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Maverick Woes Begin
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
By Tovash Hatcher
Has the NBA figured out the Mavs?
Maverick fans, it's not the end of the world that your team is yet to get off to a flying start of the 2006-07 NBA regular season. As of now the Mavericks have a 0-3 record going into tomorrow night's road game against the surging Los Angeles Clippers. Former Mavericks coach Don Nelson brought his Warriors into town and kept the Mavericks 0-for the season. Mark Cuban and the Mavs unveiled their Western Conference Championship banner before the home crowd of 20,093 fans. Now the Mavs have to take their act on the road for a brutal 3-game west coast swing. How fast can the Mavs right the ship in the early part of the season?
Will Avery be able to get this team together?
I think that the Dallas Mavericks' organization is very fortunate to have Johnson as the head of the team. Johnson brings a defense first type attitude and is a proven winner. He took an offensive-minded Don Nelson team and converted it to a solid defensive group. The offense was still there but Johnson was able to implement defense in with that mixture creating the ultimate Western Conference juggernaut.
In last night's game, Johnson was hit with two technical fouls in the first half. The first half?? Johnson has been hit with more technical fouls this year than Rasheed Wallace of the Pistons. I put that on the shoulders of simple coaching frustrations.
Dirk's leadership?
A year ago Dirk Nowitzki was an opposing defender's nightmare. Being known around the league as "the human match-up problem", Nowitzki' transformed his game to an all-around type game. He played a little post, he kept his outside shooting perfected, and he even held his own on the defensive side. This season the Mavericks need Dirk to continue the on-court leadership in order to get the team back to the NBA Finals. Once the team gets to the Finals, it's up to their leader to get them over the hump. Last season, Dirk and company fell just short of that by allowing the Heat to rally to win 4. This season, Dallas is in a hole but Nowitzki will do his best to get the Mavs back to the top of the Western Conference. In the first 3 games Nowitzki is averaging 23 points per contest and it seems that he does try to set a scoring example to the other players. My take on it, he needs to be the man down the stretch of ball games. I look for an aggressive Dirk for the Wednesday night showdown in the city of Angels.
Maverick bench?
I don't see how a team with the depth that the Mavericks have can be a team at the bottom of their division. Maverick faithfuls will argue the point that this is an extremely long season and that their team will get it turned around. Here's my argument. Any team that visited the NBA Finals just 5 short months ago should have targets on their backs and fire in their belly. I don't sense that with this Mavs' team and especially the bench. Avery Johnson is not using the bench the way he wants to use it.
Devean George has started the season injured which is not a good thing. The ex-Laker was supposed to be a big contributor this team and the jury will be out on him once he gets in uniform.
And where in the hell did Austin Croshere go since the San Antonio game? Croshere gave the Mavericks 12 points in the season opener against the Spurs and other that, nothing. If he doesn't start to produce on a consistent basis real soon, people in Dallas will start questioning the decision to even bring this guy here in the first place. Remember, Croshere was brought here to fill the huge void that Keith Van Horn could never do. He's given the Mavs 4 points total in the last two games.
The trigger-happy Jerry Stackhouse is yet to sink a 3-point shot this season and hasn't registered a 10-point plus performance yet either. Last season Stackhouse was a clutch player coming off the bench for the Mavs and doesn't seem to have shaken off the ill-effects of last year's Finals.
Immediate future?
The Mavericks are staring 0-5 in the face. After jumping out to a torrid pace last season, the Mavericks could be 1-5 on their way back to the American Airlines Center. This team is not getting any defense and Coach Johnson needs to get this thing turned around. Dallas doesn't play an Eastern Conference team until November 20. Tomorrow's game against the Clippers is key because a 0-4 start in the tough Western Conference can be dangerous. The Lakers (3-1), Spurs (3-1), Clippers (3-1) and even the 1-3 Suns are all looking to shoot out of the gates to attempt put a choke hold their divisions. We'll look at the Mavericks' progress at the end of this tough road trip.
I'm Tovash Hatcher
8:53 AM
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