Yes, after winning nearly 1,000 regular season games, one NBA title and surviving 23 up-and-down seasons as an NBA head coach, Carlisle has seemingly found the perfect fit in a locker room that views a tough, demand coaching through a more genteel prism.

“A savant,” two-time All-Star Tyrese Haliburton dubbed Carlisle during Indiana’s semifinal series. “When it comes to adjustments and getting the best out of guys, we follow his lead, and his intensity come playoff time is easy to follow. When we have a game like (the Game 3 loss to Cleveland), he sets the tone with our energy, practice, film or whatever.”

Carlisle is back in his third Eastern Conference finals not because he stuck to his old-school philosophy, but because he figured out how to adapt to the league’s new ways.

Instead of routinely calling plays from the bench or complaining when opponents produce 40-point quarters, the 65-year-old Carlisle trusts Haliburton and the Pacers ball-handlers on the floor and now understands high-scoring quarters are just part of today’s game — even if he doesn’t like it.

The transition hasn’t come without some rough edges such as the sideline clash between Carlisle and All-Star guard Rajon Rondo in February 2015.

“I would literally give him (Rondo) my play sheet, and he would make calls.” said Milwaukee coach Doc Rivers, who coached Rondo in Boston. “I remember Rick calling me and the last thing I told him was ‘Rick, I may have created a monster, I don’t know. You’re going to have let him help you on the floor.’ It was like 24 hours later you see them getting into it on the sideline because Rondo didn’t want to call that play.”

The two patched things up later. But in the decade since, things seem to have changed.

Center Myles Turner, who grew up in Dallas, believes Carlisle has given the players more freedom to work their magic on the court. New York Knicks star Jalen Brunson also saw that side of Carlisle during his first five pro seasons in Dallas.