals, Dirk won an MVP, and the defense improved dramatically. He inherited a good team, but those first 2 years his guys played their hearts out for him. They bought into the "system", they bought into his hard noses defensive ways and we were a better team because of it.

He has his downfalls, many of them to be honest. But Avery deserves credit. He did make a difference here. Everything comes to an end though, it was time for both parties to move in a different direction.

Good luck Avery.

[dude1394]

AVery was great, it was a great ride. If you consider his body of work in total then he was fine.

But he's like never won an away playoff game? He's like 2-zillion since miami? He's failed, later.

[LonghornDub]

Originally Posted by twistaeffect2004

I was on the fire Avery bandwagon, but whether we want to admit it or not, we did did see amazing times with Avery Johnson at the helm. We beat the Spurs in the playoffs, we made it to the NBA Finals, Dirk won an MVP, and the defense improved dramatically. He inherited a good team, but those first 2 years his guys played their hearts out for him. They bought into the "system", they bought into his hard noses defensive ways and we were a better team because of it.

He has his downfalls, many of them to be honest. But Avery deserves credit. He did make a difference here. Everything comes to an end though, it was time for both parties to move in a different direction.

Good luck Avery.

It's funny, because it could quite easily end up being the case that Avery is the main reason that the Spurs aren't 4x consecutive champions come mid-June of this year.

[monty55555]

I read this from another forum and it was written by a fan of another team. Its quite a good read. I apologize in advance for the profanities you may read. I couldn't edit it as I felt it would decrease the impact of the post.

I have to admit my personal disdain for Johnson stems from his handling of the players Howard, Nowitzki and Kidd.

For some inexplicable reason, he decided at some point that Josh Howard was the superior scorer, that Dirk should stop shooting 3-pointers and that Dirk should get a tongue-lashing whenever he missed a longer jumper. At the same time Josh Howard could do whatever the fuсk he wanted out there. In my opinion, that clearly got to Josh's head. The Josh Howard who was a lock-down defender and explosive slasher to the basket has been gone for quite a while. Instead we are seeing a jump-shooting guy who got the green light in every single 1st quarter of every game of the season.

Think about that. It didn't matter if Dirk was hot early on or if Terry hit a couple of 3-pointers, it was Josh's ball in the first half of every game. Avery's comment "WE LIKE TO GET JOSH GOING EAAAAARLY!" says it all. Watching the reigning MVP being reduced to the role of decoy and passing station for Josh fuсking Howard was nigh unbearable. Experts labeled Don Nelson a mad scientist for tinkering with line-ups and match-ups. Well, Avery turned the whole thing upside down: he took the single biggest match-up advantage the team had and decided to stop using it. Awesome. That "experiment" ended after a couple of weeks and suddenly the Mavs were winning again, while Dirk averaged his usual 25ppg. Then they added Kidd and Dirk's numbers went through the roof (something close to 29ppg, need to re-check).

Ah yes, Jason Kidd. Let's count the ways Avery pooped all over the place. You can not bring in an aging Hall of Fame point guard, a guy still averaging 10/10/8, and call every single play from the side-line. You call every single play if your PG is Tyrone Lue. When the name on the jersey says "Kidd", you give him the ball, call out plays from time to time and let him run the whole thing the rest of the day. The couple of games that Dallas actually looked like a juggernaut again where the very games Johnson shut the fuсk up and handed the reins to Jason.

Another cool idea: focus on Kidd's shooting and tell every reporter in the world that Jason "NEEDS TO SHOOT WITH CONFIDEEEENCE!". Like it's some mind-blowing revelation that Kidd can't shoot worth a lick. You brought the guy in to run fast-breaks and get the ball to Dirk/Josh/Terry. You are calling out all the plays, thus eliminating Kidd's greatest strength at this point, his creativity, and on top of that you are focusing on his shooting to criticize him? You couldn't fuсk up the whole situation any worse if you hired Isiah Thomas as head coach.

Which brings me to the whole "Dirk is a choker!" debate and Avery's role as head coach during the Finals 2006 and the 1st round of 2007. Avery Johnson got ripped to shreds, two years in a row, by superior coaches. He got his entrails handed to him on a silver plater and somehow he managed to dodge all the blaming bullets, yet the few stray projectiles that actually were headed his way? He deftly re-directed them towards his Dirk Nowitzki, who needed to become "MORE OF A LEAAAADER!". Dirk fuсked up during the epic meltdown against the Warriors but Avery did all he could to put his team in a hole by coaching with his head in the sand. Good riddance.

http://dallasbasketballdotcom.yuku.c...ks---read.html

[ShaggyDirk]

I liked the fact that the reporter explained to Josh exactly what the problem was. It was like he was his parent, which is what Josh needs obviously because I feel he is very immature for 29 year old.

[rmacomic]

What video?

[Lor20]

what bugs me a bit is that he is saying that "we got older and slower" while he was the one bringing in all those "veteran players" with all their "playoff experience". there arent many 25 year old athletic veterans out there....