According to some articles on ESPN, Ft. Worth Star-Telegram and the Dallas Morning News, Stackhouse claims he has many minutes left in his career and he's not getting enough playing time in Dallas.

Honestly I don't mind seeing Stackhouse go. Maybe you're not getting the minutes and play time when you don't produce anything for the team during such minutes.

Perhaps this is the time to not trade for anyone but for a draft pick, either a late first round pick or early second round pick is all Stackhouse is worth right now.

We have Wright and Green readily available to take his spot, with Green proving he is worthy to play that role and energy off the bench.

So there's some rumors or truth behind it that Mark Cuban stated that the players were the force that drove to fire Avery Johnson. He's stated that most of the players asked that if Avery were coach next season, they would want to be traded. It was mentioned most either spoke of this through generalities or through their agents.

Could this be the truth coming from Cuban? Personally I believe it's probably and highly a partial truth. We all could realize that there was tension between the players and Avery, but I'm willing to bet there was tension between Cuban and Avery as well that lead to his firing.

"I had a good time with Avery," Nowitzki said Thursday. "But sometimes I wish we had communicated a little more. We all know Avery ran a little dictatorship here. I think this league is still a league of players, not a coaches league."

Hopefully with the new coach and other changes in the coaching staff, Carlisle will allow Kidd to make a lot of the decisions on the court. What's really the point of a point guard not calling shots as he sees fit. Sure the coach can come up with a great offensive play but everyone who's played basketball should realize that it could change in a heartbeat on the court.

Players do need to adapt and have a little more control of what's going on. They're the ones playing. A coach can be a glorified fan that just actually gets to interact with the players up close and personal. At times fans can call the shots from the stands that make sense of what we see from a point of view but it just doesn't work out every single time calling shots from the stands and sidelines if you're a coach.

You can read more about Dirk on Avery here.

So there are some free agents available and it would be a dream if the Mavericks maybe got their hands on a few, maybe trade off some veterans or other useless players to get a well rounded player that could help not only score but also play defense.

Some of the choices include Elton Brand, Byron Davis, Gilbert Arenas (Wizards signed Jamison so he'll probably keep his word and stay with Wizards), Josh Smith, Emeka Okafor, Ben Gordon, Beno Udrih and a few others.

I think my top pick would be someone like Elton Brand. Although that would be a tough call since he was limited to 8 games last season and could be injury prone.

Byron Davis would be a good pick but he's too injury prone, plus with history against him and the Warriors two seasons ago, leaves a sour taste thinking about Byron Davis in a Mavericks uniform.

Gilbert Arenas would be good but like he's already claimed, he's probably gonna stick with the Wizards since Jamison resigned.

I think another top pick would be Josh Smith. He's young, could get him at a decent price and it would make it easier to clear some salary cap space for him. He averaged 17 ppg, 8 rpg and 2 bpg last season. He would be a very nice edition to the Mavericks.

Ben Gordon might cost too much and he seems more like a 6th man now, something the Mavericks don't need unless we got rid of Josh Howard or Stackhouse, maybe rotate Terry in as starter.

I also like Beno Udrih, kind of an unknown potential star. He could be a viable option. He averaged 14 ppg and 5 assists in 51 games for the Kings last season. He could be a great back up point guard behind Kidd.

According to an interview with DaSagana Diop, he wouldn't mind coming back to Dallas to rejoin the Mavericks. He is a free agent and supposedly Cuban is a fan of the 7 footer.

I would honestly like for Diop to come back if they could make some room for him. Perhaps get rid of Juwan Howard, Eddie Jones and a few other aging veterans that really do nothing but take up some salary cap space for the Mavericks.

It would be very good to have Diop start instead of Dampier in my opinion. He's young, motivated and better on defense. He could also benefit from Kidd and be an offensive threat with the right training.

According to the Dallas Morning News, the Dallas Mavericks are set to hire Rick Carlisle and announce it this Friday.

"The agent for Rick Carlisle says an agreement for Carlisle to become the new Dallas Mavericks coach should be completed Thursday and he is expected to be announced as the franchise's ninth head coach on Friday."

Carlisle will be the ninth head coach in franchise history and the only one to interview for the job after Avery's departure. We should probably expect some of the assistant coaches to leave if Avery gets hired elsewhere, which at the time looks like it might be the Knicks. But of course, Carlisle might want to come in and do a clean sweep with new assistant coaches.

According to the article, Carlisle will most likely sign a 4 year contract.

Everyone saw it coming. Two first round departures in the past two seasons for the Dallas Mavericks. Avery Johnson is hit with some type of playoff bug after taking the team to the Finals against the Heat three years ago.

Before the season ended this year and the team down 3-1 against the New Orleans, the heated debates picked up about how Avery needs to go. He ruined the chance with their new point guard who was suppose to lead this team far into the playoffs. But Avery was too controlling. He wanted defense, something this team desperately needed after the Nellie days of free flowing offense, which gets you nowhere. Take D'Antoni for example.

Now the Mavericks are on the verge of picking up Rick Carlisle, who has somewhat of the same type of regular season and playoff record that Avery had. This of course is after the Mavericks said they were in no rush to find the replacement, to find the perfect coach that will fit this core team as it was stated none of the players are going anywhere anytime soon, which is probably a lie as well.

Everyone blamed Avery for his stubbornness on controlling the offense. Now the Mavericks are going to hire a guy who is claimed to be just as controlling. Some are calling him the White Avery even.

I don't think Mavericks fans were provided the whole truth. I don't believe Avery was the problem at this point with the upper management making drastic and most likely costly decisions that make no sense. I think the only people to blame of the failure of the Mavericks at this point is the executives and owner.

Now with the rush to hire the first guy interviewing for the job, I'll probably be writing the same thing 3 years from now when we fail to get any further than the first round in the post season and Carlisle will be looking for a new coaching gig. I hope I'm wrong of course about Carlisle if he's hired.