Sam Smith

Story we might see in the next week or so?

Paul Westphal, who coached the Phoenix Suns to the NBA Finals in 1993 and who ranks seventh all time in winning percentage, is named coach of the Dallas Mavericks.

Westphal, a Mavs assistant, is known as an offensive guru who has prospered with uptempo guards and open offenses, which Dallas hopes to play after a second consecutive playoff disappointment under Avery Johnson.

Please, please, please, read carefully. I know this is the Internet, where any joke or suggestion turns into a rumor and then a story that someone said they heard somewhere.

And then it's BIG NEWS!

No one is saying Johnson will be fired or that Westphal is even in line to replace him.

OK, maybe I'm thinking out loud a little.

But with the Mavs having had no shot in the first round against the New Orleans Hornets, and now having lost nine straight playoff road games, the Mavs are reeling and perhaps headed for a major makeover.

Yes, Johnson has three years left on his contract extension, which makes it somewhat unlikely he'd be let go. And less than two years ago, he was the toast of the NBA (now toast?) as coach of the year and about to win the NBA championship in his first full season as head coach.

And then there was Game 3 in Miami.

About to go ahead 3-0 in the Finals, a deficit from which no team ever has recovered, Dwyane Wade carried the Heat back to a win. The Mavs were stunned and panicked. They changed hotels to run away from the media and they've been in relative seclusion since.

Often when the opportunity slips away, you can never get it back. The Mavs can't.

They never were a great team, though they had one great player, Dirk Nowitzki. But Nowitzki had one fatal flaw. Your best player usually needs to be a top defender for you to be elite. Nowitzki isn't. Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire aren't in Phoenix, either.

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But Johnson made the difference. His personal drive and motivational techniques, his demands and accountability helped make the Mavs greater than the sum of their parts.

They dove back into the 2006-07 season on a mission.

They were prepared for every game, a Johnson specialty, and many teams in the regular season are not. So the Mavs, with one true All-Star in Nowitzki, won on effort and team defense and waves of players coming off the bench flying at the opposition. It seems a simple equation and easy enough to do. But few teams do it. The Mavs never took their foot off the accelerator and drove hard to 67 wins.

Which was when Johnson may have made his second crucial mistake.

After playing one way for 67 wins, because the Mavs were playing the small ball Warriors, Johnson went with a lineup he hadn't used all season with Devean George at center. It was the beginning of the end of one of the greatest upsets in NBA history with the Warriors winning the series. But it also raised the question, probably most in the minds of his players, of whether Johnson trusted the team.

The Mavs went on to lose and stumbled through this season, making a major trade for Jason Kidd to provide that so called toughness they lacked for the playoffs. But Johnson again appeared to make a crucial, team-questioning mistake soon after Kidd arrived, sitting him for a final sequence because Kidd is not a good foul shooter.

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Like the first game of the playoffs in 2007, Johnson's thinking was not wrong. Many teams match small to Don Nelson teams. And the percentages suggest to get your poorest shooters off the court at the end of games.

But for a team that relied on effort and help defense and hustle, it suggested a lack of trust and support that could provide some answer to the Mavs' ineffective play.

Look, Chris Paul has been great. And perhaps the Mavs even at their best couldn't beat the Hornets the way Paul shredded them, owning the lane and beating the double teams. Johnson does make adjustments, though he is not known to do so as quickly in games, preferring to stay with his pregame plans.

Also, the Mavs are not a particularly athletic team. So they do have difficulty on the perimeter against a quick, young guard. Kidd was supposed to staunch some of that, but he's not quite the same defender at 35.

Kidd wanted a return to Dallas, so he's been a good soldier. Though it's clear Johnson is not utilizing Kidd's strength as a free form point guard since Johnson tends to be a controlling coach calling plays often. He's backed off some, but it does seem Kidd remains uncomfortable in the Mavs' offense.

After a meek fade against the Hornets, you get the feeling there's going to be a lot of uneasy people in Dallas.