I would venture to say that that's a pretty fair rating for Dirk, though I'd contemplate dropping him as low as 8th behind Brand, Gasol and Boozer.
Why not? Boozer is a consistent double-double, and despite being undersized, isn't bad on defense. Dirk has never been a double-double guy (and probably never will). He plays soft, relies more on his jumper than he should, and is also PATHETIC on defense.
Yes he is. And he isn't even that great on offense. He has Deron Williams. At least Dirk can get his team to the finals. More than I can say about Loozer.
Dirk got that team to the Finals? Really? Last I knew, that team was loaded with talent. Jason Terry, Josh Howard, Jerry Stackhouse, Devin Harris...I realize Dirk was their best player, but you can't tell me he carried that team to the Finals. Also throwing this out there....he may have "led" them there, but he was also a huge reason why they lost. In the final three games of the Finals that year, he went a whopping 20/55...great stats huh? As for Boozer being offensively incompetent...umm...he averaged, in his seasons before DWill....10ppg, 15.5ppg, and 17.8ppg. Then in the DWills rookie year, where he wasn't even close to being an "elite" PG, he averaged 16.3ppg. The big issue with him has been his durability, but he's been healthy as of recent. And frankly, when he's been healthy, he's been damn solid (note his stats). I'll admit that he's not the most talented offensive player, but he's still solid and does what he can, especially considering if you keep in mind the amount of height he gives up on a nightly basis.
Why isn't KG the top power forward after the season Boston had last year? Duncan never had a 66 win regular season during the Spurs championship runs.
Because Tim Duncan's way better. The team's been built around Duncan since the Admiral left. And he's done a damn fine job being the main player on that team. Garnett, on the other hand, needed Peirce. Lazy
It is definitely a stretch to put Pau or Boozer over Dirk. Dirk is a soft player and lacks defensive prowess, but empirically he mostly has decent offensive stats in close games. He even hit that GW shot in Game 5 of the Finals before that dubious FT call that helped Wade. By the way, I am not a Dirk fan at all either. I think he is rated pretty much where he should be in this poll though I wouldn't put Bosh over him either.
Hmm....maybe I just really dislike Dirk, but I really disagree with you Huevon. I really think Dirk could be one of the most overrated players in the league today. He's soft...lacks defense...chokes in the clutch on most situations...yea. I don't know, he's probably rated fairly, I just really dislike him.
Well I think Pau brings better defense at PF or C than Dirk does, and on a team with good offensive players, Pau is a tougher more efficient player. Although Dirk has a bigger name, partially due to Cuban's man love for him. 1. Duncan 2. KG 3. Amare 4. Brand (big if though if he is healthy) 5. Gasol - better Defense, and toughness from Pau than Dirk. But depending on Dirk's offensive consistency they can switch spots. 6. Dirk - until Dirk can be an efficient player in the playoffs with a small guy guarding him. 7. Bosh 8. Boozer
Pau is not really a more "efficient" player, aside from a brief stretch in half a year's worth of games. He also scores about half as many points as Dirk does in the Clutch. Pau's a solid defender, not a great one. Further, neither Pau nor Dirk are real centers, and they should avoid that position over a long stretch of games. Dirk can create for himself much better which is why I'd take him. And on Defense at least Dirk only gives up 15.0 PER (actually a bit lower than Pau). That may not be the end all point on defense, but a good indicator that he is not atrocious against PFs.
I dunno, I think part of my preference in big men is to have guys who don't sit at the 3 point line, and are better defenders. And Dirk getting exposed (like against Golden State shooting 38% FG%) by smaller defenders also made a point. I think it's close and situational dependent. I mean if you need a guy to take on a bigger scoring load, sure I'd take Dirk. If I'm need a tougher player who will get less points but finish easier baskets that is better playing down low and defensively against big men, I'd take Pau.
Dirk is not an MVP to me, that doesn't mean he's worse than Pau Gasol or some of these lesser stars. Those threes Dirk drops on people stretches defenses, and is correlated with his superior Assisted shot percentage. Highlighting one bad series for Dirk proves what exactly? And those "easier" baskets Pau gets comes at a cost, which would be him needing for others to set him up. Dirk's scoring in the clutch destroys Pau as well, it is not close. Pau has no huge edge defensively on Dirk except on Centers, though he shouldn't be playing at that position or his offense will probably suffer. This being a "PF" poll, I don't really worry about who can guard which C better.
Well I do think clutch scoring statsare overrated tbh. Anyway, like I said my preference in big men isn't a big man sitting on the perimeter, and doesn't like being in the post. I'm not saying Dirk isn't talented, I just prefer big men that play like big men. And Dirk's MVP season where he shot 38% against Golden State definitely is something notable to me. Regarding the PF poll/center thing. Well I do consider it an advantage (part of the reason why Tim Duncan is so high on my list too) Duncan can guard most centers effectively as well.
No, you just have no idea what Dirk does in the clutch. People think because he is soft defensively, a jumpshooter, and messed up in two series, that he sucks in the clutch. This is not the case, only LeBron and Kobe surpass him in scoring in these close situations. What is your point? Pau has had bad series too, and what Dirk did individually wasn't historically awful.
lol, how do you know that I have no idea what Dirk does in the clutch? Is someone a mind-reader.... All I said is that I thought that clutch stats were overrated, and that baskets during the whole game count. What is your point? I have my rankings, and I'm not changing them at this point in time. lol
Lol, I forgot, you have an entire encyclopedia of his clutch shots in your mind. Clutch shots are something Dirk gets heat for, it is important to bring up in his case and support it with some kind of evidence that spans a large collection of games. Clutch shots, entire game, whatever, I'll take Dirk. My point is pretty easy to decipher. It was that you have no point because you brought up one series. Compared to his body of work and the fact that Pau spiraled down after Denver this year, it is irrelevant really.
lol first you bash me saying I have no idea what Dirk does in the clutch. Then you sarcastically mock me with a claim I never even came close to making... