FireAvery.com - A Dallas Mavericks Blog

Well, see you later.

My original plan after the season was over and Avery was fired was to rename the site and make it a more general Mavericks blog. But, after a weekend away and not having to worry about missing stories or getting a post up I’ve decided to just shut it down. Turns out I’m just not made to be a blogger.

The site achieved what it was made to do, see Avery Johnson out of Dallas. Add that to the guy I said I’d like to see as coach, Rick Carlisle, most likely getting hired and I think it was a pretty good two month run.

Big thanks to all the regular commenters that really kept the site going. It’s been a blast reading all of your comments. The site ended up getting 23,000 unique visitors from 110 different countries, which is just amazing to me.

I’m going to leave the site up and comments will still be enabled, so feel free to continue chatting amongst yourselves. Be sure to check out these excellent sites for all your Mavericks and NBA news:

DallasBasketball.com

Mavs Moneyball

The Dallas Morning News Mavericks Blog

Hardwood Paroxysm

True Hoop Blog

It’s been fun. Go Mavs.

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Carlisle the new head coach?

FoxSports.com is reporting that Rick Carlisle has agreed to terms to become the Mavericks new coach.

However, no other news site is reporting this as of right now.  ESPN.com said that he’s coming back for a second interview today but didn’t mention being hired already.

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Quick quick hits

Just a real quick post tonight.

Go check out the Miracle Worker post on DallasBasketball.com about how much Avery loves him some Avery. If you’re really a guy of “honesty and integrity” do you need to say so during your going away speech? Should your actions be able to speak for you?

Also check out the story on DB.com about the Mavs short list for coach. That short list apparently only includes Van Gundy, Carlisle and D’Antoni right now.

Rick Carlisle was the first person to interview for the job.

The Miami Heat may be interested in Josh Howard. Would Shawn Marion interest anyone?

The Atlanta Hawks have somehow forced a game seven against the Celtics. I don’t think anybody expected them to win one game, myself included, but this is a great story. It would be amazing if the Hawks could somehow knock the Celtics off Sunday afternoon.

I’m going to be out of town all weekend so no new posts, unless a coach is hired. I’ll be back Monday with an update on the status of the site. It’s not going anywhere, just getting a little bit of a name change.

Saturday Morning Update 

The article about Carlisle linked above is now saying he is being brought back to Dallas for a second interview.  Looks like the Mavs may not even wait until the playoffs are over before naming him the new coach.

And the Rockets lost last night.  Seeing the Rockets go out in the first round again should make everyone around here a little happier.

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Coaching search update

The Dallas Morning News has an update on the coach hunt. 

Jeff Van Gundy, Del Harris and Paul Westphal have all said they’re not interested in the job. 

Rick Carlisle is coming to town for an interview very soon. 

Flip Saunders and Mike D’Antoni are both going to be canidates if they leave their current teams.

Yesterday on ESPN radio Donnie said his name is on the list, but at the very botton and that he hopes it doesn’t come to that.

The list is quickly being whittled down.  With the Mavs having interest in Saunders it’s going to be at least two or three weeks before anyone would be named.

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Dirk sounds bummed

Dirk isn’t sounding too pleased about the state of the Mavericks right about now.  Yesterday he spoke to reporters and had some insightful comments.

“For me, personally, I feel like it’s another wasted year,” he said. “I’m in my prime right now. I’m almost 30 now, so I feel like I wasted another great opportunity to win the title and bring it here to Dallas.“

Along with that statement when asked about next year he said “if I’m here” three times, including this telling comment.

“Come back a better player, a better person, if I’m back, give it another try.”

I hope that’s his guess as to what the team may try to do this offseason and not what he’s hoping will happen.  I don’t think Dirk is the kind of guy to ask for a trade or anything but it doesn’t sound like he’s very happy right now.

I know some of you don’t have the highest opinion of Dirk but it would be a catastrophe if he were to be traded.  He was the only player to be consistently solid through the playoffs and became much better once Jason Kidd came to town.  If you can improve the supporting cast this offseason, which this site’ll be getting into in the coming weeks, and give them a full season together there’s a chance they could do something next year.

He also had some comments on Avery’s last season and it doesn’t sound like he enjoyed the way the team was being coached.

“I mean, we probably could have opened it up more, a little more free-flow, let Jason create and not just make him a weak-side spot-up shooter. But, you know, Avery had us believe in his system.”

And what is he looking for for the new coach of the Mavericks?

“Obviously, we’ve got to bring a coach in that brings out the best out of what he’s got here,” Nowitzki said. “Open up the offense a lot more, run. But still a guy who knows how to coach defense in the league.

