| Mavericks Need To Start Thinking About Change Authored by Sam Williford - January 27, 2009 - 2:50 pm
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Several personnel decisions were made in the past year to rectify these playoff woes. How successful have they been and what should have been done?
First, the Mavericks swung for the fences and received Jason Kidd, Malik Allen and Antoine Wright in return for Devin Harris, DeSanga Diop (who later returned to the team), Trenton Hasell, Maurice Ager, Keith Van Horn their first-round picks for 2008 and 2010, as well as $3 million. Since the trade, the Mavericks have gone 40-33 (excluding playoffs) while watching Devin Harris become a potential All-Star this year. The trade may not have hurt the Mavericks, as keeping the current squad probably would've have went the same, because many attribute Harris' breakout and Kidd's stagnation to the coaching of Avery Johnson.
To correct that issue, they fired 2006 Coach of the Year Avery Johnson and replaced him with former Pacers' Head Coach Rick Carlisle. This move was intended to improve offensive performance, give Kidd an offense to mesh with, and alleviate grievances many players had against Johnson.
However, the Mavericks defense has plummeted almost four points since that move. A squad allowing a reasonable 95.9 ppg last season with Johnson at the helm (despite the defensive weakness from losing Diop and Hasell while adding Kidd) is now up to 99.4 ppg. They were ninth in the NBA in points allowed per 100 possessions and are currently 16th.
Also, the offense is virtually unchanged averaging 100.4 ppg in 2007-2008, while only averaging 99.9 ppg this season so far. With offense still scoring at the same clip, little has changed about Jason Kidd. This season, he is averaging virtually the same amount of rebounds, points and steals, but he has a full assist less per game now (from 9.5 apg in 29 games last season, to only 8.3 apg this season). And lastly, this move has done little to help player morale, with Dirk Nowitzki still complaining that the team needs to show more urgency and Josh Howard involved in several off-the-court incidents. Rick Carlisle, while successful with the Pacers, has done nothing to help the Mavericks and has made the defense worse, which has hampered this team.
During the off-season, they also added Gerald Green to the mix. Other than bringing his Slam Dunk Champion credentials, the 6'8" shooting guard has seen little production, averaging around 11 minutes a game, the lowest of his career. Green is an example of an unproductive youth on a team whose five important players are all 30 years old or older (Dampier, Stackhouse, Terry, Kidd and Nowitzki).
Most recently, they traded DeSanga Diop again, this time for Matt Carroll and Ryan Hollins. It is still early and it is uncertain what either can do to help the Mavericks, but this trade addresses a clear lack of depth the Mavericks have. Once their more than 30 group is gone, they would have a potential starting lineup of J.J. Barea, Gerald Green, Josh Howard, Brandon Bass and Ryan Hollins. That's going to be something to keep owner of the fourth-oldest team in the NBA, Mark Cuban, awake at night as he continues to try to build a championship team. However, these thoughts should have been in mind when making earlier deals for the sake of the defense and depth of the team.
As a whole, how will this squad perform? The additions of Green, Hollins and Carroll have started to address the depth and age problems they created for themselves when they traded Harris for Kidd. As their core players continue to age, this will be a problem of greater magnitude that will have to be fixed sooner rather than later. The key for this group in the next year or two is going to be correcting their defense. As long as they keep giving up as many points as they score, it's going to continue to be tough for them. This team needs to get younger, cut down opponents scoring to at least last year's levels (though they had their best two years when the defense was much better) and let Rick Carlisle worry about keeping the offense up. Personnel decisions should have been made in the past year keeping the defense in mind. This present season will most likely continue to show further mediocrity from a squad that has abandoned its commitment on the defensive end, but their moves over the next two seasons will determine whether we see a painful youth movement, or a well-planned championship run. |
