DALLAS, Texas — It’s no secret as to why Mark Cuban and the Dallas Mavericks have retained Rick Carlisle for as long as they have. Rick Carlisle was hired two seasons after Avery Johnson led the Mavericks to the 2006 NBA Finals. Johnson was ultimately fired after being eliminated in the first round of the 2008 NBA Playoffs, which ushered a new culture for the Mavericks. Rick Carlisle was hired to lead the direction of that culture change, after having success as the Indiana Pacers head coach where he reached the Eastern Conference Finals twice during his first two seasons of being head coach.
Carlisle is going on his 13th season as the head coach of the Dallas Mavericks and his detailed oriented culture has settled in. Newly acquired players have expressed how impressed they are with the culture in Dallas, which should attest to what Rick Carlisle and this team has built.
Willie Cauley-Stein who re-signed with the team said “he loves how the organization is ran” and believes the Mavericks have one of the top tier organizations in the NBA, and as Cauley-Stein has said several times that he committed to staying in Dallas after purchasing a home in the DFW Metroplex.
Mavericks rookie Josh Green also spoke about how excited he was on draft night because of the great meetings he and the Mavericks had during the draft process. “I was checking with my agent to see what the Mavericks were thinking before the draft. When I got that call, my heart was beating and I was told the Mavericks were going to take me at 18. To be able to come to an amazing program like this, you couldn’t even explain I was pretty starstruck.”
Trey Burke who re-signed with the Mavericks during the offseason has had two stints with the Mavericks previously and he is excited to be back with the Mavericks again. “I think the system fits my game. I think the personnel from coach Carlisle all the way to the last player on the bench, I feel comfortable here. Dallas was always number one, Coach Carlisle has trust in me and believes in me. That was always comforting for me knowing I have a coach and whole coaching staff that is behind me, and really played into my decision coming back to Dallas.”
Veteran forward James Johnson has had stints with 6 other NBA teams in his 11 year career, spoke about Rick Carlisle’s approach to the game from an opponent’s perspective and if he has learned anything from coach Carlisle. “I’ve been going against Coach Carlisle for 12 years now and you learn a lot about from being his opponent, but just the first day of practice and the lessons he has, it’s easy to pay attention to that.”
Consistency is a major key to success in professional sports and can be a key component to building the concrete cornerstones successful organizations tend to possess. The Mavericks have the third longest tenured head coach in the NBA in Rick Carlisle trailing Greg Popovich and Erik Spoelstra whose teams both have had success in recent history. The Spurs last won an NBA championship in 2017, and the Heat played in the 2020 finals, and both organizations have a reputation of having a solid culture that players tend to fit in and enjoy.
All three coaches have won a championship in the past decade and all three are seen as the model in NBA circles.
The last team to win a championship in Dallas, chemistry was the key ingredient to their success, and most of the players all believed in head coach Rick Carlisle and his system. It is yet to be seen whether or not that will translate on the hardwood, but it sounds like the entire roster is in unison as we are t-minus three weeks from the season tipping off in Phoenix.
