Kevin Pritchard took a calculated chance when he hired a coach for October.
The Indiana Pacers president for basketball operations chose the well-known commodity.
Pritchard has hired Rick Carlisle, the Dallas Mavericks’ long-time coach, on Thursday. This brings back the 61 year-old NBA veteran to the same team that launched his head coaching career nearly two decades ago. Although Carlisle confirmed his decision to The Associated Press on Thursday, the team did not make any immediate announcement.
The Pacers believe Carlisle will bring stability to an experienced team that suffered a series of injuries last year. They lost and missed the playoffs for the first time in six years.
Carlisle will have the opportunity to fix the organization that he led from 2003 to 2007 and led to the Eastern Conference finals his first season.
He becomes the third Pacers coach within 12 months.
After his fourth consecutive first-round playoff exit, Nate McMillan was fired just weeks after signing an extension to his contract. Before he was fired, his replacement, Nate Bjorkgren had only one season as a head coach in the NBA.
The Pacers are also aware of what Carlisle is capable of — a disciplined and old-school coach who was Larry Bird’s assistant for three seasons during the most successful period in franchise history. These traits could help the Pacers improve their defensive play after they gave up 115.3 points per match, 25th in league last season.
Perhaps the bigger question is whether Carlisle is the right fit.
Pritchard admitted that Pacers players described Bjorkgren in their end of-season interviews as a micromanager after the embarrassing loss to Washington in play-in round. The issues were even exposed during an in-game shouting match with Goga Bitadze, backup center coach Greg Foster, and amid reports about locker-room drama.
Similar issues plagued Carlisle in his final season in Dallas.
Luka Doncic, a two-time All-Star, sometimes displayed his anger by making angry gestures towards the coach during games. There were also reports of tension between them before Carlisle resigned last Wednesday, just one day after Donnie Nelson was fired. Mark Cuban, Dallas’ owner, said that Carlisle made the decision to leave.
Carlisle’s overall tenure with the Pacers and Pistons is 836-689. He was 555-478 when he led Dallas to the NBA championship in 2010-11, with Dirk Nowitzki as its star. This made him the most successful coach in franchise history. Carlisle did not win another playoff series after the title run.
Six times the Mavericks were defeated in the first round, including last year and this year to the Los Angeles Clippers.
Cuban said that he expected Carlisle’s return next season. Carlisle decided that it was time to make a new start after Nelson’s departure.
Before taking over the job with the Detroit Pistons in 2001, Carlisle worked as Larry Bird’s assistant for three seasons. He was named the 2001-02 NBA Coach of the Year. Indiana brought Carlisle back two years later. He went 181-147 over four seasons, and was the East’s All-Star coach for 2004.
He played five seasons in NBA and was a teammate of Bird with the Boston Celtics in the 1985-86 championship. After his 1989 retirement, he worked as an assistant for ten years before finally landing his big break in Detroit.
