Filed under: Mavericks, Western, NBA Rumors, Dallas

Rick Carlisle isn’t officially the next head coach of the Dallas Mavericks, but if you believe his agent, that’s pretty much just a technicality. From the Jeff Caplan in Ft. Worth Star Telegram:

“A lot of this is about finding your fit,” said agent Warren LeGarie, who is working in Greece. “With Donnie [Nelson] and Mark [Cuban], I think Rick has found a fit.”

Nelson, the Mavs’ president of basketball operations, reiterated Tuesday night that negotiations are moving forward and that he was optimistic Carlisle would soon be the ninth head coach in Mavs history.

The Dallas Morning News reports that LeGarie, who also represents Mike D’Antoni, has returned from Europe to continue negotiations. Both of these reports jive with the lastes from ESPN’s Marc Stein, who cites sources calling a four-year contract a “done deal” and says Carlisle could be officially introduced Friday or Monday.

Carlisle has taken his team to the playoffs in five of his six years coaching, including getting past the first round (a problem for the Mavs in recent years) four times. As my colleague Tom Ziller pointed out, Carlisle isn’t exactly known for his offensive acumen, but as I see it a defensive specialist may be able to make more of an impact in a conference that boasts five teams that averaged at least 105 points a game.

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