Findog
12-16-2007, 02:43 AM
http://www.dallasbasketball.com/fullColumn.php?id=183
IS THIS REGULAR SEASON – OR AT LEAST THIS PART OF THE SEASON – ABOUT EXPERIMENTATION?
It is 5 p.m., two-and-a-half hours before tipoff. Mavs owner Mark Cuban has been answering my battery of questions while at the same time practicing long-range jumpers and free throws. But when he hears this question, it interrupts his rhythm. And he looks at me incredulously.
“Of course!’’ he says. “It’s the start of the regular season! When else would you experiment?’’
The owner then chooses as an example the case of Brandon Bass (a convenient choice because Bass represents at least one success in coach Avery Johnson’s laboratory). Cuban notes that it was Bass who erred in the late going against Chicago, fouling Kirk Heinrich. And he notes that it was Bass who erred in the late going against New Orleans, allowing Peja Stojakovic to get open for a 3.
“One of the reasons we failed in the playoffs is a lack of depth,’’ Cuban says, resuming his long-range shooting, with me as a note-taking ball-fetcher. “So let’s develop that now. Let’s learn now. Let’s experiment with it now. Play to learn. Play to learn.’’
Experimenting. Remind yourself of that when you see ‘Gana Diop, who started the first 14 games of the year, go unused in the entire first half of Friday’s game with New Orleans – and then, with the 14 minutes he’s given in the second half, he contributes seven points and five rebounds and holds Tyson Chandler scoreless. Remind yourself of that when you see Moe Ager come in and out of mothballs. (“Moe’s a smart guy, and a really good guy,’’ Cuban says. “He just plays ‘over-excited.’’’) Remind yourself of that when the Mavs play a full dozen players in a game, as they did this week in Toronto.
“How often do you see that in an NBA game, a 12-man rotation?’’ Cuban asks. “That’s experimenting. Play to learn.’’
IS – OR WAS -- AVERY JOHNSON TRYING TO BE ‘KINDER AND GENTLER’?
Bob Ortegel spent a decade as a college basketball coach. He’s now spent two decades as the Mavs’ TV/radio analyst. He knows coaching. And he knows Avery.
“Was he trying to do that? Yes,’’ Ortegel tells me as we lounge on the Mavs bench minutes before tipoff. “But I think he’s going back to what he was. Avery’s really big on the idea of splitting up the season in fours, 20-game segments. I think he tried an approach for those first 20 games, and not only was he evaluating his team – he was also evaluating himself.
“And you know,’’ Coach O says, “his first year here he won 16 of 18. Then he won 60. Then he won 67. Avery needs to be Avery.’’
For a hint at that “self-evaluation,’’ we go to Avery himself.
““This is not a dictatorship,” Johnson says as he speaks to a small cluster of reporters before the game. “As much as you guys think I’m all hands-on and whatever this picture is you’ve painted of me, I do listen to my team.”
One more voice worth listening to here: Del Harris’. The NBA coaching icon, no longer a part of Avery’s staff but now a consultant with the team, uses numbers to illustrate the head coach’s biggest issue.
“I’ve coached 3,000 games,’’ Del tells me. “Avery’s working his way to having coached 200. If Avery keeps learning about himself, he’ll continue to grow. But you can’t know everything after having coached fewer than 200 games.’’
IS THERE A NO. 1 OPTION ON OFFENSE? A TOTEM POLE, OF SORTS? DO THE MAVS LIKE TO ‘RIDE THE HOT HAND’?
Jason Terry is watching two TV screens. And he’s got the headphones half-on. But he happily puts his electronics on hold to entertain a question he finds intriguing.
“It’s not set in stone,’’ Jet says as he sits in front of his luxury locker stall. “There are the plays we run, and we run them for a reason. But on top of that, we all need to know, for instance, that Josh tends to be very aggressive early in the game, so let’s get him the ball. You want Dirk to be aggressive throughout the game, and he needs his touches. And then late in games, we have me and we have Stack.’’
I look at what I’ve just scribbled down. Josh. Dirk. Me (Terry). Stack.
Looks like a “pecking order,’’ a “totem pole,’’ to me.
“I wouldn’t say that; I don’t like that phrase,’’ Terry says. “But it does seem to fall that way most nights, doesn’t it?’’
HOW IS THE CUBAN-AVERY RELATIONSHIP? HOW IS CUBAN HANDLING THE STRUGGLES?
The owner really does seem relaxed and happy. He’s lost about 30 pounds (thanks to “Dancing With The Stars’’) down to 198. Has he had to buy a new wardrobe?
“No, I’ve just recycled all my stuff from when I last weighed this much, in the ‘80’s,’’ he laughs.
Does the jovial mood extend to his thoughts on his team’s start?
“You know what this feels like? It feels like when we started 0-4 last year,’’ Cuban says. “It bothers me. I hate to lose. But I know it’s going to be OK. I trust Avery.’’
Cuban is unable to resist taking a poke at Avery’s coaching predecessor. Grinning, he adds, “I don’t get as upset as I used to (after losses) because I trust these guys more than I trusted (Nellie).’’
WHAT EXACTLY IS ‘AVERY’S SYSTEM’?
We’re in the lunch room, and I invite Del Harris to sit with me. First, though, he decides on his dinner: a monstrous chunk of white cake. “Imagine the calories I’m preventing someone else from ingesting,’’ he jokes. “I’m doing a public service.’’
This “Avery’s system’’ conversation goes on for 20 minutes. But Del could do it for 20 hours. (And in fact, it’s clearly worthy of a lengthy and detailed story one of these days.) I’ll summarize here:
This isn’t really Avery’s system. It’s still, in many ways, the Nellie/Harris system devised three decades ago, when their Milwaukee teams were the NBA’s best defensively. Now, what is a “system’’?
Del has literally “written the book’’ on these issues. He has for 30 years authored a new in-house “book’’ for every team he’s coached. The “book’’ covers team’s strategies. It is motivational. It is philosophical. It is meant to provide answers for every situation that might arise, all tailored to the talent of that year’s club.
Johnson is in the process of putting his own stamp on all this, of course.
“Avery has been around some great coaches,’’ Del says, poking at his dessert. “He played for Larry (Brown), for Pop, for Nellie. That’s about as good as it gets. He’s learned from all of them.’’
Continues Del: “You can tell what is the essence of a coach by noticing what bothers him. If he gets upset at poor picks, or missed shots, he’s an offensive coach. If he gets upset by failings on defense, he’s a defensive coach. Avery is, at his essence, a defensive coach. And a coach can only really ‘be’ four things. You can’t ‘be’ 10 things. I think Avery is learning that.’’
A few people are hinting to me that Avery’s playbook – the game-night product of Avery’s “system’’ – is far too thick. Del Harris, being supportive, declines to agree with that. But he does note that one legendary NBA coach, Utah’s Jerry Sloan, is known in coaching circles for his simplicity.
“Sloan’s teams don’t do a lot of things,’’ Del says. “But they emphasize a few things. And they do them well.’’
The implications seem clear: “Avery’s System’’ is nothing new. It is an amalgamation of systems that have come before. It is not unlike the Nellie/Harris system, but with some different angles. … and maybe too many different angles.
WHY DO THE MAVS RELY ON SMALLBALL?
I pose this question to Avery during his pregame meeting with the media at-large. He answers it with a great deal of humor, patience, and. … well, cockiness.
“Cockiness’’ because there are certainly two schools of thought on how to combat the opponents’ SmallBall. One is to play to your strengths, and Dallas, with its pair of 7-foot centers, would seem to have that as a strength. The other is to counter their smalls with your smalls.
I express to Avery that I lean to the former. But what the hell do I know? Especially in the face of Avery, who expresses no self-doubt here.
“More teams are eliminating the power forward,’’ he says. “Most teams are going with a 4 who is quick and athletic. Not many teams even have a true power forward anymore. This is the way the league is going right now.’’
