A week from Sunday, four days into his franchise-record 12th season as Mavericks coach, Rick Carlisle quietly will reach a different kind of milestone.

His 60th birthday.

Of the NBA’s 30 coaches, Carlisle — believe it or not — is only the seventh-oldest. He’s a full decade younger than San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich.

Carlisle is laser-focused on this much-anticipated Mavericks season, which will spotlight the pairing of Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis. Carlisle generally loathes questions about himself, especially those that require looking back, but this particular topic melds past with present.

It’s the Mavericks’ 2011 NBA title run, not the championship itself, but the manner in which Dallas seized it, with a single-star roster and a little-known offense that proved to be revolutionary, an offense that is more conceptual than X-and-O-tangible.

Back in 2011 the Mavericks called it the Flow offense. Two seasons ago, Carlisle and his staff began calling it Pace to emphasize the Mavericks’ desired tempo.

How transformative is it? By conservative estimate, at least two-thirds of NBA teams now employ at least some elements of it.

“If you look at the evolution of the league since we won our championship, almost all teams have gone to the Flow, where you have these hybrid guys on the floor,” says Jason Terry, one of the Mavericks’ 2011 NBA finals heroes.

“I don’t know what the percentage is, but definitely over half,” says Detroit coach Dwane Casey, a lead assistant on the 2010-11 Mavericks staff. “We call it Open. Somebody else calls it Basic. Other teams call it different things.

“In 2011 it was new to everybody, playing in Flow, no play calls. Rick figured out a long time ago that the league is so well-scouted and sophisticated that as soon as you call out a play, teams sit on it. But if you’re playing in Flow, it’s hard to scout. It’s hard to understand.”

Casey says the greatest challenge is finding players who are intelligent enough to understand Flow concepts; intuitive enough to react to defensive coverages and anticipate how teammates will respond; and ideally be able to shoot 3-pointers and beat opponents off the dribble.

The 2010-11 Mavericks sent only one player, 32-year-old Dirk Nowitzki, to that season’s All-Star Game. But they had a savvy point guard in 37-year-old Jason Kidd, a light-it-up sixth man (Terry), unselfish role players such as Shawn Marion and DeShawn Stevenson, and quintessential Flow-offense center Tyson Chandler.

“Tyson was a great center who really understood the importance of screening and rolling,” Carlisle says. “He was a constant source of energy for the team.

“It was really important to play that style with a guy like Dirk. When people knew what you were doing, they could lock into him. We needed a mode of play that was going to be unpredictable and was going to be determined by players on the floor — and not the coach.”

Roots of the Flow

The seeds that ultimately germinated into the Flow offense were planted over a span of decades, during Carlisle’s formative basketball years in Upstate New York in the 1970s through his May 9, 2008, hiring by the Mavericks.

“I hate calling plays,” Carlisle says. “I grew up playing pickup basketball with guys that were feel-for-the-game-type players. I loved playing that style of basketball.”

After playing at Virginia, where he co-captained the Cavaliers’ 1984 Final Four team, Carlisle was drafted by Boston, the franchise that weaponized the fast break into a late-1950s through ’60s dynasty under fabled coach Red Auerbach.

The Celtics and Showtime Lakers dominated the 1980s with up-tempo, fan-pleasing styles, but the 1990s gave way to the physical, grind-it-out Detroit Pistons; and the Tex Winter/Phil Jackson triangle offense in Chicago, which resumed when Jackson’s Lakers won the first three championships of the 2000s.

That was the backdrop into which Carlisle stepped as a Nets, Blazers and Pacers assistant in the 1990s. After becoming a head coach in 2001, taking Detroit to the Eastern Conference final in 2003 and Indiana to the following season’s conference final, his teams were characterized by staunch defense.

Perhaps the next phase of Flow-offense seed-planting occurred during Carlisle’s 2007-2008 season coaching hiatus, when he worked as an ESPN studio analyst and spent training camp with the Phoenix Suns and coach Mike D’Antoni, architect of the high-octane “Seven Seconds or Less” offense.

Still, when Carlisle took over a veteran Mavericks team still stinging from the ’06 finals collapse against Miami and shocking ’07 first-round ouster by Golden State, he memorably butted heads with Kidd, who had arrived by trade three months before Carlisle’s hiring.

Kidd complained that Carlisle was calling too many plays. Coach and point guard compromised, with Carlisle gradually implementing Flow starting late in the 2008-09 season. Carlisle has called that a pivotal time of his career, when he learned the value of adaptability.

