Devin Harris is Good

March 27th, 2008 Posted in Avery Johnson

With Devin Harris going for 22 points and a career high 15 assists last night against the Pacers let’s take a look back at the trade. When this trade happened I was all for it. I thought Jason Kidd would be what this team needed to really get things going for the stretch run this year and have a deep playoff run. I didn’t think about the influence Avery would have on Kidd though.

Here are Devin’s numbers for the year pre and post trade.

  Points Assists Rebounds
Dallas 14.4 5.3 2.3
New Jersey 15.9 6.6 3.3

Now let’s look at Kidd’s performance before and after the trade.

  Points Assists Rebounds
New Jersey 11.3 10.4 8.1
Dallas 8.5 9.2 6.3

So Devin’s up in the three basic categories while Kidd is down in all three. Also since the trade Devin is playing 4 minutes more a game and Kidd is playing 3 minutes less per game.  So what’s the main reason for Harris’ and Kidd’s numbers going opposite directions of each other?  Avery.

On paper Dallas has better talent and a better team than New Jersey. But in New Jersey Lawrence Franks lets his team play a much more free-flowing, fast break game than Avery does here.  Franks also isn’t over coaching the game every night and is letting Devin be himself.  Meanwhile, Avery have managed to make Kidd’s numbers decrease even with better talent around him. Kidd’s assists numbers should be 2 or 3 a game higher here than in New Jersey, but it’s kinda hard to get an assist on an iso play when you’re standing in the
corner doing nothing.

I still think this can be a good trade for the Mavs, but it’s going to take someone else running this team, someone who can put his ego aside and let Kidd be himself, for that to happen.  And in the meantime Mavs fans are going to have to get used to seeing Devin Harris become a top level point guard in the East, while the Mavs will be searching for their next point guard of the future.


The comments below are owned by the person who post them. FireAvery.com is not responsible for their content in any way.

There is no moderation queue but inappropriate comments (profanity, personal attacks against other posters, personal attacks against players/coaches, etc.) will be deleted.

  1. 25 Responses to “Devin Harris is Good”

  2. By seniorlee on Mar 27, 2008 at 12:35:39 pm

    You mention Devin’s increasing and kidd’s decreasing minutes and still blame it on avery. dont get me wrong, i dont like him as a coach either but those numbers are not his fault. do you expect kidd to put up his NJ numbers when his minutes are cut? why would devin put up the same numbers when hes longer on the court?

  3. By Greg on Mar 27, 2008 at 12:54:15 pm

    How many minutes a player plays is directly the coach’s responsibility. So going by these numbers Avery should have left Devin and should be leaving Kidd on the floor longer than he was and is.

  4. By David on Mar 27, 2008 at 12:59:23 pm

    That’s not the point. 3 to 4 minutes isn’t the main reason Kidd’s stats are less. His stats are cut because Avery has set up up the most inane offense I have ever seen in the NBA. Besides fast breaks, it is impossible for Kidd to generate assists because the offense consists of dumping the ball to one person and forcing that person to create his own shot. It’s stupid because NO ONE on our team is good at creating easy buckets. Everyone relies on turnaround fades. It’s really the stupidest offense I’ve ever seen and I don’t even see how it requires a coach to tell someone to go iso every play.

    Avery has turned THIS COUNTRY’s STARTING POINT GUARD, a point guard that Kobe Bryant and Lebron were licking their chops over, and turned him into a player that national media are calling washed-up. Why in God’s name would Kobe and Lebron want a washed up point guard?

    Exactly. He’s not washed up. He’s still a top-4 point guard. He’s on my fantasy team so I know he was averaging over 11 assists/game when he was in Jersey. Now that he’s playing under the NBA’s worst coach, all his stats are dipping. With Devin’s outburst last night, I’m more convinced than ever that Avery holds everybody back and it’s time to get rid of his ass. He should never be a head coach in the NBA ever again.

  5. By Shirong on Mar 27, 2008 at 1:09:55 pm

    I agree with you. AJ needs to go and I think Mark should fire AJ now and let Paul run the team for the rest of the season.

  6. By captainjack on Mar 27, 2008 at 1:10:34 pm

    As my old professor said. There are lies, damn lies and statistics. I been watching. Kidd busts his ass on both ends. They are much better with Kidd and damn the record and damn the stats. Damp is way better and fired up for once and this alone justifies the trade. But Dirk is better also. This team may just click. I have no doubt it would click faster with someone not named Avery as coach. That is why I blog here. I think the person who runs this site is doing a great job and I think it is fair and overdue. Notice how many more blogs there are now compared to the last few weeks. When the playoffs come, In addition to his other great skills, having a point guard who can get 10 rebounds and post up in half court sets will pay off. Wait til Derek Fisher has to stop Kidd in the post. Or Parker. It will give the zen master & pop something to think about.