“You don’t basically want to go back to the Nellie days where we just run and gun and have fun and we got scored on every time down, either. That’s obviously not the solution to get where we want to get to.”

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Donnie on the Ticket

Donnie Nelson was just on with the Musers on the Ticket and had a couple things to say about the coaching hunt.

No one from the current staff.

No college coach without NBA experience.

Someone that plays a more up-tempo game, but is not looking to score 140 points a game.

No one on the current roster is untouchable, as far as trades go.

So does that change anyone’s idea about who they could be looking at?

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Who should be the next coach?

Now that Avery’s gone it’s time to start looking for the next coach of the Mavericks.  The new poll on the right has a bunch of canidates listed.  Tim MacMahon has put together a quick preview of the bigger names that are out there.  Use this thread to discuss who you think the new coach should be.

I’m liking the idea of Rick Carlisile right now.  He had some good seasons with the Pistons and Pacers before Ron Artest turned into a moron and completely derailed the Pacers.  I just think it’s important to get someone new in here.  Someone that is in no way connected to Nellie, Avery or Cuban.  It’s time to completely flush out the old regime and bring in a brand new one.

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Avery Johnson is no longer the Mavericks coach

Mark Stein with ESPN.com is reporting that Avery Johnson has been fired.

This site isn’t going to be going anywhere anytime soon so be sure to keep checking back.

I wish Avery the best as he moves on from Dallas.  There’s no doubt that he will be a head coach again, probably very soon.  I think he’ll make a good coach somewhere too.  It’s just that he’s not the right person for this team right now and what they need to do. 

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Mavericks 2008/09 Roster Situation

There’s a lot of talk in the comments today about potential deals the Mavericks could do this summer to get some new blood in town. In light of that here is the Mavs current roster/salary situation for the 2008-2009 season.

Under Contract
Jason Kidd - $21,372,000
Dirk Nowitzki - $18,077,904
Josh HOward - $9,945,000
Erick Dampier - $9,550,000
Jason Terry - $9,075,000
Jerry Stackhouse - $7,000,000
Brandon Bass - $826,269

Player Option
Eddie Jones - $2,000,000

Free Agents
Devean George - Bird Free Agent
Antoine Wright
Juwan Howard
Malik Allen
JJ Barea
Jamaal Magloire
Tyronn Lue

When a team over the salary cap, which includes the Mavs, makes a trade the incoming value of players cannot exceed 125% plus $100,000 of the outgoing value. The ESPN Trade Machine is a great tool to see what trades would or would not work. It’s also a great way to waste a couple hours at work.

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A very good case against Avery

DallasBasketball.com has a great article up about all of Avery’s failures as a people person. It’s a good, and somewhat infuriating, read and really gives you an insight into the way Avery has been running the team. Here’s a small snippet about how Avery became a “Stack guy”.

Avery’s choice of which players would be his “pets’’ and which would be in his “doghouse’’ was once thought to be the result of his knowledge of psychology. We now believe it was more about which players stood up to the coach’s screaming and which did not. The feisty Jerry Stackhouse made it clear more than two years ago that he would not; we are told Stack was inches away from a physical altercation with the badgering coach before he was pulled away by teammates. And the next thing you know, Avery is a “Stack guy.’’ (And yes, Mavs fans, that is the genesis of Avery’s BrokeStack Mountain love for his veteran.) Avery and Stack are respectful friends. But Stack not taking Avery’s crap is part of how they got that way.

That article alone should be enough to show anyone why Avery has to go. He’s lost this team and that’s a hard thing to get back.

Also coming out this morning is the real reason Avery cancelled practice Monday. Apparently he was upset that Josh Howard held his birthday party Sunday night and that a few of the players attended. Should Howard have held the party after such a bad loss Sunday night? That’s debatable.  But being pissy about a couple of your men, as Avery would put it, is no reason at all to cancel practice the day before an elimination game.

At this point if anyone cannot see why Avery has to go I don’t think there’s anything that would convince you. Hopefully Cuban is not in that group.

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The season really is over

Two years ago the Mavericks had a 2-0 lead in the NBA Finals. Since then they are 3-12 in the playoffs. There are a lot of reasons for the sudden decline but there’s now a nice, long summer to get into that.

Tonight, let’s mourn a team that had looked like it was going to be a constant championship contender just two years ago. Post up your thoughts, ideas and wishes for this team over the next 6 months. Also be sure to vote in the new poll to the right.

We’ll start looking back at the last two seasons and what this team needs to do this summer tomorrow.

We all know what the first change should be.

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Mavs-Hornets Game 5

Possibly the last game Avery coaches for the Mavericks tonight. At this point I just want to see this team play with a little heart and not quit like they did in game four. If they do manage a win game six will be here in Dallas on Thursday night. NBAStuffer doesn’t like the Mavs chances tonight, and they’ve been pretty accurate in the playoffs so far.

