Mavs Mutiny Mularkey

Eight Explanations For Regurgitated Rumors Of Players-Carlisle Conflict

Mike Fisher -- DB.com

    ESPN’s Bill Simmons has himself a bombshell – enveloped as it is by bubblewrap and velvet in the safety of his terrifically conversational “B.S. Report’’ podcast: The Dallas Mavericks players, he claims, grumbled through the “first two-thirds of the season’’ in some sort of mutinous mood regarding coach Rick Carlisle.

    A mutiny? And you thought being down 0-1 to the Nuggets was bad!

    Mind if we work up a logical explanation or eight here? We’ve talked to some people, we have some facts, we've reviewed our own notes and stories from all season long, we have some educated guesses and we have some logic.

    And our explanations for rumors of  a “Mavs Mutiny’’ now number eight.

    1 Simmons isn’t muckraking here; his podcast reveals him to be about as pro-Mavs as any national commenter out there (second only to podcast partner Marc Stein, who gets good-naturedly roasted here for being a Dallas sympathizer). So his belief that Dallas players were unhappy with Carlisle is at least based on what he believes to be factual.

   And indeed, there is a grain of truth to it. Truth, by the way, that we – even as unabashed Dallas sympathizers -- haven’t ignored.

   2 Jerry Stackhouse was not pleased from the start. It was made clear to him that while he was going to get first crack at a rotation spot, that first crack was only out of respect for his stature and status as a Mavs leader. But it was quickly evident in camp that Stack was not good enough to get any of Jason Terry’s minutes. It wasn’t long after that when it was revealed that he wasn’t good enough to play ahead of Antoine Wright. And eventually, Gerald Green was given a short tryout in Stack’s stead and JJB was given a long tryout in Stack’s stead.

   There were trade discussions. There were attempts to pacify Stack. There is the promise to “do right by Stack.’’

    But, God bless him, Jerry Stackhouse is a basketball player who wants to play.

    Ergo, unhappiness.

    Stack is also the sort to be vocal about his feelings. To teammates (including, I’m quite sure, Josh Howard, who might just have been Pied Pipered there for a time). To the media. To management.

    Remember the San Antonio playoff series, when Stack was in SA with the team ... but was granted a request to go home? He wasn't being a jerk; he just couldn't stand being a non-entity.

    And that’s where “unhappiness’’ put into words sounds like “mutiny’’ – especially if you want to be dramatic about it.

    3 I believe Gerald Green has spent some of his time this year being confused by his handling. I’ve never heard him grouse about it in my many discussions with him; he’s smart enough to say the right thing. But I would educated-guess that he believes he’s a point-a-minute guy in the NBA and that he’s been impatient waiting for Carlisle to recognize that.

   Carlisle’s bench-role theme all season long has been, “Just Be Ready.’’ That can be spun as a plus; it can be argued that the approach caused 15 men to … well, to just be ready. And then came the Spurs playoff series, and by gosh, a guy like JJB became ready to start and a guy like Ryan Hollins became ready to guard Duncan and a guy like Brandon Bass left a woozy San Antonio asking if anybody got the license-plate number of that Mack truck.

    So they’ve “Just Been Ready.’’ But that doesn’t mean they’ve all liked it – especially in the case of people like G$, who believes he IS ready, but hasn’t yet convinced the boss.

    4 I assume that Jason Kidd believes the midseason decision to give him the play-calling reins shouldn’t have taken until midseason. At this point  (even after his unforced-error role in the Game 1 109-95 loss in Denver) I’m about ready to be on Kidd’s side in any BBIQ-related argument. What, did Kidd suddenly become smarter after the Boston loss, thus justifying him becoming the play-caller?

    Nah. Kidd was always ready to make the on-court decisions. It didn’t take him half the season to get there; it took Carlisle half the season to get there.

   But that conflict is a matter of “trust,’’ not a matter of “mutiny.’’ And I can prove it:

   Jason Kidd KNOWS mutiny. Jason Kidd KNOWS how to take down a coach. Jason Kidd KNOWS how to win a power play.

   Ask Rod Thorn. Ask Byron Scott. Ask poor old Frank Zaccanelli.

  If Jason Kidd wanted to lead a Mavs Mutiny, we’d know it. Because either he would’ve come down with a mysterious case of the Swine Flu months before it hit, or Rick Carlisle would be sleeping with the NBA Coaching Fishes, if you know what we mean.