    Tonight will show a good deal. Denver needs this game bad. So do we. It is nut cutting time. They are at home and have 2 superstars both in the top 10 in scoring. But they have zero defense. Our 7 ft superstar is out. Watch the defensive intensity of the Mavs at the start of the game and the start of the second half. This will show if Avery has lost them or not because his words will be fresh in their minds. Watch to see how Kidd exposes the nugetts piss poor defense. I think the Mavs may run them off their own floor–even without Dirk and I would not be surprised to see the “answer” or his pot head running buddy get tossed. Fire Avery.

  7. By David on Mar 27, 2008 at 1:17:56 pm

    http://youtube.com/watch?v=TIbW_aTONo4

    This is how you coach the end of the game. You set up a play where your STAR POINT GUARD penetrates, draws a bunch of defenders and kicks it to someone who is WIDE OPEN. It’s textbook and simple. It’s something Avery Johnson has no idea how to do.

  8. By Julian on Mar 27, 2008 at 1:27:18 pm

    David….If you know so much about how to run an offense why don’t you go to Cuban and ask for the job.

  9. By Brian McNulty (Austin, TX) on Mar 27, 2008 at 2:02:21 pm

    Great observations. I heard a a similar comment from Peter Vecsey last night on NBA TV- (I respect Peter going back to his time in the mid-90s on NBC’s NBA Sunday broadcasts, fairly balanced stuff). Peter said it will be the ultimate irony if Devin Harris gets his team into the playoffs (very likely) and Kidd and company are shut out in the West. How true! Vecsey points out that Kidd flourished in NJ with two incredibly talented wings (Carter and Jefferson), and Dallas has nothing of this sort in terms of personnel and style to compliment Kidd now. The Mavs play an entirely different offensive set-up and style, everyone knew that! What a complete and absolutely horrible leverage of the Mavs future for a reactionary trade that made no sense from the get-go, all forced by the hand of Cuban, (he negotiated the deal himself)! Where was Donnie? How did Avery truely feel about the trade? We all heard him tow the company line at the press conference, but I really wonder about his position on the trade, given how much time he put into working with Devin. Mavs made a major miscalculation, given the talent on their team and the style of play Avery has been dictating for 3 years. The trade itself was an aborted effort several times through, and it made the Mavs front office look bad, desperate to make a splashy trade, any trade, at any cost. They certainly appeared desperate by the time all-star break came around. Then the trade happens and these are the results. Duhhh! Anyone who saw Kidd’s performance in the ‘03 Finals can tell you he has a history of being a clanker in crunch time, he is not a shooting threat, so the entire league knows to lay off him until, or if, he hits. So now we wait and see if the Mavs and Kidd can get into the playoffs, a mild victory of sorts for their fans, given the drama management has put them through these past 10 months. But what do you do next year? They are saddled with Kidd’s salary, (and play!), Devin is gone, and we are resigned to watch him flourish in an uptempo system from afar.

  10. By Brian McNulty (Austin, TX) on Mar 27, 2008 at 2:04:36 pm

    Great observations. I heard a a similar comment from Peter Vecsey last night on NBA TV. I respect Peter going back to his time in the mid-90s on NBC’s NBA Sunday broadcasts, fairly balanced stuff. Peter said it will be the ultimate irony if Devin Harris gets his team into the playoffs (very likely) and Kidd and company are shut out in the West. How true! Vecsey points out that Kidd flourished in NJ with two incredibly talented wings (Carter and Jefferson), and Dallas has nothing of this sort in terms of personnel and style to compliment Kidd. The Mavs play an entirely different offensive set-up and style, everyone knew that! What a complete and absolutely horrible leverage of the Mavs future for a reactionary trade that made no sense from the get-go, all forced by the hand of Cuban, (he negotiated the deal himself)! Where was Donnie? How did Avery truely feel about the trade? We all heard him tow the company line at the press conference, but I really wonder about his position on the trade, given how much time he put into working with Devin. Mavs made a major miscalculation, given the talent on their team and the style of play Avery has been dictating for 3 years. The trade itself was an aborted effort several times through, and it made the Mavs front office look bad, desperate to make a splashy trade, any trade, at any cost. They certainly appeared desperate by the time all-star break came around. Then the trade happens and these are the results. Duhhh! Anyone who saw Kidd’s performance in the ‘03 Finals can tell you he has a history of being a clanker in crunch time, he is not a shooting threat, so the entire league knows to lay off him until, or if, he hits. So now we wait and see if the Mavs and Kidd can get into the playoffs, a mild victory of sorts for their fans, given the drama management has put them through these past 10 months. But what do you do next year? They are saddled with Kidd’s salary, (and play!), Devin is gone, and we are resigned to watch him flourish in an uptempo system from afar.

