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Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle spoke with InsideHoops.com and other major media outlets in a teleconference a few days ago. Here are the questions and answers:

Rick Carlisle's Opening Statement: Today is exactly two weeks into training camp and we’ve played two preseason games. Things are going pretty well. We’re a little nicked up with injuries. Our first-round pick David Harrison has a shoulder problem and we expect him to be back within seven to 10 days. Jonathan Bender has a bit of a knee problem which isn’t serious but it’s going to keep him from getting back for a couple of more weeks. He’s got a bone bruise. Other than that we’ve played two games and we’ve played relatively well. We play the Minnesota Timberwolves tonight at home, in Conseco Field House, which will be a great test for us and we’re trying to build this thing back up so we can have a chance to get to the point we were last year and have a chance to move on.

Q: Can you tell us what your expectations are for Stephen Jackson?

Rick Carlisle: Well, he’s a guy that was a starting two guard for an NBA Championship team with the San Antonio Spurs. You always want to add guys who have experienced winning at that level. So we think that’s a plus for us, obviously. The other thing is that Steve is a guy that at 6-8 can play both a two guard and small forward. We also envisioned him playing in a lineup with [Jamaal] Tinsley, [Ron] Artest, Jermaine [O’Neal] and another one of our big guys and it gives us some real size at the two position. What we like about him, obviously he’s a competitive guy, he’s going to have an in-your-face effect on our team because he’s an emotional guy in the locker room and it’s something that we felt would be a plus for us. So far he’s done everything he said he was going to do. He’s come in with a great amount of energy, very much about winning and not talking about starting and those kinds of things. He’s been very consistent with “Hey I’ll do whatever it takes to help the team win” attitude. If you get a player of that kind of caliber who is willing to take that course of attack, it’s a good situation for your team.

Q: Primoz Brezec is a big surprise for the Bobcats. Can you talk a little bit about why he didn’t play in Indiana?

Rick Carlisle: Well Primoz Brezec, he’s a very good young player and we had about four reasons why he didn’t play: Jermaine O’Neal, Jeff Foster, Austin Croshere and Scot Pollard. We just didn’t have any minutes for him. And if we would have been able to keep him on our roster this year we would have had to make some tough decisions or trade somebody to get him some playing time. But he’s a legitimate 7-2 player that is good around the basket is an excellent face-up shooter to 17 or 18 feet and has a very good feel for the game. To go along with that, he’s a great kid, a tireless worker and a guy who is in a great situation with Charlotte.

Q: What makes players from the 80’s equipped to coach teams and run front offices of this generation?

Rick Carlisle: Well, I think if you look at the list of guys that you’re talking about, they’re guys that were involved with winning organizations in the 80’s. If you look at Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars, Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Danny Ainge, I’ve been able to get involved with head coaching. There’s other guys like Bill Walton, who is a prominent TV announcer, Magic Johnson is an owner of a team. I think the biggest reason is because all the guys we’re talking about have great love for the game, great respect for the game and the fact that they were involved with winning at a high level probably gave them some incentive just to stay in the game.

Q: Do you think that they carry a kind of aura and does that affect them positively?

Rick Carlisle: The word I like to use is presence. A guy like Larry Bird has an unbelievable presence when he’s around your team everyday. Here’s a guy who has done everything there really is to do in basketball. He’s been a great player, he’s been an MVP, he’s been a World Champion, he’s been an MVP of the Finals multiple times, he’s been a successful coach in the NBA and now he’s a successful executive, so he’s really passed the litmus test in just about every area and that really adds to his credibility.

Q: How effective do you think the combination of Shaquille O’Neal and Dwyane Wade in Miami is going to be?

Rick Carlisle: Well, on paper it looks like it could be another Kobe-Shaq type of situation. The dominant inside player and the great perimeter guy that could also do things around the basket and in the post. Wade doesn’t have Kobe’s experience, obviously, but he’s a guy that showed in the playoffs last year, that he’s a prime time player. I fully expect those two players to make them a title contending team in the Eastern Conference this year

Q: Can you speak about your expectations of Jamaal Tinsley and how much he means to the success of your team?

Rick Carlisle: Well that’s a very important question for our team. Last year Tinsley went through a tough period because I didn’t play him the first 30 games. Then Kenny Anderson got hurt and he had an opportunity to take control of the starting job. During the period that he was out, he stayed professional, he kept himself ready, he worked extremely hard on his outside shot and studied the system we were playing and when he got his opportunity he really jumped on it. Interestingly, before he became our full-time starter we were averaging about 89 points a game and from the time he took over until the end of the regular season we averaged around 94. That’s a plus five point difference. He was able to generate a lot of great things in transition with his quickness. He has a great feel for the game and he’s a guy who can get the other guys easy shots. The biggest thing for him this year is to continue forward with what he’s done since in January of last year and to keep himself healthy because when he got a little dinged up in the conference semifinals and then into the conference finals, that made it a little tougher on our team.

Q: What did you and Larry decide was your biggest need going into the off-season?

Rick Carlisle: Well, we felt our roster was deep at pretty much every position but a little bit unbalanced in that we had a lot of guys at the 3-4 and we’re looking at a situation where Reggie Miller will probably be playing his last year this year. We needed somebody that was a starting caliber player to plug in. The acquisition of [Stephen] Jackson speaks to that need and it also speaks to a short-term need for outside shooting, play-making ability and flexibility at the two and the three spots. What this move hopefully does for us is it allows an opportunity for guys like Austin Croshere and Jonathan Bender to step into the role that Al Herrington had last year and in doing so, on paper, it appears it would balance out our roster and allows us to have some consistency moving forward.

Q: With everyone predicting that the Lakers would win the championship last year, what were the key factors that fell into place for Detroit that allowed them to win the championship?

Rick Carlisle: They were the best team. They were a really true team and they played with great balance, they played unselfishly, they had depth and they happened to be in the right place at the right time and maybe catch the Lakers when they were at a point where they were a little off. That’s no knock on Detroit, but being opportunistic is one of the things that is really important in this league.

Q: Are there aspects of the team or Larry Brown’s philosophy that other teams will try to emulate?

Rick Carlisle: Well I think everyone wants to have a balanced team and everyone wants to have good ball movement, good player movement and I don’t think its necessarily things that are specific to Detroit, but the fact that they won it playing with a team that had a lot of star players but no real mega-stars in terms of a guy like Shaquille O’Neal or a Kobe Bryant, sort of lays out a different kind of blueprint for everybody else and its exciting because it really puts the emphasis back on team and what team is about. I expect them to be the team to beat again because if you’re going to be a champion, you’ve got to knock champions off and they appear to have gotten even better.

Q: What have you told your players is the key element you guys need to work on in order to get you yourselves into a finals situation?

Rick Carlisle: Health is always a great issue, so that sort of goes without saying. From a standpoint from out entire team, I’m excited that we’re in a situation where we’ve been with these guys for about a year. Hopefully we’ll have a better feel for what our strengths are, we’ll try to play to those. We would like to get the ball moving more. We would like to have great balance. I’m excited to have Jamaal Tinsley as our starting point guard from the start of the season because I just think he’s a difference maker in our situation.