Late on Saturday, Dallas formally signed Rick Carlisle to a 4 year, $17
million contract as the new head coach. They had his intro press
conference yesterday (as Mark Cuban was out of town until then). Carlisle
has a long resume in the coaching field as he was an assistant coach for
12 years before getting his first head coaching job with Detroit in
2001-02. In his rookie coaching year, the Pistons went 50-32, an 18 win
improvement, and Carlisle was named as Coach of the Year. That team
defeated Toronto 3-2 in the 1st round of the playoffs and lost to Boston
1-4 in the 2nd round. The next year, Detroit again went 50-32 and made it
to the Eastern Conference Finals (4-3 over Orlando and 4-2 over
Philadelphia in the first 2 rounds) where they were swept by Jason Kidd's
New Jersey Nets. He was fired after that season as veteran coach Larry
Brown made it known that he'd like to coach the Pistons and they opted to
go with the more experienced coach (Brown was hired a mere 2 days after
Carlisle's firing). Indiana hired him as their coach for 03-04 and he
again improved the franchise in guiding them to 61 wins (61-21) - the most
wins in franchise history and a 12 game improvement over the previous
season. His team again made the Eastern Conference Finals (4-0 over
Boston, 4-2 over Miami in the first 2 rounds) where he faced his former
team and the Pistons eventually defeated the Pacers 4-2 (and the Pistons
went on to win the Championship). The 2004-05 season was a very
challenging one as "The Brawl" occurred in mid-November and the Pacers
lost a number of players to suspensions, including stars Jermaine O'Neal
for a month and Ron Artest for the season. Despite the many different
lineups, Indiana finished above .500 with a record of 44-38. They
defeated Boston 4-3 in the 1st round of the playoffs and again lost to
Detroit 4-2, this time facing them in the 2nd round. Lack of talent
[O'Neal is overrated, IMO] and chemistry caught up with Indiana for 05-06
and they had a record of 41-41 and lost to New Jersey 4-2 in the 1st
round of the playoffs. The Pacers also traded Ron Artest for Peja
Stojakovic [give yourself a pat on the back if you actually remember
Peja's career made a trip through Indiana] during 05-06 and then gave him
away for nothing following the season's end - cash and the draft rights
for Andrew Betts from New Orleans. Indiana only went 35-47 in 06-07 and
didn't make the playoffs for the first time since 88-89 and Carlisle was
fired. He spent 07-08 as an analyst for ESPN. His head coaching record
stands at 281-211 for the regular season and 30-32 for the playoffs.

I was a little surprised that the hiring process went so quickly (Carlisle
was the only person Dallas interviewed), but not by the choice. Carlisle
was actually the first name I thought of and the only one that I thought
might be a good fit (though the idea of Donnie Nelson taking over
intrigued me, but Nelson absolutely didn't want to coach). Knowing the
Mavs have not given up on this team (not going to blow it up and rebuild),
the team wasn't going to hire a rookie (even one with a long assistant
coach resume) or college coach. They needed a veteran coach who has
playoff experience. The only concern I had (and others, as seen by the
many questions from the press conference and other interviews) is that
Carlisle is known more for his defense than his offense - and the Mavs
need improvement with their offensive style. He is also a coaches' coach,
not a players' coach - intense and a disciplinarian (though no where near
as extreme as Avery Johnson was). He's said all the right things so far
and only time will tell if he can help shift the balance of getting Dallas
back to elite status or if the Mavs will continue to stumble and soon fall
into rebuilding mode. He hopes to bring his friends (and experience
assistant coaches) Terry Stotts and Dwane Casey on as assistant coaches
(both have had short head coaching stints).

Today Mavs season tickets holders got a recorded phone call from Carlisle
with a pep-talk (Great to be here, expecting good things, Mavs fans are
good, ..., "Go Mavs!"). [I had to laugh as I was working on the quotes
below when the call came in.]


Quotes (Cuban's, Carlisle's, Nelson's transcribed by me from the press
conference (selected comments since it was a long press conference))
Mark Cuban: "Obviously this is an exciting day in Dallas Mavericks history
where we're incredibly excited to have Rick come on board. I think he
embodies all the good things that the Mavs are expecting to accomplish:
hard work, ingenuity, creativity, well manicured and dressed - like the
owner - so all the good things in life. So with a lot of excitement,
we're - Donnie and I are here to announce that Rick Carlisle is now the
coach of the Dallas Mavericks and we're really proud and excited to have
him here.

