Nail in the Coffin: Why the Dallas Mavericks Are Crumbling

That is where Kidd's skills and triple-doubles come from. When there is an oppurtunity, he takes it without question, and that's how he can be such a great rebounding point guard and assister. Now, how that ties with the Mavericks is simple.

For the past couple years, the Mavericks were known as an offensively-minded team. When Don Nelson designed the team along with Mark Cuban, we were looking at one of the higher scoring teams in the NBA at the time.

Right after Avery Johnson came in, he sort of pulled what Larry Brown/Flip Saunders did for Detroit. He kept the offense going while trying to implement new defensive standards on that team. There was a reverse situation in Detroit.

Avery was always a more defensive-minded coach and tried teaching his team to play defense. He is known as the "Little General," just because he runs plays fiercely and follows his own play book set for set.

This was a core reason why the Mavericks got to the NBA Finals the year he took over. Even though disappointed in the Finals, Avery and the team had a core who worked well together and ran sets well. Now, two years later and bring in Jason Kidd, two things were destroyed in this process.

First, you basically destroyed half of what Avery's style of coaching stands for. Like I said earlier, Kidd is a field general, but the fact is that everyone expects him to run every play in his mind, when, in fact, he is more of an opportunist then an actual play-maker.

When he played for the Nets, how many times did you see him ally-oop it to Vince Carter? More than a dozen times.

But do you think that Frank really told them to throw an ally-oop up and see if Carter gets it? Of course not. Kidd takes opportunities and makes them into scoring chances.

He does not run sets over and over again like what Harris was told to do over and over again by Avery. People who say that Avery is apprehending Kidd's full ability to run an offense are completely misled because Kidd's greatest skill is not play-making. Coaches make plays while point guards find opportunties to execute that play.

Second, you destroyed the core of the team. The fact is simple that a team that was put together by Don Nelson and developed by Avery has completely changed itself. My biggest concern was giving up Harris and Diop to try to recompensate for giving up Nash.

While Harris being at the point wasn't the best choice, it certainly worked with both Johnson and Nelson's system. Harris was a legitimate scorer for the Mavericks, who could atleast put on 10-15 points a game, while providing perimeter and defensive stops on point guards.

The key factor really was that Harris basically did everything Avery told him to do. Run this set or run that play or whatever. Harris may not have had a lot of freedom, but it worked.

The Mavericks were a team that came off of Johnson's play calling and the team's to create and manage opportunities when they arose. Now, it just seems like Kidd or Dirk have to be there and run every play in order to allow the entire team to actually execute the play which brings me to the second factor. 

2. The Leader Factor

This may be Avery's team to coach and control, but there isn't a leader amongst the players who can follow. From day one, everybody said this is Dirk's team, but is it really?

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