Yeah, Carlisle's right; the Dallas Mavericks' future is at stake

Rick Carlisle swept into North Texas this week, and as far as first impressions go, did a total one-eighty on how his NBA rap sheet reads, which is a good thing.

As a seasoned NBA voice said Wednesday after listening to Carlisle's good humor and solid wisdom, "Are you sure that was Rick Carlisle?"

Until the DNA test is back, let's assume it's the same guy.

To hear Carlisle, personality-wise and basketball philosophy-wise, it was as if Big Nellie's stepson has teamed with Little Nellie to lead daddy's least favorite country, the Cuban nation.

I know, I know. What a new NBA coach says on hiring day, and how he actually plays it come gut-check time against, say, the Spurs in like February, we'll see...

But other than giving us all the PC answers, as we might expect, about Dirk, Kidd, even Josh, and about up-tempo attacking basketball, Carlisle had one comment that slammed home straight and true. Well, at least for me, because it was a quote generally underplayed in the local media.

He described his first training camp in October as "the most important one in the [Mark] Cuban era."

Bingo.

If you want to file away in the B.S. folder everything else Carlisle said, do believe him on that one. It nailed the Mavericks' situation, present and future.

Our most successful local franchise, by far, of this century is at a critical crossroads. Not even one of those devout Mavs' Fan for Life lifers can deny that. Carlisle is here to try and keep a good thing going, a good thing that built immense expectations but never quite delivered.

Cuban purchased this team in early January 2000, and, of course, it was a slum property at the time. Nationally, the Mavs may have been the worst pro team, any sport, of the entire '90s.

But for lucky ol' Mark, all the pieces for a massive resurgence were already in place once Cuban and his cash showed up: Dirk, Nash, Finley, Big Nellie.

A glorious night, at least for basketball mankind, in local pro sports history was May 3, 2001. On that evening in Salt Lake City, the Mavs won a playoff series with a huge first-round upset of the Jazz.

(I watched the Game 5 clincher in a St. Louis bar while covering what would be the eventual demise of our then best local team, the Stars. And, oh, yeah, Tom Hicks also fired manager Johnny Oates the next day, officially ending the only run of success the Rangers ever had. Meanwhile, the Cowboys were coming off a 5-11 season, headed for, yes, a 5-11 season.)

Until that 2001 night, the Mavs hadn't been in the playoffs since 1990. They hadn't won a playoff series since 1988. Thirteen long years of despair had ended.

For those fools who want to cuss Avery (Cuban, to his credit, is not one of those, at least publicly), or cussed Don Nelson when he left, your stupidity is showing. These kids today don't know the way it was.

The Mavs have had an amazing run. Eight consecutive 50-win seasons, one NBA Finals, and two Western Conference finals are on the ledger. And while it was time for this coaching change, for all the obvious reasons, it was good to hear Carlisle come in from the outside and state the truth:

It will be the most important and critical training camp of the Cuban era. Thanks for saying it, Rick, even while also walking the company line in bragging on the talent he will inherit. That's what new coaches have to do.

What a Cuban or a Little Nellie, or even a Dirk, want us to believe is nothing had changed. The Mavericks can still be a championship contender with the current cast. There is nothing, however, to suggest that is factual, particularly for anyone taking a good hard look at the rest of the Western Conference.

Giving the new coach only legitimate goals, Carlisle's job is to keep the Mavs competitive, keep them in the playoff hunt, and somehow retool the talent level on the fly. The first two items are certainly reachable next season. Retooling, however, is very iffy, and so is the future beyond next season.

Dirk is Dirk. Not a worry. But everywhere and everyone else, uncertainty looms. Can one good year be milked out of Jason Kidd in Carlisle's system? Josh Howard is what? Tradable? Jason Terry is probably not tradable, maybe not a bad thing.

One possible player for the future, Brandon Bass, showed up this past season. As I've mentioned before, the Mavs' one young hope was discarded by the Hornets because he wasn't a top-10 roster fit for New Orleans' roster. Is that scary? By the way, is anybody watching the Hornets-Spurs series? Does that kind of explain what the Mavs were up against in the first round, and what the Western Conference has become?

Buried somewhere this week in all the Carlisle hoopla was his "most important of the Cuban era" training camp comment for October. This is a franchise at a crossroads, with a lot of those roads not necessarily leading anywhere.

Then again, Rick, just win a playoff series --one series -- and you will be a roaring success, at least temporarily. Good luck, my man.

Randy Galloway can be heard from 3-6 p.m. weekdays on Galloway & Co. on ESPN/103.3 FM.