mavsfan1000
06-11-2005, 09:50 PM
Questioning Our 'B-Ball IQ'
Exit Vs. Phoenix: Mavs' Self-Lobotomy?
By Mike Fisher – DallasBasketball.com
“I’m paid to win championships,’’ said Mavs rookie coach Avery Johnson. “I’m here to win championships. If I don't win a championship in the next couple years, they'll get somebody else. …’’
Hold on a sec, young fella. Nobody’s trying to run you out of town because you lost a second-round playoff series to a fine Phoenix team. Get a grip, OK?
Sometimes,’’ Avery continued in his season-ending press conference, “it seems like a lost season if you don't win it. But we have a good situation here."
DB.COM BOARDS
FISH ON RADIO
Ah, that’s better. Now that we’ve all taken a breath, can we – without having Dirk scream at everyone but himself, without having Josh punch balls into the bleachers, without having Avery predict his eventual firing – rip apart the Mavs’ Game 6 lack of MENSA qualifications?
Said Dirk Nowitzki: “I just think we weren’t smart enough. Overall our basketball IQ wasn’t great offensively and defensively. I think we should have beaten them.’’
Let us count the ways in which the peach-fuzzy coach and his Mavs lobotomized themselves:
1) Dallas is up 3 with six seconds left. Johnson specifically instructed his team to either keep the ball out of Steve Nash’s hands (tough to do since he brought the ball up the floor) or foul him BEFORE he could attempt a game-tying 3. Doing the latter, of course, would turn the game into a free-throw –shooting contest, and would have limited the Suns to a maximum of two points on the trip.
Instead, Jason Terry does the unthinkable. He fails to get anywhere near Nash, fails to foul him, and Nash is wide-open for the tying trey.
“(Terry) just backed off too much," Johnson said. "We definitely didn't want to give him a three. …’’
Added Terry (who at least gets credit for being a stand-up guy): "I let him walk right into it."
2) OK, so it’s tied. But there are still 5.7 seconds left. Plenty of time for the Mavs to take a timeout, set up a halfcourt play, take advantage of a Suns team without the fouled-out Amare Stoudemire. … but no. Jerry Stackhouse does not see or hear Johnson squealing for the timeout. Stack sprints up the floor and gets a clean look for a 3. …
And misses a 3 that Dallas didn’t need, passing on what might have been a higher-percentage shot had he heeded Johnson’s request.
“Stack didn’t hear me,’’ Avery said. “But that’s OK. I can live with that shot.’’
3) I guess we have to live with this one, too, then. The Mavericks got within 126-123 with 13.5 seconds left in the OT and had one last chance to tie.
Patience. Composure. One good shot.
The ball came inbounds, into the hands of Dirk, who launched a spinning fadeaway 3 with eight seconds left on the clock.
I said, Patience. Composure. One good shot!
4) Let’s back up. Dallas is up 16 in the third quarter. Erick Dampier – critical to the Mavs getting ahead, critical to the Mavs if they are to win – registers a block. His confidence is high, just like his productivity. Next possession, he commits a foul. It’s his fourth. Avery had suggested he might leave Damp in despite some foul trouble; it wasn’t a bad thought, assuming Damp was playing well enough to deserve that. He was. AJ pulled him, anyway.
A half a quarter, plus the entire fourth quarter, plus all the OT, guess how many more fouls Damp committed. Um, none. What was Avery saving him for? Summer league?
5) Michael Finley gets the start. He gets 31 minutes. He gets 10 shots. He makes two of them. He totals seven points, again failing to get to double digits. Meanwhile, Finley heir Marquis Daniels – with that new six-year, $37-mil deal, a rep for being able to play defense, fresh young legs, a crafty changeup of a mid-range game, the ability to finish, and the plans for him to be a starter this past season before the ankle injury – got a DNP.
I’m more confused than ever about what Marquis Daniels’ role here is. But Fin? I recognize what his role should be. Does Avery?
I’ll stop at five, because I think you can get too picky about certain strategies. “Making Nash beat us’’? That can be about execution, or about good fortune. Check out how part of “Making Nash beat us’’ means closely guarding Nash’s 3-point buddies, and then note how Phoenix got 39 out of Nash AND shot 48 percent from the arc! “Controlling the tempo’’? Funny how anything you do, tempo-wise, looks smart when you’re up 16 and then looks foolish as soon as you start missing shots. “Always save a timeout’’? Dallas did get burned in each of its last two losses by Avery not adhering to this chestnut, but. … it’s still a second-guess.
Heck, I’ll even retract the Damp thing and the Fin thing, if it makes the Mavs feel any better. … leaving us to concentrate only on how Avery’s boys suffered brain cramps with 6 seconds left, with 5.7 seconds left, and with 13.5 seconds left.
There. Feel better?
Clearly, this team experienced growing pains in part because its young coach did the same. (I said a month ago that the absence of Don Nelson would be felt for a second here and a moment there; I don’t need to say it again, do I?) There was a lack of composure down the stretch, in Game 6 and elsewhere. There was a lack of consistency throughout. Supposed stars let their confidence wane. Big-money pros floated through games. Intensity and emotion weren’t always funneled in the proper direction.
That’s coaching.
“They were,’’ said Dirk, “just stupid mistakes that shouldn’t have happened.’’
