Offseason questions: Will the Mavs' offense flow without Stotts?
Earl K. Sneed writes that once again the Dallas Mavericks are in the position of replacing a key member of the 2011 championship team, after assistant Terry Stotts was named the head coach in Portland on Tuesday.
Offseason questions: Will the Mavs' offense flow without Stotts?
In back-to-back offseasons, the Dallas Mavericks have now lost their top two assistant coaches from the 2011 NBA championship team.
While the loss of defensive catalyst Tyson Chandler dominated headlines last year when the big man signed a multi-year contract with New York following the Mavericks’ championship run, it was compounded by defensive coordinator Dwane Casey accepting the head coaching job in Toronto.
Now, the Mavs’ offense has taken a blow.
Tuesday, the Portland Trail Blazers announced the hiring of Mavs assistant and offensive coordinator Terry Stotts as their new head man on the sideline, coinciding with the free-agent departures of point guard Jason Kidd to New York and sixth man Jason Terry to Boston.
Stotts came highly recommended for the job by Mavs coach Rick Carlisle, serving as an assistant in Dallas for four seasons. In brief stints as head coach in Milwaukee and Atlanta, Stotts compiled a 114-158 record before bringing that experience to the Dallas bench.
Stotts’ offensive philosophies in conjunction with Carlisle made the Mavs arguably the best ball-movement team in the league, leading the franchise to its first ever title 14 months ago. Now, while it is uncertain who will assume the offensive coordinating duties on Carlisle’s staff, somehow without Kidd, Terry and Stotts, the Mavs will try to improve an offense that was 19th in scoring at just 95.8 points a night.
But if Carlisle and his staff proved anything last year, it’s that the show must go on.
Last season, without both Casey and Chandler, the Mavs still ranked 12th in points allowed (94.8 points per game). The team also stepped it up on the defensive end without the two cohorts, allowing the fifth-best opponent field goal percentage in the league at 43.5 percent after Monte Mathis took charge of the defensive duties.
The Mavs will look for similar improvement on offense this season. And perhaps fittingly, the Mavericks will welcome in both Stotts and Casey early in the upcoming season in consecutive games, when Portland and Toronto visit the American Airlines Center on Nov. 5 and Nov. 7.
