ESPN - Mavs, Johnson part ways after team's playoff ouster - NBA
From a local standpoint, this comes as no big surprise. Local sports radio has been reporting for a couple of months that many players on the team had "tuned out" Avery's rather vocal approach. There were also rumors of some less than cordial exchanges between Cuban and Johnson. The local media has also been critical of AJ's game time coaching decisions and overall strategy, and had commented on his ego getting in the way of making strategy changes.
The Mavs roster is really kind of a mess, so AJ didn't get much help there. They have mostly good starters, but the bench isn't very deep at all (especially relative to the Lakers, Spurs, Suns, and Hornets in the west), including a couple of guys who mentally are just out of it much of the time (Stackhouse and Howard).
'Twill be interesting to see which coach wants join up with Cuban...
From a local standpoint, this comes as no big surprise. Local sports radio has been reporting for a couple of months that many players on the team had "tuned out" Avery's rather vocal approach. There were also rumors of some less than cordial exchanges between Cuban and Johnson. The local media has also been critical of AJ's game time coaching decisions and overall strategy, and had commented on his ego getting in the way of making strategy changes.
The Mavs roster is really kind of a mess, so AJ didn't get much help there. They have mostly good starters, but the bench isn't very deep at all (especially relative to the Lakers, Spurs, Suns, and Hornets in the west), including a couple of guys who mentally are just out of it much of the time (Stackhouse and Howard).
'Twill be interesting to see which coach wants join up with Cuban...