Without top ingredients, you can make a Manchu and Han banquet! The success of the Pacers is inseparable from this top chef!

In the NBA world, many times fans are watching the stars' outstanding performance on the court, but forgetting that the team can win is also inseparable from the hard work of the team's coach. Just like this season, the Pacers played their own in the East without being favored. Many people attributed the credit to players such as Thales Halliburton and Pascal Siakam, but don’t forget Coach Rick Carlisle’s efforts behind the scenes. In fact, the Pacers' players are not as strong as they imagined, but in the face of such not-to-top ingredients, Carlisle, as chef, made a Manchu-Han full banquet. The Pacers' success is precisely a microcosm of Carlisle's coaching philosophy, and he has achieved many achievements in his coaching career. Let’s walk into Carlisle’s world together and see how he has come step by step over the years!

1. It is at its peak when it debuts, creating a piston steel defense line.

In fact, before becoming a coach, Carlisle also had a player experience in the NBA. Although he was not that successful, he only played in the NBA for 6 seasons in total, but he followed the Celtics in the era of Larry Bird and won a championship trophy. It is this player experience that made him deeply realize that as a player, when the team coach sets up tactics, the players' psychological changes, physical fitness allocation and actual feelings about tactic execution, which has accumulated valuable and rich experience for his future coaching career. In the summer of 1990, Carlisle, who was only 30 years old, announced his retirement and immediately reached an agreement with the Nets to become the team's assistant coach. Soon, he received an invitation from his former teammate Bird in 1997. Byrd had become the Pacers' head coach, and Carlisle also accepted it happily and became Bird's assistant, serving as an assistant coach for three years at the Pacers. In these three years, it was the most glorious period in the Pacers' history. Under the leadership of Reggie Miller, they reached the finals historic 2000. Although they still lost to the Lakers, they were quite successful for the Pacers, and this also gave Carlisle a lot of motivation. In the 02 season, Carlisle accepted the invitation from the Pistons and became the team's head coach. At that time, the Pistons only achieved a record of 32 wins and 50 losses in the 00-01 season, and had no past glory at all. The Pistons' lineup was generally mediocre. Billups, Hamilton and others have not yet arrived. There are almost no valuable players who can use except Ben Wallace, Jerry Starkhouse and Clifford Robinson. In this case, Carlisle emphasized defensive discipline and teamwork. By strengthening defensive training, the Pistons became one of the tough teams in the league in a short period of time. On the offensive end, he encourages players to share the ball rights, tap the offensive potential of each player, and make the team's offense more diverse. In the end, they won 50 wins and 32 losses this season, and the fledgling Carlisle also won the trophy of the best coach of the season. Immediately afterwards, the team won Billups and Hamilton respectively in the summer of 2002. In this way, the team's prototype of winning the championship has basically been shown. Carlisle also tapped the advantages of the two as much as possible. The offensive end was almost the two players playing, while the defensive end relied on the big-book to hold the ball up the sky, and finally won 50 wins again, and reached the Eastern Conference Finals all the way in the playoffs, only a short distance from the finals.

2. The second entry to the palace to coach the Pacers was ruined by Auburn Mountain!

Although as the head coach, he only coached the NBA for two years, Carlisle had become the hottest coach in the league at that time. Therefore, in the summer of 2003, the old club Pacers sent him an invitation, hoping that he could return to his hometown and serve as the team's coach. Carlisle chose to return to the Pacers without any hesitation. Soon, Carlisle created a very good system, with Jermaine O'Neal as the core, paired with young Ron Artest, Al Harrington, and Jamal Tinsley, and veteran Reggie Miller gave up the ball, willing to assist these young people, and served as the team's spiritual leader in the locker room. In the absence of favorability, the Pacers scored a top record of 61 wins and 21 losses in the 2003-04 season. O'Neal Jr. averaged 20.1 points, 10 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 2.6 blocks per game, becoming the top 4 position comparable to Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett. Artay even joined the All-Star ranks and became the DPOY winner that season. Although they failed to make it to the finals, they still put a lot of pressure on the final champion Pistons in the Eastern Conference Finals, which shows that Carlisle's coaching level is indeed quite successful.

Immediately afterwards, the team introduced Stephen Jackson based on the original lineup, and both offense and defense were greatly strengthened. In the 2004-05 season, they were once regarded as the biggest favorites of the championship. However, Atei's irrationality interrupted the team's prosperity. The Auburn Mountain fight directly caused huge losses to the team's strength. In this way, their record was only 44 wins and 38 losses. As a result, the team lost to the Pistons again in the playoffs, and the team's legendary superstar Miller regretfully announced his retirement. Not only that, this Pacers began to experience a series of chain reactions due to the Auburn Mountain incident. O'Neal Jr. began to experience a significant decline in the 2005-06 season due to injury. The culprit Arte was even sent away by the team. In the end, their record further declined, with only 41 wins and 41 losses. Although they luckily entered the playoffs, they were eliminated in the first round, making the team more and more patience. Therefore, after missing the playoffs in the 2006-07 season, Carlisle had to face the end of being dismissed.