Well, yeah, I say. But. … aren’t you playing into the other teams’ hands by following suit, by answering their small with a small instead of playing big? Since when is bigger not better?
“You’d like to stay big if you can make it work,’’ Avery tells me. “If you have those people – Shaq, Bill Russell, Hakeem – then you can stay big and still be athletic. We love our centers. … but they aren’t that. It’s especially difficult if (our centers) don’t make them pay at the offensive end.’’
I’m properly upbraided. I guess. Bigger isn’t better. I guess.
I track down Del Harris, now finished with his cake, for some supplemental insight.
“Where SmallBall really hurts us isn’t upfront,’’ Del says. “Devean George can be effective upfront. Josh can play at the 2 or at the 4 and you’re not really ‘small.’ George, Dirk and Bass together upfront can work as SmallBall. … but it’s really not that small. No, what hurts us with SmallBall is at the guard spots. Being too small at both guard positions, you can’t do that.’’
Back to Avery one more time, as he thinks, in addition to the versatile George, he’s got another secret weapon to be “big’’ while also being “small.’’
“In our (regular-season) game with Golden State, Brandon Bass showed something,’’ Avery says. “He was making them pay offensively. And on defense, he was sticking with 1’s, 2’s, 3’s, 4’s, 5’s.’’
So they’re committed to some SmallBall. They just want to be bigger at it, and better at it.
WHY IS JERRY STACKHOUSE ALLOWED TO SHOOT SO MUCH? WHY IS JERRY STACKHOUSE EVEN ALLOWED TO PLAY SO MUCH?
“No, it’s not too much,’’ Cuban tells me. “Because some of those shots and those minutes he’s getting would be going to Eddie Jones.’’
WHAT IS WRONG WITH OUR DEFENSE?
Lots of theories here.
Del Harris goes X’s-and-O’s: “Our centers are not doing a very good job covering for people like they did last year.’’
Avery Johnson goes with platitudes: “Defense is something that has to be worked on every game, every quarter, every possession. And in practice.’’
Dirk Nowitzki thinks it is all about effort: “We have to do it with energy. … You have to go out there and do your best.’’
Mark Cuban goes with a combination of the three, and I’m buying the combo platter: “There is a piece missing,’’ Cuban says. “The missing piece is trust. It’s a matter of believing in each other, and knowing each other. We’ve got some young guys, and some new guys. Defense is about everybody knowing their roles and everybody knowing that the other guy is going to be there. With complete trust comes free energy. And Avery specializes in trust and energy. So it will come, trust will come, and good things will happen.’’
I am tempted to turn Avery’s Shaq/Russell/Hakeem take into a joke by saying to Cuban, “Yeah, our defense is missing a piece: Bill Russell.’’ But I resist the temptation.
WHY IS DEVIN HARRIS’ ROLE AS THE TEAM QUARTERBACK BEING JERKED BACK AND FORTH? DO THE MAVS STILL BELIEVE IN HIM?
Mavs owner Mark Cuban already did his speaking on this subject this summer when he invested in Devin with a rich new contract. But I ask him to double-confirm.
“Devin started great, then he hit his head on the floor, then he got sick,’’ Cuban says. “We have complete confidence in him. People are making a big deal of Avery taking over some of the play-calling responsibilities, but that’s temporary. He’s doing that to help Devin, that’s all.’’
Later, Avery assures that he’s still very much in Devin’s corner.
“He gets us in our sets really good,” the coach says. ““Even though I’m calling more of the plays now, we’re in sync together … I’m just taking some of the pressure off him. … He understands the playbook. He understands where everybody needs to be. He’s become a good quarterback.’’
Devin admits to me that he’s frustrated by the starts and stops in his progress as a leader. But by reading Avery’s words, his body language, his mood when discussing this subject, I believe there is no problem here.
IS DIRK BEING TRANSFORMED INTO A ROLE PLAYER? WHOSE IDEA IS THIS?
