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Avery Johnson couldn't motivate the Mavs this season. He admitted as much in his bye-bye press conference.

But Rick Carlisle hopes that something else Avery said that day at the Ritz-Carlton will provide motivational fodder for the Mavs. Or maybe Avery didn't say it, but that's not really the point.

Carlisle made a point to mention during his hello press conference that a local sports radio host mentioned to him on the air that morning that Avery declared the Mavs weren't a playoff team next season.

"I don't know if he said that or not," Carlisle said. "But I'm just sure that this is a veteran team with a lot of pride and that will provide a lot of motivation for these guys over the summer to get in great shape and come into training camp in the best possible condition to really go at this hard."

For the record, I don't recall Avery quite saying that. He declared the Mavs making this season a "miracle" and made sure to mention that the roster needed a lot of work, so you could certainly connect the dots and assume Avery is counting the Mavs out. And that appears to be what Carlisle wants his players to think.

A reader emailed me ESPN.com's John Hollinger Player Efficiency Ratings for the playoffs.

Anybody who watched the Mavs' five-game flameout knows that Dirk played pretty darn well. The PER, a mathematical formula that I trust but don't fully comprehend, provides further evidence. Chris Paul and Kobe Bryant are the only players with better playoff PERs than Dirk.

Here's how the other Mavs' ranked on the list of 141 players (minimum 6.09 minutes per game):

13. Brandon Bass
46. Jason Terry
55. Jason Kidd
74. Devean George
120. Josh Howard
127. Erick Dampier
137. Jerry Stackhouse

Check out this quote from Steve Kerr in the Chicago Tribune (via TrueHoop) about the coaching market.

"What's interesting is that there are no obvious candidates now. It's not like there are really prominent former head coaches out there. Once D'Antoni was off the market, it kind of changed things."

Avery Johnson has a better winning percentage (.735) than any other coach in NBA history, but Kerr doesn't consider him an obvious candidate or really prominent former head coach. I guess Kerr doesn't agree with Avery's evaluation that the Mavs making the playoffs this season was a miracle.

LOUIS DeLUCA / DMN

That depends on who you ask. Superstar columnist Jean-Jacques Taylor presents the case that the Mavs' best hope to be a legit threat is for Josh Howard to get his head right and regain his All-Star form.

Still, the best chance for the Mavs to become an elite team again is for Howard to become a star again.

Dirk is going to be on the All-NBA team again next year. The 35-year-old Kidd, though, is too old to dominate every night.

With the right focus, Howard can be among the league's better players every night. He's just now entering his prime.

Howard's age, talent and contract situation also make him by far the Mavs' most valuable trade chip, assuming Dirk is untouchable. David "Cosby Sweater" Moore elaborates on that possibility in this week's newsletter.

At the moment, it's my belief that Howard is the most likely to be moved. The Mavericks are taking a different stance in public. But don't be fooled. There is a high level of frustration with him among management and some of his teammates. As for Nowitzki and Howard being one of the better forward tandems in the league, that was the case the previous two seasons. Not this one. Howard's best games came early in the year when Nowitzki struggled and late in the season when Nowitzki was out. He didn't complement or play off of Nowitzki the way he had in previous seasons. That's a concern.

J-Ho might have made a favorable impression during Wednesday night's dinner with Rick Carlisle. And maybe Mark Cuban feels warm and fuzzy about Howard again after exchanging a few text messages. But the big question is whether the big German wants J-Ho as a teammate.

D-Moore mentioned the on-court concerns with the pair. Dirk said after Game 5 in New Orleans that he was "very, very disappointed" in the off-court drama that popped up during the series.

If Howard can't patch up his relationship with Dirk, the small forward will be packing his bags and trying to redeem himself in another city.

I made an appearance on the Kings' flagship radio station last night to discuss the possibility of Ron Artest coming to Dallas. The scenario is pure speculation on my part fueled by Rick Carlisle's comment that he'd like to coach Artest again, but it makes for good talk radio and blog fodder in markets with teams that are playoff spectators.

For the record, the co-hosts of the show were all for a deal that would ship Josh Howard to Sacramento for Artest and a spare part or two (the ironically named Quincy Douby?). They did think that Artest would improve the Mavs with his defense and toughness, though.

The Sacramento Bee's Sam Amick has a couple posts about the possibility on his blog. He points out that Artest can opt out of his contract, although indications from Artest and his agent are that it's unlikely he would do so.

