FireAvery.com - A Dallas Mavericks Blog

Where has that team been?

I haven’t given out a lot of praise to this team since I started the site, but that’s all I’m going to do tonight. Yes, it’s a little knee-jerky to get completely positive after finally beating a .500 or better team. But, after the way this team played tonight they deserve it. We’ll get back to nit-picking what Avery does or doesn’t do later.

That was an amazing showing tonight. It’s what I expected to happen every night when the Kidd trade was made. And it was great to finally see it happen. Yes, before we get too excited they’ll need to win one of the games this weekend against Phoenix and the Lakers, but maybe this will be the jump start to a strong finish to this season.

Jason Kidd dominated this game finishing with 5 points, 11 boards and 17 assists. It looks like Avery has finally given up the reins of this team to Kidd and it showed tonight. The Mavs had a huge advantage in fast break points as Kidd got this team running like they haven’t in the last month. The offense looked good with good ball movement and off the ball movement. Strong picks that actually lead to easy baskets. It was just fun to watch Kidd run this team tonight.

Jason Terry and Josh Howard also had great games ending up with 31 and 28 points respectively. Josh was getting to the rim and finishing, Terry was getting good, easy looks thanks to Kidd’s work. Josh may be back in the same form he was in at the beginning of the season and if he is that’s a very good thing for this team.

Dampier played 27 minutes and picked up 11 boards and 3 blocks to go along with 4 points. And he contributed in ways that don’t show up in the box score. He clogged up the lane, changed shots, set strong picks and just overall played a good game. Hopefully that was enough to show Avery that he belongs in these games.

It was great to see Eddie Jones playing the way he did. He played 20 minutes and had 12 points including an ally-oop dunk from Josh that tore the roof off the building. When he went out after seemingly reactivating his knee problem it was hard for me to watch. And you could see the disappoint in his face as well. Hopefully it was nothing serious and he’ll back this weekend as it looks like he can contribute to this team down the stretch here.

And then there was Dirk. His performance tonight was awe inspiring. Just his presence on the floor gave this team a boost and it was easily noticeable. You could tell he wasn’t anywhere near 100% but he was out there giving it all. He somehow manages to play 27 minutes and picked up 18 points and 5 boards. It was extremely nerve racking every time he went to floor when you just hope he gets back up okay.  I’m sure he’ll be sore tomorrow but he was there because his team needed him tonight.

To all of his doubters that are out there, you may question if he’s the right guy to lead this team but there is absolutely no way you can question the guys heart. And after tonight you can’t question that this is HIS team and he’s the guy all these other guys rally around. I could go on all night about him and his greatness tonight, but I’ll leave it at that.

Like I said, I don’t want to get too excited after one game where they finally win against a good team. But after tonight this team is making the playoffs. They now have a 2 game lead over the Warriors and the tie-break. And if they can keep playing like they did tonight then these guys can make a run in the playoffs.

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Will Dampier get to play tonight?

What does Avery have to say about Dampier playing against the Warriors tonight?

“Historically, it’s been that way,” Avery said. “If Damp is not rebounding or he’s getting a little confused in transition or he’s not making them pay in the paint when we throw him the ball, then it’s difficult.

“He’s had one game or so where he’s been able to get back in transition and get matched up, and we were able to throw him the ball some and he punished them a little bit on the boards, just with his activity. We’ve got to get that from him for him to be able to play in these games.”

Four days ago when the Mavs played the Warriors Damp played just 13 minutes.  During the first 7 minutes of the game with Damp out there the Mavs got off to a 15-2 lead.  After he goes out Golden State takes the lead 25-24, just 3 minutes later.  When he was out of the game it was like a layup line to the basket by the Warriors.  At the very least when Dampier is in the game he can clog up the lane and stop some of those easy layups.  Of course the Mavericks lost that game.

Back in January Dampier played 27 minutes against the Warriors and the Mavs won by 22.

And we all remember when Damp was benched in a complete give up by Avery during game 1 of the playoffs last year.  Damp played just 2 minutes, the Mavericks lost the game, the series, and Avery’s true downfall began.

It’d be hard to say that anyone else on this team has benefited more from Kidd being here then Damp, especially on the offensive end.  Avery just needs to give them a real chance tonight and see what they can do together against a team like the Warriors.  Let’s see if things play out a little differently tonight.

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Tuesday night stuff

Amazingly Dirk is now listed as day-to-day. If he does come back tomorrow night that has to be the quickest healing of a high-ankle sprain ever. Most guys are out a month at the least.  I guess there’s something to all those crazy exercises Holger puts Dirk through after all. And considering how bad the injury looked when it first happened the team’s lucky he’ll be playing at all before next season begins.

