Apparently Avery already wants to be gone next year

April 21st, 2008 Posted in Avery Johnson

Over on DallasBasketball.com, scroll down a little bit to see it, Fish has an interesting story about Avery possibly already planning on being gone next year. Here’s a quote from the article.

Our friend ol’ Randy Galloway apparently made some radio noise late last week about his pal Avery’s future, suggesting that a) friction between coach and owner could cause a breakup, b) Avery might initiate the breakup by resigning, and c) giving up his $20-mil contract here won’t be an issue because Avery will “get another job right away.’’

My very educated guess is that the coach himself has some involvement in this tale. The tale is disturbing. The timing is inappropriate. But this is Avery’s Pandora’s Box.

If this is at all true then Cuban should just fire Avery right now and let Westphal or Del Harris coach the rest of this series.  If he is seriously using Galloway to plant seeds as why he won’t be here next year there is no reason for him to still be on the staff.  This is not the way to act heading into the playoffs.  Or at any other time of the year.  It’s just embarrassing, if it’s true.  Go read the article on DB.com, it’s quite enlightening.

It really isn’t that surprising though.  Avery has never really taken blame for any of this team’s shortcomings.  It’s always the players fault, they aren’t executing the plan, they turn into a jump shooting team, their defense is weak.  While that may all be true, after a season of those type of excuses shouldn’t  the coach figure out that it’s his plan that isn’t working?

Avery also had an interesting comment today about reaction to the Dirk and David West spat in game one.

“More than Dirk doing something about it, I would have liked for somebody else on the team — preferably in the center position — to do something about it.”

Avery paused for effect at this point.

“Was that clear enough?” he asked.

Is that the best way to call out your center, a not so veiled comment to the press?  Shouldn’t something like that  be handled behind closed doors?

As the head coach Avery should be there to go down with the ship if this team doesn’t advance out of the first round again.  Instead it looks like he’s trying to hop on the closest lifeboat to save face and his own good name.  This surely can’t go on for another season, can it?


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  1. 16 Responses to “Apparently Avery already wants to be gone next year”

  2. By vic wightman on Apr 22, 2008 at 12:32:51 am

    I’d like to see Avery do something about it,like learn to coach. Avery has never been ejected from a game that I remember…I think he is afraid the team would play so much better and he would be back at running his cleaning stores. “Weezy, Weezy”,have Florence get the door,it may be the mailman with my unemployment check!!!

  3. By Gabe on Apr 22, 2008 at 1:59:09 am

    Two things Avery needs to do if he’s to become a great coach.
    1. Fit your system to your players, not try to force your players to fit your system.
    2. Mellow the *%&# out. Intense coaches have a short shelf life with one team before they get tuned out, Scott Skiles, Pat Riley, Sam Mitchell, Lawerence Frank, and now Avery. Intense coaches can turn lottery teams into playoff teams, but they rarely turn playoff teams into champions. Pat Riley needed multiple present and future hall of famers to win his titles.

  4. By mrtwister on Apr 22, 2008 at 2:13:28 am

    I think you should give up on the idea that Avery will change his coaching. Changing your coaching philosophy or even your coaching style is like changing your personality. You just can’t do it, you are who you are. He might be able to change it at the start of the 1st quarter but as soon as he needs to make a decision on the spot he’ll go back to what he knows (which doesn’t seem to be much).
    He may be a great coach of a team that will flourish with hi style but I think moreso, he would be better as an assistant coach. I don’t hate Avery by any means, Im sure he’s a great guy. He must have some good qualities or else he would never have gotten the job in the first place. But to me, he’s not equipped to be a head coach.
    Assistant coaches are the players coaches. They work individually with the players, give them constructive feedback, keep vital stats throughout the games, pass on messages from the head coach etc. Avery would be good at this with his people skills and his personality.
    Head coaches take the puzzle of the players strengths and put them together to develop the team’s style. Are they hard nosed defenders? Win the games on D and turn defensive rebounds into easy baskets at the other end. Are they offensively creative? Let them flow and outscore their opposition. Are they neither of these? Find an offensive style that suit their skills whether it be sets or motion.
    Avery cannot do this. He’s forcing Dirk to go on isolations. Now, I haven’t watched Dirk play much as I only started watching Dallas when Kidd came over, but to me he doesn’t seem to be beating his man off the dribble too much and he doesn’t seem to score from the post, AT ALL. How would you compare Dirk’s offensive skills to say…….Reggie Miller. Am I wrong to think that Dirk could be a taller Reggie Miler? Surely he has the ability and the shooting touch to be deadly from the perimeter. But how can he use this from isos and post plays? Spot him up and hit him when he has even half a look at a shot. Run him off some double screens and have him curl to the basket if they follow him, flare to the spot up shot if they cheat. How would they guard that? Having him be the focus of the offense doesn’t mean give him the ball and wait for something to happen. Sorry but he’s not Jordan, Kobe or LeBron. I’m not saying he’s not as good as them, he’s just not that style of player.
    Head coaches will also pull players if they aren’t performing on a given night. It doesn’t matter who they are, but if the player doesn’t like it then an assistant coach needs to have a chat with them and maybe work individually on their shortcomings at the next few practices. I can see Avery doing that well. But he certainly has his favorites. Head coached can’t afford to do that.
    As an assistant, Avery would have these crazy ideas of putting on a ’second unit’ for whatever reason, but a real head coach wouldn’t do that with this squad. They’d play their core and let the other team work out when they can rest their stars.
    The Mavs need a coach that will let them flow, let them run, let them offensively make it all up as they go with a set lay here and there and no isolations. (This team doesn’t have the players to pull them off).
    This coach must be out there somewhere………..

