In Carlisle, Mavs Have Found Don Nelson 2.0

When Rick Carlisle first put his name on the NBA map in 2000-01, it was as the tightly-wound coach of a resurgent Pistons franchise. He preached defense, team effort, and collectivity; Carlisle even brought about a change in Jerry Stackhouse, then one of the league’s biggest ballhogs. But when he was fired in 2002-03, rumor had it that the players had gotten sick of his act. When the Mavericks hired him to succeed Avery Johnson, some worried that the last thing Dallas needed was another disciplinarian.↵
↵
↵So it comes as an incredible surprise to anyone who follows pro basketball that, according to the Mavs themselves, the team didn’t get another Avery -- it got another Nellie. From the Star-Telegram:↵↵⇥Through a hectic, sometimes emotional and often bizarre two months, Carlisle, for reasons ranging from injury to personnel inconsistencies and sometimes just his own idiosyncrasies, has deviated from a typical eight- or nine-man rotation.↵⇥
↵⇥
↵⇥He instead analyzes practice performances and trusts his instincts during games to pull the strings on an irregular and unpredictable, be-ready-when-you’re-called-upon scenario involving all 14 players. Eleven of them have made at least one appearance in the starting lineup.↵↵

And yeah, the players have noticed. Jason Terry refers to Carlisle as “a mad scientist,” which might as well be Don Nelson’s middle name. Dirk Nowitzki, prize protege of the former Mavs coach, made the connection explicit:↵↵⇥“It’s almost like with Nellie back in the day. He was liable to do anything. With Nellie, I remember my first year I was guarding Muggsy Bogues. With Rick it’s the same.”↵↵The Mavs have flown under the radar somewhat, as have most teams not stationed in Boston, Los Angeles, or Cleveland. Yet Dallas is comfortably over .500, and if the playoffs started today, they’d slip in as the seventh seed. All of this with a new coach, a team many felt was in decline, and the aforementioned injuries. Who knows, maybe the Mavs will enter the postseason as a forgotten team with a chip on their shoulder, a bag of tricks no one’s ready for, and an unswerving belief in themselves. Now that would really be Nellie redux.↵