Johnson's negativity positively wrong

If, in fact, Rick Carlisle is offered and accepts the head coaching job with the Dallas Mavericks, I have only one bit of advice for him:

Don't talk to Avery Johnson.

When Johnson said goodbye to the Mavericks on Thursday, he looked very positive and sounded very negative.

The Mavericks, we discovered, really haven't been that good. To be fair, Johnson isn't the only one who is preaching doom for the local team that has averaged 59 victories the past three years. The Mavericks have been buried in print, on the air and by Josh Howard's secondhand smoke.

But you know what? Being the positive sort of individual that I am, I have good news for Carlisle. If he asked me, I would give him the anti-Avery speech and tell him to count his blessings.

(A personal aside: I have known Avery Johnson for 17 years and I do like him. But his performance Thursday was not one of his more impressive public appearances.)

So here are a few points.

1. Remember that 2006 team that went to the Finals? Avery noted that it had Jason Terry playing out of position as the starting point guard, and how incredible was that? The insinuation was that the Mavericks should never have made it that far because of Terry's minimal point-guard skills.

My view is that it says a lot about how great that team was, because how many teams could have made the Finals with Terry as point guard? What an incredible supporting cast!

And what does it say about Terry that he had to match up with San Antonio's Tony Parker and Phoenix's Steve Nash in the previous two rounds, and the Mavericks still advanced?

By the way, the Spurs won the title in 2005 and 2007. The only team to win a playoff series against them was the Mavericks in 2006. If not for that, San Antonio could have won three consecutive titles. It seems to me if you defeat the former and future champions, you've got a pretty good team.

2. Avery said the team that won 67 games in 2006-07 clearly overachieved. The Mavericks got lucky and won a lot of close games.

A little research indicates that the Mavericks' point differential of 7.2 points per game ranked third in the league behind eventual champion San Antonio and Phoenix. The Mavericks had winning streaks of 17, 13 and 12 games. They were only the ninth team in NBA history to win 67 or more games. If that wasn't a great regular-season team, then what was the rest of the league?

(Rick: He said nothing about being outcoached in the first round last year, so don't mention it. It's a sensitive point.)

3. When the Mavericks traded for Jason Kidd this season, Avery said he was relieved to finally have "a quarterback" and said it put the Mavericks closer to winning a championship.

On Thursday, however, he said it was "a miracle" that Dallas even made the playoffs.

(Rick: The bar for miracles around here is pretty low. You should feel good about that.)

The truth is that Avery has had wonderful moments as a head coach, but few of them came this season. He micromanaged to a fault, even after Kidd's arrival. I would be willing to bet that Kidd looked to the sidelines more in two months than he did in his first 14 seasons in the league.

The most amazing discovery we made about Johnson, however, is that despite being an undrafted point guard and overachieving in the NBA for 16 years, he can't coach point guards.

It was Johnson who said he could make Terry a point guard, but by his own analysis, he did not succeed.

Devin Harris flourished after leaving Johnson, and Kidd struggled after arriving. Harris has excellent offensive skills and is a good outside shooter, but Johnson wanted him to be more of a passer.

Kidd is one of the greatest passing point guards in history, but Johnson wanted him to be more of a shooter.

In short, Johnson wanted Devin Harris to play like Jason Kidd, and Jason Kidd to play like Devin Harris.

Maybe it was a miracle the Mavericks made the playoffs.

Here's the good news, Rick. Mark Cuban once made one of the worst personnel decisions in NBA history when he let Steve Nash go to Phoenix for nothing, yet two years later, the Mavericks made the Finals. So Cuban is capable of overcoming mistakes, perhaps even the trade for Kidd.

Dirk Nowitzki is a franchise player. He might not be in the Kobe-LeBron-Duncan stratosphere, but he is one of the top 10 players in the league.

Kidd has one more year left on his contract and has a lot to prove. That's good.

The Mavericks have major work to do in the off-season and the West is going to be tough again next year. But with Dirk, you will make the playoffs. And we do hope that when you do, you won't insult the players by dismissing that achievement as a miracle.