This year more so than any in recent memory, the best teams added and subtracted key players at various points during the season, and some teams were able to cope better than others. The Lakers and the Celtics were two examples of teams incorporating new guys into their systems without missing a beat. The Mavs and the Suns, however, had their share of problems. I wrote about this before, but I have a few more thoughts after witnessing the demise of both teams this playoffs.
Let's start with the Mavs:
They traded away Devin Harris, bright, young point guard and DeSagana Diop, an average big man, and in turn received Jason Kidd. This was widely considered a questionable move but there was reason to believe the Mavs were onto something. And then Dirk got hurt and the team lost some games, and it seemed like their season was unraveling. Ok, so they experienced a far more troublesome honeymoon period than the Lakers did after getting Pao Gasol, but towards the end of the season it appeared as if the Mavs had regained some sense of unity as a team. Then they collapsed in the playoffs and Avery Johnson was immediately fired. Well, you know what? To fire a guy you must examine his situation closely, and you know what I see when examining this Mavs' season? A situation in which Avery was set up to lose.
It would have been one thing if the Mavs faced the Rockets or the Lakers in a first round match up and got beat in 5. It's quite different when you trade away your fast, athletic point guard in return for a slow, unathletic one and expect him to compete in the West. I mean, come on, Kidd got beat all year by better point guards, and now you put him in a position where, to make it through to the finals, he would have had to face either 2 or 3 of the following guards: Chris Paul, Tony Parker, Steve Nash, or Deron Williams. How is that Avery Johnson's fault? The correct answer? It isn't.
What happened was exactly what happened with the signing of Shaq: a tremendous oversight by the general manager. Donn Nelson thought that what the Mavs needed was a facilitator who could run the offense in both transition and in the half court. What he failed to consider was how terrible his defense had become, and how it would reflect poorly on a coach who realized this much but had few alternative options to playing him.
As for Mike D'Antoni and the Suns, a very similar pattern developed early in the playoffs. Steve Kerr thought the team needed an inside presence who could dominate at times. They needed that prototypical big man in the middle. But he failed miserably in recognizing that, even though Shaq may beat the Spurs in the regular season, Greg Popovich figured out a pretty simple method of containing him come playoff time: Hack-A-Shaq.
How can D'Antoni be expected to fulfill his duties as coach when his key new addition is as close to useless on the court as their Sean Marx would have been. This is not a knock on Shaq. It is entirely a knock on Steve Kerr and how his images of a future with Shaq failed to consider the infamous defense tailored to stop him in the playoffs.
Avery Johnson and Mike D'Antoni gave their owners and fans exactly what they could: a great regular season. But those two additions proved to be of no help, and even somewhat of a detriment, when the post-season rolled around. I'm not sure how any of that is their fault.
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