While it is trendy to bash Avery Johnson, there is no doubt he is an excellent young coach. Johnson definitely has weaknesses, however, and, looking ahead, it is important to identify Avery's weaknesses and see if new head coach Rick Carlisle can improve them. The early indications make one cautiously optimistic.

Running A Fluid Offense, Empowering Point Guards

The first issue is if Carlisle has a desire to control the flow of the game on the offensive end as Johnson did. Much has been written about Carlisle's time spent at the Suns training camp, observing how D'Antoni teaches and runs his offense. Jerry Stackhouse has also said that Carlisle is the type of coach that adapts to his players. All of this is in direct cotnrast to Johnson, who held the reigns of the Dallas offense with an iron fist, from talented young point guards like Devin Harris to hall of fame point guards like Jason Kidd.

You cant' find a better first-hand observer of Carlisle's work with point guards and an offense than Chauncey Billups, the Detroit Pistons all-star point guard who blossomed on Carlisle's watch. Here is Chauncey on Carlisle :

You know what, it was great. He gave me the freedom that I hadn't got in league yet, so it was a great opportunity for me and that was really my coming out party playing under him and letting me play my game. It worked well and we got to the Eastern Conference finals and we were the number one team in the East. We did not get to go all the way but it worked. I am very grateful to him for that opportunity.

Drawing Up Plays

Another area where Johnson was often criticized was his ability to draw up plays to close out a game or quarter. In contrast, this is one area where Carlisle is roundly considered one of the best in the game.

Here's a lengthy quote from an old article by Dr. Jack Ramsey on when Rick Carlisle was hired by the Pacers that sheds major light on Carlisle's strength in this area:

Clearly, Larry Bird has high regard for Carlisle. When I spoke with Bird last spring, we were discussing end-of-the-game situations and how coaches draw up plays. Oftentimes, the play doesn't work out the way it's drawn up, Bird interjected, "Have you ever seen Rick Carlisle draw up a play? He's superb at doing that."

Which, by the way, is no small task. Oftentimes, while sitting courtside for radio, I'm able to watch what the coaches are drawing up on special plays -- sometimes it looks like a road map in a traffic jam with lines all over the place. You can tell the players are looking, but not necessarily understanding what's in front of them.

Certainly this one aspect doesn't make a great coach, but it's a nice attribute to have and speaks to Carlisle's skill level.

Player Rotations

Most of the Mavericks players seemed to love Avery Johnson, but Johnson often seemed to generate that love by giving players playing time, whether deserved or not. One of the single biggest criticisms you can make of Johnson was his inability to commit to a specific player rotation.

Carlisle has a reputation for using his players wisely and consistently. Look at this article (via Smartmarks) from the Associate Press, which outlines one of the main reasons he was hired in Indianapolis: To improve Isiah Thomas' poor player rotations.

It obviously remains to be seen how Carlisle can adapt to the Mavericks. But in terms of shoring up weaknesses left over from the Avery Johnson era, the team looks to have found the right person for the job.

It's been unofficial for a week, but Rick Carlisle and the Mavs have finally come to terms on a deal.  It's for four years, and he'll be making more than his predecessor.

The source said the four-year contract is worth more than $4 million a season — slightly more than former coach Avery Johnson’s per-season salary — and would be signed by late Friday or today. A news conference to formally introduce Carlisle as the franchise’s ninth head coach probably won’t be held until Wednesday, the source said, because of Carlisle’s duties as an analyst for ESPN.

Carlisle is going to be bringing in his own staff, so that most likely means no more Mario Elie and Paul Westphal.  If Joe Prunty leaves does his wife go with him?

A couple names to keep any eye on are Kevin O'Neill and Chad Forcier who were both assistants under Carlisle in Indiana.  Kevin O'Neill was the interim head coach at Arizona last season and Chard Forcier is now an assistant in San Antonio.

Carlisle comes in with a defensive reputation, but Art Garcia says he does study the offensive side of the game.

During his last job as an assistant, Carlisle served as “offensive coordinator” for an Indiana team that reached the NBA Finals. He also spent training camp last October with the Phoenix Suns studying Mike D’Antoni’s offense.

It also sound like Carlisle is looking forward to working with Dirk.

Carlisle’s tour of Mavericks with influence last week took him to the home of last year’s MVP. While discussing strategy and his vision, Carlisle got Nowitzki up off the couch for an impromptu demonstration of Larry Bird post-up moves. Somewhat odd? Sure, but Nowitzki appreciated the enthusiasm.

The optimist in me thinks that is kind of cool, the pessimist in me is thinking it sounds like another coach who wants to make Dirk a post player...

Either way, the Mavs probably got the best coach available, and that's a good thing.

The Carlisle signing is hung up on some minor details, so the official announcement isn't expected to come later today.  Carlisle's agent is in no rush since his client is the only person to interview for the job.

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Eddie Sefko tells us that Rick Carlisle and Donnie Nelson go way back. 

