Mavs preview: Avery, Dallas to make most of lessons learned

About the last thing left for Avery Johnson to do to top off the bizarre start to his coaching career would be to tear up when he gets his number retired by San Antonio on Dec. 22, say he can't live another day without being a Spur again and quit his current gig in Dallas on the spot.

It's not going to happen, but you get the point. If the league's coaches were to get together to swap stories, Johnson might have to be considered the show-stopper based on what he's been through in two-plus years.

To avoid another early playoff exit, Mr. MVP needs to step up his game. (Getty Images)

First, Don Nelson hands his apprentice control of the Mavs just weeks before the playoffs get going and he goes 16-2 and wins a series. He's Coach of the Year in his first full season, reaches the NBA Finals and then coaches his team through one of the largest collapses in league history.

Dallas had Miami dead to rites in 2006 before crumbling completely. The fiasco included Johnson switching team hotels, adding to the ridicule of the meltdown, especially considering the swap of locations had absolutely no bearing on the end result. Last season, after flirting with 70 wins and leading Dallas to the NBA's best record, he ran into an ambush at the hands of his old boss Nelson. Again, the Mavericks went from league penthouse to league laughingstock.

How do you build on a 67-win season that was understandably deemed a failure?

If you're Dirk Nowitzki, you make yourself scarce after graciously accepting your MVP award, holing up with your mentor on the Australian Outback. If you're owner Mark Cuban, you go dance the mambo and the cha-cha and look sillier performing than the names of the dances themselves.

If you're Johnson, you stop and reflect. What could he have done differently? Not much. What could you change from an offensive standpoint? Again, not much. Devin Harris will be the full-time point guard, but if you want to get Jason Terry the floor time he deserves, you have to make concessions.

The Mavericks figured they had to get tougher, so veterans Eddie Jones and Trenton Hassell, glorified defensive specialists at this point in their careers, were brought in. They still lack an inside presence and have been without Erick Dampier all preseason due to an injured right shoulder. It hurts that Dallas lacks someone it can dump the ball to in the post, especially when you consider the competition features the likes of Tim Duncan, Yao Ming, Amare Stoudemire and Carlos Boozer, but Nowitzki just isn't that type of player and you have to play to his strengths.

In short, the Mavericks have to be who they are, regardless of the episodes that will play continuously in their minds.

Johnson, still an incredibly young coach at 42 years of age, will be better for all he's gone through in the long run and can take solace in the fact that all coaches, from Red Auerbach to Phil Jackson to Pat Riley, have had to alter their personalities in one way or another. At the same time, they've kept the essence of who they are and ingrained it into their teams.

Johnson can talk all year long about mellowing, but he's a bulldog perfectionist who has won 143 of 182 career regular-season games (79 percent). He's just got some work to do come postseason, but he sure does have a few epic lessons already learned.

What's he going to do with them? Anyone who knows the "Little General" will tell you he'll find a way to make the most of them.