     5 Brandon Bass wants a chance to be a front-of-the-rotation NBA player. This is a fact. “The Animal’’ might want more money (I guess we can assume that), but I KNOW “The Animal’’ wants more opportunity to play. Now, does that lead to disgruntlement? Does an unhappy Bass impact the locker room in such a way that the whole place would lean south, away from the coach? Does Bass, as quiet as he is, even tell many people about this wish?

    I doubt it.

   6 They started 2-7.

   There wasn’t intense unhappiness for the “first two-thirds’’ of the season.

   There was the usual “why are we doing this differently’’ crap at training camp (par for the sporting course when there is a coaching or system change) and there was intense unhappiness for the first two WINS of the season – because it took nine games to achieve those first two wins.

   For a couple of weeks there, were there some guys in the locker room wondering whether Carlisle lacked a winning touch?

   Well, yeah. They were 2-7.

   7 Rick Carlisle is a guarded person and difficult to get to know. This is no “secret,’’ this is no “media cover-up.’’ We’ve chronicled all of this: He works extremely well in on-on-one situations with players. He is irritated by distractions. He is very confident that he and his people will be problem-solvers and has little tolerance for the problem-causers. He reaches out to people (remember last summer? Going to Germany to bond with Dirk, going to North Carolina to bond with Josh, going to New York to bond with Kidd?) but he does so for business reasons, not in pursuit of drinking buddies.

   As a young man, he enrolled in a Dale Carnegie course. We’re left to assume that he wasn’t the valedictorian.

    8 Dirk’s willingness to leave Dallas “if’’: This January 21 story from Art Garcia (formerly a Mavs beat writer now with NBA.com) might be the singular reason Simmons thinks what he thinks. In Art’s piece – rather outrageously headlined “Dirk Era Nearing End In Dallas?’’ – Dirk talks openly (guilelessly?) about his future. About how much he wants to win a title. About how much he wants to win it in Dallas.

    But the article speculates that at some point, Dirk might be to Dallas like Kevin Garnett was to Minnesota. And the article also suggests that at that moment Dirk hadn’t “connected’’ with Carlisle and that “veteran players are underwhelmed with the new coach's methods, including with practices they say accomplish little.’’

    If Art writes it, I buy it. But let’s consider the events of the moment – and of the ensuing moments.

    The Mavs started 2-7 (I bet there was some grumbling about practice then!) and they were 24-18 at the time (in fact, on exactly January 21, the Mavs were in the process of being so awful that they lost to Milwaukee 133-99).

   However. … then came Carlisle’s hiring of new assistant Darrell Armstrong, who renewed his bond with the erratic Josh Howard. And then came the trade deadline and (of course) Dirk’s name not being broached in any talks. And then came a post-All-Star-Break push that made Carlisle’s team one of the hottest in the NBA.

    And there’s your “mutinous’’ behavior. Old guys who don’t like being told they’re old. Young guys who don’t like being told nothing. A leader who had to wait a minute to lead. Backups who want more burn. Carlisle being prickly. A 2-7 start. And Dirk’s guilelessly honest assessment of those issues.

   Listen. In retrospect, we know what a “mutiny’’ against a coach looks like and sounds like.

   It looks like a party invitation during a playoff collapse in New Orleans, right?

   It sounds like “death by 1,000 cuts,’’ right?

   What the Mavs have pulled together to accomplish this year:

   *Gone 17-1 at home since the All-Star Break

   *Erased their 2-7 by going 52-26 overall next

   *Rallied to win 50 games, charging up from the threat of being ninth to being eighth, then seventh, then the No. 6 seed in the challenging West

   *Won 11 of their last 14 games against some of the NBA’s toughest foes, in some of the NBA’s most pressurized situations

   *Crushed favored San Antonio 4-1

   *Benefitted from J-Ho deciding to not give into injuries (his ankle prevented him from practicing Monday in Denver) to instead fight alongside his team

   A mutiny against Carlisle? Wake me up when KIDDIRK is feeling backstabbed and misused and “reprogrammed’’ and finally responds by speaking against the coach to the owner. Then we got us a story.

   But this season? These Mavs players may have needed the occasional kick in the ass – and Carlisle’s relied on the swinging boots of helpers from Mark Cuban to Darrell Armstrong to Jason Kidd – but it would be difficult to have gotten this far by being so disgruntled and so disturbed and so distracted and so mutinous.

   There are more tests of Rick Carlisle and his Mavs to come. There is no time to “mutiny’’ and now, hopefully, there will be equally little time to bother worrying about it.