Here’s what Avery has to say about Dirk coming back and the team making the playoffs.

“We are in control of our own destiny. All we have to do is try to get better on defense and keep moving the ball on offense. If we can get some of these same performances we are getting out of our guys right now without Dirk Nowitzki, when he gets back we think we can be a pretty good team.”

He’s right, if the team can keep playing like they have, especially Kidd and Howard, then they can be a pretty good team. Probably still not good enough to get out of the first round, but maybe make the series competitive. But will Avery let those guys keep playing the same way? Or will he start being more controlling against these good teams like it seems that he has been since Kidd got here?

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Bloggergate Cleanup

This will be my last post on this blogger thing unless something new happens with it. Just wanted to collect some links that are talking about the story.

Fish from DallasBasketball.com had a discussion with Matt Moore from Hardwood Paroxysm and myself about the situation and what we’re expecting to get out of it.

Will Brinson with AOL Sports Fan House vaguely suggests that the reason for all of Cuban’s rule changes about the credentials is because of my request.

Upside down again has a post about the NBA’s reversal of the ban and how Baron Davis’ blog has done nothing but help his standing in Oakland.

Tim MacMahon from the DMN blog has a quick note about my request.

Richie Whitt from the Dallas Observer is writing his article this week about the ban. He also says that so far the number of invitations extended by Cuban can be counted on one hand.

And finally today Mavs Moneyball had a little April Fool’s Day fun this morning.

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Mavs vs Clips

I’ve got to get to work early in the morning so just putting a post here for any comments on the game tonight. If anything goes terribly wrong I’ll post again in the morning.

Jason Kidd had a great first half shooting wise, getting 14 in the first 1st quarter and 17 in the half. One thing he does that drives me crazy is taking that little step with his right foot before shooting a 3. About half the time he ends up stepping on the line and the shot is a 2 pointer instead of a 3. Good to see Eddie Jones back out there getting meaningful minutes, and the guys on the bench seemed to enjoy it too.

Avery’s been sitting on the bench most of the half, where he seems to do his best work. It looked like he was up calling plays when Lue was in the game but stayed on the bench when Kidd was out there. So apparently Avery really isn’t calling many plays anymore and Kidd does have some freedom out on the court now. If this sticks and the Mavs make the playoffs it can only be a good thing for them. But then that would depend on Avery letting Kidd keep control in a high pressure situation. And making good substitutions throughout the game. And not over thinking what is going on on the court. And not trying to adjust the starting lineup due to potential mismatches. And actually playing guys (Dampier) when they can help instead of leaving them on the bench.

*Morning Update*

Great, looks like the Mavericks tried to make this thing interesting.  I haven’t seen any of the 2nd half yet, but looking at the game flow it seems the Clippers had a nice little 14-5 run in the middle of the 2nd quarter.  Nice.  At least it looks like Kidd and Josh stepped up in the fourth and took control of the game.   So, if Avery did, or didn’t do, anything during that 2nd quarter run let me know in the comments.

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A blogger is a blogger is.. not a blogger?

I haven’t written much about the Mavericks blogger ban, just one quick note actually, because in the beginning it didn’t really effect me. Over the weekend that changed a little though.

First, if you want a quick overview of the whole thing check out Henry Abbott’s post on TrueHoop about the situation. This post was done before the NBA told Cuban to back off the policy, but it helps you get the idea of what was going on.

This whole thing started back on February 29th when Tim MacMahon made a post on the Dallas Morning News blog talking about this site. A week later the Mavericks came up with the policy that anyone who was blogging only would not be admitted to the Mavericks locker room. Tim’s post about FireAvery.com does not seem to be the specific reason for the ban, it was just the final tipping point.

At the time of the ban Cuban made a post on Blog Maverick about his opinions on Bloggers in an overall sense and what restrictions should be placed on those seeking access to the team. In that post Cuban made the following comment.

“A blogger is a blogger is a blogger. If I were to ask for media credentials as a blogger on this blog, I would expect to be treated exactly the same as any other blogger. No better or worse.”

Fast forward to Friday when the NBA reversed the Mavericks ban on bloggers in the locker room. In response Cuban said that anyone would be encouraged to apply.

“Which means we will encourage all bloggers to apply, whether they be someone on blogspot who has been posting for a couple weeks, kids blogging for their middle school Web site or those that work for big companies,” wrote Cuban, a blogger himself. “We won’t discriminate at all.”