Rick Carlisle: "Thanks to everybody for coming today. Dirk's here - great
to see you. Mark Stein, one of my colleagues from ESPN. [Thanks agents.
Thanks ESPN and talks about his time there.] And the one thing I've
noticed about ESPN, when you go in there, it is the most motivated culture
of getting it done and excellence. And one of the things that I thought
was interesting in conversations with Mark and Donnie, I got the sense
from Mark that he was about those same type of things. Last night I had
the opportunity to go over to the House of Blues with all the people from
the front office and the other office across town, and I just got the same
sense that this thing is about doing your very best and doing whatever,
absolutely whatever you have to do to get it right. And the thing I love
about Mark is that it was very clear early on that this guy thinks like a
coach. He wants all the best players. [Cuban interjects, regarding the
'coach' comment: "That's wrong thing to say."] He doesn't know it, but he
wants all the best players and he's thinking of everything possible to
make the team great. And so those are great things, obviously, if you're
a coach. [Thanks ESPN people.] I've been fortunate to have a 24 year run
in this league of being able to play, being an assistant coach, doing some
broadcasting, being a head coach, and I sit here today with great
humility. [Story about as a rookie player the coach didn't know his
name.] But again, I'm a very humble guy. And I've done a lot of
listening since this process began, both to Mark and Donnie, had a chance
to meet with Dirk and talk with some of the other players. And I'm going
to do a lot more listening before we decide exactly how to proceed because
this is one of the crucial periods of Mark's ownership. You know, this
next training camp is going to be absolutely critical to how we proceed
going forward. You know, we're going to have Jason Kidd from day one.
There are going to be probably a few tweaks in the roster. So we're
going to have to get it right, and we will. In terms of style of play, I
know there are going to be questions and I'm going to answer them right
now. One of the things that drew me to this opportunity was the chance
to work with a different type of team in terms of personell. I've
coached teams that were mostly inside-out oriented. You know, the
Mavericks have guys that can postup, but I see this as a team that's
going to be more spatial sort of from an offensive standpoint. When you
play with Jason Kidd, I think you got to open up the floor and you got to
allow him push it up. And our wing guys are going to have to get
conditioned to really run, because, you know, the thing that Jason Kidd
does better than any point guard possibly in the history of the game is
push that thing ahead. If you watch him play the past few years, to
Carter, Jefferson, those guys, you know. So JT [Terry], Josh Howard -
who I'm going to spend some time with tonight - I mean, these guys all
are going to have to get in great shape because if you're going to play
at a faster tempo offensively, there's an unbelievable physical commitment
to do that. They're going to find out that playing faster and with
momentum and such isn't just a matter of going out there and having a
little more fun, it's a lot of work and this will probably be one of the
tougher training camps these guys have ever had. So, I'm looking forward
to that. Having said all that about the offensive end, we've got to, I
think, be passionate and vigilant about preserving what Avery did here in
establishing the defensive end. I mean, this team didn't get to the
championship round until they really made a commitment defensively. One
of the real challenges of coaching is to be able to have a flow mentality
offensively and maintain a possession type disposition defensively and it
takes a special group of players to do it - but that's our mission and
that's what we're going to have to do. [more talking - long opening
statement] Because this is going to be work, no question. It's a lot of
work, a lot of sweat. And the summers that our guys have in terms of
their preparation and conditioning and all that are going to be absolutely
critical."

Carlisle on the roster: "This roster is going to change some between now
and October - I'm certain of that. I mean there are, obviously, free
agency; there are some guys that aren't under contract now. There's,
what, 7 or 8 under contract. So there will be some additions. One of the
first things you do in free agency is, in a situation like ours, you got
to identify guys that are going to be minimum contract guys. And those
decisions, you know, have become so important in the last couple of years
because the market for players in free agency isn't quite the same as it
was a few years ago. So we feel like we have a great situation here.
Players want to play for Mark Cuban and his franchise. Players want to
play with Jason Kidd and Dirk Nowitzki. So, you know, we feel very
confident that in a lot of cases that if there's ties, we're going to have
the chances to get the guys we want to get. But I like this roster. This
team reminds me a lot of the team that we took over about 11 years ago in
Indiana, when I went with Larry Bird to Indiana as an assistant coach. It
was a 39 win team that a lot of people had written off and thought that
the team had run its course and needed to be blown up and turned over and
everything else; and Larry came in there with a different approach, very
positive, gave the guys a lot of confidence. We came re-committed
defensively and, at the time, what was the best year in terms of the
history of the franchise in wins. Whether that's possible here next year
or not, I don't know. I do know never underestimate the pride of veteran
players, particularly Hall of Fame caliber guys like Dirk and Jason, that
are really committed to winning."

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

Carlisle: "I'm a long time coach and I don't use the word 'great' loosely,
but we got two great players on this team in Dirk and Jason. ..."