“Listen,” Carlisle says now of Kidd, “he’s the smartest guy in the gym any time he walks into one.”

Dallas Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle and Jason Kidd (2) during a break in play in a game against the Portland Trail Blazers during the second half of play at American Airlines Center in Dallas on Thursday, February 4, 2009. (VERNON BRYANT - The Dallas Morning News)

In essence, Carlisle empowered Kidd and his teammates with permission to audiblize. In the Flow offense, there are sets and actions — such as screens — but no hard and fast rules. A screen-setter, for instance, has options to roll, pop out for a jump shot or dive to the rim for an alley-oop.

“We all knew the game,” says J.J. Barea, who joined the Mavericks as an undrafted free agent in 2006 and is the last player-vestige to the 2011 title team. “We all knew to spread the floor, with Dirk in different positions, more of a spacing and spot-up game.

“You’re basically running good offense, but it’s just random. Sometimes the drive is going to be there. Sometimes the pop is going to be there. The more random you can make the game, at this level, without calling plays, the harder it is to guard.”

Catching lightning

Carlisle’s first Mavericks team lost to Denver in the Western Conference semifinals. His second team lost to San Antonio in the first round.

Carlisle’s third team, as he puts it, “caught lightning in a bottle and got hot at the right time with a group that really believed. To win a championship, you’ve got to have that.”

Perhaps at no time during Carlisle’s 11 seasons here has the Flow worked more exquisitely than the 2011 Western Conference semifinals against the two-time reigning champion Lakers, especially the clinching Game 4 of the series sweep.

The Mavericks pick-and-rolled the Lakers silly. In what would be Jackson’s last game as coach, Dallas made 20 of 32 3-point attempts in the 122-86 blowout.

Dallas beat Oklahoma City in the conference finals, then faced Miami and LeBron James and Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in the finals.

The Heat won two of the first three games. Seemingly every time Dallas called a play or ran a pick-and-roll action for Nowitzki, the defensively-disciplined, more athletic Heat players quickly rotated and practically were in Nowitzki’s lap as he caught the ball.

“We needed to randomize the game completely and be as unpredictable as possible — just to get shots,” Carlisle says.

The Mavericks went to mostly-flow mode, while Carlisle made a fateful strategic decision. He inserted Barea for Stevenson into the starting lineup — as a 5-10 small forward, believe it or not — giving Dallas an extra creator on the court.

Meanwhile, Stevenson embraced and excelled in his off-the-bench role. The Mavericks won Games 4, 5 and 6 and the title.

“Sometimes we still made a play call, but if that broke down we would get right to Flow,” says Terry, who scored a team-high 27 points in the clinching game. “That threw them off because their defense was geared to stop one particular action.

“But when there’s Flow, there’s multiple actions.”

Recalls Mavericks owner Mark Cuban: “That’s who Rick is. Rick is the chess player. He plays to the strengths of our players and tried to take advantage of what other teams are giving him.

“With Jason, it made it a lot easier.”

Kidd was key

“One of the things about the Flow offense,” Carlisle explains, “is that it’s difficult to simulate in five-on-zero, just because the reads and stuff don’t come naturally when there’s nobody guarding and giving you looks to counter.”

Given that challenge alone, imagine trying to run the Flow to the satisfaction of the coach who invented it. Also, imagine following Jason Kidd.

Kidd departed after the 2011-12 season. The next year, Darren Collison, Mike James, Derek Fisher and Dominique Jones all started at point guard.

In the first six seasons A.K. (After Kidd), 16 Mavericks started at point guard. Some did so adequately — Jose Calderon, Deron Williams, Raymond Felton. Others briefly — Jameer Nelson, Pierre Jackson, Gal Mekel.

Then there was Rajon Rondo. Four-time All-Star and 2008 NBA champion in Boston. Rondo and Carlisle were like fire and ice, vinegar and oil. Turns out Rondo, though gifted and intelligent, operated best out of rigid sets. Flow did not come naturally to him.

He and Carlisle lost patience for one another, if they had it in the first place. Carlisle and Dennis Smith Jr. similarly clashed, though not so bombastically.

Enter Luka Doncic last season. Two inches taller than Kidd. Better scorer than Kidd. Not yet as savvy as Kidd, but hey, he was only 19 when last season started.