  11. By Aubrey on Mar 27, 2008 at 2:35:49 pm

    I have disagree on the fact i do not feel this is a good trade. Kidd is old and obviously, whether it be his talent level isnt up there or Avery will not let him play, Kidd will not lead us to a championship and at this rate not even to the playoffs. Harris has speed and talent, if we had the right coach for him he could have been, at least i personally think, one of the better pg in the league. Now we have a pg who has two years left and then he retires. I also feel Kidd is past his prime, he is slower, his defense is slacking, and while he has never been a great shooter his jump shots look bad and his shooting % is down. This did not happen just when he came to the mavs, all of these things were fairly obvious while he was still w/ the Nets. We payed to much money for him, gave up too much talent and draft picks. In my opinion Kidd was entirely so Mark Cuban could sell more jerseys and make more money and now its blown up in his face.

  12. By T on Mar 27, 2008 at 2:47:37 pm

    The Mavericks are lucky to have such great players that they can still have a winning record in spite of having Avery mis-coach and over coach. Is Avery just too proud and stubborn to take the advice of others in order to better himself as a coach? Is Paul Westphal afraid to tell Avery to loosen up a little or is he hoping Avery will fail so he can get the head coaching job?

  13. By David on Mar 27, 2008 at 3:02:35 pm

    Kidd is better than Harris. Hands down. Every superstar in this league wants to play with Kidd for a reason. And we’re probably not going to make the playoffs this year, so we can draft DJ Augustin and groom him under Kidd.

    And then next year, we’ll have a new coach who knows how to run an offense. We’ll have Kidd, Dirk, and J-Ho rocking it with DJ giving us a lot of energy off the bench. I’m fairly optimistic.

  14. By Aubrey on Mar 27, 2008 at 4:53:44 pm

    i beg to differ maybe at one time he was better….and i also dont really consider him a superstar nor would i put him w/ other great point guards like nash, stockton, or Parker…but now he is old and no longer the factor he supposedly once was. People are blinded by names and refuse to see what the person really is. I do not think Kidd should have made it to the All star game this year, he does not play like an all star. Kidds stats have been down all year even before he came to the mavs…you cannot completely blame Avery for his poor performance. Did everyone expect him to come to the Mavs and all of a sudden start shooting over 50% thats not going to happen. He is old and washed up enough said…

  15. By David on Mar 27, 2008 at 5:31:17 pm

    Who said anything about shooting over 50%? I don’t recall anyone ever mentioning that as a reason we traded for him. That’s something that you’ve made up because you’re a Kidd hater. Jason Kidd has never shot 50% so why would anyone expect him to now?

    You really just don’t understand the point of Jason Kidd. We didn’t get him to get 20 points a night. We traded for Jason Kidd because he makes everyone around him better. He creates easy buckets on fast breaks. He usually is able to do things that create easy open shots for his teammates. Notice the re-energized game of Damp and Dirk.

    The reason he is not playing well is because he is playing in a crappy system designed solely by Avery Johnson.

  16. By Aubrey on Mar 27, 2008 at 5:49:45 pm

    well personally seeing as how we haven’t won against a team over .500 since we got Kidd i do not feel he has made everyone better. I do get why we got him thank you very much. And it seems to me all of his fellow players at NJ and the fans are glad he is gone so maybe they also realize how worthless he is. And if his stats had been outstanding before he came to the Mavs i would completely blame Avery but they were not. KIdd is a wash up, but no one wants to admit it. Also, I know kidd never shot that high i was just throwing out a random number. I have watched Kidd play for a long time, i went to every game he played for the Mavs and i still think the he is overrated. Maybe Damp and Dirk are energized but mostly b/c for awhile Avery stayed off the teams back and let Kidd lead and then when he sucked it up he took back the reins. I do not agree with the way Avery coaches, but i also do not put all the blame on him for Kidd’s performances, although i do blame him for trading for him. I never wanted the trade and i am counting down the days until Kidd retires. p.s. as far as getting a young pg look what avery did w/ our first one…so keep on making excuses for Kidd thats fine….but soon everyone is going to be wishing we had Harris back. and please do not tell me i dont understand things i understand Kidd isnt a huge shooter but if hes such a “superstar” he should be able to step up and score when we need it most, and honestly he cannot.

