Point guards are supposed to be the on-court voice of their coach. But over the course of a Hall of Fame career, don’t point guards like Jason Kidd develop their own voice? Even if Kidd’s now playing under the ultra-vocal Little General, we can’t imagine that he’s going to be the one to change his signature style. Does that mean that Johnson is going to give the reins over to his new star?

From today’s Dallas Star-Telegram…

“Within the team concept, the point guard and the coach must have a relationship,” Johnson said, “and we have to figure out how we’re going to work together. I don’t think I’m going to sit down the whole game, and I think I’m going to have to try and help him get through this period. But I don’t think I’ll be screaming at him every play telling him what to do, either.

“The reason why we got him is he knows what to do. Maybe when I’m about to yell something, that’s a point where I can just be quiet. But I don’t think I’m going to go into some kind of cocoon and just not be available to coach.

“And hopefully down the road there’s going to be a day or a week or a month, there’s going to be a period where we hope to play like Phoenix plays in terms of the way they allow their guard to just run the team, or even now with Chris Paul — the way Byron [Scott] allows him to run the game and Detroit allows their point guard to run it.

“We hope to get to that point.”

Mavs assistant coach Paul Westphal believes that Johnson and Kidd are already on the right track. As opposed to the father/son rapport that Johnson had with Devin Harris, he looks at Kidd as more of a teammate.

Westphal believes that Johnson will make the transition, and it may be easier than some of us believe.

“A perfect example is in practice, Jason threw a pass away,” Westphal said. “Avery’s response was to the team. ‘You guys are learning. You’ve got to cut and be ready for those passes.’

“But J.J. [Barea] will throw a pass away and Avery will say, ‘What are you doing!’ If you didn’t know the difference, you’d scratch your head and say, ‘That’s inconsistent.’ Well, it’s a different approach for different people.”