Today starts a homecoming tour of sorts for Rick Carlisle.

The Mavericks coach will take his team to Indiana tonight and Detroit on Thursday, his previous places of employment as an NBA head coach.

He goes back as a different sort of leader. Those who have been close to Carlisle say he's more relaxed now than he was in his younger coaching days. Perhaps that's to be expected as he's grown more comfortable with the job.

But he's also learned plenty, especially in the area of tailoring his system to fit his players, not vice-versa. In his two seasons at Detroit, followed by four at Indiana, many of those teams needed more structure than the Mavericks with Jason Kidd do. All the while, Carlisle was like a student in a classroom.

"The circle of life in the NBA is a circle of ironies," Carlisle said Tuesday. "You're always learning. I learned stuff today. That's just part of it. I learned an awful lot the last six years of head coaching and dealing with a lot of different situations. And there will be more of those. I will never get to the point where I claim I have anything figured out – basketball or otherwise."

Carlisle remains good friends with Larry Bird, the Pacers president. It's probably no coincidence that the first trade the Mavericks made with Carlisle as coach was with Indiana to get Shawne Williams, who also will be returning to Indiana tonight.

"It gives him a chance to go pack up his house," Carlisle said. "He told me he's already got a couple offers for it, so he's ahead of the game in that respect."

Carlisle said he always enjoys going back to his former haunts. There are people in Detroit he's still close to, and he has received a warm greeting in previous visits there.

He expects the same in Indiana.

"A lot of these guys I've known for a long time," he said. "Larry and I still talk very frequently. I worked for the Pacers for a seven-out-of-10-year stretch. There's a lot of history there and a lot of people who are important people to our family."

Williams said he doesn't have any hard feelings about getting traded by the Pacers last week. He went through his first Mavericks practice Tuesday and will be in uniform tonight.

"It's interesting coming from Indy just a couple days ago," he said. "Indy fans, they're hard to predict. I hope I don't get any boos. But if I do, it's just a basketball game."

Off day for three: With a back-to-back set of games, Carlisle said three players will sit out tonight's game against Indiana.

Kidd, Erick Dampier and Jerry Stackhouse will not dress but probably will see extensive action Thursday at Detroit.

It's possible other players will take a seat for the second half of the back-to-back.

Briefly: Keith McLeod shot some free throws but is not going on the trip, and there's no target date for him to resume workouts. He's missed all of the preseason with a strained right hamstring. ... With 14 guaranteed contracts, Carlisle said the 15th spot on the roster is not necessarily assured of being filled. "If someone plays well enough to earn it, then it's potentially in play," he said. "But somebody's going to have to show they're worthy of it. It's going to be Mark's [Cuban's] call. You got to be able to play and be able to bring something to our team that will help us."