FireAvery.com – A Dallas Mavericks Blog

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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Well, that didn’t go so well

I don’t even feel like writing anything here tonight. I’m just very disappointed right now. I guess I just need to accept that this team just isn’t very good anymore. Josh Howard has become a ghost of his former self. Jerry Stackhouse shouldn’t even be playing right now if he’s hurt. I guess he deserves some credit for wanting to gut it out, but when you’re already declining as a player an injury is not something to fight through. Jason Kidd just can’t handle Paul or any young point guard. It’s becoming quickly apparent that the trade is going to end up being a huge failure and affect this team for years to come.

At least Dirk, JET, Bass and Damp are out there at least showing a little effort. Unfortunately effort alone doesn’t get you wins in this league. And right now this team needs a lot of work.

Of course having your head coach roll out freaking J.J. Barea in the second quarter while you’re holding on to a 9 point doesn’t help matters any. Seriously, what the hell was Avery thinking there? There is absolutely no reason for Barea to see the floor in this series. The kid may have potential, but that’s what summer leagues, the pre-season and early season games are for. Not pivotal game fours in an important playoff series.

To go along with that Stack played for 15:10 and provided absolutely nothing. He shouldn’t be on the floor at all right and Avery should be able to recognize that. I know he probably wouldn’t help, but would at least trying Antoine Wright for a few minutes hurt? I know I just got done saying young guys don’t need to be playing, but at least Wright is healthy. Or if not him put Eddie Jones out there to see if he can give you something besides a combined 4-21 from Stack and Howard.

There’s more to be said about lineups and coaching decisions tonight, but I’ll let you guys handle that.

Just a disappointing game and Tuesday will most likely be the final game for this group of guys. More tomorrow.

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Mavs-Hornets Game 4

Late game 4 tonight but I’m going to be away from a computer most of the day, so putting the post up early.

If the Mavs stick with the adjustments they made Friday they should be able to win this game.  They just have to keep attacking the basket, fighting through picks and just overall be the aggressor in the game.

Part of those adjustments in game 3 included a 7 man rotation in the second half, during which Jerry Stackhouse didn’t play.  It looks like Stack didn’t like that very much.

“I ain’t going to try to overthink it too much,” Stack said. “I’m just going to try to come back Sunday.”

“I’m still a little apprehensive to go all out,” he said. “Just that hard burst to the right that I always do, I don’t feel as comfortable with it right now. Hopefully, I’ll just continue to build up to it. But I’m getting some looks that I feel I should be knocking down, regardless of what’s going on.”

So the guy is still hurt but he’s upset he’s not playing?  I guess that says something about Stack and what a gamer he is but at the same he’s got to realize if he’s hurt he shouldn’t be on the floor.

For his part Avery said they have a rotation they’re sticking with now.

“But right now, we’re going with the rotation we have now and hopefully he’ll get a few more minutes. He’s not where he needs to be in conditioning and timing.”

The Mavs have to win this game, going back to New Orleans down 3-1 would be the end of this series.

Go Mavs!

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Mavericks Win!

Now that was the team I know that these guys can be. What an impressive show by Dirk, Jason, Josh, Jason, Erick and Brandon.  Adjustments were made, the guys finally played like they were in the playoffs, and just an overall good vibe came out of the AAC tonight.

Quick disclaimer before I get into this post.  I was at the game, but before hand I indulged quite heavily in Hooter’s $1.99 domestic pint happy hour.  So any thoughts in this post are bound to be short or incomplete.

Let’s start by talking about the monster that is Dirk.  32 points, 19 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 blocks.   You can’t ask much more from any player than what Dirk gave tonight.

Jason Terry was also money tonight, going for 22 points including a dagger three with 1:39 left.  He also did an outstanding job guard Chris Paul tonight.

Avery’s adjustments for tonight’s game were very good.  Starting Terry and having him guard Paul was a great move.  Both Terry and Kidd deserve major credit for the defensive job they did tonight.  They fought through picks to stay on Paul all night.  This prevented any horrible mismatches with Dirk, Damp or Bass having to try to guard Paul off the pick.  And having Damp start off on West was a good move as it prevented West from getting easy layups and dunks off the pick and roll.

The overall defensive effort was outstanding tonight.  I’ll take Jannero Pargo going 12-20 and being the Hornets leading scorer any night.  Paul, Chandler and West went a combined 12-43 from the floor.  Very nice.