The official word here: Dallas knows what it can get from Dirk. So other weapons are being developed. And eventually, Dirk can climb back up the totem pole. Makes some sense. And whose idea is this?
“Dirk is simply doing what the coach tells him to do,’’ Cuban tells me.
One of things Nowitzki is being told to do, though, is to become Tim Duncan-like. And that’s not message-board crap; that term “Duncan-like’’ is actually uttered to me by Del Harris.
Here’s the way history is going to evaluate what’s being done with Dirk Nowitzki: He’s a special perimeter player being told to play more inside. He’s got “no butt and not a strong base,’’ as Del puts it, both requirements for a true post player. He’s a willing passer, but not a great one. He used to take 19 shots a game. Now he takes 16 shots a game. He’s a seven-time All-NBA player and the reigning MVP. … and we’re changing him.
It would be one thing to “add’’ to Dirk’s game. The Mavs coaching staff has always done that. But “changing’’ is different from “adding.’’
Ideally, we’ll get to the stretch run, and the playoffs, and Dirk will be Dirk – with a hint of Duncan thrown in.
This had better work.
HOW’S THE TEAM CHEMISTRY?
I’m posing this question to Jason Terry and as I face him, I notice that hovering over his right shoulder is Avery’s scribbled message on the locker room whiteboard:
HAVE SOME FUN!!!
Odd, isn’t it? That these guys have to be reminded to enjoy themselves – complete with three exclamation marks!!! Terry, though, assures me that any concerns in that area have nothing to do with team chemistry.
“Actually, we’ve achieved team chemistry with this team faster than we ever have before,’’ he says. “We’ve grown together very quickly. Eddie Jones and Juwan Howard and all the new guys have fit right in. It’s just a great group of guys. No issues there.’’
I was convinced – and then moreso after the win over the Hornets, when Jerry Stackhouse addresses some of the same issues.
"We started getting back to having fun," says Stackhouse. "There have just been too many despondent looking faces; not necessarily disappointment but just despondent. When we lose or even during the course of the game, we're not really having fun. It's supposed to be a game of having fun. We're getting paid well to play basketball. We've just got to get back to creating our own enthusiasm. That'll lead to more productive play, too."
WHY NOT GO WITH BRANDON BASS AS A STARTER?
Bass has already told me he’s never even though of such a thing. Avery apparently hasn’t seriously considered it yet, either, as he suggests that “The Animal’’ isn’t quite ready for that big step.
“He’s basically a rookie, a kid who has never been in a rotation,’’ Johnson says. “That’s part of managing him. He has a good game, you guys write something good about him. Now, how does he handle it? Does he all the sudden think he’s Karl Malone? Then he has a bad game. You write that? Now is he ready to (quit)?’’
And there’s more. One staffer says Bass has poor technique on defense. Oh, and despite Bass’ offensive skills, he still hasn’t established that he’s enough of a threat to prevent teams from doubling away from him. And that means that if he’s on the floor with a center, the Mavs suddenly have two guys who don’t demand defensive focus. Oh, and one more thing: The team’s film studies demonstrate that the combination of Bass on the floor at the same time with one of the centers is highly unproductive. Bass and Dirk together? That works. Bass with Diop or Damp? As powerful as that tandem looks on paper, it hasn’t worked.
Of course, I’m trying to juggle all this info with Avery’s earlier take, on Bass being a guy who “makes them pay offensively’’ and “on defense can stick with 1’s, 2’s, 3’s, 4’s, 5’s.’’
WHAT’S WITH THAT FOUR-FINGER SIGN JET THROWS UP AFTER MAKING A LONG-RANGE SHOT?
“Dirk actually started that, and I stole it from him,’’ says Jason Terry, who then stands up in front of his locker and hoists up two hands full of fingers, as if to model for me.
“The call me ‘The Fourth-Quarter Man,’ because everybody knows I can miss some shots in the first three quarters, but in the fourth quarter, it’s going in! … You should see the ribbing I get in practice, though, when I miss one. ‘What’s a matter, Fourth-Quarter Man?’ they yell.
