Shades of Nellie in Dallas Mavs' Carlisle

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Shades of Nellie in Dallas Mavericks' Carlisle
By EDDIE SEFKO / The Dallas Morning News

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcont...e.2d46bf4.html

LOS ANGELES – When you hear the term "mad scientist" as it refers to NBA coaches, one name blasts into the brain.

Nellie.

Rick Carlisle is not a Don Nelson disciple. But he's smart enough to know that anybody who wins nearly 1,300 games in the league must know a thing or two. The way Carlisle has handled the Mavericks' roster is proof that he's not afraid to take a chapter from Nelson's unorthodox coaching style.

Carlisle mixes and matches players. And they begin to see that he's not just a coach flying by the seat of his pants, even if it looks that way sometimes.

"He's different like that," Dirk Nowitzki said. "I'm sure it's tough for everybody, but the only thing you can do is stay ready. I think that's what the guys have been doing. Whoever dresses can be out there.

"I think at the beginning it was a little hard on everybody. But now, they just see that that's how it is, and they stay ready."

Carlisle has milked Brandon Bass and J.J. Barea as a pick-and-roll tandem in the fourth quarter of recent games, and the Mavericks have prospered because of it, although it was largely ineffective Friday at Utah.

Carlisle put James Singleton into the rotation after he'd been inactive for six games, and Singleton ripped down 13 rebounds at Washington.

Antoine Wright and Shawne Williams also have played key roles.

It's something the Mavericks' big guns notice and appreciate, but it's not as if Carlisle has some sort of Midas touch. He calculates everything.

"I don't claim to have any kind of touch at all," he said. "I'm just a believer that when guys work and are engaged in what they're trying to do, then there's a greater chance that they're going to perform well when they get a chance.

"Fortunately, our young guys are all good guys. They're workers, and they're all smart. They pretty much know what's expected of them. And so, a lot of it really is on them. We've had some good fortune with guys who have not played much in previous games. But that's more a credit to them than me."

Indeed, it doesn't work if the players don't buy into it. They have to embrace the fact they won't always play. Gerald Green is in that situation now. So is Wright. Earlier, it was Singleton and Williams.

If a player shows up strong in a particular practice, he might get a few minutes the next game. If he plays with passion and efficiency in that game, his role might grow in the following game.

"It's a good sign for our franchise," Carlisle said. "It's important I think to keep everybody involved. It's hard, if you never play, to stay into it as much as you could be. A lot of these guys haven't played, but they've worked hard, and when they've gotten in, they've done well."

"We've got 14 guys who are proven."

There may come a time when Carlisle narrows his rotation to eight or nine players. But for now, the nine or 10 who play on a given night might change from week to week.

"It's definitely different," Devean George said. "But everybody has to adjust, and I think everybody has adjusted. Yeah, it did [take a while]. But everybody now knows what to expect, which is that you don't know what to expect.

"It has its good and bad, but the good thing is it keeps everybody alert. Guys think, 'I haven't played in four games, but this guy, he might start me tomorrow. So I've got to get my workout in, be ready and pay attention to the game, even if my number hasn't been called in a week.' "

And there is another benefit.

"If something goes well, he sticks with it," George said. "If there's an odd combination out there that puts a string of good defensive stops together, he'll stick with it until the well runs dry. That's great, whether you're in it or you're on the bench. If something's rolling, exhaust it."