  17. By David on Mar 27, 2008 at 6:32:17 pm

    If you’re so keen on getting rid of kidd, why don’t you go start http://www.releasekidd.com? Seriously, you’re pining over someone who is gone and who won’t be back in the next 10 years. If you’re mad at someone for letting Devin go, go to blogmaverick. This really isn’t the forum for your Kidd hate. This website is called FIRE AVERY.

    I personally don’t care that Devin is gone. He never would have flourished here under Avery and I’m happy for him now that he’s doing well. Why would I waste my time “wishing” he could be back when that SIMPLY WONT HAPPEN.

    The only reason we come to this site is because we are pushing for something that could realistically happen. We want Avery to be fired, and sooner or later that will happen.

  18. By Aubrey on Mar 27, 2008 at 7:57:51 pm

    your just a jerk i have a right to state my opinion and i do think avery should be fired so why dont u learn to have some respect!!!

  19. By Drew on Mar 27, 2008 at 9:44:23 pm

    Watching the game right now against nuggets. This is just another prime example of why avery needs to be canned. Why the heck is malik allen playing instead of Damp. The nuggets are getting all over the offensive rebounds and they are easily getting into the paint. This is a complete joke. Mavs are gonna need some serious prayers to make the playoffs. Fire Avery!!!

  20. By PHIL RICHARDS on Mar 27, 2008 at 9:59:42 pm

    I have stood up for Avery Johnson for long enough, and its time for me to see the light. This guy along with Dirk, and Howard are a detrement to our Mavericks. I dont care if you have watched the Mavs since 1980 or since 2000. We are all fans of this team and all worried about it rightnow. Cuban is going to have to make the tough choices he didnt want to make last summer. We have to sell high on this garbage bag of a coach, who wants to get technical at all the wrong times, and his two stars Howard and Nowitzki. Sorry but it is time guys. No more Mr. Nice owner, a message must be sent. Heck it is toolate for a message, a dismantling is in order. Draft picks and trying to free up money need to be our concern at this point. I have to say i have known for a while something was wrong, but tonight when the two back to back technicals took us out of the game, i knew it was time to speak. I really do not care if we win the finals, we need a new coach and a new superstar. Avery in my opinion is still a fine coach but not for this team. Dirk is a great player, a hall of famer, but i wont be able to stand it if he gets too 20,000 points as a Maverick. The most important of my points is this. I understand as do the rest of you how grateful we should be that we have had a winning team over the last decade. But this is Dallas, and we wont accept anything less than a title here. The Cowboys dont get a break so why should the Mavericks. Avery and his brood have had their chance. Forget Devin Harris as he was not worth our time, Kidd nice try but not even close right? Avery, Dirk and Howard, I dont care what order its in lets get value now.

  21. By Keith Van Horn on Mar 27, 2008 at 10:06:27 pm

    Get rid of Dirk? Why?!?!? and you think Avery is a fine coach?

  22. By Aubrey on Mar 28, 2008 at 12:00:58 am

    why would you get rid of the best player Dirk has done nothing but work hard since he has been here that is just ridiculous!!!! Also, I agree Damp should have been in the game it was ridiculous!!!

  23. By Mav in Cali on Mar 28, 2008 at 12:58:54 am

    Cuban… FIRE AVERY already!

  24. By Hody on Mar 28, 2008 at 11:01:42 am

    Devin Harris is a baller.
    steve nash and tony parker couldnt play D on Harris.

    Now they just dont have to play defense at all against Jason Kidd.

  25. By Aubrey on Mar 28, 2008 at 12:59:48 pm

    did u hear parker say he was glad the mavs got rid of Harris cuz he always had problems w/ him parker apparently knows whats up more then Cuban and Avery!!!!

  26. By bryce on Apr 1, 2008 at 5:05:19 am

    wow… y’know i had no idea that coaching alone was to blame for losses… you see i thought this was the NBA and that the players are the ones on the court making the plays… i had no idea avery was responsible for jason terry shooting 35% over the past month or that he was supposed to turn jason kidd into a shooter, or that the only time Josh Howard has showed up to play at all since december is after Dirk went down with the injury…..

    let’s not forget: if not for dwayne wade going MJ on us, Avery would have a championship…. and we didn’t even legitimately sniff one of those until avery became head coach…. so fire him and hire Lawrence Franks if you want, but i’m stickin’ with the man.

    oh, and the only reason kidd’s numbers are down here is not because the system Avery set up, but because of the PLAYERS in that system…. tell me, who’s going to run with Kidd like Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson did in Jersey? we don’t have the personnel to run like he did in Jersey and that’s a simple fact. just look at our roster…. we’re OLD. Kidd needs to be better in the half court for us to win and that’s that.

Post a Comment