The Dallas Mavericks announced today the hiring of Paul Westphal as an assistant coach. Per club policy, terms of the contract were not disclosed.

"We are thrilled to add Paul Westphal to our basketball family. As one of the greatest offensive coaching minds in the NBA, Paul brings a wealth of experience as a coach and as a former player to the Mavericks,” said Head Coach Avery Johnson. “He is a man of strong character and integrity and is excited about joining our staff in its path to win a championship."

Westphal joins the Mavericks after most recently serving as the head coach of the Pepperdine University men’s basketball team from 2001-06. He also brings eight seasons of NBA coaching experience to the Mavericks’ bench which include head coaching stints in Phoenix (1992-95) and Seattle (1998-00) and three more years as a Suns’ assistant (1998-92).

In Phoenix, Westphal led the team to three of its most successful seasons. In 1992-93, the Suns clinched the Pacific Division title, won a franchise-record 62 games and made their second appearance in the NBA Finals. In 1995, he became the second-fastest coach to reach 150 wins, accomplishing the feat in just 208 games, just five shy of the mark set by Phil Jackson. The Suns surpassed the 55-win mark in each of Westphal’s three seasons.

In 2006, when Johnson led the Mavericks to the NBA Finals in his first full season as head coach, he became the first coach to accomplish the feat since Westphal did so with the Suns in 1993.

As a player, Westphal was selected by Boston in the first round (10th overall pick) of the 1972 NBA Draft. In 12 seasons, he played for Boston, Phoenix, New York and Seattle and averaged 15.6 points, 1.9 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 1.2 steals in 823 career games. He won an NBA Championship with the Celtics in 1974. After scoring 9,564 points of his 12,809 career points with Phoenix, his No. 44 jersey was retired by the franchise in 1989.

A native of Redondo Beach, Calif., he attended the University of Southern California where he averaged 16.4 points per game over three seasons with the Trojans.