Upon hearing this I contacted Sarah Melton, the Mavericks Director of Basketball Communications, to inquire about getting a credential for the game Wednesday against Golden State. I received no response from Sarah and on Saturday Cuban made a post on Blog Maverick that to receive a credential bloggers should post a sample of their work as a comment on his blog and he would be the sole judge as to who receives a credential. Even though I consider this to be quite questionable, it his team and he can do what he wants regarding who has access to it, I posted a comment and awaited a reply.

Later Saturday I received an e-mail from Cuban. Sarah Melton had forwarded my original request to Mark and this was his response to me.

Your blog hasn’t been in existence long enough to qualify and for commonsense reasons, we wouldn’t credential you even if it were

So in just one day Cuban’s statement that “We won’t discriminate at all” had changed quite dramatically. Which I have no problem at all with. Like I said, it’s his team, he can do what wants and control who has access to the team, especially regarding someone calling for the firing of his coach.

I did reply back to Mark saying that I have more respect for the team to go into the room and cause any problems. I wouldn’t ask anyone about the status of Avery, whether or not they think he should be fired, etc. I would just cover the game I was credentialed for. I wasn’t begging or pleading for a credential, just telling his where I was coming from. His response was:

i dont have a problemwith the site. Passion is a good thing. Even if its for something that we dont like

In this case, with the number of requests we are getting, we have to draw the line somewhere.

It has to be Mavs specific and been around for at least 6 months.

I thought that was a valid explanation and as far as I’m concerned the matter’s settled from my side. I just wanted to post something up and let everyone reading this site that I tried to get credentialed and what has happened with it.

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Welcome to 8th

Last year in the first round of the playoffs Avery benched Erick Dampier in game 1 and effectively told the Warriors that the Mavs had to conform to their style of play. This lead to a first round exit to an 8th seed. Tonight Damp started the game, but then only played 12:30. Then after the game Avery had this to say.

“We couldn’t get stops when we needed to, especially in the fourth quarter,” Avery said. “We continued to score. This was one of our better second halves offensively, but we just couldn’t get the stops against Monta Ellis, Baron Davis. They were all hard to guard down the stretch.”

Don’t you think that just maybe having Damp in the middle of the lane might clog  it up a little to stop guards from having easy layups?  If you look at the game flow for tonight’s game you’ll very quickly notice that while Damp was in the game the Mavs were +10 on the night.  When the Mavs beat the Warriors on January 2nd Damp played 27 minutes.  I’m not saying that Damp caused the Mavs to win that game, but he certainly didn’t hurt them.  And I just find it amazing that Avery would go back to a game plan that caused so much controversy less than a year ago.

So a great effort by Jason Kidd and Josh Howard was wasted tonight.  And now the Mavericks are tied for 7th and 8th with Golden State and Denver.

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Are the excuses beginning?

Could the excuses for the poor performance since the All-Star break be starting? Here’s what Avery has to say about having 8 new players this year, 5 since the break.

“Had we remained the same, maybe you could see some common maladies in those situations… But this is a different club, different situation. We don’t have the continuity we’ve had in the past.”

I’m probably just putting words in his mouth, but it sounds like he’s saying that it’s not his fault the team is struggling. At least not now. If it’s this same group of guys next year is it his fault then?

And this is from a few days ago, but I just now saw it. Avery’s talking about how the team needs to perform better in the half-court.

“We’re going to have to do a better job in the halfcourt. We haven’t been very good in the halfcourt. We’re going to have to do a better job of executing our plays, setting better screens, a better job of running our pick-and-rolls, attacking. … it’s just in the halfcourt, we’ve just got to find a way to get the ball to the basket and if not, take our shots and make our shots.”

Perhaps if the half-court strategy involved more than iso plays ending in a 20 foot Josh Howard jump shot they could be more effective?

And in the standings the Nuggets are now in 8th after taking care of the Warriors last night. A loss tonight would move the Mavs to 8th with the same record as Golden State. Right now the Mavs have the tie break against the Warriors being 2-0 against them on the season.

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Single Elimination?

Avery had this to say before the Nuggets game about the Mavericks current position in the West.

“We’re playing single elimination.  That’s the way we’ve got to look at it.”

I guess this season is already over then?   Postings on this site, from me and the commenters, and a bunch of other people seem to think that is the case and that Mavs are going to miss the playoffs.

