Commentary

Mavs' Carlisle fine with rebuilding

The pressure to get better this offseason is on everybody in the Dallas Mavericks' organization, Coach Rick Carlisle included.

And that's OK. Carlisle will complete his 10th season as the Mavericks' coach on Tuesday in the finale at American Airlines Center against Phoenix.

He is blessed with a long-term contract and he's also been blessed in the past with teams that typically have been playoff contenders and sometimes even more than that.

Now he's going through this stretch -- 33 victories last season and sitting on 24 victories this season. It's one of those things that comes with the territory and all those zeroes at the end of his paycheck.

He's got a rebuilding job that is new to him, but something that -- like the players around him -- he needs to get better at very quickly.

"It's a big challenge for our organization to rebuild this roster to not only a team that can win some games, but a team that can win in the playoffs and eventually contend," Carlisle said. "It doesn't happen overnight. I knew that when I signed my deal, and it's a long deal.

"This is a challenge I have not taken on as a head coach. So from that standpoint, I welcome it. And I understand that there's going to be difficult periods. But we are making progress."

Carlisle is as respected as any coach in the league and there are a lot of people watching how this rebuilding process goes. And by the way for those Gregg Popovich fans out there, he's getting a little taste of adversity as well with a team that has had to fight for a home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs as the Kawhi Leonard situation has simmered all season.

Funny how even the best coaches aren't as good when they don't have their best players.

What matters for Carlisle going forward is that the Mavericks need to be smart. They need to be aggressive in roster-building. And they need to be lucky.

And if they really have to, they could live without those first two needs.

Luck can never be discounted. Look at the job Boston's Danny Ainge did in building the Celtics' roster. Injuries to their two best players have derailed a potential championship-level team.

Sometimes, you can do everything right and things still don't end up the way you would hope.

For the Mavericks?

Luck would mean hitting it big in the draft. Not necessarily by getting the No. 1 pick in the lottery. But by finding the right player -- the best player -- wherever they do draft.

Luck would be finding out that players like Yogi Ferrell and Dwight Powell can do what they did this season on a team that's winning a lot more games.

Luck would be finding a solid helper in free agency.

Luck would be having Seth Curry come back to be the sharpshooter he was in the second half of 2016-2017.

It's a lot to hope for.

But if they don't want this three-year plan to turn into a six-year plan, some of that has to happen.

"It [the season] has been unusual because it's been extremely productive in terms of the development of a lot of our roster, but unproductive in terms of wins," Carlisle said. "And so, we're planting and sewing some seeds that will bear fruit down the road. A lot of our young guys are getting experience. We're finding out a lot about guys we had curiosity about as they're getting opportunities to play."

Some of those players will be back. Some won't. But the Mavericks have to get those decisions correct.

Luck can help in other areas, but in regard to what they already know about players who have been here this season, if you don't know by now, it's time to cut bait.

Sports on 04/09/2018

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