3. Stick to Dallas for 13 years and become the greatest coach in the history of the team.

However, Carlisle did not wait too long and got another job. In the summer of 2008, the Mavericks took a fancy to his coaching level, so they also offered a four-year, $17.5 million contract to recruit him under their command. Since then, Carlisle has started his 13-year coaching time in Dallas. Under his leadership, the team has ushered in the most glorious era, and Carlisle has gradually become the greatest coach in team history. Although he failed to lead the Mavericks to a breakthrough in the 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons, he has been hovering in the first round and the Western Conference semi-finals, even so, Mark Cuban still gave him enough trust. So in the 10-11 season, Carlisle staged the most magical championship journey in the NBA. He not only found the best way to use Dirk Nowitzki, but also was very bold in using surprises in the playoffs, the aged Peja Stojakovic, JJ Barria of "a mountain in Puerto Rico", etc., and even Jason Kidd, who had always been not good at shooting three-pointers in the past, completed the transformation at the end of his career and developed three-pointers. With the outstanding performance of Marion, Tyson Chandler and others, they passed the championship this season and successfully completed the counterattack, eventually defeated the Heat led by the Big Three, and won the first championship in team history.

In just three seasons, Carlisle helped his new club win the championship. Since then, he has become a tactical master in the league. Although he is more rigorous in the team's tactics and playing style, he emphasizes discipline very much, and even King None has to respect him for three points. He has had huge conflicts with Rajon Rondo, but these are all flaws that do not hide the merits. Under Carlisle's leadership, the Mavericks have missed the playoff stage for only four seasons in these 13 years, and have successfully won tickets to the playoffs in each of the remaining seasons. Moreover, even though the team has always built a team around Nowitz and the overall signing is becoming more and more average, he can make the best use of the advantages of each player to help the team. After getting Luca Doncic in 2018, he immediately completed the core transfer, exerting Doncic's pick-and-roll, pass and other abilities to the extreme. In the 19-20 season, that is, the second year of Doncic's career, he was able to contribute 28.8 points, 9.4 rebounds and 8.8 assists, selected for the All-Season First Team, and helped the Mavericks return to the playoff stage. Behind this, in addition to Doncic's indeed outstanding personal ability, it is inseparable from Carlisle's careful coaching.

4. Returning to the Pacers for the third time, he entered the finals in just 4 years.

In the summer of 2021, Carlisle ended his cooperation with the Mavericks, and soon his old boss, Pacers, invited him again. Carlisle did not hesitate at all and returned to the familiar Indiana for the third time. However, the Pacers were in a lot of trouble at that time. Victor Oladipo, the core of the team, had already encountered serious injury problems. The new cores were Domantas Sabonis and Malcolm Brogodon. Although both of them were good at abilities, it was difficult to achieve enough results because the team's lineup was unable to meet Sa's needs at that time. So, they made a bold decision, which was to use Sasa as a bargaining chip to exchange the Kings for Thales Halliburton, who had not yet become a star at that time. Harry's arrival completely started the team's counterattack. In the 22-23 season, Harry was able to contribute 20.7 points, 3.7 rebounds, 10.4 assists and 1.6 steals. Carlisle seized on Halliburton's characteristics of being good at offense and defensive conversions and having a good passing vision, and built the team into a fast attack team, focusing on three-point shooting, running and empty cut without the ball, and defensive counterattack. Although he failed to enter the playoffs, he has laid a good foundation.

By the 23-24 season, the team's tactics were further improved, especially after the trade was obtained by Pascal Siakam. Sika's strong personal ability shared Harry's scoring pressure. Coupled with the growth of Mathering, Aaron Nesmith, Obi Topin, Nembahard and others, the Pacers not only reached the finals in the first NBA Cup, but also returned to the playoff stage. Not only that, they defeated the Bucks and Knicks in the playoffs, and eventually met the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals. Although they were swept out by their opponents, they proved Carlisle's success in coaching. This season is next. After many years in the regular season, the team won 50 wins again, and in the playoffs, it even played a very refreshing team basketball system. The team's total of 8 players averaged more than 9.4 points per game, making it the only team in the playoffs that can perform like this. What's even more difficult is that these players, including TJ McConnell, Nembahad, etc., are regarded as mediocre talent, but Carlisle was able to fully develop their abilities just like he discovered Barria 14 years ago, and finally successfully reached the finals. He fought with the Thunder until the tiebreak before he lost regretfully. Although he failed to win the championship, Carlisle's coaching ability has been proven again. As long as he is there in the future, the Pacers can still maintain sufficient competitiveness and launch an attack on the first championship in their team history.