There Will Be Blood

Whew, the unemployment line is filled with NBA coaches today.

Early breaking word this morning has both Mike D'Antoni and Avery Johnson getting shown the door by their respective franchises.

I can't say that either is a huge surprise but let's take a closer look.

Avery Johnson's days have been numbered for a while. It's been no secret that Mark Cuban has blamed him for the Mavs failures for some time and when Cuban went out and got Jason Kidd for the team and they _still_ couldn't win? You knew someone had to pay the piper for it. It's a tough situation though as the Mavs probably weren't going to beat the Hornets anyways. It's not Kidd's fault that he's old, past his prime, and unable to win in the clutch - okay, well, maybe it is his fault. But it's definitely not Avery Johnson's fault. AJ seemed like a perfectly fine coach to me who was put in an unwinnable scenario. He's sure to catch on somewhere else without much trouble, I'd imagine.

Mike D'Antoni is a bit of a sadder situation. As much as I dislike the guy's on-court histrionics, you can not deny that he instilled a system in Phoenix that for several years made them one of the most successful [and most popular] teams in the league. Sure, he didn't win a championship but not many coaches do. Few people assumed this would be a win-or-you're-out season for D'Antoni but the final nail in his coffin came with the Shaquille O'Neal trade. As much as I don't understand the trade, I understand the trade. On the surface, you question why they would do a deal that would basically cripple the run-and-gun offense that made them successful. They are infamous for getting their shot up within 7 seconds on the shot clock but it takes Shaq 7 seconds to reach the free throw line... on the defensive end of the floor! Of course they weren't going to be able to run-and-gun anymore... but the "realists" pointed out at the time that run-and-gun hadn't won them a title so maybe it was time for a change. You just can't expect a team to change that much in mid-season though. They were designed to run-and-gun and you tied an anchor to their ankle... and crippled the team's future in the process.

So, D'Antoni will be the fall guy because you can't spend that much money on a center, have that big trade publicized so much, and then only manage a weak one victory in the postseason. It's not fair at all to him since it's the Big Cactus that really hurt them but... well, so it goes.

I fully expect George Karl will be the next head to roll.

And don't even ask me to comment on Larry Brown deciding to coach the Bobcats. Unbelievable.

In closing, I would like to take credit for all of these moves [except Brown] on behalf of Mitch Kupchak. He set these dominoes a-tumblin' with the Pau Gasol deal which forced the Western Conference rivals to go out and try to make a big move to compete.

Well, so far, those moves to compete have earned their teams a first round postseason exit and a fired coach.

So it goes.