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May 3, 2008 8:40 pm US/Central
Mavs Like What They See In Carlisle
Former NBA Coach of the Year Prime Candidate To Replace Johnson
DALLAS (CBS 11 News) ―
The Mavericks met with former Indiana Pacers and Detroit Pistons head coach, Rick Carlisle, this week and called him a strong candidate and added he gave an "impressive, outstanding interview."
Owner Mark Cuban and President of Basketball Operations/General Manager Donnie Nelson really like Carlisle, Nelson said in phone conversation on Saturday.
"He has an incredible basketball mind," he told TXA21 & CBS11 Sports.
"The big thing he has is balance. He comes in with offensive flexibility. Everywhere he's been, he's put players in position to be successful."
Carlisle met with Nelson on Thursday and then owner Mark Cuban and forward Dirk Nowitzki on Friday.
Despite some published reports, Carlisle has yet to be hired.
When asked if deal was done, Nelson said:
"I wouldn't go there. I would say it was a very impressive set of meetings and at this point it comes to the hard part. We haven't talked about the money part."
Carlisle -- a former NBA coach of the year who had successful stints in Detroit and Indianapolis -- is the only serious candidate the team has interviewed since firing Avery Johnson on Wednesday.
"We've had a productive series of meetings," Nelson told the Associated Press.
"We're very impressed by Rick -- not just as a basketball coach, but as a man. We're looking forward to continuing our conversation."
The more they talk, the closer Carlisle likely gets to coaching Nowitzki, Jason Kidd and a club that's won at least 50 games for eight straight seasons.
Because Cuban was going through his first coaching search, there was only speculation about which way he'd go.
All indications were that Cuban and Nelson were going to take their time.
There is some surprise that the Mavericks are not waiting to interview other candidates such as Phoenix's Mike D'Antonio or Detroit's Flip Saunders.
But Carlisle meets many of Cuban's presumed criteria: A coach willing to let Kidd run the offense, perhaps with an emphasis on the "run" part, while also taking defense seriously, something Nowitzki stressed. Plus, he has NBA experience.
Over two seasons running the Pistons and four more with the Pacers, Carlisle has a career record of 281-211, plus 30-32 in the playoffs. He made the postseason his first five seasons.
Temperament is the one area Carlisle doesn't necessarily fit the expected profile for Johnson's replacement. He's almost as intense and demanding as Johnson, nicknamed "The Little General" since his days as a player in San Antonio. Teams frequently go from one extreme to the other when changing coaches.
Carlisle got his first head coaching job in Detroit in 2001-02. The Pistons won 50 games and was voted coach of the year. They won 50 again the next season, and reached the conference finals, but he was fired and replaced by Larry Brown. Carlisle went to Indiana and won a franchise-best 61 games, but again lost in the conference finals -- to the Brown-coached Pistons, who went on to win the NBA title.
The Pacers won fewer games each of the next three seasons, dipping to 44, then 41 and 35, marking the first losing record of Carlisle's career and Indiana's first in 10 years. He spent this past season as a broadcaster for ESPN.
Cuban and Nelson also like Carlisle's familiarity with Larry Bird and think that will benefit Carlisle in coaching Dirk Nowitzki. "He played on the great Celtics teams. He played with Larry Bird, he's one of his best friends. There are some similarities with Dirk in that he can post up and face up."
Nelson did not, however, rule out the possibility of hiring Carlisle without talking to other candidates, but went on to tell the AP: "anything is possible."
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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