I've always loved Josh more as a dude than a basketball player. Ben and I linked up with him his rookie season and have had him on the show on a regular basis ever since.

Not that he's Chuck Barkley now, but does anyone remember how bad he was at interviews when he was a rook? You could practically hear him staring at the ground.

But we didn't care. We loved the guy. He liked good hip-hop (same school as 9th Wonder), played his ass off, and was always cool to us. He took snaps with my friends and was happy to do it, signed a charity basketball for me, whatever we asked - he was down.

Just a great dude - what was there not to like?

On the court, however, he increasingly made me nervous. Don't get me wrong, I thought he was clearly one of the team's best players. But I'm not a big fan of the off-balance, off-the-dribble jumper with a hand in your face unless your Kobe, T-Mac or Bron Bron.

Josh had so much confidence after the Finals run that it seemed as if his shot selection suffered because of it. That, coupled with Avery's tendency to isolate him (I don't believe he's a great iso player), created a player who increasingly got away from what made him so great.

Josh needed to get back to cleaning the glass on the weakside, finishing in transition, catching the ball moving towards the basket off cuts or screens or getting it on the block (he'd developed such a nice drop-step and we virtually never saw it anymore).

What does all this have to do with whether or not Josh stays or goes? It's definitely not the reason you'd get rid of him. I think Josh's game is easy to fix and he'll benefit from a new coach as much as Kidd or anyone else.

But this team should have been broken down and built back-up last summer. Instead the team lied to itself about the reality of the weight of the Miami collapse and ended up wasting another year. The foundation proved too weak with the GS disaster.

But the front office didn't believe it and they are now paying dearly for it.

I don't blame them. Blowing up a 67-win team one year removed from a Finals appearance would have been a bold thing to do. But in reality, they should have had a better feel for their roster than they showed and they should have known it was the right thing to do.

Bearing all that in mind, you really want to give Josh another chance to see how strong his foundation is? My guess is that he'll recover from the bad second half of the season and "off-court" issues and be great for a long time. But the Mavericks are in no position to find out if that's going to be the case.

We all know drastic changes are needed that have nothing to do with the coaching staff. Because no matter who they bring in here, if the same guys that have shared all these disasters together walk out on the floor and see all those same faces again, what are they going to be reminded of?

Disappointment. Disaster. Failure.

Some of these faces have to change.

Not only did Josh make things dicey for himself with the weed monologues and locker-room party promotions, but he's the guy with the most on floor value in terms of age, contract and skilll level (assuming you plan on keeping Dirk which is clearly the thing to do). All immaturity reasons aside, moving JoHo will fetch you the nicest return.

On a personal level, I'd love to see him stay here. But as someone who follows this team very closely, I say you have no choice but to turn the page on the JoHo in Dallas saga.

But when they do, there won't be a "good riddance" from me. I appreciate everything he gave the team and I hope he gets his shine on wherever he ends up. Consider me a Josh Howard fan who'll hate to see him go, but one who realizes the time is right to part ways.