Is Avery as horrid a coach as he was a PG? I thought Avery did an excellent job of instilling a defensive mentality on the Mavs. While Avery was handed a great team, it was not as talented as in years past, so some of his success was due to Nelson. How does a Laker team missing Gasol and Bynum build a 25 point lead on the Mavs? Props to them for comming back and having a shot to win it but couldn't Avery have prevented that large lead? Kidd only played like 27 minutes, he was not having a good game from a stats perspective but IMO he was an excellent facillitator. He gives Stackhouse a ton of slack and keeps him on the floor when he is playing poorly but yanks Kidd after a couple minutes. He doesn't put his big men in the game instead he prefers a 6'7 guy to play center when Dampier is on the bench. He doesn't focus on getting the ball into Dirks hands. He allows guys like Stackhouse and Howard to dribble around like idiots and cost them valuable possesions while keeping Kidd on the bench. He finally found a combo of guys who hustled and scrapped and got them back into the game and then went away from that in favor of putting shooters on the floor. His substitution patterns are erratic at best, Avery does not seem to be able to understand matchups.
Avery just comes off as a horrible coach to me. When the Mav shooters started heating up and their role players started playing solid defense I figured the Lakers would fold but then Avery inexplicably changes the lineup to one that did not play solid defense and allowed the Lakers to hold on to the win. STILL, how do you let a Laker team devestated by injuries go out and dominate the Mavs on their home court for 2 1/2 quarters before you "figure it out"? Avery is not stupid, he just isn't much of a coach or he has lost his team. Either way, Avery needs to be fired.
I have been coming to the same conclusion for some time now WOW, I posted as much earlier this month and I think back in January as well.
I came to this conclusion when he sidestepped the Clippers to get to Golden State last year and got humiliated in the first round by a team Avery had to know was a matchup nightmare for them, they had OWNED them for 2 staight years! So you lay down on them in game 81 to knock the Clippers out? A team you should have been able to manhandle in the playoffs? That was all on him, and his team's TOTAL choke job against an underwhelming Miami team, albeit coached by the brilliant Pat Riley, just adds to my already firm conclusion, Avery Johnson is not even an average coach as I had stated in an earlier post, he is a LOUSY coach, coaching a team he has allowed to go from very talented to sissy soft.