Jerry Stackhouse had an interesting explanation of the player only practice that was held yesterday.

“It was just a day when we had to come together and talk among ourselves,” he said. “It’s just about bringing it to the table once the game starts. All the X’s and O’s are good, but sometimes it’s the guys coming together and figuring out what works better. We’re the ones in the game.”

Sounds to me like the guys aren’t too fond of Avery’s X’s and O’s right now.

Check out ESPN.com’s Mavericks roundtable where the second question is whether or not Avery will be fired. Mark Stein, who still lives in Dallas, has this to say about the situation.

Avery is definitely out. Can’t blame him exclusively for the New Orleans series but this has been building for months. Coach and the owner don’t have the same relationship they once had and the authoritarian intensity that was such a successful contrast to Don Nelson’s style early in the Avery Era is too easily tuned out now. Throw in the scars that linger from the playoff losses to Miami and Golden State and it’s clearly time for a change.

Go Mavs.

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Now this is interesting

Avery met with the team at the AAC yesterday then cancelled practiced, telling the guys he would see them on the plane.  Well, the players didn’t seem to like that idea and proceeded to have a player only practice.  And it doesn’t sound like Avery was too happy about it.

He sounded like a coach who was not excited that his team would go beyond simply having a players-only meeting by actually doing court work. Players-only meetings happen all the time. But a players-only practice before a possible playoff elimination game?

“We’re in a situation where I don’t know if we need another drill,” Johnson said. “We’ve been having drills and scrimmages since the first day of training camp and if you don’t have it by now, I don’t know if you’re going to have a CliffsNotes session and get it.

I’m guessing it’s not a good thing for a coach when his players just don’t listen to him and have a practice anyways.  Of course it could mean any nuumber of things.  Maybe the guys just felt like they needed to shoot around a little more and try to find their stroke.  Or maybe they’ve finally decided to completely stop listening to Avery since he’s said he’s not making any adjustments to his coaching style when it obviously isn’t working.

Johnson talked openly Monday about whether the players are still in his corner. He said he will continue to run his team the way he believes it should be run. He said that since the trade for Jason Kidd, the transition has been rocky.

“Overall, these men have been very loyal to me,” he said. “It’s a tough spot for us. Sometimes, we haven’t played our best basketball. Maybe another team at that particular time was just a better team. But it’s not because the men don’t listen or don’t try.

So it’ll be interesting to see what happens in the game tonight.  Will the Mavs fall back into their jump shooting ways, suffering through Avery’s bad play calling and substitutions.  Or will they take things into their own hands and play this game tonight like they want to.  Either way the writing on the wall is quickly becoming legible concerning Avery’s future with this team.

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Avery to the Bulls?

This is coming from the rumors section of Insider over on ESPN.com. I think it’s a great idea, mainly because it’d mean he’s not here anymore.

GM John Paxson appears to be in no hurry to make a hire, and there are two, maybe three, candidates who could end up beating Rick Carlisle to the coaching seat.

One is Avery Johnson, whose impending dismissal has been widely forecast if Dallas ends up losing to New Orleans.

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Things are not good in Mavs land

Here’s a quick look at a few reactions in the media after the game last night.

Mark Stein in the Daily Dime says that the Hornets were looking forward to getting the Mavericks because they don’t think Avery’s a very good coach.

The Hornets likewise never imagined … that Johnson, getting nothing from his reserves apart from Brandon Bass, would gamble on playing little-used guard J.J. Barea and then pay the price during New Orleans’ second-quarter burst without Paul.

Yet there have been whispers coming from the Hornets’ camp, going back before the series even started, that they looked forward to playing Dallas because they were convinced that Kidd couldn’t hurt them in his current role, given Johnson’s penchant for slowing the game whenever it gets close and an offense not exactly known for ball or player movement, which so often turns Kidd into a weakside shooter.

Jean-Jacques Taylor sees what one of the big deciding factors for this team is going to be in the offseason.

Kidd, anointed a savior for the season when he arrived in February, was a non-factor with three points, three assists and four rebounds. He didn’t shoot, as usual, and didn’t impact the offense with his passing.

If Avery can’t figure out how to get the most out of him for whatever reason, then Cuban needs to find another coach. Or get rid of Kidd.

It’s not that complicated.

And finally, for now, Randy Galloway says it best about what’s in the immediate future for the Mavericks.

And then there’s Avery Johnson, the head coach who almost certainly won’t be by next weekend, barring some kind of miracle revival by his team. Big changes are on the way for the Cubans, changes that guarantee nothing, except the Mavs we once knew will be no more.

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