The Passing of the Don
I cannot stand Don Nelson.
Sorry. I was going to come out all nice, with the "I have nothing against Don Nelson personally," etc. Which is true. I'm sure he's a nice guy. But he's a terrible coach, and a decent general manager, at best.
Don Nelson began his coaching career in Milwaukee in 1976. He quickly became famous for a centerless, uptempo, "small ball" kind of basketball. It was revolutionary at the time, and he quickly earned the nickname "Genius". The style of play led to great regular season success, but little playoff results: he rarely got past the second round of the playoffs despite routinely winning his conference.
In 1988, Don Nelson went to Golden State, and had similar success there. He became famous for the "Run TMC" offense of Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond, and Chris Mullin. He had the same results as in Milwaukee: good regular season success, high scoring games, and little playoff success.
In 1993, Nelson made the worst mistake of his career: trading for Chris Webber. Webber and Nelson never got along, and things got so bad that in 1994 both left the team. Nelson then went on to coach the Knicks in 1995, which was also a fantastic failure, not even finishing his first season. Nelson ended up having a Nervous Breakdown while with the Knicks.
I honestly believe Nelson never fully recovered from his Nervous Breakdown.
I think the man is crazy. He doesn't make sense at all. No, that's not true. Sadly, I've watched Nelson enough over the years that he does make sense to me. Unfortunately, his logic is totally insane.
Nelson is a shrewd judge of talent. He drafted Latrell Sprewell, Tim Hardaway, Dirk Nowitzki, and others when no one else believed in them. However, he's also the man who drafted Manute Bol. That's the thing with Nelson: he WILL NOT think conventionally. He's always looking for the unusual pick. He's always looking for the diamond in the rough. It's like he's always trying to regain the "Genius" title by coming up with other different ways of doing things. Fortunately, he is a good enough judge of talent that it does work, and often to fantastic results. Unfortunately, when you are always looking for a diamond, it's easy to pick up a stinky piece of coal. So when he doesn't find a Dirk, Nelson quite often fails miserably.
Nelson has been given a lot of credit for the turnaround in Dallas. He deserves a lot of the blame, too. Nelson's first 3 seasons in Dallas were all under .500. You wouldn't BELIEVE some of the players he brought in here...the foremost, of course, and the one I'll never forgive him for, is his favorite gimmick, Shawn Bradley. Thank God that drafting Dirk and trading for Nash panned out, because otherwise the Mavs would still be sucking. As good as the Mavs have been, those two moves are the only ones that have truly panned out for Nelson (Finley was already here).
And don't even get me started on his coaching style. The definition of beating one's head against the wall is Don Nelson coaching. A true "Genius" or great coach tinkers with his philosophy to match his players, and to take his team to the next level. Nelson is incapable or unwilling to adjust his coaching style to take the Mavs to the next level. He is Hell bent on winning without defense or rebounding. It's like he doesn't want to win that way, because that will prove all of his detractors correct. For years, people have said that his style of play is nice to win some games, but will never win you a title. Well, after 19 years of trying, guess what: they're right!
Nelson is right about one thing. The Mavs have responded MUCH better to Avery Johnson than him this season. It's partly because Nelson has never been interested in coaching this season; he quit on this team a long time ago. It's also partly because--even with his lack of experience--AJ is a better coach. I'm glad Johnson was an assistant under Nelson. He picked up valuable offensive coaching experience from him. Fortunately, AJ's years on the Spurs taught him that you need good defense and rebounding to win a championship, too. The Mavericks are a REMARKABLY different team with Johnson at the helm. It's great to see. Sure, he's going to have growing pains, and make some mistakes. But I'd take him over Don Nelson any day of the week.
So goodbye and good riddance, Don Nelson. I don't hate you; the Mavs did turn around while you were here, and you do deserve some credit for that. However, you don't deserve near the credit you've received, and you should have left a long time ago. I won't miss you.
