FanPost

Avery's mistakes

You have all seen my optimism toward the Nets future. However, I believe Avery Johnson has hurt us this season, with a couple of things. Here they are, listed.

1) Not playing Troy Murphy: We need a guy who can shoot the ball and spread the floor. The need was even worse before Morrow came back, we had literally NO shooting for a while, and there's a great shooter sitting at home. He rebounds at a very high rate, higher than Hump before this year, and he would have been a great compliment to Hump and Favors. There aren't minutes for him? How about this big man rotation.

Lopez (33) Humphries (25) Favors (22) Murphy (16). Give some variation to the bigs. A little shooting to mix it up a little. It's not as if we were tearing it up, why not at least try it.

2) Playing Stephen Graham: Seriously, is there anything offensively that Stephen Graham can actually do? He has literally NO offensive game, and while his defense has been slightly adequate, why glue Damion James' butt to the bench early in the year, and stubbornly refuse to start Sasha while he has been light years better.

3) Avery's attitude towards the rookies: "Hey Derrick Favors, if you don't do anything spectacular, you're sitting out, but if you go for something spectacular and it doesn't work, you're sitting out." Seriously, give the guy a break. Earth to Avery, we're building for the future here. One less win won't kill you. Damion James didn't play at all in the beginning, and while he was starting to play before he got hurt, you need to give your young guys some run. It's like he's never seen a rookie before

4) His stubbornness: Hey Avery, I know you want to keep the lineup the way it is right now, cuz we're playing well, but Graham and Outlaw need to SIT. Just because things are going well right now doesn't mean you can't touch the lineup, it's not glass. Nothing is so good it can't get better. START Morrow. START Sasha. Let Favors figure it out. A lineup of Harris/Morrow/Sasha/Favors/Lopez actually has some offensive punch, it's not all that bad! So DO it Avery, don't be so friggin stubborn.

5) His late-game strategy is sometimes so irritating: I know when you're winning you want to hold your lead, but you still need to score to win! Passing time is not the only thing to winning games down the stretch bud. There are far too many possessions were Harris dribbles around randomly for 22 seconds and jacks up an off-balance 3. Bad, bad basketball down the stretch. I admit things have gotten better lately.

So while Avery may not be the worst coach, he has certainly been irritating, and he could be more of a hindrance than a help in the future.