“And it’s usually Dirk doing the yelling.’’
IS THIS REGULAR SEASON – OR AT LEAST THIS PART OF THE SEASON – ABOUT EXPERIMENTATION?
It is 5 p.m., two-and-a-half hours before tipoff. Mavs owner Mark Cuban has been answering my battery of questions while at the same time practicing long-range jumpers and free throws. But when he hears this question, it interrupts his rhythm. And he looks at me incredulously.
“Of course!’’ he says. “It’s the start of the regular season! When else would you experiment?’’
The owner then chooses as an example the case of Brandon Bass (a convenient choice because Bass represents at least one success in coach Avery Johnson’s laboratory). Cuban notes that it was Bass who erred in the late going against Chicago, fouling Kirk Heinrich. And he notes that it was Bass who erred in the late going against New Orleans, allowing Peja Stojakovic to get open for a 3.
“One of the reasons we failed in the playoffs is a lack of depth,’’ Cuban says, resuming his long-range shooting, with me as a note-taking ball-fetcher. “So let’s develop that now. Let’s learn now. Let’s experiment with it now. Play to learn. Play to learn.’’
Experimenting. Remind yourself of that when you see ‘Gana Diop, who started the first 14 games of the year, go unused in the entire first half of Friday’s game with New Orleans – and then, with the 14 minutes he’s given in the second half, he contributes seven points and five rebounds and holds Tyson Chandler scoreless. Remind yourself of that when you see Moe Ager come in and out of mothballs. (“Moe’s a smart guy, and a really good guy,’’ Cuban says. “He just plays ‘over-excited.’’’) Remind yourself of that when the Mavs play a full dozen players in a game, as they did this week in Toronto.
“How often do you see that in an NBA game, a 12-man rotation?’’ Cuban asks. “That’s experimenting. Play to learn.’’
IS – OR WAS -- AVERY JOHNSON TRYING TO BE ‘KINDER AND GENTLER’?
Bob Ortegel spent a decade as a college basketball coach. He’s now spent two decades as the Mavs’ TV/radio analyst. He knows coaching. And he knows Avery.
“Was he trying to do that? Yes,’’ Ortegel tells me as we lounge on the Mavs bench minutes before tipoff. “But I think he’s going back to what he was. Avery’s really big on the idea of splitting up the season in fours, 20-game segments. I think he tried an approach for those first 20 games, and not only was he evaluating his team – he was also evaluating himself.
“And you know,’’ Coach O says, “his first year here he won 16 of 18. Then he won 60. Then he won 67. Avery needs to be Avery.’’
For a hint at that “self-evaluation,’’ we go to Avery himself.
““This is not a dictatorship,” Johnson says as he speaks to a small cluster of reporters before the game. “As much as you guys think I’m all hands-on and whatever this picture is you’ve painted of me, I do listen to my team.”
One more voice worth listening to here: Del Harris’. The NBA coaching icon, no longer a part of Avery’s staff but now a consultant with the team, uses numbers to illustrate the head coach’s biggest issue.
“I’ve coached 3,000 games,’’ Del tells me. “Avery’s working his way to having coached 200. If Avery keeps learning about himself, he’ll continue to grow. But you can’t know everything after having coached fewer than 200 games.’’
IS THERE A NO. 1 OPTION ON OFFENSE? A TOTEM POLE, OF SORTS? DO THE MAVS LIKE TO ‘RIDE THE HOT HAND’?
Jason Terry is watching two TV screens. And he’s got the headphones half-on. But he happily puts his electronics on hold to entertain a question he finds intriguing.
“It’s not set in stone,’’ Jet says as he sits in front of his luxury locker stall. “There are the plays we run, and we run them for a reason. But on top of that, we all need to know, for instance, that Josh tends to be very aggressive early in the game, so let’s get him the ball. You want Dirk to be aggressive throughout the game, and he needs his touches. And then late in games, we have me and we have Stack.’’
I look at what I’ve just scribbled down. Josh. Dirk. Me (Terry). Stack.
