- This lineup rotation of this year's team is something that has gotten me fired up. Instead of going small (Jet and Harris), or having to throw a guy who can't handle starter minutes due to age/health (Stack and Harris), they now can start 2 big guys at the 2 (Hassell or Jones), and have improved perimeter defense, and still keep the ability to shoot an open jumper. You already have 2 scorers on your 1st team (Dirk and Howard), so now you can stash JET on the 2nd team and watch him come in and dominate backups while the big boys get a rest.
You have 2 guys with no pressure, who can score in bunches, and who are always going to be better than the opponents 2nd team set of guards, or in some cases, the 1st team.
After last season's subpar performance from JET, Avery knew something had to be done, and it looks like he's put him in the best position possible and has struck gold with maximizing JET's production.
Avery's decision reminds me a lot of Popovich's decision to move Manu to the bench to increase his bench production and to keep the team offensively potent when the starters went out. It's a great move by both teams.
Also, Diop is playing like an animal so far. Can he keep this up for 82 games plus the playoffs? Just imagine how much more effective he's going to be when Damp comes back. He keeps this up and Cuban will reward him generously.
Very excited to say the least.
The Troll weighs in on Terry's increased effectiveness since moving to the 6th man role.
Good To The Terry End
By Marc Stein
ESPN.com
DALLAS -- Trivia time: Do you know what happened to the last team that used Jason Terry as a sixth man?
It's actually not much of a stumper because Terry has been reminding everyone lately.
Ever since coach Avery Johnson told Terry that he was planning to bring him off the bench after three seasons as the Dallas Mavericks' primary successor to Steve Nash, Terry has been bringing up the collegiate championship he helped Arizona win in 1997 in the same role. He won't flat-out call it an omen, but his usual reaction to the O word is pretty telling.
Terry's response to an omen question Monday evening: "You see me smiling, right?"
See that? Not all of the bravado was beaten out of the Mavericks in that first-round beatdown administered by Golden State last spring. The grins were impossible to miss on this night, when the hosts' new sixth man was the best man at American Airlines Center, sparking Dallas to a 107-98 victory over the new darlings from Houston.
This was supposed to be the revamped Rockets' opportunity to announce themselves to the nation and prove that they've really narrowed the gap on the rest of the stat. They were reveling in a 3-0 start and sporting a roster filled with impressive new names to give Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming more help than they've ever had . . . with a stage to themselves beckoning with no other games on the schedule. Yet Houston simply couldn't capitalize on the injury absences of Devin Harris, Erick Dampier, Devean George and Brandon Bass -- and the foul trouble which ensnared Dirk Nowitzki and Josh Howard -- largely because it couldn't contain Terry.
The little guard scored 31 points which, combined with Jerry Stackhouse's 16, enabled Dallas' reserve duo to outscore all seven Rockets who played besides T-Mac and Yao. Terry started the second half in place of the ineffective J.J. Barea, reeled off the final seven points of the third quarter to haul Dallas out of a 75-70 hole and upped his season average through four games to 22.8 points on ridiculous 60-percent shooting as the Mavs eventually pulled away.
It's early days, true, but this is a powerful statement at any time: "We are very surprised when he misses," Johnson said.
Of course, as with everything in Mavsland after back-to-back playoff unravelings, nothing can be proven conclusively until the playoffs start. Terry could shoot 60 percent from the floor for the entire regular season and impress no one living outside of North Texas unless it carries over to the postseason.
Yet you to have wonder, given how well Terry has taken to this switch, if Johnson has found a way to productively shake things up without significant change to the roster. Anointing Harris as his unquestioned starter at the point has clearly taken playmaking pressure off Terry, who comes into games firing now as opposed to trying to get everyone else involved because that's what he thought he was supposed to do.
Terry's partnership with Stackhouse, furthermore, strengthens a major area of weakness from last season. "We had to get back to how it was when we made our Finals run," Terry said, "where our bench had been our strong point."
It was certainly good enough to rescue Dallas in a great game for November. Yao Ming and Josh Howard each turned an ankle in the second half thanks to independently awkward landings, but both refused to come out of the game injured, highlighting how seriously both teams took it.
Thanks to that bench and maybe the best game of DeSagana Diop's career -- Diop had 10 points, 13 rebounds, four blocks and, amazingly, zero fouls as Dallas' primary Yao defender -- Nowitzki's struggles with the refs and his shot (7-for-20) didn't hurt. Nor did McGrady's 35 points and eight assists, with Yao managing just 12 shots from the field in the face of countless double-team swarms.
"They feel like they've made some improvements to their roster," Stackhouse said of the Rockets. "But we feel the same way."