Avery also keep a much tighter lineup tonight by basically going with a 7 man rotation.  Malik Allen and Jerry Stackhouse only played a combined 10 minutes.  Other than that it was all Kidd, Howard, Dirk, Terry, Damp, George and Bass.  That type of rotation management is going to be key the rest of the games in this series.  Like I’ve said previously, the playoffs aren’t the time to limit Dirk’s and Kidd’s minutes to around 38-40 a game.  They need to be playing 44-46 a night and that worked out for the Mavs tonight.

Just a great game by everyone involved tonight.  The AAC was rocking all night long and it was just fun to watch this team play a game like that.  Of course the Mavs are still down 2-1 in the series so I’m going to hold off on getting too excited until the game Sunday, but if they can keep up the energy levels and just all around solid play tonight they can extend this series out to 6 or 7 games.

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Mavs-Hornets Game 3

This is a must win for the Mavericks tonight if they have any hope of winning this series.  According to Avery on Norm’s show Wednesday Jason Terry will be getting the start tonight.  It’ll be interesting to see what else he has planned to contain Chris Paul tonight.

Eddie Sefko has a column up about where the blame will go if the Mavs don’t win this series.

For Avery Johnson and the Mavericks, their plight going into tonight’s all-important Game 3 against New Orleans is a vivid illustration of the thin line separating players and coaches in the blame game.

On one side, the players are the only ones who can truly impact a game. On the other side, the coach, management and ownership decided on which players to get and are responsible for putting players in position to succeed.

This is where the Mavericks are right now. And the bottom line is if both sides don’t pull together, they can all get together for one long look in the mirror to see why they won’t get past the first round.

The AAC will be banging and the Hornets haven’t won a game there since ‘99 (I think, that’s off the top of my head, I know it’s been a while).  I’ll be there watching the game so it’ll probably be tomorrow before I get a reaction post up.

Go Mavs!

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Avery the Motivator

This was too good not to post up, as I continue to shamelessly borrow content from Tim McMahon.

We all know how Avery is supposed to be this great motivator, but even that is apparently failing him now.

Jaime pointed out that Baron Davis dominated the Mavs in the BPUIMPSH, and that Chris Paul is doing the same thing this series. “Is there something within players that just makes you step up and say, ‘I’m just not going to let this guy beat me again’?” Jaime asked.

“You know what? I may hire you tomorrow,” Avery replied. “Then you can give them that speech, because that is so true.

“Sometimes it just takes players just to step up and say, ‘I’m just not taking it anymore. I want to play better defense. I want to play better offense.’ “

So it’s all back on the players for not performing up to their standards. Maybe if they had a decent offensive and defensive plan to go by they’d play better offense and defense. Of course the sarcasm is so thick in Avery’s response it’s hard to tell what he means.  But, maybe he’s finally noticing that his team may be tuning him out.

Oh yeah, Larry Brown has resigned as the 76er’s VP. Let the wild speculation truly begin!

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Thursday Notes

Just a couple of quick links for today.

Read this quote from Dirk about Avery taking the blame carefully.

“A coach is always going to do that to protect his players, but the players have to ultimately be out there and get the job done,” Dirk said. “Whatever the systems are or whatever the defense is, we’ve got to scramble more and we’ve got to make some stuff happen out there. It’s really up to every player to get himself ready and get himself fired up for this big game.”

I like the part where he says that have to play “whatever the systems are.” There’s a good chance I’m putting words into his mouth, but it sounds like Dirk’s not too happy with the offensive game plan so far.

Jennifer Floyd Engel has some interesting thoughts on Cuban’s and Avery’s relationship right now, along with a FireAvery.com shout out.

Let’s start with Avery because he is the guy everybody seemingly wants to fire. www.fireavery.com was humming Wednesday as was much of the blogosphere.

Interestingly, neither blogmaverick nor Mark Cuban has jumped into the argument with a heartfelt defense of Avery. He’s not souring on his coach, is he?

This is something to watch, especially if this series stays on its present course. A divorce might be coming, by mutual agreement.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Wednesday Cleanup

Avery finally took responsibility for this mess today, too bad it’s in such a sarcastic tone.

“I take full responsibility about everything,” Avery said. “And that’s my job. But at the same time, we have a game plan. We’ve got to have a high level of concentration, and we have to have a high level of physicality, which I haven’t seen yet. We’ll get there. We’ll keep prodding them and cheering them on and challenging and doing all that we do to try to get the team ready to play.”