“I call J-Kidd and Luka entertainers,” Barea says. “They like to make the hard passes to create. Luka’s more of an offensive player; J-Kidd, he was really good at making his teammates better. He used to give me the ball and say, ‘Go attack!’

“Luka’s still young, but, yeah, you can see as Luka starts coming out of his shell a little more and talking to guys, he’s definitely going to get to that level.”

New kid

Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic (77) talks with head coach Rick Carlisle before checking into the game after a timeout during the second half of an NBA China Games 2018 preseason basketball game against the Philadelphia 76ers at Mercedes-Benz Arena on Friday, Oct. 5, 2018, in Shanghai. (Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)

Mavericks president of operations Donnie Nelson has compared this season’s Doncic-Kristaps Porzingis duo to Dallas’ late-’90s Steve Nash-Nowitzki pairing.

Carlisle never coached Nash, but he does see a lot of Kidd in Doncic.

“You set up a drill in practice or you set up some game in the meal room, both of those guys are going to immediately figure out the best way to win that game,” he says. “That’s just how they’re wired.

“In terms of style of play, they are different, but both guys have the most important quality that a great player can have, and that’s the ability to allow others that they are playing with to play beyond their means.

“That’s so true of Jason and a Hall of Fame career of 19 years certainly proved that. As much as Luka is a compelling player to watch and a guy who generates amazing stats, his greatest gift is his ability to make those around him better — and make the game easier for them. And that’s why he has a chance to be one of the very special players in the history of the game.”

Partially drowning out Carlisle’s words are shouts behind him, coming from the Mavericks practice court, where Doncic and Porzingis are battling in a spirited shooting game, taunting one another.

During their three-season playoff drought, the Mavericks often have been outflowed by teams with superior players.

Such is the nature of the NBA. Innovations are adopted and adapted and aren’t innovative for long, but some leave an indelible imprint on the sport: Like Showtime and the Triangle and Larry Brown’s secondary fast break, Rick Adelman’s corner sets and Popovich’s continuity offense.

Carlisle’s milestone birthday likely will pass with little notice, but as he begins a new season with a maestro point guard and an elite stretch-four leading a cast that seemingly has superb Flow potential, Carlisle, in a rare moment of reflection, fondly recalls 2011.

“Winning a championship is a great experience,” he says. “The thing I’m most proud of with that team is that it began a trend toward playing a positionless, flowing style for the league. That was very important at that time.

“We were shooting more threes than most teams, but it wasn’t only about the three. It was about playing with each other and playing a really pure form of basketball and entrusting the pass. We talked a lot that season about trusting our defense and trusting the pass.”

For this season’s mantra the Mavericks could go with trust the flow. Or trust the pace. Or better yet, trust the coach who conceived it, transforming the NBA in the process.

Quoteboard

Whether it be Barea or Dirk. The guys he’s had over the years have been smart guys. Doncic is smart, Porzingis is smart.

When you have those kinds of players, Rick can balance when he wants to play-call and when he wants those guys randomly play. When they’re coming down in transition there’s a lot of pick-and-roll actions, double-drags, single-drags, those guys are so good at manipulating those situations on their own.

-- OKC coach Billy Donovan

The hard thing is you’ve got to have intelligent players. You’ve got to have guys who can shoot the 3 or have the triple threat. They have that this year in Dallas.

Jason [Kidd] was such a savant. And Rick was ahead of his time, too. I think he was one of the first coaches to get adjusted to the 3-point game. With Flow, you’re really giving up control. You’re letting the players play, moreso than play calls. But Rick can go back and forth.

-- Detroit coach and former Mavs assistant Dwane Casey

Rick is a coach I like to watch because of the way he can kind of manipulate the court offensively, put guys in position to make plays and I would say things that are a little bit unique.

I feel like he’s one of those guys who’s usually ahead of the game and thinking of things. The rest of us can kind of steal from him. I mean, we all steal from each other, but I just think he’s got a great offensive mind, particularly spacing and pick and rolls and what I would say is just subtle spacing to create movement. He’s really good.

-- Milwaukee coach Mike Budenholzer

Everything in the league is Flow now. There's more of an emphasis on the 3-point shot, but it’s definitely because of what we did in 2011.

There’s less play-callilng, it’s more random and it’s all actions, ball-movement, player-movement. It’s just flowing and everybody’s touching it. That’s the way the game is played now.

-- Longtime Maverick Jason Terry

Twitter: @townbrad