The key to the rise of the Pacers comes from Carlisle!

This season's Pacers have become the most surprising team in the NBA. With the high-speed offense led by All-Star guard Halliburton, they staged many impossible fourth-quarter reversals. Carlisle, 65, chose to let go at critical moments many times during this counterwar journey, which is truly an impressive change for old-school coaches with serious and high standards in the past.

After the Spurs Popovich retired and Thibodeau was kicked out by the Knicks, Carlisle became the oldest coach in the NBA. As the head coach, Carlisle's coaching career record is 993 wins and 860 losses, with a winning rate of 53.6%, second only to Doug Rivers, who has 1,162 wins.

As the president of the NBA Coaching Association, Carlisle attaches great importance to his public professional identity. Before the finals, Carlisle spoke out for broadcast commentator Doris Burke, vigorously praising her contribution as a pioneer of female broadcaster. At that time, there were rumors that she would be replaced by other broadcast teams in the finals. After the fourth game of the series, the referees were criticized by social public opinion because of the game's penalty, and Carlisle took the initiative to support the referee team.

From some perspectives, Carlisle is a traditional coach who respects the NBA model quite well, but he is not stubborn.

Time came to the 2003-04 season. Carlisle coached the Pacers for the first time. The team mainly focused on defense. The team averaged only 91.4 points per game and lost 85.6 points per game. It was one of the three teams with the slowest offense and defense pace that season.

The Pacers then made it to the Eastern Conference Finals with a tough and slow-paced style, but the next year it fell into a dark moment due to the Auburn Mountain incident. Artest and Stephen Jackson were suspended for a long time due to a fight with fans. In the end, this powerful team that is expected to win the championship missed the peak, which also left regrets in Reggie Miller's career.

Compared with that year, the Pacers this season are completely different teams. The team averaged 117.4 points per game this season, ranking third in the offensive and defensive rhythm rankings so far. On March 27 this season, the Wizards scored 162 points, setting a record of 27 three-pointers in a single game in the team's history. The Pacers, who coached for the first time at Carlisle, have never even made so many three-pointers in a single game.

Such a change also reflects Carlisle's coaching adaptation and his ability to adjust special players. His tactical philosophy has planted the seeds as early as 13 years after he was coached in Dallas. At that time, the team relied on analyzing data to find lineup advantages, led a championship team with Nowitzki as the core, defeated the Heat three big players in the 2011 Finals to win the championship, and also coached two generations of offensive teams led by Jason Kidd and Doncic.

As the NBA entered a player-led era, the offense and defense pace accelerated, and three-pointers gradually became the core of the team, Carlisle began to realize that the head coach must trust his leading stars.

"I learned to hand over the ball to Kidd and pull it away, and he will lead the game. The same is true for Halliburton. I think the same is true for Dallas and Doncic back then. When you have players of that level, that sense of presence, that kind of basketball wisdom and game vision, you should let them do more of what they should do."

Of course, it is more simple than doing, and Carlisle is not fully compatible with stars. He publicly had conflicts with the team's defender Rondo during the 2015 playoffs. The team left Dallas after being eliminated in the first round in 2021. During this period, the team's core Doncic also showed dissatisfaction with Carlisle many times.

Returning to the Pacers in 2021, facing a young team that is expected to undergo a long period of reconstruction, Caral led the Pacers to only 25 wins in the first season, but after coming to Halliburton from the Kings trade in February 2022, the team ushered in a key turning point. Then, in January 2024, from trading in Kam, Carlisle got two of the most trustworthy cores and became the decisive duo for the Pacers to enter the finals.

For the current Pacers, they seem to perfectly combine the modern basketball model and Carlisle's traditional concept. Even if they can create miracles in every round of the playoffs, they are always the unfavorable side and are repeatedly slapped in the face. At the moment, they not only returned to the finals after 25 years, but even played in the final tiebreak with the Western Conference leader who had a 18-win record in the regular season.

Although the dialogue between the two small ball markets of Oklahoma in Indiana may not be the hottest team in the league's expected event ratings, the excitement of this series may be the most attractive round of the finals since the 2016 Yongqi War, which is also the finals that have been played for seven games once again.

The current series score has reached 3-3, and the Pacers are striving to win the first championship in the team history. After the Thunder suffered a crushing defeat in the sixth game, it is entirely possible to usher in the next game. The Pacers themselves still need to protect the rebound, control mistakes and avoid unnecessary fouls. When the single-point talent is relatively weaker than the Thunder, the key lies in the team rotation and Carlisle's key scheduling. Just like in the 2011 Finals, they defeated the more talented Heat Big Three with non-traditional defensive counterparts and bench rotation depth.

Borrow Halliburton's comment on Carlisle:

"I often hear him tell a lot of stories, not just the 2011 championship, but also the failures. He will tell him and Nowitzki and other players. We talked a lot about the process of winning that year, how they came through that year, how they responded in different ways and played an advantage. This is the best part of the playoffs and finals: you will have good games and bad games, but nothing is more important than responding to the next game. ”

This may be the truest impression of Carlisle in the Pacers' players, and he happens to be the most critical factor in the rise of the Pacers.