Looks like a “pecking order,’’ a “totem pole,’’ to me.
“I wouldn’t say that; I don’t like that phrase,’’ Terry says. “But it does seem to fall that way most nights, doesn’t it?’’
HOW IS THE CUBAN-AVERY RELATIONSHIP? HOW IS CUBAN HANDLING THE STRUGGLES?
The owner really does seem relaxed and happy. He’s lost about 30 pounds (thanks to “Dancing With The Stars’’) down to 198. Has he had to buy a new wardrobe?
“No, I’ve just recycled all my stuff from when I last weighed this much, in the ‘80’s,’’ he laughs.
Does the jovial mood extend to his thoughts on his team’s start?
“You know what this feels like? It feels like when we started 0-4 last year,’’ Cuban says. “It bothers me. I hate to lose. But I know it’s going to be OK. I trust Avery.’’
Cuban is unable to resist taking a poke at Avery’s coaching predecessor. Grinning, he adds, “I don’t get as upset as I used to (after losses) because I trust these guys more than I trusted (Nellie).’’
WHAT EXACTLY IS ‘AVERY’S SYSTEM’?
We’re in the lunch room, and I invite Del Harris to sit with me. First, though, he decides on his dinner: a monstrous chunk of white cake. “Imagine the calories I’m preventing someone else from ingesting,’’ he jokes. “I’m doing a public service.’’
This “Avery’s system’’ conversation goes on for 20 minutes. But Del could do it for 20 hours. (And in fact, it’s clearly worthy of a lengthy and detailed story one of these days.) I’ll summarize here:
This isn’t really Avery’s system. It’s still, in many ways, the Nellie/Harris system devised three decades ago, when their Milwaukee teams were the NBA’s best defensively. Now, what is a “system’’?
Del has literally “written the book’’ on these issues. He has for 30 years authored a new in-house “book’’ for every team he’s coached. The “book’’ covers team’s strategies. It is motivational. It is philosophical. It is meant to provide answers for every situation that might arise, all tailored to the talent of that year’s club.
Johnson is in the process of putting his own stamp on all this, of course.
“Avery has been around some great coaches,’’ Del says, poking at his dessert. “He played for Larry (Brown), for Pop, for Nellie. That’s about as good as it gets. He’s learned from all of them.’’
Continues Del: “You can tell what is the essence of a coach by noticing what bothers him. If he gets upset at poor picks, or missed shots, he’s an offensive coach. If he gets upset by failings on defense, he’s a defensive coach. Avery is, at his essence, a defensive coach. And a coach can only really ‘be’ four things. You can’t ‘be’ 10 things. I think Avery is learning that.’’
A few people are hinting to me that Avery’s playbook – the game-night product of Avery’s “system’’ – is far too thick. Del Harris, being supportive, declines to agree with that. But he does note that one legendary NBA coach, Utah’s Jerry Sloan, is known in coaching circles for his simplicity.
“Sloan’s teams don’t do a lot of things,’’ Del says. “But they emphasize a few things. And they do them well.’’
The implications seem clear: “Avery’s System’’ is nothing new. It is an amalgamation of systems that have come before. It is not unlike the Nellie/Harris system, but with some different angles. … and maybe too many different angles.
WHY DO THE MAVS RELY ON SMALLBALL?
I pose this question to Avery during his pregame meeting with the media at-large. He answers it with a great deal of humor, patience, and. … well, cockiness.
“Cockiness’’ because there are certainly two schools of thought on how to combat the opponents’ SmallBall. One is to play to your strengths, and Dallas, with its pair of 7-foot centers, would seem to have that as a strength. The other is to counter their smalls with your smalls.
I express to Avery that I lean to the former. But what the hell do I know? Especially in the face of Avery, who expresses no self-doubt here.
“More teams are eliminating the power forward,’’ he says. “Most teams are going with a 4 who is quick and athletic. Not many teams even have a true power forward anymore. This is the way the league is going right now.’’
