NBA: A Player's Game Or a Coach's Game?

After the Dallas Mavericks went down to the New Orleans Hornets in the first round of the 2008 NBA playoffs, the franchise wasted no time in relieving coach Avery Johnson of his coaching duties.

But was coach Johnson the one responsible for the best team in the NBA to not win a recent championship?

Let's face the facts. The Mavericks were out-manned, out-hustled, and just overall outplayed. Chris Paul nearly tripled the productivity of aging point guard Jason Kidd, David West outplayed Dirk Nowitzki throughout the series, and the role players of New Orleans over matched the Mavs in every aspect of the series, not to mention Peja Stojakovic playing like his old days with Sacramento.

Yet Avery Johnson is the one held responsible.

This seems to be a common trend throughout the NBA nowadays, with coaches on the receiving end of all the blame for a team's failures.

During Isaiah Thomas' time as a head coach in New York, he took all the heat for the pity that the Knicks have become. But was it really Isaiah? To me, it seems like the reason for the Knicks' failure is a bunch of over-payed, lazy, all-about-me players that care nothing for their team. What can any coach do with that?

You could take a look at Chicago Bulls former head coach Scott Skiles. Midway through this season, with an underachieving Bulls team at his command, Skiles was fired and replaced with an interim head coach, but it's not like it all turned around with his departure. The Bulls stayed about where they were before his firing.

Now take a look at a team like the Atlanta Hawks. Head coach Mike Wooson has a win percentage somewhere in the .300s, yet they've kept him on board in A-town. The franchise was wise enough to realize that Woodson was not responsible for the Hawks failure, it was the young and undeveloped players that were put on the floor.

Now, as the team matures and becomes more skilled, Woodson has something to work with. He was able to motivate his team to defend home court in the 2008 playoffs against the top seeded Celtics, and take the series to seven games.

So tell me who is responsible for the wins and losses of a team.

The squad you put on the floor, or the coach behind them?