This morning the Mavs are 1/2 a game ahead of the Warriors for the 7th spot and only 1 game ahead of Denver for 8th.  And because of the loss Thursday night the Nuggets now have the tie-breaker if they end up with the same record for that 8th spot.  In that sense Thursday night truly was an elimination game.

You have to wonder what the players think about hearing that statement, then losing the next game.  Yes, these guys shouldn’t let something like that bother them, and it most likely doesn’t.   But still, according to what your own coach said you’ve now been eliminated from the playoffs.  Of course they haven’t actually been eliminated yet, but it looks like things are coming to that point with 8 of their last 11 against teams better than .500.

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Well, that sucked

After the first half I was getting ready to come on here and talk about how good this team looked. They scored 70 points for only the 2nd time this season, Avery mostly stayed on the bench and let these guys run the offense themselves, the rotation wasn’t out of whack and a starter was always on the floor. Kidd was having an amazing game with 13 points and 11 assists, Josh was on fire. Everything looked good. Then the second half started.

That was an embarrassing second half performance. After putting up 70 points in the first half the Mavs only manage to score 35 more in the second. So what the hell happened? The guys on the floor weren’t making shots, even though they ended up at 50.6% on the game. Playing defense didn’t seem to cross their mind. Through most of the third quarter the starters were on the floor so there’s not much to complain about there.

But Avery didn’t help matters any by getting a technical when the Mavs were only down 1.  Of course Josh Howard had to follow suit and that was really the point the game got away from the Mavs for good.

Late third and into the fourth featured Juwan Howard on the floor instead of Brandon Bass and Malik Allen instead of Dampier. The Nuggets were dominating the offensive boards in the 2nd half, and Avery couldn’t be bothered to put Damp back in there to try and slow that tide? And why didn’t Juwan Howard play more minutes than Bass? Did Bass get hurt early and I missed it? I really can’t see any reason for that happening.

So now the Nuggets and Golden State are now 1 game back of the Mavs. Denver now has the tie-breaker against the Mavs if they end up with the same record. Now the Mavs go to Oakland to play Golden State on Sunday. Win that game and they have a tie-breaker against the Warriors. Lose it and Avery’s statement that these are single elimination games is going to come true.

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Devin Harris is Good

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.

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

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.

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My Positioning Statement

Ok, I’m getting tired of hearing the phrase “fair-weather fan” and that I’m not a “real fan,” whatever that actually is. So I’m going to go through my Mavericks history and why I started this site.

I didn’t move to Dallas until 1996, so I missed out on the really bad teams of the early ninety’s. And when I did move here I was still in high school, so watching and paying attention to the Mavericks wasn’t my highest priority. I didn’t really start getting too into the Mavs until Cuban bought the team. So in that regard I guess I could be called a “bandwagoner”.

I was in Reunion Arena for game 3 of the first round game against the Jazz and vividly remember Nash hitting the 3 on a fall away shot with two players all over him right before half-time. I was at the AAC for the first regular season game and still have the ticket displayed in the holder they gave out that night in my living room. I had season tickets in ‘02-’03 and ‘03-’04. I still have the book of playoff tickets that have the unused Finals tickets from the ‘02-’03 season. I was at game 1 of the Finals in literally the last row of the building in the corner after paying $160 for a $16 ticket. So yes, I am a fan of this team.

Keep reading below for more.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Let’s stay competitive

Nothing like a visit from the NBA’s version of a band-aid to bring people back from a ledge.  Of course when you’re playing a team that starts Josh freakin’ Powell at center you should dominate them, no matter who you are.  So yeah, Damp went for 19 and 17, Josh for 32 points and 7 boards and Kidd finishing with 10 points, 8 dimes and 6 boards.  Now do that against a team that means something and we’ll talk then.

And even that’s not to say that the Mavs didn’t try to lose this thing.  After getting up to a 12 point lead in the first 6 minutes of the games the Clippers game back and took a lead with 6 minutes left in the 2nd.  And here’s the lineup that was on the floor for the Mavericks when they gave up the lead: Tyronn Lue, Antoine Wright, Devean George, Brandon Bass, Malik Allen.  That’s one thing I really don’t understand that Avery’s been doing these last few games.  In the second quarter he puts out a 2nd unit that doesn’t consist of any starters, and the team gets smoked during those times.  The rotation for this team is in such disarray, even was with Dirk, that it’ll be interesting to see what Avery rolls out there in the playoffs, if they get there.

And here’s our Avery quote of the day:

“We just needed to get a win…  I thought we’ve been very, very competitive — for the most part — during this home stretch. We just haven’t gotten the results we wanted.”

