Dirk Nowitzki is unreal again!!!

[Hamtaro CP3KDKG]

unfortunatelly, jason terry, the second best player next to dirk, shots 3x times under 40 % in the playoffs. that hurts, escpecially in close games that are decided by one or two points

He was a crap defender too, almost cost Dallas in game 2 against Miami by completely losing chalmers

[pastis]

You misunderstand my statement. I am praising Dirk, saying his talent was great enough to get another chip or two, dude.

well dirk trained hard and talent has to be forged. you cant be sure, but give dirk 10 years of pop or phil...and its not crazy to say that dirk would have had 2,3 rings more.

[DMAVS41]

Definitely.

In 2011, Terry and Stojakovic camping out weakside, and Dirk tearing up whoever they threw at him, made the lakers have to then gamble with doubling Dirk, and then, whether an assist or hockey assist, Dirk made the right passes and shredded the lakers even worse........so once the mavs did that, OKC and miami were scared either way, and felt it was heads they win, tails we lose.

And while Dirk's finals were good, but not great overall. He was great in the moments that mattered the most, and it's a bit unfair because he actually was really sick for one game....but his shooting did fall off a bit.

But the reason the impact was still so huge was that the pick and roll plays with Terry/Barea....the Heat decided to live with that.

Which is what most teams lived with throughout the Dirk era. Hope to stop Dirk at all costs (even doubling off the ball on pick and pop/rolls)...and make Terry/Howard/Kidd/Stackhouse/Harris...etc. beat you consistently for a series.

Well guess what. Mavs in 11 were capable of that. And so Dirk could have a not amazing series against a good team...and we could still win...because of guys like Terry/Kidd/Marion/Barea/Chandler all stepping up and making other teams pay for how they were covering Dirk.

[DMAVS41]

well dirk trained hard and talent has to be forged. you cant be sure, but give dirk 10 years of pop or phil...and its not crazy to say that dirk would have had 2,3 rings more.

Never know. Might not win any more...might win a lot more.

What I do know...is that giving Dirk 7 more teams of his career since 01 with a positive scoring differential with Dirk off the court would yield far greater results than we've seen in Dallas.

You combine that with Pop...yea...they'd be a crazy good combo.

And it's relevant today because once again the Mavs are looking like idiots putting a team around Dirk.

They put a great team around him in 03 and it's unfortunate that Dirk got hurt because it was a 50/50 chance at the title.

06 and 07 were good teams, but not great teams...and we had a shit coach.

11 was a great team (we got it by luck)...Nellie Jr. readily admits they wanted Al Jefferson and Tyson really just fell into their lap.

And since it's some smart moves and some terrible moves.

And overall it just hasn't been good....when your supporting cast averages a -3.2 scoring differential without the best player....that is not doing a great job building teams...no way around it.

Especially when the Mavs were never front loaded at all. We never had another star once Nash got hurt in 04.

So it would be one thing if we had a Shaq/Kobe or Lebron/Wade/Bosh or KG/Pierce/Allen...etc. If we had a front loaded dominant core, but we didn't even have that.

We just had a bunch of good teams...never dominant/great teams...luckily the ball bounced our way a few times in 11 and finally won...otherwise looking back now at the end would just be depressing.

[BarberSchool]

06 and 07 were good teams, but not great teams...and we had a shit coach.

I forgot all about how inept Avery Johnson was. Damnit that was infuriating.

[DMAVS41]

I forgot all about how inept Avery Johnson was. Damnit that was infuriating.

Yep. People often just ignore coaching...and coaching matters...a lot for winning in the playoffs.

Generally teams built with a coach like Avery Johnson with a single star and good, but not great supporting casts....they don't win NBA titles.

They can have a lot of regular season success, but they don't win in the playoffs.

The 06 and 07 Mavs are no exception. Go evaluate those two rosters and factor in Avery Johnson coaching. You just aren't getting anywhere near a place where it's straight up underachieving if they don't win it all.

In fact, in 06...both the Heat and Spurs were favored to win the title over the Mavs going in....and the Spurs were favorites with homecourt in the 2nd round in that series.

Again, Dirk played with a lot of really good teams...just very few great teams. I think two of the Mavs teams since Dirk came were great. The 03 team and the 11 team.

Honestly that's it.