Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas, Jeff Caplan column: Rick Carlisle is putting Dallas Mavericks in motion

Oct 05, 2008 (Fort Worth Star-Telegram - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- DIS | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- UNIVERSITY PARK -- And on the sixth day, the Runnin' Mavericks will rest.

Through five nearly three-hour practices to start training camp, there's been little time for a feeling-out process for coach Rick Carlisle and his players. The sense of urgency to get up to speed with an entirely new offense based on transition in the open court and motion in the half court has been too great to waste time on pleasantries.

So are Carlisle and the players seeing eye-to-eye after a week?

"Well, he gave us [today] off," Dirk Nowitzki said with a smile and a nod denoting agreement and appreciation.

Monday's practice will be the last at SMU's Crum Basketball Center and the final dry run before opening the preseason Tuesday night at home against Washington, an anticipated preview of the high-intensity offense implemented to play to the strengths of point guard Jason Kidd.

The 35-year-old assist machine might already be feeling the effects of the frenetic pace of practice. He missed Saturday's workout to nurse a stiff hamstring. Nothing of concern, Carlisle assured, but with a season centered on and catered to Kidd, caution is in order.

By all accounts -- and this early into training camp positivity is expected -- players are encouraged by the new direction and style of play.

"New life," Josh Howard said. "He's doing a good job. He's been out of work for a year, but he knows his X's and O's, so once he got in here he knew what he wanted to do and I think we've responded well to it."

Knocking the rust off his coaching whistle after spending last season as an ESPN studio analyst, Carlisle appears on top of his game -- especially with the media.

Asked if he borrowed pages from other coaches' playbooks for his up-tempo offense, a scheme he did not fully employ at either Detroit or Indiana, he deadpanned: "We're making it up as we go along."

Noting a sub-par practice Thursday, Carlisle acknowledged there would naturally be highs and lows as players adjust. Then he shrugged: "There's going to be days that we stink."

On the court, Carlisle seems to have found a steadying tone with players who are coming off three seasons of rapid success quickly followed by bitter disappointments under Avery Johnson, a hard-driving coach known as the "Little General" whom Nowitzki recently described as running a "little dictatorship."

"I'd say he's [Carlisle] a little more relaxed than the coaches before," Nowitzki said. "Even if there's some mistakes out there, he's trying to talk through it and really trying to teach. There's not really a lot of yelling going on, but we're all getting the point. We're slowly starting to get the offense. I think [Saturday] it looked a lot better than [Friday]."

How the offense looks Tuesday is anyone's guess -- probably at times sloppy and at other times exhilarating. Defensively the Mavs won't look much different. Carlisle has maintained much of the foundation set by Johnson with minor tweaks to fit his philosophy.

Offensively, however, fans will see an entirely different approach from Johnson's isolation-based offense. Carlisle's scheme puts bodies and the basketball in constant motion. In essence, instead of relying on players such as Nowitzki and Howard to create offense, the idea is for the offense to create shots for players.

"What Rick's brought here is a new kind of system that offensively is moving and cutting and free-flowing," said player development coach Popeye Jones, a holdover from Johnson's staff. "You're going to see high-speed basketball, high-octane basketball, which we know crowds like. When you have Jason Kidd, you have to play that way."

Kidd has the green light to push the tempo at his discretion after missed and made baskets. Swingmen such as Howard, Jason Terry, Jerry Stackhouse and others will run the wings seeking easy baskets off Kidd's passes in transition.

As the trailer, Nowitzki will be an option at the top of the key for a 3-pointer.

"This is the first time in a long time where you're told to leak out, not just to bail out," Stackhouse said. "When you've got a guy who is taking a long shot, you take off and put pressure on them to get back."

When the fast break isn't there, the motion offense is designed to keep the pace heightened by spacing the floor to allow Kidd room to read the defense and react by finding cutters drifting to the basket and shooters breaking off screens.

"In the half-court offense, we have a lot of movement, a lot of picks, a lot of cuts, a lot of back cuts, a lot of back doors, a lot of back screens," Nowitzki said. "It's constant movement. I don't know if everybody has a grip of it yet. It's going to take a while. It's going to take some games to know what we have."

Preseason opener vs. Washington, 7:30 p.m. Tues.

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