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Avery Johnson's Decision To Shelve Kidd Puzzling

By Marc Stein
ESPN.com

Five games.

Or make that four games and one TNT Thursday showdown in San Antonio that had an undeniable playoffs-in-February kind of feel.

Either way . . .

It didn't even take two weeks for Mavericks coach Avery Johnson to make us question why he pushed for the Jason Kidd trade.

Not even two weeks to register fresh doubts that Johnson's ego can prevent him from overthinking or overtaking the game or that he's really ready to relinquish control of his offense to a veteran point guard who doesn't need to be micromanaged.

In just the fifth game of Kidd's Dallas rebirth, Johnson stunningly and inexplicably benched Kidd for the Mavs' final two possessions in crunch time against their biggest rival. Two possessions, spanning nearly 35 seconds.

That's the same Kidd who Dallas worked so hard to bring back because, in Johnson's words, this team needed someone after those playoff collapses against Miami and Golden State who "knows how to finish games."

On this night, though, it looked as if Dallas' own Lil' General had already forgotten the new game plan. With the Mavs down two points in the final minute of a certifiable thriller that they wound up losing 97-94, Johnson came out of two straight timeouts with a play call that -- unfathomable as it sounds -- he thought would work better without Kidd's involvement.

Both calls were from the Mavs' catalog of trusted isolation plays, designed to get Dirk Nowitzki to attack the Spurs' defense from the middle of the floor. Johnson explained afterward that he wanted to make sure Nowitzki was surrounded by shooters after catching the ball to discourage San Antonio from double-teaming, leading him to hold Kidd out because he feared Spurs coach Gregg Popovich surely would have ordered Kidd's defender to immediately double Nowitzki.

Yet there are at least three major flaws in that thinking.

1. Kidd has never been a shooter. You can't trade for Jason Kidd to be your ace closer and then worry about his shooting. Kidd actually said earlier this week that Dirk has been "helping me with my shot," but it's not going to improve fast enough to prevent this from being an issue in every playoff game Dallas plays. The solution? You trust Kidd's resume as a closer, put him in pick-and-roll situations with Nowitzki at game's end and thus give your trade maximum opportunity for success as it was conceived.

2. Johnson himself has likened the Mavs' final 20-odd games to a learning-on-the-fly training camp. So why would you delete Kidd from the exact situation that you, as head coach, described as his specialty just days earlier?

3. When the Mavs came up with offensive rebounds after two Nowitzki misses in that final half-minute, they ended up with a busted play to decide things. But instead of a Kidd/Nowitzki pick-and-roll for the Mavs to force overtime or win it, their combo was Jason Terry and Nowitzki. You saw the result.

Nowitzki did get open briefly on the screen/roll, but Terry couldn't get the ball to him. Nor could Terry avoid getting his shot blocked in the lane, sealing Dallas' defeat.

Meanwhile . . .

The veteran who has the ability to make something out of nothing -- Kidd -- was rooted to the bench for that sequence as opposed to having the ball in his hands to try to slip it to Nowitzki or find a shooter in the corner like Jerry Stackhouse (or, say, Terry) for a clean look. Worse yet: Dallas' first play Nowitzki for didn't work and Johnson declined again after a second timeout to send Kidd in, even though you always want a Kidd or Manu Ginobili making that decisive play -- whether or not they've been with the team long enough to know all the plays -- because so many last-second situations in the NBA turn into busted plays because of sophisticated defenses.

No one's suggesting Johnson was the Mavs' lone culprit Thursday night. Nowitzki couldn't convert his final jumper or a lefty drive after sinking a strongly contested J with 1:38 to play to make it 94-94. Terry missed a big free throw and a wide-open jumper of his own in crunch time and, whether or not he was provoked by the Spurs' Bruce Bowen, earned himself a costly technical foul that triggered Dallas' loss of composure in the third quarter as soon as the visitors had seized a 10-point lead.

It wasn't Kidd's best night, either, even before he wound up as a spectator. He was actually better defensively on Ginobili than he was at his preferred end, credibly pestering one of the league's hottest players but totaling just seven points on 3-for-10 shooting, four rebounds and 10 assists while struggling somewhat to impose himself in the halfcourt when the pace slowed in the fourth quarter.

Yet none of that can make sense of Johnson's reasoning in this one. Kidd was a diplomat in his postgame address -- telling reporters in San Antonio that "I understand and support my coach's decision" essentially since he's a newcomer -- but pulling Kidd would have been just as mind-boggling had the Mavs pulled out a victory.

As discussed in this cyberspace on multiple occasions already my only skepticism regarding the wisdom of parting with five players, two first-round picks and $3 million to reacquire Kidd -- as well as the extra $11 million it'll cost Mavs owner Mark Cuban this season after his first trade with New Jersey collapsed -- was Avery-related. As in: Will Avery ever really be able to restrain his controlling instincts and relinquish lead decision-maker status offensively?

Now that's only one of the questions confronting Johnson entering Game 6 of the new Kidd Era at home Friday against Sacramento. You inevitably wonder what sort of messages Avery transmitted to Kidd, when they're just building a relationship, by holding him out of a such a high-profile finish on national TV.

If you're an optimist, by contrast, perhaps you're wondering whether Dallas can come out of all this unexpectedly fortunate, based on the idea that such an ill-conceived coaching decision happening so soon after the trade will generate such an outcry in Big D that Johnson winds up backing off faster than expected.

In the interim?

This might be remembered as the first Thursday on record that the studio assessment of TNT's Charles Barkley was met with near-unanimous approval:

"There's no sense in making the Jason Kidd trade," Barkley said, "if they're not going to play him in crunch time."

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DALLAS MAVERICKS