“It all starts with me,” Avery said. “Whenever something goes wrong with the team – if we’re not making free throws, if we’re not making layups, if we’re not defending – it’s not the players. It’s me.”

So he says he takes responsibility then in the next sentence basically says it’s the players fault. Nice. The sarcastic part is the second quote, about how it’s his responsibility that the guys are missing free throws and layups. It just makes it seem like the only reason he accepted any responsibility at all is because of the reaction of everyone that he always blames it on the players. Just a bad way to handle the situation.

Read the rest of this entry »

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This team is done

What an absolute embarrassment tonight. I don’t even know where to start and I know I could rant for quite a while. I’ll try to make this short though and just let this game speak for itself.

The entire game was downhill from the start. Avery had the team attempting to trap Paul for about 10 minutes before completely abandoning it. Every time Paul was trapped he had no problem finding the open man. Dirk and Damp just aren’t good/quick enough to be able to handle Chandler and West. And what happened to the plan to let Howard try and guard Paul? I saw that happen just a couple of times. And having Eddie Jones on him was just a freaking joke.

The lineups were a huge mess again. Late in the first quarter Stackhouse and Jones were in the game at the same time. Sorry, but I just don’t even see that being a good idea. Then to start the second quarter this gem was on the floor: Terry, Howard, Stackhouse, Bass, Allen. What the hell? How could that possibly be considered a good option? Malik Allen can’t get off the bench in game one and all of a sudden he’s in the game when the Mavs are down 10? Dirk didn’t get back in the game until 7 minutes were left in the half. Devean George didn’t even see the court in the first half. With 2:24 left in the second Damp and Kidd are taken out of the game and replaced by Jones and Bass. I honestly stopped paying attention there, but I’m sure the second half wasn’t any better.

Damp played a total of 16 minutes while Bass played 29. Might not seem like such a bad idea since Bass ended up with 19 points and 8 boards, but the guy cannot play defense. Not that any Mav was too keen on playing D tonight anyways. Avery and his staff have to come up with some way to slow Paul down, but I don’t really see that happening. Having Del Harris on the bench to help out with seems like it would be a good idea right now.

It seems pretty obvious to me that Avery has completely lost this team. Nothing he says seems to have any effect on them. For the past three days Avery has said that they have to play better defense and then they come out with this type of performance. On TNT they showed a bit of Avery’s speech in the locker room. He ended by saying “Let’s score about 10 points in the paint to start this quarter.” The first basket of the quarter by the Mavs? A 16 foot jumper by Dirk.

There are going to be some people that say that the Mavs are still ok, that the Hornets just did what they had to do by holding home court (I’m looking at you Brad Davis). While technically true, has this team and coached showed anybody anything that should breed any confidence going into Friday’s game?

I know this post is pretty disjointed and rambling but I’m just so frustrated by seeing what this team has become when they have so much more potential. A change has to be made and I really wouldn’t mind if it was made tonight.

This site needs your help to be even a tiny bit effective. Spread the word, tell your friends, and get people to come post their thoughts in the comments. The more reaction by fans that this site gets the clearer the picture can be for Cuban and the front office.

Edit: One more thing. Has Avery been wearing his Spurs championship ring before tonight? I couldn’t believe it when I saw that he had it on. Is that supposed to be some kind of motivational tool? If I was a player I’d just be pissed that my coach was wearing something with another team’s logo on it. Just another ridiculous decision by Avery.

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Mavs-Hornets Game 2

Game two tonight, post here during and after the game.

Jean-Jacques Taylor has a suggestion for Avery.

A word of advice to Avery Johnson before Game 2 of the Mavericks’ playoff series against New Orleans: Do whatever it takes to get the Mavs’ running game going.

If that means not drawing up plays for Jason Kidd while the Hornets are shooting free throws, so be it. If it means spending much of the game sitting down and observing instead of calling plays, that’s fine, too.

The Mavs won’t win if they don’t run. Their half-court offense simply isn’t good enough to get the job done.

Besides, Avery’s way hasn’t worked for a while.

And John Hollinger comments on the chess match aspect of game one.

(Side note: It’s a little too much like that, actually. From sticking Jannero Pargo on Jason Terry to changing his coverage on Dirk Nowitzki from Wednesday’s approach to the mysterious absence of hard traps in the backcourt on Paul, it seemed Scott was playing solitaire chess in Game 1.)

Stackhouse is staying in the starting lineup tonight. Can’t wait to see what adjustments Avery has made.

Go Mavs.

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Apparently Avery already wants to be gone next year

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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