Full-Court Press

Mavs Obit Part II

Movers and shakers? Let the speculation begin. As the Mavs slink off to a disappointing off-season, here are some players whose names you might hear bandied around in relation to the Mavs. They're all long shots to join the team, but that doesn't make it any less fun to talk about.

Some guys to look at: Mike Bibby, Jermaine O'Neal, Jason Kidd, Rashard Lewis, Ray Allen, Andrei Kirilenko and Kevin Garnett.

The upsetting ingredients: Oh, that Nellie. From the moment he walked into American Airlines Center with his band of "schmoes" and a big bag o' psychological mumbo-jumbo, Golden State coach Don Nelson turned this series upside-down and the Mavericks inside-out.

"Nellie's full of it," is all Dirk Nowitzki could say when the top-seeded Mavs trailed No. 8 seed Golden State 3-1 before eventually bowing out 4-2 Thursday night.

Report Card: Dirk Nowitzki. Regular season: A, Playoffs: D. Followed up an MVP-caliber regular season with the worst playoff run of his career. More alarming than losing his shot was the loss of confidence. Status: Signed through 2010-11*

Josh Howard. Regular season: A, Playoffs: B. Developed into an All-Star and had the most consistent playoff run, although he didn't ratchet up his game when those around him faltered. Status: Signed through! 2010-11**

Quote board: What the Mavs are saying: "Now I realize that not everybody can fulfill his dream, not everybody is going to win the championship. That shows how hard it is in this league to win a championship." -- Dirk Nowitzki, projected MVP in an Arizona Republic poll of award voters.

"Ninety-nine percent of what went wrong is my fault. Don't blame the players, blame it all on me. It's not Dirk Nowitzki. It's not Jet Terry. I'm the coach of the team, and I'm supposed to figure out how to make them make shots and layups and free throws, don't blow assignments on defense. It has nothing to do with anybody but me." -- Avery Johnson.

Today's S-T coverage: Mavs obit Part I

Mavericks get a bad rep: Avery Johnson changed the culture of the Mavericks once, turning a "soft" team into a championship contender. The encore may prove more challenging.

After back-to-back playoff collapses, there's a new reputation: The Mavs can't close the deal.

"We're at a point now where we weren't able to do what our motto was about, and that was finish," Johnson said Saturday afternoon from inside the team's locker room at American Airlines Center. "We weren't able to finish this season the way we wanted to. But do we have bad players? No. Do we have a malfunctioning system? No. Do we need to take a look at our players and coaches and system? Yes."

Galloway: Blow up the Mavericks? Too late for that. Nellie just did. A better idea would be to blow up the goofy I'm-the-smartest-guy-in-the-game owner of the Mavericks.

Again, too late for that. Nellie just did. One more time, Mark: Shut the bleep up.

Over the past two weeks, Mr. Cuban verbally trashed the coach of the other team on almost a daily basis, doing so while watching that same coach use his basketball expertise to game-by-game systematically destroy the very foundation of Cuban's entire organization.

The point is, Mavs can use some help: Jason Terry might have played his last game as the Mavericks' point guard.

When the Mavs traded for Terry three seasons ago to replace Steve Nash, they knew they were rolling the dice that the streaky shooting guard could become a precision point guard.

While hardly a total failure, that experiment could be reaching its conclusion as Devin Harris' improvement has coach Avery Johnson scrutinizing the future.

Nowitzki needs to show he can man-up: Avery Johnson woke up a Little Genius on Thursday and went to bed as Big Nellie's Scolded Pupil. A legit Coach-of-the-Year contender a couple of weeks ago, we supposedly learned Avery cannot hold Don Nelson's whistle because his Mavericks were badly outplayed and ousted by No. 8 Golden State.

Puh-lease. Go sell crazy elsewhere. I already have plenty. Avery was and remains one of the best coaches in the NBA. Did he have an "ish" first round? Absolutely. Get in line, though. Everybody in Mavsland did.

Regular season highlights fade to black: A 67-win regular season is lost on most of the Mavericks. A shocking, first-round playoff exit after an NBA Finals appearance the year before will do that to a team.

"We had a great regular season, and our expectations were very high for ourselves," Dirk Nowitzki said. "[The expectations] were high starting the season, saying we want to win the championship, and everything else was a disappointment."

Dirk's parting shots

For all of the heat Dirk Nowitzki taking, he isn’t one to run and hide. He’s as stand up as they come.

Here’s some of the best stuff from No. 41 earlier today:

-- “I understand the business by now. If you play well and you win, you’re the greatest. If you lose, you’re the worst player in the league. I understand that. I’ve been in the business for nine years now. It’s obviously not the position I want to be in, but it’s nothing I can change now. I believe everything happens for a reason and I can learn from this experience again.”

