You can tell Avery Johnson doesn’t like all the things written and said about his coaching style in Dallas. He did everything he could to distance himself from it yesterday, including Devin Harris referring to Johnson as “a dictator” when he doesn’t get results.
Johnson probably will lighten the reins a little, but the Nets need a disciplinarian.
“More than anything Devin Harris is a better point guard so I won’t have to dictate as much,” Johnson said. “It’s a luxury when you can sit down a lot of the game and allow the point guard to play because he knows the system, he knows how to handle pressure situations. A lot of games I was sweating.
“I felt like I was playing the game because I had one point guard in Jason Terry who wasn’t a traditional point guard. Devin was young. He was still a little wet behind the ears. I had to work at it. That’s what I was getting paid to do.
“As time went on, right before he got traded, he was able to take over more the reins and I was able to allow him to run the team a lot more. You look at Sean Payton. Drew Brees is a man’s man at quarterback. Sean Payton dictates the plays. But he doesn’t get criticized as much because he won a Super Bowl.”
As for Harris, Johnson believes he had him on the cusp of stardom before he became an All-Star under former Nets coach Lawrence Frank. Johnson said he’s going to work to get Harris back to playing that way.
“I felt [when] we had him…he was on an All-Star type of a level, right before he made that All-Star team, especially defensively,” Johnson said. “He was doing a lot of what Rondo is doing now - Quick hands, quick feet, charges. We have to get him back to that.
