Rick Carlisle to Mavs?

Dallas, Texas - The Mavericks, who recently fired head coach Avery Johnson, have continued talks about their head coaching job with Rick Carlisle. As of right now, Carlisle is the front-runner to become the Mavericks head coach.

Carlisle is a former NBA head coach, he had two successful stints as a head coach, one with the Detroit Pistons and the other with the Indianapolis Pacers. While, with the Pacers he won the NBA Coach of the Year. As of right now, Carlisle is the only serious candidate the Mavericks have interviewed. And those talks continued on Saturday.

"We've had a productive series of meetings," said Donnie Nelson, the team's president of basketball operations. "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 closer that both of the sides talk, Carlisle moves closer to likely coaching both Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd and a club that's won at least 50 games for eight straight seasons.

"Ourselves and Rick are gathering some information," Nelson said. "Both sides will analyze the situation and we look forward to continuing our talks."

Carlisle has told Mavs owner Mark Cuban, that he will let Jason Kidd run the team's offense, and taking defense seriously. Defense is somthing that Nowitzki has stressed. Carlisle is also, a former NBA player.

During his coaching career while coaching the Pistons for two seasons, and then four more with Pacers, he has a record of 281-211. His career playoff record is 30-32, and made the playoffs in his first five seasons.


He became the Pistons head coach, back in 2001-2002. That season, the Pistons won 50 games and then, was voted Coach of the Year. The next season, they won 50 games again and reached the conference finals. After, they lost in the conference finals, the Pistons fired Carlisle as head coach and hired Larry Brown as head coach.

The Pacers hired Carlisle as head coach, after he was fired by the Pistons. In his first season with the Pacers, they won a franchise-best record, with 61 games won. He then again, lost in the conference finals and that team is the Brown-coached Pistons; who then went onto win the NBA title.

For his next three seasons with the Pacers, as head coach, the team won fewer games (44, 41, and then 35)making his first losing record of his career and the Pacers first in 10 years. Last season, Carlisle spent the season as a broadcaster for ESPN.