Rick Carlisle isn't officially the next head coach of the Dallas Mavericks, but if you believe his agent, that's pretty much just a technicality. From the Jeff Caplan in Ft. Worth Star Telegram: "A lot of this is about finding your fit," said agent Warren LeGarie, who is working in Greece. "With Donnie [Nelson] and Mark [Cuban], I think Rick has found a fit."The Dallas Morning News reports that LeGarie, who also represents Mike D'Antoni, has returned from Europe to continue negotiations. Both of these reports jive with the lastes from ESPN's Marc Stein, who cites sources calling a four-year contract a "done deal" and says Carlisle could be officially introduced Friday or Monday.
Nelson, the Mavs' president of basketball operations, reiterated Tuesday night that negotiations are moving forward and that he was optimistic Carlisle would soon be the ninth head coach in Mavs history.
Carlisle has taken his team to the playoffs in five of his six years coaching, including getting past the first round (a problem for the Mavs in recent years) four times. As my colleague Tom Ziller pointed out, Carlisle isn't exactly known for his offensive acumen, but as I see it a defensive specialist may be able to make more of an impact in a conference that boasts five teams that averaged at least 105 points a game.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-07-2008 @ 11:43AM
LB said...
He can coach. But I have friends that worked for the Piston's and I was told he has a very cold personality. He doesn't have the personality to stay anywhere long. He is a bad choice for the Mavs. They need someone to inspire them.
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5-07-2008 @ 12:45PM
g said...
the Mavs don't need inspiration, they need players with heart instead of ego...Terry is busy pumping up the crowd, Howard wants to party during playoffs, Stackhouse wants to trash talk with a HOF coach when he himself hasn't won squat...and Dirk, actually thinks he's a leader...as if the leader and MVP would let his team get beaten last year in the first round...this guy's defense sucks...lead that...
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5-07-2008 @ 4:18PM
MUSIC said...
Carlisle will burn out his players just like he has done wherever he's been.
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5-08-2008 @ 9:09AM
Jason(Dallas) said...
Anyone who thinks Avery Johnson is a good x's nd o's coach never watched Jeff Van Gundy call him out mulitple times this season for calling terrible plays and bad substituion patterns and if Avery is so great how come nobody else want to hire him?
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