-- “That’s the kind of person I am. I always take stuff very, very hard on myself first. I don’t need media people to tell me that I did bad. I know that I didn’t play my best in the playoffs and that’s disappointing to me the most.”

-- “You can’t point any fingers at this point. It’s everybody’s fault, all the way to the 15th man. Anytime you lose as a team, you go down as a team.”

-- “We kept the focus and the pressure and the intensity high for basically all the regular season. once you get to the playoffs, you should be able to raise the intensity another level. But I think the way we pounded through the regular season, it was hard for us to go to another level.”

-- “We played every game to win. That’s what you’re supposed to do. I don’t think we had another level to go to in the playoffs.”

-- “We had to play that way to get the No. 1 seed. That’s always something you want to reach, you want to play to get the home-court advantage in the playoffs. I’m not necessarily saying we did something wrong.”

-- “You’ve got to see the whole last two weeks with us not really having anything to play for and kind of letting loose a little bit, and the Warriors playing all the way down to the end got hot at the right moment. They caught us.”

-- “I did a pretty decent job in the regular season taking over when I had to and sitting back when I saw the team was rolling. For whatever reason this playoff series, I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t put my stamp the way I wanted to.”

-- “I still think I have pretty good leadership skills. I just didn’t show it this playoff series.”

“I realize that I’m not 20 anymore. I’m approaching 30 hard. For me I needed a daily workout. People say during the season you push yourself too hard. I just don’t like off days. Even if I just come in and do a quick 20 minutes of cardio or shooting, I just need a little sweat to get going. It’s hard for me to say what my off-season will look like. I haven’t really thought about it at all.”

-- “I am going to play again for Germany with the national team in Spain.”

-- “Get away here a little bit and think of some stuff that I did wrong and we did wrong, and then I’ll go from there. the next couple weeks are definitely going to be tough.”

-- Art

My wrap up with Avery

I had a sit-down with Avery Johnson today away from the cameras and inside the locker room where he reaffirmed his commitment to the franchise, its direction and Dirk Nowitzki. Avery still has three years left on the four-year deal for $20 million he signed before the season and first reported by the Star-Telegram. 

The General has successfully changed the culture and image of the Mavs the last couple years, so I asked if he’s worried about their reputation changing to a team that can’t close the deal.

“We’re a point now where we weren’t able to do what our motto was about and that was finish,” Avery told me. “We weren’t able to finish this season the way we wanted to.

“But do we have bad players? No. Do we have a malfunctioning system? No. Do we need to take a look at our players and coaches and system? Yes.”

About his star player, I asked if Dirk needs to change his approach this summer. Maybe tweak his workouts.

“My conversations with Dirk about specifics are private,” Avery answered, “but I will say more than anything let’s forget the workouts or him working on shooting or passing or big-man skills, I will say he just has keep his confidence high at all times and know that first of all me as the coach, I’m his No. 1 fan.

“When things aren’t going well, he just needs to know all the time that I’m in his corner. We’ve got to keep the confidence high through thick and thin. More than anything, the mental is what I like to deal with.”

I then asked if it seems crazy that a 67-win team needed to be fixed.

“Yeah,” Avery said with a laugh. “Maybe as we look back on it we probably overachieved there. Guess what? We’re not going to give any of the wins back. I don’t know if we were that, but we definitely had some issues that I knew all along.”

I ended our talk by asking if these last two weeks have strengthened his commitment to the team. We all know how committed Avery already is, but is there a great sense now after falling short of finishing?

“Like I told the guys, I’m not in the ownership position so I don’t have say so in everything, but I’m going to sit down with Donnie and Mark and try to figure it out,” Avery said. “Down the road, today, tomorrow, there may be a time where Mark feels differently, but right now we’re going full steam ahead until further notice.”

-- Art

Avery: Dumb question

A reporter who isn't around the team much asked Avery if he'd go back and play his regulars in that final game against Golden State. Remember, Avery rested four regulars and GS won big basically helping the Warriors get in the playoffs and setting up the first-round series. He wasn't real thrilled with the questioner:

"Who said we were going to win the game? Who said we were going to win the game? So think about that. So, like you, the same person if Dirk would've broke his leg, saying why in the world would you be playing Dirk Nowitzki in a game like that. Now think about that. That is a dumb question."

Ouch. Glad that wasn't me.

-- Jeff

Is Devin ready for the point?

If you read the post below, you saw that Avery is going to take a hard look at the point guard position. Deep down it seems he wants Devin Harris to rise up and take it. He's quick and can penetrate. He has to show good decision-making and steely nerves to lead a team, much like the Mavs saw Baron Davis do for the Warriors.