Carlisle: "My thing has always been if I got a point guard that can run
the team, I always let him run the team. When I was in Indiana originally
with Larry, you know, Mark Jackson was a guy who was a great leader and he
was like a computer coach on the floor. And when he was out there, we let
him run the show. And by empowering him, it energized the team. I've had
a couple of other guys. Anthony Johnson was a guy I had a couple of years
ago in Indy who was, again, had a real good pulse on the team and he would
take and whenever he would look over for help, we would help. I see Jason
as a guy who can run a team. You know, I just think if you look at his
history, he's one of the real winners, great winners in the history of the
game. So I'm not concerned about that. One of the reasons I like Terry
Stotts and Dwane Casey is that they've been with some different types of
teams. You know, the Seattle teams of the mid, late 90s were constructed
a little differently than the teams I've coached. And I just feel like
having their sort of experience will really help me in formulating the
right approach for the team. I mean, when you have Dirk Nowitzki who can
play 4 [power forward] or 5 [center], you know, that's a great advantage
because at 5 he's almost impossible to guard. And there's a possibility
that we can even play him at 3 [small forward] at times. We'll see, we'll
see what the roster ends up looking like. But I'm open to anything. But
the one thing that's not negotiable is that we forget about the defensive
end - that's just not going to happen. And, again, that's the biggest
challenge to playing a little faster offensively is making sure, you know,
that you don't just trash everything that's going on on defense."

Donnie Nelson on other candidates: "With Rick specifically, there was no B
plan. I mean, he's the perfect guy for this situation and we went with
him from day one. There was not reason to look any further."

Cuban on the coaching search: "... And it doesn't take long. Look,
there's only so many great coaches in this league that are available. And
we put together a list, looked at the top. We talked about it. You know,
you have a certain understanding, particularly Donnie has a certain
understanding of the guys and what they can do. And it was 'Rick', then
'What about', and 'Rick', then 'What about', 'Yeah, Rick', 'Okay.' So we
didn't have to play any games - until we had to deal with the lawyers."

Cuban: "And the other nice thing was we talked to Dirk, we talked Josh,
let JET [Terry] know what we were doing. Talked to Stack. I went back
and got a hold of Anthony Johnson [former Mav and played for Carlisle].
And every time we talked to these guys - we talked to Marquis [Daniels],
we talked to Darrell Armstrong, you know, guys who had played for Rick -
and without exception, it was positive. So, we're not into the games of
let's just drag it out, let's negotiate, and this. You know what, we gain
more value by having Rick here sooner, getting to meet the guys, getting
to talk to him, and getting a mutual understanding than trying to
nick-and-dime negotiate."

Dirk Nowitzki on his 4 hour talk with Carlisle: "I thought it would be an
hour, hour and a half, and I could go and eat lunch. Next thing you know,
we're there for a good 4, 4 1/2 hours. I was starving by the time we got
done."

Nowitzki: "He's been really communicative with me. So I'm looking forward
to communicating a lot. I think that's what Avery was missing a little,
the communication with the players individually. I think that's the way
to go not only find your way as a coach but find out what the players
like, where they like to catch the ball, what sets they like."

Nowitzki: "[Carlisle asked] what I liked. What do I want to improve on
going forward. We talked about a lot of stuff there. One of my
weaknesses I mentioned to him was my post game. We got up in the living
room and he started teaching me some stuff that Larry [Bird] used to do to
get easier looks and get himself going if there were nights when his
jumper wasn't going. So he's going to be great for everybody."

Nowitzki: "[Carlisle is] a very genuine and great guy and fun to talk to.
I love his knowledge. He's able to adjust to a lot of things. With the
brawl happening, we had a long conversation about that, which was an
absolute mess. He still found a way to win games and no one knew how. He
still got it done."

Nowitzki on offensive changes needed: "We need to find a way to make Kidd
more efficient for us. We did run some when the opportunity was there,
but in the halfcourt offense, besides posting him a little bit, we've got
to find other ways to have him put a stamp on the game. That's the
coach's job."

Jason Terry: "Coach Carlisle is a great coach. He has big time playoff
experience. His system is very balanced on defense and offense. He's
also well respected among the players because he's played the game. And
his calm demeanor makes him always in control, especially in adverse
situations."

Jerry Stackhouse, who played under Carlisle in Detroit in Carlisle's
rookie coaching year: "He's the best guy available and the best coach for
our team with our personalities. He's the best fit without question.
There are not enough positive things I can say about him."

Stackhouse on Carlisle's offensive abilities: "Rick is smart enough to get
it done. If you judge him from what he has done in the past, there is
reason to ask can this guy adjust to what the Mavericks want to do as they
go forward. But knowing him, he's a coach who adjusts and operates with
the personnel he has."

Stackhouse on the difference in intensity between Carlisle and Johnson:
"But when you talk about intensity on a scale of low, medium, or high,
he's more of a low guy while a guy like Jeff Van Gundy is high. This team
has already had that. It doesn't get any higher intensity than Avery."


patricia


--
Patricia Bender [email]pbender@eskimo.com[/email]
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