  5. By mrtwister on Apr 22, 2008 at 2:36:42 am

    I know this will cause some of you to abuse me but…….Doug Moe?

  6. By whodoneit? on Apr 22, 2008 at 8:11:58 am

    All I can say is….Bye Bye Avery….please GO NOW so we can have somebody try to pull this series out, without your exhaustive over coaching and pathetic style.

  7. By BBALL on Apr 22, 2008 at 9:34:37 am

    You guys need to get a life. Avery is doing a pretty good job in my opinion. Much better job then Don Nelson or any one else who coached the MAVS did! Give the man a break.

  8. By PininFarina456 on Apr 22, 2008 at 9:50:42 am

    ^^BBALL, are you kidding?

    Pretty good job? How, what, where, when how, why?

    We have had two monumental collapses under him where the mavs were clearly favored to win and many cases already had the upper hand. Take a look at the facts for yourself.

  9. By BBALL on Apr 22, 2008 at 9:57:27 am

    If the MAVS beat the Hornets and go all the way and become the NBA 2008 Champions, then you will say “Avery is the best coach every”.

  10. By Elraptor on Apr 22, 2008 at 9:58:26 am

    Yea really, let’s just get him out of there!

  11. By Mav in Cali on Apr 22, 2008 at 12:56:49 pm

    BBALL – not true. If Avery continues to make the same type of bone headed in-game decisions that are so blatantly obvious to all who are watching, and somehow the Mavs are able to overcome those decisions and still find a way to win, then the players will (and should) get the credit, not Avery. Everyone is watching Avery so close now that even when the Mavs did get wins (see wins in last few weeks against +.500 teams of regular season), he rarely was credited for them as much as it sounds like you expect him to be. He may make some OK game plans in between games (when he can brainstorm with his coaching staff for hours/days), but never during games.

    I do concede though that if the Mavs were to somehow win the championship this year, Avery of course deserves credit, but I would never call him the “best coach ever”. Winning a championship is the only thing that can save Avery now, he has no other option. And based on the past couple of years of playoff evidence, it will be more on the players to make it happen themselves than for them to rely on their coach to put them in the best position to win.

    While I want nothing more than to see the Mavs win, I don’t have enough faith in Avery’s coaching abilities to make them a championship team with him at the helm.

  12. By Ronald on Apr 22, 2008 at 2:56:23 pm

    Mav in Cali:
    You’re right… However, As much as it sucks to admit it… I don’t even see them turning this into a competitive series… And it sucks because our team is so much better than that…
    BBALL:
    Like we’ve been saying before, the mavs (as in the Players) deserve a lot of credit because they managed to accomplish all that they have accomplished the last couple of seasons… DESPITE avery…
    Avery’s shortcomings are so obvious now that he managed to drive Del Harris away from that bench that I’m still trying to figure out what the hell Cuban is thinking right now…

  13. By Daniel on Apr 22, 2008 at 5:00:07 pm

    Who should be the next coach? I would prefer Jeff van Gundy. Just the fact, that he outcoached Avery in the Lakers game from the commentary-place really impressed me.

  14. By DB on Apr 22, 2008 at 5:04:05 pm

    It’s amazing that this team has been given up for dead and ALL of the blame has been put at the doorstep of the head coach. Let’s just see how this plays out. We really need to realize what we have:
    Dirk-Superstar
    JET- Spot up shooter
    Josh – Blue collar guy, turned 3 point shooter.
    Damp – Middle of the pack big guy
    Kidd – Aging point guard
    Compare our starting five to any other teams in the West that made the playoffs, with the exception of New Orleans. This is not a better team than we had two years ago.

  15. By Ronald on Apr 22, 2008 at 8:43:40 pm

    It’s obvious Avery doesn’t have a clue by now and all he does is talk… Of course all the blame should be put on him…
    See for example the quote that Doug displayed above, Avery calling out Damp saying he should have protected Nowitzki when they exchanged words with West… Doesn’t that make you guys laugh?? If I’m not mistaken, Avery pulled Damp out of the game about a minute before it happened… so he wanted Damp to come storming off the bench and punch West???
    Another clear example of the AJ way “a whole lotta talk but not enough thinking…”

  16. By Ronald on Apr 22, 2008 at 8:47:06 pm

    Sorry I meant the quote that “GREG” posted etc…

  17. By Reginald on Apr 22, 2008 at 9:39:12 pm

    well,well,well what we have here is a failure to communicate. the coach can’t relate to the players, and the playres don’t understand that the game is won on the inside assisted by deft passes, and a an understanding that championships are not won by jump shooters but by an inside presence, whether it is penetration or dump offs. I am not saying that Devin was the best POINT gaurd, but I do know that he was a penetrator with courage to go to the rack. The Mavs did make it to the finals with him, and then won over sixty games with him. It seems as if Avery could not communicate with Devin, a point gaurd with a blossoming game, and he was our pg of the future. the future is dark now thanks to Avery; SUBSEQUENTLY, I say it is okay to FIRE AVERY!!!!!!! Right away