Uttering that statement is the smartest thing any Mav did all series.
http://dallasbasketball.com/headline_F.asp?pr=
Exit Vs. Phoenix: Mavs' Self-Lobotomy?
By Mike Fisher – DallasBasketball.com
“I’m paid to win championships,’’ said Mavs rookie coach Avery Johnson. “I’m here to win championships. If I don't win a championship in the next couple years, they'll get somebody else. …’’
Hold on a sec, young fella. Nobody’s trying to run you out of town because you lost a second-round playoff series to a fine Phoenix team. Get a grip, OK?
Sometimes,’’ Avery continued in his season-ending press conference, “it seems like a lost season if you don't win it. But we have a good situation here."
DB.COM BOARDS
FISH ON RADIO
Ah, that’s better. Now that we’ve all taken a breath, can we – without having Dirk scream at everyone but himself, without having Josh punch balls into the bleachers, without having Avery predict his eventual firing – rip apart the Mavs’ Game 6 lack of MENSA qualifications?
Said Dirk Nowitzki: “I just think we weren’t smart enough. Overall our basketball IQ wasn’t great offensively and defensively. I think we should have beaten them.’’
Let us count the ways in which the peach-fuzzy coach and his Mavs lobotomized themselves:
1) Dallas is up 3 with six seconds left. Johnson specifically instructed his team to either keep the ball out of Steve Nash’s hands (tough to do since he brought the ball up the floor) or foul him BEFORE he could attempt a game-tying 3. Doing the latter, of course, would turn the game into a free-throw –shooting contest, and would have limited the Suns to a maximum of two points on the trip.
Instead, Jason Terry does the unthinkable. He fails to get anywhere near Nash, fails to foul him, and Nash is wide-open for the tying trey.
“(Terry) just backed off too much," Johnson said. "We definitely didn't want to give him a three. …’’
Added Terry (who at least gets credit for being a stand-up guy): "I let him walk right into it."
2) OK, so it’s tied. But there are still 5.7 seconds left. Plenty of time for the Mavs to take a timeout, set up a halfcourt play, take advantage of a Suns team without the fouled-out Amare Stoudemire. … but no. Jerry Stackhouse does not see or hear Johnson squealing for the timeout. Stack sprints up the floor and gets a clean look for a 3. …
And misses a 3 that Dallas didn’t need, passing on what might have been a higher-percentage shot had he heeded Johnson’s request.
“Stack didn’t hear me,’’ Avery said. “But that’s OK. I can live with that shot.’’
3) I guess we have to live with this one, too, then. The Mavericks got within 126-123 with 13.5 seconds left in the OT and had one last chance to tie.
Patience. Composure. One good shot.
The ball came inbounds, into the hands of Dirk, who launched a spinning fadeaway 3 with eight seconds left on the clock.
I said, Patience. Composure. One good shot!
4) Let’s back up. Dallas is up 16 in the third quarter. Erick Dampier – critical to the Mavs getting ahead, critical to the Mavs if they are to win – registers a block. His confidence is high, just like his productivity. Next possession, he commits a foul. It’s his fourth. Avery had suggested he might leave Damp in despite some foul trouble; it wasn’t a bad thought, assuming Damp was playing well enough to deserve that. He was. AJ pulled him, anyway.
A half a quarter, plus the entire fourth quarter, plus all the OT, guess how many more fouls Damp committed. Um, none. What was Avery saving him for? Summer league?
5) Michael Finley gets the start. He gets 31 minutes. He gets 10 shots. He makes two of them. He totals seven points, again failing to get to double digits. Meanwhile, Finley heir Marquis Daniels – with that new six-year, $37-mil deal, a rep for being able to play defense, fresh young legs, a crafty changeup of a mid-range game, the ability to finish, and the plans for him to be a starter this past season before the ankle injury – got a DNP.
I’m more confused than ever about what Marquis Daniels’ role here is. But Fin? I recognize what his role should be. Does Avery?
I’ll stop at five, because I think you can get too picky about certain strategies. “Making Nash beat us’’? That can be about execution, or about good fortune. Check out how part of “Making Nash beat us’’ means closely guarding Nash’s 3-point buddies, and then note how Phoenix got 39 out of Nash AND shot 48 percent from the arc! “Controlling the tempo’’? Funny how anything you do, tempo-wise, looks smart when you’re up 16 and then looks foolish as soon as you start missing shots. “Always save a timeout’’? Dallas did get burned in each of its last two losses by Avery not adhering to this chestnut, but. … it’s still a second-guess.
Heck, I’ll even retract the Damp thing and the Fin thing, if it makes the Mavs feel any better. … leaving us to concentrate only on how Avery’s boys suffered brain cramps with 6 seconds left, with 5.7 seconds left, and with 13.5 seconds left.
There. Feel better?
Clearly, this team experienced growing pains in part because its young coach did the same. (I said a month ago that the absence of Don Nelson would be felt for a second here and a moment there; I don’t need to say it again, do I?) There was a lack of composure down the stretch, in Game 6 and elsewhere. There was a lack of consistency throughout. Supposed stars let their confidence wane. Big-money pros floated through games. Intensity and emotion weren’t always funneled in the proper direction.
That’s coaching.
“They were,’’ said Dirk, “just stupid mistakes that shouldn’t have happened.’’
Uttering that statement is the smartest thing any Mav did all series.
http://dallasbasketball.com/headline_F.asp?pr=