He has a record of 555-478 over 13 seasons with Dallas and has missed the postseason only four times in his tenure.
“Rick informed me today about his decision to step down as head coach,” team owner Mark Cuban said via the team’s release.
Although the Mavericks haven’t won a playoff series since their championship in 2011, Carlisle has been a master of turning some truly mediocre Dallas rosters into playoff teams. The best example of that is in 2014, when the Mavericks pushed the eventual champions in the San Antonio Spurs to a seven-game first-round series with a roster that featured the likes of Monta Ellis, Jose Calderon, and a 37-year-old Vince Carter around Dirk Nowitzki.
“After a number of in-person conversations with Mark Cuban over the last week, today I informed him that I will not be returning as head coach of the Dallas Mavericks.
While it’s not clear what the driving force is behind Carlisle’s decision to depart the Mavericks, there’s reportedly been some “simmering tension” between Doncic and Carlisle that’s been a concern within Dallas’ organization, per ESPN’s Tim MacMahon.
Although Carlisle’s time with the Mavericks is coming to an end, he surely won’t be unemployed for long, with six other coaching vacancies around the league not including Dallas.
For the Mavericks, this offseason just got even more pivotal, as they bring in a new regime from the front office down to the coaching staff to try and make a deeper run in the postseason with Doncic as its centerpiece.