So, does Devin think he's proven enough to Avery?

"I'm hoping so. We've had flashes at the beginning of the season and towards the end, but I'm just patiently waiting."

Does Devin think he can do it?

"Oh yeah, no doubt about that, no doubt about that. I'll see him (Avery) a lot over the summer. I'll go out to Vegas during the summer leagues and get some work in."

This should be an interesting area to watch this summer and has training camp opens in October.

-- Jeff

Jet's self-analysis

How'd Jet think he played in the Golden State series?

"Oh, terrible. I was one of the weak links in the chain. Now that I look at it, watching a couple of games, I didn't have a typical Jet series. I look back at my playoff experience the last two years, I was playing at a high level. I didn't shoot the ball well and definitely defend the way I'm capable of defending. But, it's all in motivation for next season. I'm going to come back better than I was and hopefully I'll get another opportunity to prove I'm a much better player than I showed."

And what about coming back as the point guard?

"I'm comfortable in whatever role Avery puts me in. That's the thing I've been able to do is be able to adjust and adapt and the strength of our team has been able to play different lineups. But, definitely comfortable as the point guard of this team. As of right now, hey, that's what it is."

-- Jeff

Could Jet or Devin be on the way out?

It's no secret that the Mavs are lacking a true point guard to lead the offense, to be the floor general. Look around, teams need a definitive point guard: Chauncey Billups in Detroit, Tony Parker, Steve Nash, Baron Davis. The Mavs haven't had that and Jason Terry, a two-guard, or combo guard, is not getting the job done. His decision-making is spotty and he can't break down a defense. Devin Harris hasn't been given the reigns to be the guy. Maybe he will. Maybe he won't. Maybe Jet will stay at the 1, maybe he won't even stay...I asked Avery if Devin is ready to take over the point on a full-time basis, whether he's got to go through growing pains or whatever. Here's Avery:

"That's something I visited with Devin about (being the man at the point). Devin made a lot of progress. Let's look at him. His first year we gave him the starting job, he wasn't ready. And then last year, he was injured. This year was his first year really getting after it and playing a lot and I thought he improved, I thought he did some good things.

"I think we're going to have make a hard decision there in terms of is he going to be the full-time point guard? And then what am I going to do with Jet? So, again, I'm willing to look at it. I would love to keep both of those guys on the team and keep them improving day-in and day-out, but again it's my job to take a hard look at that. Because you definitely, you need a point guard and you need a point guard that can really be the coach on the floor, all right, I can't keep, at this rate, standing up coaching 47 minutes a game.

"So, you need a point guard and we need Devin to make some progress there because we know Jet is kind of a combo guard."

Hmm, take from that what you will, but sounds like the General is not happy with the leadership at the point guard position as it stands today. Jet has a big contract, so trading him might not be possible unless the Mavs can match salaries with another team that needs a shooting guard.

-- Jeff

All Dirk's fault?

Dirk is taking the lion’s share of criticism for the G-State meltdown and it’s easy to see why. The possible MVP had the worst playoff run of his career, averaging just 19.7 points on 38.3-percent shooting.

Dirk is the chief reason the Mavs got to the edge of the mountaintop last June and went 67-15 this season. For all the critics silenced last year, when it appeared he turned a corner as a big-game performer in series against San Antonio and Phoenix, the condemnation will be louder than ever.

“I put a lot of pressure on myself to perform,” Dirk said. “No matter what game it is, if it’s a preseason game, the first game of the season or it’s a playoff game, the expectations of myself are very high and if I don’t meet those expectations, I’m going to be disappointed.

“This series I couldn’t really put my stamp on it the way I wanted to and that’s why I’m very disappointed.”

Mark Cuban promised not to overhaul the roster, though Avery promised to take a hard look at the team’s personnel. President of basketball operations Donnie Nelson said the collapse the last two weeks shouldn’t fall squarely on Nowitzki’s shoulders.

“It’s unfair,” Donnie said. “Everybody takes a piece of blame from the front office to the players to the coaches. We’re all in this ship together.”

-- Art

Devin Harris: "We choked."

The look on Devin Harris’ face was almost blank. Not so much disappointment as shock.

The kind of shock one might expect after being on the wrong end of the greatest upset in NBA playoff history. “We choked,” he said in simple matter-of-fact tones.

The Mavericks can’t run from the word, just as they couldn’t run with the Golden State Warriors in a shocking first-round series cut to six short games with Thursday’s 111-86 flameout in Oakland.

The championship-or-bust mentality ended in bust. Read more about this tomorrow in the S-T.

-- Art