Now to see what sort of feelings are stirred by the Mavericks' next game. Thursday on TNT, they're back in Oakland for the first time since the Golden State Warriors thrashed the 67-win Mavs in Round 1.
Nowitzki took (and is still taking) most of the media heat for the Mavs' failings against the Warriors, but Terry's play was no less worrisome. In the first year of a new six-year deal worth nearly $58 million -- and regarded as an unfailingly clutch shooter -- Terry missed 23 of 32 attempts from 3-point range against the Warriors, rarely capitalizing on all the attention Nowitzki was commanding as the chief target of coach Don Nelson's defenses.
"I share a lot of that with him," Terry said of Nowitzki and the Golden State blame, knowing that recent history will overshadow any of his Arizona tales until the Mavs atone.
- Fran's gone.
Sources: Franchione's probably finished at Texas A&M
School says embattled coach will be evaluated at end of season
12:19 AM CST on Tuesday, November 6, 2007
By BRIAN DAVIS / The Dallas Morning News
brdavis@dallasnews.com
COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Multiple sources close to the Texas A&M athletic department said that Dennis Franchione likely will be removed as head football coach after this season.
A&M athletic director Bill Byrne has stated numerous times he will not evaluate Franchione's job status until after the season. Sources said it's unclear if Franchione would announce his resignation before the regular-season finale against Texas on Nov. 23.
But Franchione's 31-27 record in five seasons and the embarrassment his secret e-mail newsletter brought the university are enough to warrant a change, sources said.
Byrne and Franchione probably will negotiate a settlement, sources said. According to Franchione's contract, he would be owed $8.5 million for the remaining five years of his deal. However, A&M said the secret newsletter violated NCAA rules, and that could be used to negotiate a lower amount.
Bill Jones, chairman of the A&M board of regents, said nothing official has happened. He adamantly rebutted several Internet stories that stated Byrne already had reached a financial settlement with Franchione.
"Well, all of that is untrue. It is untrue," Jones said. "Bill Byrne does not review his coaches until the end of the season, and he has consistently said that and done that. He has not broken his policy for Coach Fran and this season.
"So, anybody reporting any done deal or communication or talks or buyouts or amounts or anything of the sort is simply reporting a falsehood."
Jones said no one has approached the A&M board of regents about buyout talks, although news reports Monday indicated otherwise.
Citing anonymous sources, ESPN.com and CBSSports.com posted stories online that said A&M and Franchione had begun negotiations to buy out his contract. CBSSports' story initially said Franchione had agreed to a buyout. The story was later edited to say Franchione was "on the verge" of a buyout.
The San Antonio Express-News combined both stories and added that running backs coach Kenith Pope could become the interim coach. The details about Pope were later removed from the newspaper's Web site.
The Houston Chronicle reported Monday on its Web site that A&M presented Franchione with a buyout sum of $1.9 million. The story also said Byrne enlisted sports consultant Chuck Neinas to help with the coaching search. A call to Neinas' home in Boulder, Colo., was not returned.
That entire story later was removed from the Web site.
"You can't keep people from voicing their opinions," Jones said. "That's the beauty of being American. But I just wish people would continue supporting the team and hope that people wouldn't spread vicious rumors without knowing the facts."
Byrne declined comment about the reports Monday night at an A&M men's basketball exhibition game at Reed Arena.
As he's stated numerous times, Byrne said Franchione's job status "will be part of my postseason review."
A&M sports information director Alan Cannon also issued a statement Monday trying to debunk the Internet stories.
"There are several false rumors circulating regarding the Texas A&M football program," Cannon said. "Bill Byrne has repeatedly said he evaluates his programs at the end of each season and I have received no indication that he has changed his stance.
"Dennis Franchione is the head football coach at Texas A&M and is currently working on a game plan to face a top 10 football team in the Missouri Tigers."
Franchione's job security has dwindled with each passing month this season. He entered the year with a 25-23 overall record. But an embarrassing 34-17 loss at Miami on Sept. 20 angered the A&M fan base.
Then, the school was embarrassed when Franchione's secret e-mail newsletter titled "VIP Connection" was exposed.
The coach's personal assistant, Mike McKenzie, wrote about injury information and other football program tidbits that Franchione would not share with the public. In October, Byrne said the material in the newsletters constituted NCAA secondary rules violations.
A small group of subscribers were charged $1,200 each to receive the e-mails.
Uninspiring losses against Texas Tech, Kansas and Oklahoma dropped A&M's record to 6-4 overall. The Aggies closes out the regular season against No. 7 Missouri and No. 15 Texas.
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