Carlisle will sign a four-year, $29 million contract with the Indiana Pacers according to reports and has tipped current Lakers assistant Jason Kidd as the right man to take over in Dallas
Thursday 24 June 2021 19:02, UK
The Indiana Pacers are hiring Rick Carlisle as their head coach for a second time after the latter left his position with the Dallas Mavericks last week, as first reported by ESPN on Thursday evening.
Carlisle, 61, will sign a four-year, $29 million contract, according to the report.
He will replace Nate Bjorkgren, who was fired on June 9 after a single season as head coach. Bjorkgren guided the team to a 34-38 record in 2020-21, and Indiana missed the playoffs after a blowout loss to the Washington Wizards in the play-in tournament.
Carlisle was the Pacers' coach from 2003-07, and he compiled a 181-147 record over those four seasons. He was also an assistant under Larry Bird from 1997-2000 before accepting his first head coaching job in 2001 with the Detroit Pistons.
The hiring comes one week after Carlisle stepped down as head coach of the Dallas Mavericks, the team he guided to its only NBA championship in 2011.
With long-term general manager Donnie Nelson also leaving the franchise after 24 seasons, it appears a front office rebuild is underway with owner Mark Cuban looking to reshape the organisation around star Luka Doncic.
According to ESPN's Tim MacMahon, Carlisle has publicly backed Jason Kidd - the veteran point guard on that championship team and current Los Angeles Lakers assistant coach - to take over in his place in Dallas.
"My hope is that Jason Kidd will be the next coach of the Mavs because he and Luka have so many things in common as players," Carlisle said to ESPN.
"I just think that it would be a great situation for Luka, and I think it would be an amazing situation for Jason. I'm the only person on the planet that's coached both of those guys and that knows about all of their special qualities as basketball players."
Kidd has head coaching experience with both the Brooklyn Nets and Milwaukee Bucks, but was fired by the latter midway through the 2017-18 season after posting a 23-22 record to that point.
As for an opinion on his new roster, Carlisle explained: "It's a team of skilled, unselfish guys that play hard. It's always possible that moves could be made before the season, but I think [GM] Kevin Pritchard and I are both very excited about getting the roster healthy and seeing what this team can be."
Carlisle had led the Mavericks since the start of the 2008 season and his 836 career wins are the third-most among active coaches, behind only Gregg Popovich (1,310 wins) and Doc Rivers (992).
In 19 seasons as head coach for the Pistons, Pacers and Mavericks, Carlisle has an 836-689 record in the regular season. His teams qualified for the playoffs in 14 of those seasons and were 63-70 in the post-season.
