Rick Carlisle decided to step down from the Maverick’s coaching job, and for the first time in 13 years, will be looking for a new job. The 61-year-old coach from Ogdensburg, New York, leaves Dallas having made the playoffs in 9 of his 13 seasons, including leading the team to its solitary NBA title in the 2010-11 season.
Though the Mavericks made the playoffs in the last two years, they got bounced by the Clippers in the first round in both seasons, and that included dropping Game 6 and 7 this year after grabbing a 3-2 series lead.
His departure looks to be part of a major reshuffle for the Mavericks organization, who also recently announced the departure of long-time GM Donnie Nelson. It’s a strange state of affairs to be in, considering that their superstar Luka Doncic is in line to sign a supermax extension.
Carlisle’s resignation only further serves to add more doubt about the current stability of the Mavericks’ organization. According to a recent report from The Athletic, it appears that Nelson’s departure was, at the very least, influenced by the growing role of Haralobos Voulgaris, who’s been called owner Mark Cuban’s ‘Shadow GM’.
Doncic is rumored to have a bad relationship with Voulgaris, according to another report from The Athletic.
It seems that the Slovenian star isn’t particularly thrilled with Nelson’s departure, which doesn’t seem to be the best thing considering that he is the franchise’s future.
The Mavericks already had plenty of issues to deal with from a basketball perspective, including getting Luka Doncic the second star that he needs. They brought Kristaps Porzingis in for that purpose, but he’s proven that he’s not the man for the job – as he averaged 13.1 PPG, 5.4 RPG and 1.3 APG during the playoffs. Those numbers aren’t what you expect from a man that was signed to a $158 million contract extension.
Doncic averaged 35.7 PPG, 7.9 RPG, 10.3 APG and 1.3 SPG during this year’s playoffs, and also shot 49% from the field and 40.8% from three. His only bad stats were his 52.9% free throw shooting and his 4.6 turnovers, but his production far outweighs those problems. He and Porzingis don’t seem to have a great on-court chemistry, either.
So now, the Mavericks are looking at two important vacancies, plus a potentially disgruntled star player. It’s a developing situation that’s going to be interesting to follow in the coming weeks, considering the long period of relative stability that we’d seen from the organization for more than a decade.
Considering that coach Carlisle didn’t even mention Luka Doncic by name in his resignation statement to ESPN, there could be even more untold drama going on within the organization.
