Points in the Paint 5.08.08: Coach Firings & The Playoffs
Posted by Rob Bonnette on 05.08.2008
Coach firings plus round two!
Hey there everyone, and welcome to a second round edition of Points in the Paint. This week it's fired coaches, and more playoffs. Enjoy!
You're fired!
Well, the firing line has gotten off to a rousing start. No sooner than their teams were eliminated, coaches Avery Johnson and Mike D'Antoni were without employment. Now in D'Antoni's case it hasn't been officially done yet, but Avery was shown the door very quickly after Dallas was sent fishing by the New Orleans Hornets. Surely there will be at least a few more coaches shown the door over the next few weeks. Eddie Jordan's name has come up, as have George Karl and Sam Mitchell. Sam Vincent already got canned in Charlotte as did Larry Krystowiak in Milwaukee. It's not that surprising, really; while not as cavalier as the NHL in throwing coaches overboard, the NBA has long been a place where a coach who lasts more than two or three seasons is considered a long timer and one year terms aren't uncommon. It is, however, the sport where jettisoning the coach quickly makes the least sense. Because one player can change so much about the performance of a basketball team, the coach doesn't have nearly as much in game influence as do coaches in other sports. The real influence in coaching comes between games, not during them. Are you convincing the players to listen to and follow your particular game plan? Are the younger players developing, both on and off the court? Are guys working in practice to master the offenses and defenses you use? That means a whole lot more than what you actually call during the game itself. There are plenty of great game plans that look horrible because of the guys running them, and way too many instances where a coach has to sit a talented player or only use half his playbook because the players don't know what they're supposed to do out there. John Wooden, maybe the greatest basketball coach at any level, rarely got off of the bench during games. His attitude was that he did his work during the week, in practice, and that game time was for the players to figure out what to do. It's a good thing he coached when he did, because today he'd get ripped by the know nothings who would swear he was lazy and just rolling the ball out and telling them to go play, a la Houston's Guy Lewis with Phi Slamma Jamma.
What am I getting at here? That it's not Avery's fault that Dallas has flamed out in three straight playoff series. They blew the Finals against Miami because the refs decided that Dwyane Wade was God and because Dirk wouldn't take over like he is capable of doing. They got punked last year by Golden State, largely because Dirk let Stephen Jackson rough him up (I don't mean that Jackson played dirty; he did not.) and get away with it. And they lost this year because Mark Cuban made a dumb decision to replace a young, fast point guard in Devin Harris with an older, slower one in Jason Kidd. Kidd couldn't stay with Chris Paul, and would have likely gotten torched by Tony Parker as well. There's no substitution or play call that Avery could have made to rectify any of those situations. There was literally no one that Avery could have brought in to guard Chris Paul once it was obvious that Jason Kidd could not. Now I know that people might want to bring up Avery's 24-25 playoff record, and that they are 5-12 over their last three series, but how much of that is Avery's fault? Dirk totally crumbled in the first two of those three series (he played well this time around, and will not get any criticism from me for his efforts in 2008), while others like newly acquired Jason Kidd and Mavs veteran (and veteran pot smoker) Josh Howard have fallen far short of expectations. You can blame Avery for not giving Kidd the on-court freedom he needs but whose fault is it that Kidd got cooked by Paul for the entire series? Nobody's really; it's just the reality of what happened. Some guys just can't check other guys, period. I put the blame on Mark Cuban for all of this. He's the one who didn't want to pay Steve Nash but turned right around and gave a boatload of money to Erick Dampier. Mavs fans can also thank him putting all his faith in Dirk, even though it's obvious at this point that he just is not the guy to carry a team to the title. And they can also thank him for the Kidd trade, where he dealt away two guys who are exactly what the Mavs need right now in Devin Harris and Dasagana Diop for what he was hoping was the 2002-2003 Jason Kidd and not the 2008 version. Personnel moves almost always trump coaching when it comes to crappy outcomes for teams.
The Phoenix situation isn't much different. Look at the parade of former and potential Suns that were turned away because the Suns owner wanted to avoid paying the luxury tax. Joe Johnson, Luol Deng, Rajon Rondo, Kurt Thomas, and Shawn Marion could have all either come to or stayed in Phoenix were it not for Robert Sarver not wanting to pay the luxury tax. Now I'm not going to tell anyone that they should be willing to fork over millions of dollars just so they won't get ripped by hack internet writers, but if you're not going to do it then at least be honest about it. Just say up front that you want a winning team that will entertain fans and make the playoffs, and that you'd like to win a title, but if it means paying the luxury tax then it just isn't going to happen. And if you want your coach to leave, then fire him already. In the ultimate cheapskate move, they're not even firing D'Antoni but they're allowing him to go make a deal with another team. Why would they do that? Money. If D'Antoni quits, they don't have to pay him what's left on his contract but if they do if he gets fired. Now the evidence does suggest that luxury tax payers don't necessarily win titles, but I don't think that turning away all those guys was the product of any research into the salary cap status of championship teams. But I digress; back to D'Antoni. It wasn't his fault that he got stuck with a roster of guys that included no one to guard Parker. And like Avery Johnson, he had no one to bring in off the bench to do the job once it was obvious Steve Nash could not. There was no junk defense he draw up to eliminate the threat, not with the guys he had to work with. And for that, he may be sent packing.
Early second round impressions
New Orleans-Dallas: We all know who's better between Chris Paul and Tony Parker; ok, we already knew but now it's been proven. Paul has continued where he left off in the first round, putting up 30 points and 12 assists in game two to improve on his 17 points and 13 assists in game one. That's 23.5 points and 12.5 assists per game for the series, and 24.3/12.1 for the entire postseason. And he's only turned the ball over nine times in seven games. Wow. I know things will change somewhat when the series goes back to San Antonio, but right now the Hornets look to be cruising to the conference finals with their 2-0 lead. If they pull off the sweep the question will be whether or not we're witnessing a one year wonder or a changing of the guard.
Detroit-Orlando: Game one was a blowout; game two will be remembered for ‘clock-gate', which was a travesty but hey, that's why you want home court advantage. There is a long history in all sports of convenient equipment malfunctions that favor the home team, whether they are in locker rooms or on the floor. I'm not saying it's right, but it is what it is. The Magic are playing like an underdog team right now in that they're falling behind and catching up for the whole game. Dwight Howard has played much better than he did last year against Detroit in the playoffs, but it's still very telling that they don't go to him crunch time. That has to change if he wants to break through to the true upper echelon in the league. He's almost there but not quite. Rasheed Wallace is reminding us all just why we find him so frustrating. He appears to sleepwalk through some games, but when it really matters he plays like an All-Star.
Boston-Cleveland: Game 1 was UGLY. For a time I thought the league might be OK with Lebron getting to the Finals again, as long as it wasn't against the Spurs or the Jazz. Now I know that isn't so, at least as long as they're playing uglyball, where you exert most of your effort on defense and hope to just score more than the 70 to 80 points you manage to hold your opponent to. It can work, but it's awful to watch unless you're a fan of the team doing it. The Cavs have enough good offensive players to do better than that, but I'm guessing that Mike Brown wants them to do it that way. Between Lebron, Ilgauskas (one of the most underrated and underused players in the league), and their shooters they could easily do better than to struggle to crack 90 in playoff games. If they keep this up we could see a sweep where neither team gets to 85. At least they lost the game.
Los Angeles-Utah: This may be the most competitive of the four series. We'll see for sure in game two.
OK, that's it for this week. Next week, it's a MVP recap!
