Rick Carlisle is very familiar with the Indiana Pacers, having previously spent three years with the organization as an assistant and four as bench boss.
The former NBA Coach of the Year had many reasons to return for a third stint, including the club's current roster.
"This is my kind of team. As I look at the roster and as I've talked to all these guys, I have an even greater feeling that it's a group of guys I will have a blast working with," Carlisle said Wednesday, according to Michael Marot of The Associated Press. "I like the way they're talking. We're going to find a way to play better defense, and we've got to get back to the playoffs and win in the playoffs."
Indiana hasn't won a playoff series since reaching the Eastern Conference finals in 2013-14. The Pacers have exited in the opening round in each of their last five postseason appearances and were ousted from the play-in tournament by the Washington Wizards last May.
President of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard wanted his next head coach to have a proven track record in the playoffs. Once Carlisle stepped down from his position with the Dallas Mavericks, Pritchard's decision was an easy one.
"We're in a win-now mode, we're trying to win and so we identified some traits or characteristics we wanted in a coach," Pritchard said. "Those characteristics were, first of all, multi-year experience, we really wanted to have someone who had a championship pedigree and that can be challenging to find all of them in one person. What happened in this year's search is Rick became available."
