Dallas Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle is one of the best basketball minds in the league, with a Coach of the Year award and an NBA championship on his impressive resume. However, even he is having a hard time trying to find exposure on the court for all the centers the Mavs currently have on their roster.
Per Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News:
Rick Carlisle on finding time for the 12 centers on the roster: “It’s almost like we went to Costco and got a forklift full of centers.” Actually, there are only five of them, but still.
Given how the league is getting smaller and smaller, Rick Carlisle really has no use for so many big men on his roster. Jeff Withey, one of their few offseason acquisitions, has hardly seen the court this year.
But it's not as if the big man options at his disposal are all deserving of minutes. Salah Mejri is serviceable but unspectacular, Dwight Powell has been a major disappointment, and the big man Carlisle is most reliant upon, 39-year-old Dirk Nowitzki, is now a huge defensive liability.
The Mavs coach also hasn’t helped himself by marginalizing the most talented big man on his roster, Nerlens Noel. He obviously has his reasons as he doesn’t see Noel putting in the work necessary to earn playing time, but given the Mavs' current situation, Noel is the one big man on the team who probably needs to be playing a lot more minutes.
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