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Jan Hubbard has an article saying Carlisle is the wrong choice because he's too much like Avery.

It does seem, however, that if the Mavericks were going to conduct a thorough search, it would have made sense to play the field a little. Instead, they divorced one coach and without even glancing at available talent, they immediately proposed to his twin.

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Dirk was named to the All-NBA second team.

Eddie Sefko has his latetst mailbag up, and starts it off by saying that Carlisle isn't a sexy hire but is a good one.

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Randy Galloway wants Donnie Nelson to be the next coach. 

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Here's a really annoying article about San Antonio not being in trouble because they are down 0-2.  Why?  Because they aren't Dallas apparently.

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Mike Fisher rounds up all the rumors.

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Gana Diop in an interview for the Nets website.

Where do you think you will be next year?
I mean: I’m a free agent; I’m going to see my options, see what I have out there. Maybe come back here or go back to Dallas. I’m just going to do what is best for me and my family.

It's hardly news at this point, but the Rick Carlisle sign is getting closer and basically a 'done deal'.

Jaff Caplan says Carlisle's agent is just working on finalizing everything.

"It seems at this point we're moving closer," LeGarie said. "We're finding more in agreement than disagreement, more common ground.

"We're moving toward concluding a deal."

Marc Stein says the deal will be done by Friday at the earliest.

Rick Carlisle still isn't official, but this quote from Donnie Nelson yesterday makes it sounds they are definitely in the negotiation stage.

On how the talks are going: "Negotiations take awhile. There's no timetable."

On when the hiring will happen, if at all: "When everyone feels it's right."

On the possibility of any snags: "We're keeping our options open, as they are. But it's going in a good direction."

Press conference later this week?

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Kevin Sherrington jumps in a time machine and writes about the Mavs trying to sign a very interested Larry Brown to coach the team in 1996 and instead almost end up getting fined 5 million by the league office for tampering.

This is a hilariously pathetic read, and makes you really appreciate having component people in the front office now.

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Mike D'Antoni is looking like the front runner in Chicago .  That's where I thought Avery had a good chance of ending up.

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Sefko says the Mavs will have to get creative to fill the roster next season.

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At least one Spurs fan isn't feeling too good their chances after New Orleans went up 2-0 last night.

Finley has no business playing in the NBA anymore, but the occasional big 3 masks the smell.  Bowen refuses to take only corner 3s on offense, but we let it slide because he can lock down on D.  Ime fumbles the ball out of bounds and goes long stretches where he looks like he'll miss fifty consecutive jumpers, but he's the only guy who just might punch a guy, so we ignore the fact he stinks.  Oberto can't guard anybody one and one and can't rebound, but he's crafty and an Argentine, so we just assume it's customary to bathe less in his country.  And Horry?  Well, we've all known Horry is dead for quite some time, but Pop apparently is immune to the smell of rotting flesh.

It's not wrong to take pleasure out of reading that is it?

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Jim Reeves says Carlisle is another Avery.

From ESPN's coverage of Mike D'Antoni's situation in Phoenix:

Sources close to the situation have maintained for days that D'Antoni does not want to continue coaching in Phoenix if he must implement the changes suggested by his bosses, which include increasing the time spent practicing defense...

Wait, did that just say what I think it said?

The official word right now is that Rick Carlisle has interviewed and met with both Cuban and Donnie Nelson.

“We’ve had a couple of meetings,” Nelson said Saturday. “We’re very impressed by Rick, his basketball IQ and, more important, the kind of person he is. We’re excited about continuing the discussion.”

Of course we all know the unofficial story by now -- the decision has already been made to hire Carlisle.  Dallas wanted a proven commodity and apparently acted quickly on Carlisle out of fear that if they waited to see who became available (like Flip Saunders) all the proven options could have been taken.

Marc Stein says the deal isn't done yet, but that Carlisle is clearly the frontrunner.

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Indy Cornrows liked Carlisle during his time there.  To me, it says a lot if a fan of a coaches old team has good things to say about that coach.

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Gil LeBreton says Carlisle is a good choice because the players need a coach with experience and who has immediate credibility.

The Mavericks can't be blown up because there would be few, if any, recoverable pieces. They don't need discipline. They simply need a coach that they can believe in -- and one that believes in them.

The Mavericks don't need a college basketball coach or some eager, young assistant who wants to prove he's the next Gregg Popovich. They need, instead, someone who's comfortable in his own skin and who's willing to take Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd and Josh Howard for what they are.

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Jan Hubbard writes that Avery's constant negativity was the reason he had to go.

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Eddie Sefko likes Carlisle, and says that even though he has a defensive reputation he does balance that with a good offense.

Most notably, he coaches with a rare balance between offense and defense. While he's not known as an offensive genius – his teams usually averaged around 94 to 96 points per game – he has run a structured, motion offense, which would be a departure from Johnson's isolation offense.

