<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">DALLAS ? Two players clasped their hands around this night. The same two players had their hands all over this Western Conference semifinal series. It might have looked like a couple of deep, balanced teams giving us six nights of the most entertaining NBA basketball you'll see. There might have been so many thrilling moments spraying into our faces like splashes of water ? Jason Terry's shooting, Shawn Marion's flicking that leaning banker, or Amare Stoudemire and Josh Howard's elevating and dunking. But it came down to last-second heroics and breathless moments provided by the rarest of talents. It came down to the Mavericks' Dirk Nowitzki and the Suns' Steve Nash. Nowitzki allowed opportunity to slip through his hands. Nash took hold of the series and made it his.</div> Source
Nowitzki is soft...period...he whines and cries about everything, and the man is 7 feet and shooting 18 foot fallaway jumpers...The mavs will not win anything with him, they should really look at trading him...they have tons of guys who can shoot jumpers...they need a post-up threat...
The question is whether Dirk can develop a post up game, or not. Shooter, you're right, they needed Dirk to be a post up threat and he didn't. Your're also right about him whining too much and shooting too many fall away shots. However, I disagree about the Mavs not winning anything with him. Dirk is an improving player and he has improved some aspect of his game every year. I expect him to come back next year with a better post up game. He is too talented a player for the Mavs to simply give up on him. We'll see what happens next year.
He needs some work on his leadership as well. Either that, or they need to bring in a calming presence for when Dirk gets all fired up, because as much as I like Dirk, I don't like how he handled himself late in the game.
I didn't understand why people were getting on Dirk for screaming at his teammates. Michael Jordan used to scream at his teammates and give them the ice cold stare if they made a bad decision or missed a defensive assignment. I'm glad Dirk finally showed some emotion on the court. As for his game, he absolutely needs to become a better post up threat. At 7 feet tall and his ability to shoot, Dirk should be dominating inside the paint. He needs to spend some time in the Pete Newell Big Man Camp and maybe watch some video of Kevin McHale and learn the drop step. To his credit, Dirk does get to the line quite a lot and I don't think he's scared of contact like he was earlier in his career. He just seems to settle for jumpers down the stretch instead of using his size to pound the ball inside. The other area Dirk needs to make improvements on is his defense. He was slightly better this season, but he has a lot to learn. In the playoffs he was getting beat down the floor and was back doored everytime he turned his head. I'd like to see Dirk taking more charges and do a better job of defending straight up on players instead of relying on help defense. I think he's capable of playing defense the way Rasheed Wallace plays if he asserts himself more.
I know MJ used to get on his teammates, and occasionally punch them. But that's part of being MJ. He was a guy who excelled in every aspect of the game, and when he told you something about defense, you knew that he knew what he was talking about. That's not the case with Dirk IMPO. I think he has to tone it down, because he's not doing all the things that he's reeming out his teammates for.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Shooter:</div><div class="quote_post">...The mavs will not win anything with him, they should really look at trading him...they have tons of guys who can shoot jumpers...they need a post-up threat...</div> Shooter, if someone said Houston will not win anything with Ming and Tmac because they failed to pass first round one year would you agree or disagree? Dirk is young and has improved every year. I agree with Kingrex that if Dirk improves his post game, plays more aggressive and mans it up then the Mavs can go far. Dirk is a good vocal leader, now he just needs to improve his game and be a better leader by example throughout playoffs.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting shapecity:</div><div class="quote_post">I didn't understand why people were getting on Dirk for screaming at his teammates. Michael Jordan used to scream at his teammates and give them the ice cold stare if they made a bad decision or missed a defensive assignment. I'm glad Dirk finally showed some emotion on the court.</div> MJ didn't come up blank in an OT after blaming a loss on a couple of role players. If Jordan screamed at someone he continued to score and play defense. Dirk on the other hand likes to fade away with deep shots in crunch time and not play defense. He yelled at Jason Terry for letting Nash take a bad 3 while he was at least the same distance away from Nash and was directly in front of him. He criticized Dampier for not playing well even though he hadn't played well the whole year, what was he expecting? He is the superstar of his team and he shouldn't be pointing fingers but rather taking it upon himself for the teams losses.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Run BJM:</div><div class="quote_post">MJ didn't come up blank in an OT after blaming a loss on a couple of role players. If Jordan screamed at someone he continued to score and play defense. Dirk on the other hand likes to fade away with deep shots in crunch time and not play defense. He yelled at Jason Terry for letting Nash take a bad 3 while he was at least the same distance away from Nash and was directly in front of him. He criticized Dampier for not playing well even though he hadn't played well the whole year, what was he expecting? He is the superstar of his team and he shouldn't be pointing fingers but rather taking it upon himself for the teams losses.</div> I agree 100%, Dirk needs to back up his talk, which was what I pointed out in the second half of my post. Dirk was terrible in the Suns series on both ends of the floor. He was out hustled countless times by Marion on rebounds and in transistion. I also didn't like Dirk making his comments public, that was quite coward. However, I don't blame him for being upset at Terry. It was a bonehead decision on Terry's part and it contributed to them losing the series. This is why Terry should not be a point guard in the league. He doesn't have the mentality to manage a situation or the game.
We fans need to realize that this was the first year for the Mavs in alot of things. This is the first year: a) for Dirk to play well-enough for first team NBA consideration. for Dirk as the "leader" of the team. c) for this roster to make a play-off run. d) for Jason Terry in the play-offs and as a full-time point guard. The first year for anything is usually wrought with mistakes and disappointments. Let's see what this group does next year. Let's see if they can learn from their mistakes and bounce back from their disappointments. I'm not disputing that Dirk, Terry and the rest of the Mavs have fallen short, but again this is only their first year at doing this. Now, if they fail to improve in the next 2 years, then maybe we can start marking them as failed. Until then, I think they just need a little more time.