Well, yeah, I say. But. … aren’t you playing into the other teams’ hands by following suit, by answering their small with a small instead of playing big? Since when is bigger not better?
“You’d like to stay big if you can make it work,’’ Avery tells me. “If you have those people – Shaq, Bill Russell, Hakeem – then you can stay big and still be athletic. We love our centers. … but they aren’t that. It’s especially difficult if (our centers) don’t make them pay at the offensive end.’’
I’m properly upbraided. I guess. Bigger isn’t better. I guess.
I track down Del Harris, now finished with his cake, for some supplemental insight.
“Where SmallBall really hurts us isn’t upfront,’’ Del says. “Devean George can be effective upfront. Josh can play at the 2 or at the 4 and you’re not really ‘small.’ George, Dirk and Bass together upfront can work as SmallBall. … but it’s really not that small. No, what hurts us with SmallBall is at the guard spots. Being too small at both guard positions, you can’t do that.’’
Back to Avery one more time, as he thinks, in addition to the versatile George, he’s got another secret weapon to be “big’’ while also being “small.’’
“In our (regular-season) game with Golden State, Brandon Bass showed something,’’ Avery says. “He was making them pay offensively. And on defense, he was sticking with 1’s, 2’s, 3’s, 4’s, 5’s.’’
So they’re committed to some SmallBall. They just want to be bigger at it, and better at it.
WHY IS JERRY STACKHOUSE ALLOWED TO SHOOT SO MUCH? WHY IS JERRY STACKHOUSE EVEN ALLOWED TO PLAY SO MUCH?
“No, it’s not too much,’’ Cuban tells me. “Because some of those shots and those minutes he’s getting would be going to Eddie Jones.’’
WHAT IS WRONG WITH OUR DEFENSE?
Lots of theories here.
Del Harris goes X’s-and-O’s: “Our centers are not doing a very good job covering for people like they did last year.’’
Avery Johnson goes with platitudes: “Defense is something that has to be worked on every game, every quarter, every possession. And in practice.’’
Dirk Nowitzki thinks it is all about effort: “We have to do it with energy. … You have to go out there and do your best.’’
Mark Cuban goes with a combination of the three, and I’m buying the combo platter: “There is a piece missing,’’ Cuban says. “The missing piece is trust. It’s a matter of believing in each other, and knowing each other. We’ve got some young guys, and some new guys. Defense is about everybody knowing their roles and everybody knowing that the other guy is going to be there. With complete trust comes free energy. And Avery specializes in trust and energy. So it will come, trust will come, and good things will happen.’’
I am tempted to turn Avery’s Shaq/Russell/Hakeem take into a joke by saying to Cuban, “Yeah, our defense is missing a piece: Bill Russell.’’ But I resist the temptation.
WHY IS DEVIN HARRIS’ ROLE AS THE TEAM QUARTERBACK BEING JERKED BACK AND FORTH? DO THE MAVS STILL BELIEVE IN HIM?
Mavs owner Mark Cuban already did his speaking on this subject this summer when he invested in Devin with a rich new contract. But I ask him to double-confirm.
“Devin started great, then he hit his head on the floor, then he got sick,’’ Cuban says. “We have complete confidence in him. People are making a big deal of Avery taking over some of the play-calling responsibilities, but that’s temporary. He’s doing that to help Devin, that’s all.’’
Later, Avery assures that he’s still very much in Devin’s corner.
“He gets us in our sets really good,” the coach says. ““Even though I’m calling more of the plays now, we’re in sync together … I’m just taking some of the pressure off him. … He understands the playbook. He understands where everybody needs to be. He’s become a good quarterback.’’
Devin admits to me that he’s frustrated by the starts and stops in his progress as a leader. But by reading Avery’s words, his body language, his mood when discussing this subject, I believe there is no problem here.
IS DIRK BEING TRANSFORMED INTO A ROLE PLAYER? WHOSE IDEA IS THIS?
The official word here: Dallas knows what it can get from Dirk. So other weapons are being developed. And eventually, Dirk can climb back up the totem pole. Makes some sense. And whose idea is this?