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Can someone tell me what Galloway was trying to say in his article today.  He says he was wrong about liking the Kidd trade, but spends most of his time writing about why Devin Harris wouldn't have been any help.

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David Moore says the next coach needs to be able to put his faith in Kidd.

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Jeff Caplan says the Mavs will have to go with more youth next year because of their salary cap situation.

Caplan also has a list of the biggest offseason questions, the seasons most memorable moments, and grades each member of the roster.

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This Day in Mavs History

1999 Finished the 1998-99 season with a record of 19-31 (lockout shorten season).

It was December 6, 2007, and for a Mavs team reeling from its worst stretch of the season it was just one more blow. At home against the Denver Nuggets the Mavs were sliced and diced by Allan Iverson and dropped their second straight game in the process of losing six in nine. Dirk Nowitzki could have been speaking for head coach Avery Johnson when he described the game: "It was a layup drill out there. At no point in the game I thought we could really stop them."

Avery Johnson puts a lot of emphasis on judging his team in 20 game increments, and after what he saw in the previous 19 games, this loss to Denver was more than a symbolic close to the first 20 games of the season: It was the final straw. He had done everything he said he would do coming into the season. He had let young players like Brandon Bass and J.J. Barea get significant playing time. He had unleashed Devin Harris to control the game and the Mavs offense. He had moved Jason Terry to the bench and increased the size of his shooting guard position. For twenty games Avery Johnson had done what everyone else had told him to do, and for what... a thrashing at the hands of the Nuggets?

The result from Johnson was immediate and severe and led to his losing the season, the team, and ultimately his job.

After the Denver loss, the first thing he did was strip Devin Harris of his freedom to run the offense. Fast breaks and offensive sets built off of transition were removed, as Johnson slowed the game down so that he could call plays and run the offense. For the first 20 games the Mavs offense was clocking in at 90 pace, a significant gain over the previous year's glacial offensive pace. As we noted in a previous column, however, the pace was inconsistent. Twice in November Harris directed back-to-back-to-back games where the first game had a pace of over 95, which was followed up with a game where the pace plummeted to under 84, only to have the pace increase again to over 92. This inability to control the pace of the game clearly drove Johnson crazy, and the low point was, not coincidentally, the Denver game on December 6, where the Mavs played completely at Denver's pace, over 100.

The next five games after Denver the Mavs pace never went over 85 and averaged an almost unbelievably slow pace of 83. To put this into perspective, the slowest team in 2006-2007 was the Detroit Pistons, and they averaged a pace of 86. After Denver, Johnson put the hammer down on Harris, and he never let up.

Denver also was the moment when Johnson gave up on working to improve his bench and grow players into the rotation. He dramatically lowered the minutes of Barea, who had averaged 11.3 minutes per game in November but saw his minutes drop to 7 minutes per game in December and 4 minutes per game in January. Dasagana Diop, who averaged 23 minutes per game in November, found himself riding the pine and averaging 12 minutes per game in December. Even Brandon Bass, who showed real flashes of excellence, saw his minutes cut by over 4 a game from November to December.

In short, after the Denver loss, Avery Johnson lost his perspective on the team, what it needed to do, what HE needed to do, and, perhaps most importantly, the value of listening to advice from others. His response was extreme, and it reverted the Mavericks back to the team that lost in the first round of the playoffs the previous season: A one-dimensional iso-focused offensive team that was eminently beatable in a series. Even worse, it was clear as the season wore on that Avery's reversion to his system adversely affected his players, which affected their effort, especially on the defensive end.

Here were my comments at the halfway point of the season:

By now you should be seeing a pattern: The Mavericks defense is slightly worse in every single aspect other than fouling the opposition. There are two things to take from this: The first is that the Mavericks are suffering death by papercut on defense. The small declines in multiple defensive categories adds up to a significant decline overall. The second thing to take from this is that there is a reason for what we're seeing: A drop in overall defensive aggressiveness.

Make no mistake about it: Avery Johnson is a very good defensive coach, but if the players don't have their heart into it, you see what I outlined above. After Denver, Johnson's moves demoralized the team. Even if they didn't say it, you could see it in their performance on the court.

Certainly we can't blame one game for Johnson giving up on all of the important tasks that he had to tackle coming into the season, but the game was absolutely a turning point. It was after this game that Johnson gave up on all those important initiatives and adjustments that the team needed to move ahead. After twenty games of chaos and a debacle against Denver, Johnson retreated to what he was comfortable with: His system. His offense. His rotations. His plays. His way.

Peter Vescey is reporting that the Mavs are going to hire Rick Carlisle.

Analyst Peter Vecsey, speaking on NBA TV, reported Carlisle would take over for the recently fired Avery Johnson.

This is still not confirmed, and personally I'd be really surprised if the Mavs front office rushed to a decision like this.  Take this with a really big grain of salt.

I will say that out of the immediate reported candidates Carlisle was the most intriguing, but I would also be disappointed if the choice was made without more thought and time than this...

hat tip to jthig