Carlisle intends to hit the ground running as Mavs coach

Carlisle is certainly trying. He had dinner plans Wednesday night with Josh Howard and was hoping to visit Howard's offseason home in North Carolina, perhaps hooking up with Jerry Stackhouse while he's out there. Stackhouse is the one player on the roster he's coached before, in Detroit.

As for Kidd, the two have only exchanged text messages so far, but Carlisle knows all about him from coaching against Kidd during six seasons running Detroit and Indiana.

"I'm going to get face-to-face with him shortly, I hope. Maybe play some golf with him, because I hear he's a fanatical golfer," Carlisle said. "We need to make sure we're going to put Jason in the best position to help our team and vice versa. Part of that is listening to what he has to say and his views of the game."

Johnson got the Mavericks to the NBA Finals in 2006 and a franchise-record 67 wins in '07, but wore out his welcome with consecutive first-round playoff flops and problems with Cuban, such as how he handled Kidd.

Carlisle's willingness to run seems out of character based on his body of work thus far, having gone 281-211 with teams that averaged in the low to mid 90s per game. The Mavericks have been 100 or more points nearly every year in their stretch of winning at least 50 games and making the playoffs eight seasons in a row.

Yet Carlisle brought up his ready-to-run mentality during his opening statement at the news conference.

"One of the things that drew me to this opportunity was the chance to work with a different type of team in terms of personnel," he said. "When you play with Jason Kidd, I think you got to open up the floor and you got to allow him to push it. ... I think the thing is you've got to play to your strengths and you've got to adjust. For me, this isn't about me coming in with my style. This is about me coming in here and figuring out what the roster is going to be and fitting the style to the personnel."

That roster, by the way, has seven openings, yet Dallas already is over the salary cap. Those expensive players are old, too, with Howard the only incumbent starter who will be under 30 (he's 28) and reserve Brandon Bass the only other 20-something under contract. Kidd is 35.

The Mavs also are without a first-round pick, having sent it to New Jersey in the Kidd deal.

"We've got a lot of challenges," Carlisle said. "But I'd rather be in this position than be with a lottery team hoping to get a few more wins."

Carlisle added that he hopes to sign several young players, perhaps some from overseas. He'd also like more 3-point shooters, saying those guys help cover up other weaknesses. He also expects to hire former NBA head coaches Dwane Casey and Terry Stotts as assistants.