There’s the wonderful “we’ve been competitive” line again.  Avery and I must have different definitions of competitive, because to me it actually involves mixing in a win against a good team.  And this team still needs a win against someone other than the laughing stock Clippers, then maybe they’ll get some credit.

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Monday Night Quick Hits

It was a busy Monday in Mavericks land so thought I’d just quick hit some of the news of the day.

Dirk is an extremely lucky guy who somehow came out of the yesterday’s game with only a high-ankle sprain and a mild knee sprain. I still don’t understand how he didn’t break or tear anything in his leg, but this is great news for his future. Of course it’s pretty bad news for the Mavs future.

In the next two weeks the Mavs play the Nuggets, Golden State twice, the Lakers, the Suns and the Clippers twice. This team could easily go 2-5 during this stretch. And if that happens their playoff hopes are done. And has Avery shown anybody anything that would suggest he can adjust this team to achieve road wins in Dirk’s absence?

Looks like Tim MacMahon from the DMN Mavs Blog has joined the bandwagon for missing the playoffs. And sadly right now that really does seem like the best option for this team. Missing the playoffs would almost guarantee Avery’s firing, or at least it should, but it remains to be seen if Cuban will be willing to admit things aren’t as good here as they seem.

And speaking of Tim MacMahon and firing Avery, it looks like this little website may have been the reason he (oops, all bloggers) was banned from the Mavs locker room.

Instead, everyone seems to think that Cuban took exception to Dallas Morning News blogger Tim MacMahon for some reason or other. That notion is supported by the reality that Cuban personally ejected MacMahon from the locker room on February 29, even when the team did not yet have a policy prohibiting bloggers. (Several people confirm this.)

If everyone I have talked to is right, that means something else must be driving this.

The theory that has been on MacMahon’s blog is that he blogged somewhat sympathetically about the website, FireAvery.com, which calls for the ouster of coach Avery Johnson. (One of several posts around that time questioning Johnson.)…

What’s more, MacMahon’s FireAvery.com post was fresh on his blog at the moment he was ejected from the locker room.

Honestly, I’m amazed if this site and what Tim posted about it was the reason behind Cuban banning bloggers (Tim) from the locker room. I do want to apologize to Tim for causing him to get kicked out of the room though.

Finally here’s a quote about the Mavericks offensive struggles from Avery after yesterday’s game.

“Do the math. Right now, we can’t score at a high enough clip, and, obviously, we can’t score at the right time.”

That’s quite the problem to have at this time of the year. Maybe part of the reason this team can’t score is because Avery is still too controlling on the offense. For instance, a few days ago he said Kidd needs to shoot the ball more, and the team would live with the results. Well, early in the game yesterday Kidd put up 2 shots and missed them both. He was pulled from the game.

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This season is over, part 2

The Mavericks had a 54-42 lead with 6:24 left in the 3rd quarter. Then in the next 4 minutes 54 seconds this team’s season was effectively done. In that 4:54 the Mavs gave up a 19-0 run and lost Dirk for who really knows how long.

While losing Dirk is the most important story of the game, this team does nothing without him, but I’ll get to that in a post tomorrow, the 19-0 run was pathetic.

Avery’s low point of the run came 2 minutes into it when the Mavericks didn’t have a point guard or center on the floor. That’s right, both Jason Kidd and Jason Terry, as well as Tyronn Lue, were all sitting on the bench. The five players on the floor were Stack, Josh Howard, Devean George, Dirk and Brandon Bass. That was Avery’s grand idea to stop at what the moment was a 5-0 run. Yeah, Tony Parker was out of the game, but that lineup leaves Stack, at least I think it’d be him, to run the offense. Granted, when you’re running nothing but iso half-court sets you don’t really need a PG on the floor, but there is no way that will ever make sense to me.

There were also two timeouts called by the Mavs during the run, one right after it started and one after it was a 13-0 run after Dirk got hurt. Whatever Avery was saying to the guys during these timeouts obviously didn’t motivate them too much.

All in all if was yet another horrible showing against a team with a .500 or better record. The Mavs are now 0-8 against these teams since the Kidd trade. The time for “moral victories” and showing effort is over and wins are needed by this team now. They are only 2 games ahead of Denver for the last playoff spot. They have two games against Golden State coming up in the next five, which could very well leave them in 8th in the West.

And now potentially being without Dirk for 2 or more weeks this team doesn’t look like they’re going to improve their fortunes against these teams anytime soon. And the bad news? Eight of their last twelve are against teams better than .500.

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