However, as long as we're speculating on things that probably won't happen, just imagine if Artest opted out and came to Dallas at a discount price (midlevel exception). Hey, the guy does owe Carlisle for that whole Malice at The Palace deal that pretty much torpedoed the coach's tenure with the Pacers.

So there's a slim, slim chance that Artest and Howard could be the Mavs' starting swingmen next season.

On a potentially related note, Mark Cuban is excited that sports psychologist Don Kalkstein will be working with the Mavs again now that Carlisle is the coach.

I couldn't keep my eyes open long enough to watch Avery Johnson's appearance on TNT's Inside the NBA after last night's playoff games. But I did find the final few minutes on Ball Don't Lie.

It's basically Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson roasting Avery. The fishing scene is particularly funny.

AP

Jim Carrey is obviously a lot funnier than his lookalike, but Rick Carlisle displayed a dry sense of humor during his press conference yesterday.

He told a pretty funny story about his rookie year in Boston. He hadn't played in a few weeks when coach K.C. Jones told him during a timeout that he was going in the game.

"So I get my stuff off and wedge into the huddle," Carlisle said. "And I'm sitting there and K.C. starts drawing up a play. So he goes, 'Robert, you're here. Kevin, right here. Dennis, you got the ball. Larry, right here. And, uh, ... right here.'"

Carlisle recalled with a laugh Larry Bird introducing him to Jones after the huddle broke up.

OK, it's not ROFL, Carrey-caliber stuff. But not bad.

The funniest moment of the press conference came when Carlisle wasn't trying to be humorous. He was kissing up to Mark Cuban when he praised him for "thinking like a coach."

Cuban got a goofy grin on his face and butted in: "That's the wrong thing to say."

Wonder whether Avery Johnson cracked a smile?

The folks at our fitness blog are concerned for Dirk and Co. after reading Rick Carlisle's plans for training camp.

Don't worry about Dirk. He welcomes the work and won't have any problem getting prepared.

"I don't have a problem getting in shape," Dirk said. "I do at least an hour of cardio [per day] anyway."

Josh Howard, on the other hand, might want to consider adjusting his offseason routine.

From ESPN.com's Marc Stein:

It sounds as though June, July and August will be busy, too, with rumblings already in circulation about the Mavs hoping they can work their way into the sign-and-trade mix for either Miami's Shawn Marion or Atlanta's Josh Smith. They are likewise bound to be linked in trade speculation to Indiana's Jermaine O'Neal, given O'Neal's successes playing for Carlisle and amid a growing anticipation in Dallas that swingman Josh Howard (after last month's marijuana monologues) and former Carlisle go-to guy Jerry Stackhouse (who only has one year and $2 million guarantee for 2009-10 left on his contract) will be offered in various trade scenarios.

Shawn Marion would be a great fit on the Mavs' roster if you were playing a video game. He's a great rebounder and finisher who can defend several positions well. Not so sure about real life, though. You're talking about adding a player who expects another megadeal who never really accepted being the No. 3 guy in Phoenix.

A duo of Dirk and Jermaine O'Neal would definitely be interesting, but I'd advise to Mavs to think twice before adding an injury-prone big man with a max contract who turns 30 in the fall.

Josh Smith? Now we're talking!! He's a high-flying 22-year-old who would be a great fit running with Jason Kidd and can be a major part of this franchise's foundation for a decade.

VERNON BRYANT / DMN

Rick Carlisle has a reputation as a call-every-play control freak whose teams play a boring but effective style. That's certainly not how Carlisle came across in yesterday's press conference.

It's been written that Carlisle really isn't much different than Avery Johnson in terms of personality and style of play. But he sure sounded like an anti-Avery while hammering home the points that he's a humble guy who is willing to listen to his players and wants to adjust the schemes to suit the Mavs' talent.

"Well, I think we all know that Avery was a little set in his ways," Dirk said, making the understatement of the day. "He had an understanding of basketball very close to what the Spurs were doing when he was there, that's the slow, tough-nosed defense, slow-up basketball. Kind of hold the ball back, run a lot of sets, post up a lot.

"So I don't think a lot of talking got the job done. I think we just needed to go a different direction, and I guess Donnie and Mark felt the same way this summer. and that's what happened."

Carlisle has already opened the lines of communication and vows to open up the court. His Pistons and Pacers teams were primarily grind-it-out, post-up squads, but he figures it'd be foolish not to put Jason Kidd in position to do what he does perhaps as well as any point guard in history.

"You've got to play to your strengths and you've got to adjust," Carlisle said. "For me, this isn't about me coming in with my style. This is about me coming in here and figuring out what the roster is going to be and fitting the style to the personnel."