Dallas Mavericks president Don Nelson says Rick Carlisle
not going anywhere – NBA Update
The defending NBA champions Dallas Mavericks might have been swept away from the playoffs in the first round by the Oklahoma City Thunder, but that doesn’t mean that the franchise will do away with their only championship winning
coach Rick Carlisle.
Don Nelson, the president of basketball operations at the franchise, who handpicked Carlisle four years ago, made this very clear on Sunday;
"He likes us, we like him and those situations generally get worked out," Nelson said, "Rick's not going anywhere. This is certainly not the time and place to get into depth on that issue, but I don't foresee that situation changing."
Carlisle is at the end of the four year contract, during which he has led the team to a 198-114 regular season and 23-18 post season record.
After the Mavs were blown away by OKC, there has been some criticism on Carlisle as to how he handled his team and himself during the series. While Carlisle could have done better to control his emotions when the Thunder big were
ruthlessly and continuously man handling Dirk Nowitzki, the criticism on his coaching calibre seems unjustified.
It was only last year when the Mavs, apparently a one man team, punched above its weight and took down the likes of Los Angeles Lakers and Thunder before stunning the mighty Miami heat in the NBA Finals. It was Carlisle, who made
his team a strong knitted unit and inculcated a defense first mentality in them. That defense came to the fore when the Mavs literally choked LeBron James and Dwyane Wade in the Finals.
However, this season team owner Mark Cuban let go of some of the very important pieces – Tyson Chandler and DeShawn Stevenson - of that defensive network and the Mavs just didn’t have enough steel on the glass at both ends. The
offensive efficiency of the Mavericks also went down a notch with the departure of reserve guard J.J. Barea, who stumped opposition with his impact shooting time and time again last season.
Cuban’s moves have however left a lot of room in the Mavericks salary cap and come this year’s free agency, the franchise can actually shop for some star players, with Nets PG Deron Williams being the primary target.
Nelson admitted that even with a side not as strong as last year, they did not expect to be knocked out so quickly. He added that now the time has started to make some strong decisions;
"It ended a little faster than we thought, it was a shock to the system, really," Nelson said. "We've got our work cut out for us and obviously we've got some decisions to make with guys in the locker room and free agency and such."
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