Is Rick Carlisle really a good fit?
2:33 PM Sat, May 03, 2008
Tim MacMahon
Dirk wants a coach who will "open up the offense a lot more, run."
Rick Carlisle is the front-runner to replace Avery Johnson.
I'm now sure how exactly those two facts are related. Carlisle has been a successful head coach -- two 50-win seasons before a surprising firing in Detroit and 61 wins the next year in Indiana -- but his teams have never been elite offensively.
Basketball-reference.com has an offensive rating system. Carlisle's best team, the 2003-04 Pacers, ranked ninth. His last three Pacers teams ranked in the bottom third of the league, with the '06-07 Indiana squad at dead last.
Carlisle is an outstanding defensive coach. But is he the guy who can get the best out of Dirk and Jason Kidd? The evidence suggests otherwise.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Should I give you more evidence that Carlisle is NOT a better coach than Avery? Even after everyone not liking Avery on offense, we can go to many stats to show the Mavs offense was very efficient all the years under Avery. We cant say anything remote about Carlisle, and he was suppose to be the offensive savior for the Mavs?
|