NBA: Carlisle: Less PF minutes than ever for Dirk

As part of the Dallas Mavericks’ preseason game against the Chicago Bulls, coach Rick Carlisle spoke about Dirk Nowitzki’s role in the coming season.

Carlisle assumes that Nowitzki will spend fewer minutes on his traditional position (Power Forward) in the coming season – his 20th – than ever before in his career.Nowitzki is primarily supposed to be a center.

In the preseason Carlisle Nowitzki has started as a center, but Harrison Barnes “represents”the German at the jump ball.The Mavericks were very successful against the Bulls with their very small starting five (Dennis Smith, Seth Curry, Wesley Matthews, Barnes and Nowitzki) and won 118:71.

Carlisle, however, was already in a good mood before the game and joked across from ESPN reporter Tim MacMahon:”I just saw[Bulls-Center] Robin Lopez in the hall and told him that Dirk was going to beat the shit out of him.True story.”

The coach also announced that the “really old” players of the Mavericks will not be flying to Orlando for the next preseason game on Thursday.This could mean a better chance for newcomer Maxi Kleber, who spent 8:30 minutes against Chicago.