Dallas Mavericks
5/14 Name Rick Carlisle head coach
Let’s see…so the Mavs get rid of their old coach because they thought he was too controlling on the offensive sets and restricted Jason Kidd, only focused on defense, and grated on the players. So of course Rick Carlisle is the perfect replacement! Carlisle, though a very sharp guy, has really put a premium on controlled offense, similar to Avery Johnson, and supposedly teed off people in Detroit. Granted, if Carlisle is a clone of Avery this isn’t necessarily such a bad a thing. Avery won plenty of games with the style. Hell, the Nets weren’t exactly a running team with Kidd, so maybe there isn’t a reason to run. Still, the spin here is that Carlisle offers something different and I’m not sure that this is actually the case. Carlisle conceded that he grinded out in Detroit (2001-2003) and Indiana (2003-2007) but contends that this was a function of his personnel and urged people to look at his time as Larry Bird’s top offensive assistant form 1997-2000 in Indiana. Well let’s check out Carlisle’s total body of work and see. Here are all the Carlisle coached teams (including his time with Bird from 1997-2000) and how the teams ranked in points per possession, points allowed per possession, and pace ranking:
Year Offensive Ranking Defensive Ranking Pace Ranking
1997-98 4th 5th 26th
1998-99 1st 24th 25th
1999-00 1st 13th 15th
2000-01 (Did not coach)
2001-02 12th 8th 19th
2002-03 15th 4th 29th
2003-04 9th 3rd 26th
2004-05 18th 11th 29th
2005-06 21st 3rd 20th
2006-07 30th 9th 10th
Contrary to his contentions, Carlisle never really ran ever in the last ten years, with the exception of a really weak 2006-07 Pacer teams, and that team was remarkably inefficient offensively. The hallmarks of Carlisle teams are efficient but slow offense and good defense. As we noted, there is nothing wrong with that but I don’t expect big changes in strategy in Dallas next year. The only real difference is that the team might respond a little better to a new voice in the locker room.
In that same vein, I couldn’t help but notice that Avery Johnson seems quite unhappy about his termination. I could understand some of his bitterness but he should be careful not to say too much publicly. He has noted that he didn’t get a fair shake and that he was not in favor of the Kidd trade. The first point may have some merit but the second point seems to be completely contrary to his comments from March of this year. Johnson might be well advised to remember how Carlisle handled his termination in Detroit in 2003. At the time, Carlisle had just led the team to the best record in the East and the Conference Finals but was fired for Larry Brown. Carlisle actually showed up to the press conference and defended Joe Dumars for firing him. At the time, Carlisle told the press that Brown was a “big time coach.” He also noted that: “[y]ou can get into a conversation about what may or not be fair, or you can be excited about being at the peak of your career. I’ll look back and remember the good things and the things that were accomplished by a group that no one thought had a chance.”
Houston Rockets
5/7 Steve Francis exercises player option for 2007-08 season
The Francis gamble seemed reasonable last summer but has not turned out well. Francis is absolutely done as a player and this option is probably his last NBA paycheck (about $2.5 million for next year). I imagine that the Rockets will buy out Francis to see if they can get a slight discount on their obligation. It seems like eons ago when Francis was the exciting young leaper at Maryland and later with the Rockets but now his knees really are shot. But don’t cry for Stevie Franchise. He’s made roughly $83 million in his NBA career and was a pretty good player for a couple of years. Francis also illustrates how hard it is to project players. During the 1999 Draft and the next few years, Francis seemed like the best or second best player. Now, if we had to do the draft over with 20/20 hindsight, Francis is probably the 12th best player in the draft.
Indiana Pacers
5/7 Name David Morway general manager
5/12 Exercise option on Stephen Graham for 2008-09 season
While Larry Bird is calling the shots, Morway comes into the number two slot in the organization. Morway has been with the Pacers for several years and comes with a law degree and some front office experience with the San Diego Padres. It remains to be seen the extent of his power in making deals.
Memphis Grizzlies
5/9 Waive Aaron McKie
Free ride is over for McKie, who never actually played in a game for the Grizz. Still, he’ll always be famous as the first long retired contract to be signed and traded.
New Jersey Nets
5/8 Name Kiki Vandeweghe general manager
Kiki was initially signed on a temp basis but quickly proved his worth by helping to engineer the Jason Kidd trade, where he squeezed Devin Harris and draft picks out of the Mavs. For that reason alone, it seemed likely that the Nets would bring him back full time and they did. They have quite few challenges going forward, but Vandeweghe is already working hard on several potential moves (Carmelo Anthony?). Kiki was pretty good in Denver but far from perfect but he’s starting off on the right foot in New Jersey.
New York Knicks
5/13 Name Mike D’Antoni head coach
A couple points jump out on the D’Antoni front. First, he did a very good job in Phoenix and has proven himself to be a flexible and innovative coach. The fact that he hasn’t won a title isn’t a huge deal because he came pretty close. Obviously, Steve Nash, Shawn Marion, and Amare Stoudemire helped but D’Antoni has shown a nice ability to develop and get contributions of all sorts of players. The New York papers seemed to favor Mark Jackson, and he sounds like a perfectly intelligent guy and was a smart player but is absolutely unproven as a coach. D’Antoni, on the other hand, is proven commodity. As long as the price wasn’t ridiculous why wouldn’t you take the proven coach?
The key point is that skill as a player or broadcaster do not necessarily match up with skill as a coach. Bill Russell, Bob Cousy, Magic Johnson, and Quinn Buckner. All considered smart players but none were particularly good coaches. I’m much more curious to see what D’Antoni does with the Knicks. He obviously loves to run and doesn’t want Stephon Marbury long term. There may be a shot that he tells Marbury to come back to the fold and buy into a system that could rebuild his free agent value. The Knicks won’t be a good team in 2008-09 but they’ll be interesting to watch in the non morbid curiosity sense for the first time since the late 1990s.
Toronto Raptors
5/14 Exercise option on Jamario Moon for 2008-09 season
5/16 Exercise option on Rasho Nesetrovic for 2008-09 season
Did you know that 2007-08 was Rasho’s career year? The total minutes were down but on a per-minute basis, it was by far his most effective season. He looked particularly good when coming in for the non-defensive Andrea Bargnani. The effective package was enough to buy Nesterovic one more year in Toronto, where he should still be a useful player. As for Moon, he was a nice find and should make a nice bench player next year too.