“Dirk is simply doing what the coach tells him to do,’’ Cuban tells me.
One of things Nowitzki is being told to do, though, is to become Tim Duncan-like. And that’s not message-board crap; that term “Duncan-like’’ is actually uttered to me by Del Harris.
Here’s the way history is going to evaluate what’s being done with Dirk Nowitzki: He’s a special perimeter player being told to play more inside. He’s got “no butt and not a strong base,’’ as Del puts it, both requirements for a true post player. He’s a willing passer, but not a great one. He used to take 19 shots a game. Now he takes 16 shots a game. He’s a seven-time All-NBA player and the reigning MVP. … and we’re changing him.
It would be one thing to “add’’ to Dirk’s game. The Mavs coaching staff has always done that. But “changing’’ is different from “adding.’’
Ideally, we’ll get to the stretch run, and the playoffs, and Dirk will be Dirk – with a hint of Duncan thrown in.
This had better work.
HOW’S THE TEAM CHEMISTRY?
I’m posing this question to Jason Terry and as I face him, I notice that hovering over his right shoulder is Avery’s scribbled message on the locker room whiteboard:
HAVE SOME FUN!!!
Odd, isn’t it? That these guys have to be reminded to enjoy themselves – complete with three exclamation marks!!! Terry, though, assures me that any concerns in that area have nothing to do with team chemistry.
“Actually, we’ve achieved team chemistry with this team faster than we ever have before,’’ he says. “We’ve grown together very quickly. Eddie Jones and Juwan Howard and all the new guys have fit right in. It’s just a great group of guys. No issues there.’’
I was convinced – and then moreso after the win over the Hornets, when Jerry Stackhouse addresses some of the same issues.
"We started getting back to having fun," says Stackhouse. "There have just been too many despondent looking faces; not necessarily disappointment but just despondent. When we lose or even during the course of the game, we're not really having fun. It's supposed to be a game of having fun. We're getting paid well to play basketball. We've just got to get back to creating our own enthusiasm. That'll lead to more productive play, too."
WHY NOT GO WITH BRANDON BASS AS A STARTER?
Bass has already told me he’s never even though of such a thing. Avery apparently hasn’t seriously considered it yet, either, as he suggests that “The Animal’’ isn’t quite ready for that big step.
“He’s basically a rookie, a kid who has never been in a rotation,’’ Johnson says. “That’s part of managing him. He has a good game, you guys write something good about him. Now, how does he handle it? Does he all the sudden think he’s Karl Malone? Then he has a bad game. You write that? Now is he ready to (quit)?’’
And there’s more. One staffer says Bass has poor technique on defense. Oh, and despite Bass’ offensive skills, he still hasn’t established that he’s enough of a threat to prevent teams from doubling away from him. And that means that if he’s on the floor with a center, the Mavs suddenly have two guys who don’t demand defensive focus. Oh, and one more thing: The team’s film studies demonstrate that the combination of Bass on the floor at the same time with one of the centers is highly unproductive. Bass and Dirk together? That works. Bass with Diop or Damp? As powerful as that tandem looks on paper, it hasn’t worked.
Of course, I’m trying to juggle all this info with Avery’s earlier take, on Bass being a guy who “makes them pay offensively’’ and “on defense can stick with 1’s, 2’s, 3’s, 4’s, 5’s.’’
WHAT’S WITH THAT FOUR-FINGER SIGN JET THROWS UP AFTER MAKING A LONG-RANGE SHOT?
“Dirk actually started that, and I stole it from him,’’ says Jason Terry, who then stands up in front of his locker and hoists up two hands full of fingers, as if to model for me.
“The call me ‘The Fourth-Quarter Man,’ because everybody knows I can miss some shots in the first three quarters, but in the fourth quarter, it’s going in! … You should see the ribbing I get in practice, though, when I miss one. ‘What’s a matter, Fourth-Quarter Man?’ they yell.
“And it’s usually Dirk doing the yelling.’’