Well, good luck with all that.

If you happen to be a Nets fan who wants to get ahead of the curve, this domain is for sale. If you’re interested just send me an e-mail and let’s talk.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.