Sorry. I was going to come out all nice, with the "I have nothing against Don Nelson personally," etc. Which is true. I'm sure he's a nice guy. But he's a terrible coach, and a decent general manager, at best.
Don Nelson began his coaching career in Milwaukee in 1976. He quickly became famous for a centerless, uptempo, "small ball" kind of basketball. It was revolutionary at the time, and he quickly earned the nickname "Genius". The style of play led to great regular season success, but little playoff results: he rarely got past the second round of the playoffs despite routinely winning his conference.
In 1988, Don Nelson went to Golden State, and had similar success there. He became famous for the "Run TMC" offense of Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond, and Chris Mullin. He had the same results as in Milwaukee: good regular season success, high scoring games, and little playoff success.
In 1993, Nelson made the worst mistake of his career: trading for Chris Webber. Webber and Nelson never got along, and things got so bad that in 1994 both left the team. Nelson then went on to coach the Knicks in 1995, which was also a fantastic failure, not even finishing his first season. Nelson ended up having a Nervous Breakdown while with the Knicks.
I honestly believe Nelson never fully recovered from his Nervous Breakdown.
I think the man is crazy. He doesn't make sense at all. No, that's not true. Sadly, I've watched Nelson enough over the years that he does make sense to me. Unfortunately, his logic is totally insane.
Nelson is a shrewd judge of talent. He drafted Latrell Sprewell, Tim Hardaway, Dirk Nowitzki, and others when no one else believed in them. However, he's also the man who drafted Manute Bol. That's the thing with Nelson: he WILL NOT think conventionally. He's always looking for the unusual pick. He's always looking for the diamond in the rough. It's like he's always trying to regain the "Genius" title by coming up with other different ways of doing things. Fortunately, he is a good enough judge of talent that it does work, and often to fantastic results. Unfortunately, when you are always looking for a diamond, it's easy to pick up a stinky piece of coal. So when he doesn't find a Dirk, Nelson quite often fails miserably.
Nelson has been given a lot of credit for the turnaround in Dallas. He deserves a lot of the blame, too. Nelson's first 3 seasons in Dallas were all under .500. You wouldn't BELIEVE some of the players he brought in here...the foremost, of course, and the one I'll never forgive him for, is his favorite gimmick, Shawn Bradley. Thank God that drafting Dirk and trading for Nash panned out, because otherwise the Mavs would still be sucking. As good as the Mavs have been, those two moves are the only ones that have truly panned out for Nelson (Finley was already here).
And don't even get me started on his coaching style. The definition of beating one's head against the wall is Don Nelson coaching. A true "Genius" or great coach tinkers with his philosophy to match his players, and to take his team to the next level. Nelson is incapable or unwilling to adjust his coaching style to take the Mavs to the next level. He is Hell bent on winning without defense or rebounding. It's like he doesn't want to win that way, because that will prove all of his detractors correct. For years, people have said that his style of play is nice to win some games, but will never win you a title. Well, after 19 years of trying, guess what: they're right!
Nelson is right about one thing. The Mavs have responded MUCH better to Avery Johnson than him this season. It's partly because Nelson has never been interested in coaching this season; he quit on this team a long time ago. It's also partly because--even with his lack of experience--AJ is a better coach. I'm glad Johnson was an assistant under Nelson. He picked up valuable offensive coaching experience from him. Fortunately, AJ's years on the Spurs taught him that you need good defense and rebounding to win a championship, too. The Mavericks are a REMARKABLY different team with Johnson at the helm. It's great to see. Sure, he's going to have growing pains, and make some mistakes. But I'd take him over Don Nelson any day of the week.
So goodbye and good riddance, Don Nelson. I don't hate you; the Mavs did turn around while you were here, and you do deserve some credit for that. However, you don't deserve near the credit you've received, and you should have left a long time ago. I won't miss you.
posted by Michael Pondrom at 8:26 AM
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