KG vs Dirk. Gloves off

[brisbaneman]

lakers 3 peat is not arguable, they were def better

pistons arguable imo, i think the mavs could have done it. lakers werent losing THAT badly considering all the stuff that was going on that the mavs simply werent having to deal with. this maybe a longshot tho

spurs... arguable. mavs beat them before with worse teams. they beat them the year prior actually in a crazy 7 game series right? well these mavs were way better, the spurs weren't much better if at all i dont remember.

lakers were really damn close to a 7 game series with the celts in 08, missing bynum and ariza and gasol not meshing. why wouldnt these mavs be able to take the celts?

lakers in 09 not arguable imo

lakers in 10 ... im gonna go with lakers > '11 mavs.

heat obv mavs have that.


So there you have it. At least 2 teams, maybe as much as 4. Lets not forget, the mavs road was not against scrubs. A better question to ask maybe is which finals loser was worse than a team with bron wade and bosh? Certainly not the 3 lakers opponents, certainly not the 06 mavs, certainly not the 07 cavs... Thats 5 teams already.. Thats some pretty tough competition to take care of in 6 games.

I agree the Mavs could have beat them all...my question though was which team was this year's Mavs actually more talented than?

Because to me Dirk had a hakeem-like performance, and basically made a bunch of 3rd/4th options play better than they could have imagined.

i remember before the playoffs everyone was calling deshawn and barea garbage, kidd and marion corpses, and terry a playoffs dud--now it's like all a sudden Dirk has this amazing cast.

I would have LOVED to see this mavs team go up against the 01-02 lakers. that would be a great series

[RazorBaLade]

I agree the Mavs could have beat them all...my question though was which team was this year's Mavs actually more talented than?

Because to me Dirk had a hakeem-like performance, and basically made a bunch of 3rd/4th options play better than they could have imagined.

i remember before the playoffs everyone was calling deshawn and barea garbage, kidd and marion corpses, and terry a playoffs dud--now it's like all a sudden Dirk has this amazing cast.

I would have LOVED to see this mavs team go up against the 01-02 lakers. that would be a great series

Well.. Like I said to NBAller.... Is it fair to judge a team before they play? Why would we gauge their talent BEFORE these group of guys played in the playoffs? For example, everyone was calling barea garbage. He played great. Is he now going to be referred to as garbage or as a great role player that year? I gotta go with great role player.

Going into the 04 playoffs no one gave the pistons a chance. No one thought they would beat LA. So if you look at the mavs from a before playoffs standpoint, we gotta look at them all like that... And that opens the door to the mavs again being better talent wise to maybe 2 or so teams. all imo of course.

[brisbaneman]

Well.. Like I said to NBAller.... Is it fair to judge a team before they play? Why would we gauge their talent BEFORE these group of guys played in the playoffs? For example, everyone was calling barea garbage. He played great. Is he now going to be referred to as garbage or as a great role player that year? I gotta go with great role player.

Going into the 04 playoffs no one gave the pistons a chance. No one thought they would beat LA. So if you look at the mavs from a before playoffs standpoint, we gotta look at them all like that... And that opens the door to the mavs again being better talent wise to maybe 2 or so teams. all imo of course.

I guess we will see if Barea gets traded and what happens. we all saw what happened to devin harris, desegana diop, adrian griffin, and josh howard when they were no longer playing with dirk...

I think people are missing or ignoring the point--this all happened because of Dirk. at some point folks have to just respect the fact that he was easily the nba's best player.

[LJJ]

name me ONE team they were better than. Just one. Only one I can think of is 05-06 Heat and everyone knows what happened there.

I think the 03 Spurs were worse.

Parker, Jackson & Ginobili were on the team, but all well before they became established good players. Ancient David Robinson on the team. That championship was ALL Duncan.

That's it though. Other than the 03 Spurs all of the other championship supporting casts were better without question.

[brisbaneman]

I think the 03 Spurs were worse.

Parker, Jackson & Ginobili were on the team, but all well before they became established good players. Ancient David Robinson on the team. That championship was ALL Duncan.

That's it though. Other than the 03 Spurs all of the other championship supporting casts were better without question.

oddly they beat a mavs team sans-Dirk and only because Steve Kerr went apeshit in game 6.

[RazorBaLade]

I guess we will see if Barea gets traded and what happens. we all saw what happened to devin harris, desegana diop, adrian griffin, and josh howard when they were no longer playing with dirk...

I think people are missing or ignoring the point--this all happened because of Dirk. at some point folks have to just respect the fact that he was easily the nba's best player.

I can't give credit to dirk for how barea played... I mean sure maybe 10,20% credit for leadership, trust, creating opportunities but he didnt shoot or pass for barea....... I wouldn't blame dirk if barea came out there and went 1/20 in the playoffs total, I'm not gonna credit dirk much if barea comes out there and knows his role, plays it perfectly and makes teardrops over bynum.

i still am not sure how that influences your opinion though... surely Duncans supporting cast was a byproduct of duncan and lakers supporting cast played well mostly because of Kobe right? So how do they come out over mavs talent wise?

[rmt]

Don't turn this into a Kobe thing, please.

The point is, Dirk won a ring with the weakest supporting cast of the 00s and now everyone is retrospectively overrating his cast.

At the same time people are acting like Dirk just started playing well, despite the fact he has made it to the Finals and WCF (only 1 of 3 teams to so out West) and averages over 25 and 10 in the postseason (only one of 4 players)

IMO, Spurs 03 was the weakest supporting cast of the 00s. 2nd year Parker (1 year playoff experience), streaky SJax and rookie Manu (both with no playoff experience) were the #2,3 and 4 options after Duncan.

Heat 06 was also weak - other than Shaq - they were nowhere near as deep as 11 Mavs.

[with malice]

Heat 06 was also weak - other than Shaq - they were nowhere near as deep as 11 Mavs.

"...as deep..."? You're kidding, right? Unless you're acknowledging that every single one of them - Dirk included - played beyond what would be normally expected of those guys, then to call them "deep" is a misnomer.

I am continually surprised by the talk of the Mavs around here. Other than what occurred last post-season, they have not come close to this level of play. I guess in the coming seasons we'll see which is the anomaly.

Don't get me wrong: I think they played amazingly. And yes: Dirk was the best player on the floor for the duration of the playoffs. I just don't expect a repeat.