Considering Don Nelson will never win a le because he's too attached to gimmicky offenses and centers who can do everything BUT rebound and play defense, I'd say Avery is off to a great start. Mimicking the Spurs approach of defense, defense, and more defense is a big step in the right direction. Duncan just makes things so much easier because of how complete his game is on both ends of the floor. Dirk can match 85% of his offensive impact, and Dampier/Diop can match about 75% of his defensive impact, but that's three players instead of one. The Spurs approach is light-years ahead of anything Don Nelson can do.
We're a young team. We lost our composure and poise against a more veteran team like Miami. We took the Warriors too lightly. We've already beaten a defending champ and made a Finals. That's a pretty big breakthrough. There's only one thing left to do and that's finish. If anything, burning themselves out going fifth gear in the regular season was just going too far in the right direction. Instead of coasting and taking the regular season off, they decided to play hard and give 100% effort.
There is no "constant change in strategies," that went out the door with Nelson, as far as the constant trades and so forth. This thread is one Mav fan's dissatisfaction with the team being content to stay pat.
Well, I apologize for calling you a moron earlier, I'm just so tired of all the "the Mavs are permanently broken and need to be broken up" talk. It's too early to say that. Next year they won't be taken seriously and won't be the favorites because they just proved how little regular season success counts come May. But it's just as premature to write this team off forever as it was when people constantly talked about how the Spurs are old. San Antonio's window of opportunity is open for another 3-4 years and so is the Mavs.