associated press In the absence of an all-star talent at point guard, Rick Carlisle (right) has taken his point guard reclamation projects to a new extreme. Four point guards, including Devin Harris (left), have been major factors for the Mavericks this season.

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By Mark Travis

Soon Rick Carlisle will have to change the title on his business card from "NBA Head Coach" to "Point Guard Whisperer."

That's because the Dallas Mavericks change point guards more often than Mark Cuban updates his portfolio, with a new breed, fresh challenges and different riddles popping up each year.

The Mavs have had a new starting point guard every season since they won the 2011 title, and 13 different point guards have started at least once for Dallas during the past five seasons.

Jason Kidd kept the job in 2011-12 before taking off to New York for his final season as a player. Darren Collison replaced him, although Mike James and Derek Fisher also started some games in 2012-13. Then Jose Calderon had his turn for a season before the Mavs traded him in an offseason deal that brought Tyson Chandler back to Dallas. Jameer Nelson was the next in line for the job, but he was traded to Boston in the deal for Rajon Rondo.

Rondo represents the odd point guard who was not able to find his way under Carlisle's tutelage.

Rondo's short tenure in Dallas ended on a sour note, and the Mavs let him walk to Sacramento during the summer. Ironically, Rondo is in the middle of a renaissance with the Kings that may catapult him back into max player territory.

In the absence of an all-star talent at point guard, which Dallas hoped it had in Rondo, Carlisle has taken his point guard reclamation projects to a new extreme. Four point guards — three holdovers and one new addition — have been major factors for the Mavericks this season.

Deron Williams has been the catalyst. After spurning the hometown Mavericks for the Nets in the summer of 2011, Williams made his way back home to the Metroplex after agreeing to a buyout with the Nets in July. The Mavs were in the process of scrounging together a backup plan after DeAndre Jordan reversed course and sailed back to the Clippers, and Williams fell into their laps as a cheaper alternative to spice up their offensive attack.

Williams has rebounded after a disappointing four-year span with the Nets, averaging 15 points and six assists for the Mavericks. He has been one of the league's most effective attackers off of the pick-and-roll and is benefiting from what he called "a lot more positivity" in Dallas.

The individual numbers for the rest of Dallas' point guards are not jaw-dropping. Nine points and three assists per game for Raymond Felton, 9 points and four assists for J.J. Barea, 8 points and two assists for Devin Harris. But it is the collective spirit and rhythm of this motley crew that propels the Mavs past the sum of their parts.

Carlisle's system alleviates the pressure on the point guards to create everything for the rest of the team, a responsibility held by most of the league's primary ballhandlers. Felton has become a master at attacking the gaps once the ball reverses and Williams has been given new life playing against bent defenses.

The most astounding part of Dallas' point-guard merry-go-round is its ability to hold up defensively while playing such a small backcourt.

The dearth of shooting guard talent has made it possible for Williams and Harris to survive on the defensive end of the floor. Some teams will attack Williams or Harris in the post, but the amount of shooting guards who can score consistently on the block can be counted on one hand nowadays. Otherworldly one-on-one scorers such as Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady have been replaced by one-dimensional floor spacers such Danny Green or perimeter-oriented stars like Bradley Beal.

The Mavs know if they hold up defensively, the offense will always come. Well, at least until Dirk Nowitzki pens his retirement poem. The sprightly drive-and-kick system Carlisle has constructed around Nowitzki has maximized the abilities of almost every player Dallas has surrounded him with, and it is a big part of what makes the Mavericks one of the NBA's model franchises.

However, unlike the rival Spurs, who hit home runs in the draft to land four franchise cornerstones and recently signed their first marquee free agent in LaMarcus Aldridge, the Mavs have had to rely on making something out of players the rest of the league might consider undervalued or overlooked.

When Dallas won its title in 2011, Nowitzki was flanked by a collection of past-their-prime transplants and afterthoughts masquerading as role players, with Chandler and Jason Terry being the only difference makers whose contributions did not seem like a minor miracle.

Such resourcefulness is what makes Carlisle one of the sports' best innovators, a coach capable of masking flaws and magnifying strengths as well as anybody north of San Antonio.

Williams and Felton were on the verge of point guard purgatory in New York. Harris was bouncing from team to team. Barea was on a 3-year wintry hiatus in Minnesota.

Now Dallas' point guard quartet is helping drive a Maverick team many thought would drop out of the playoff picture to a 13-9 start that has it in the race for home court advantage in the West with a quarter of the season gone.

Mark Travis is a Sports Media major at Oklahoma State University and a graduate of Flour Bluff High School. He covers the NBA for Caller.com. You can reach him on Twitter @Mark_Travis and check out his other NBA musings at butthegameison.com.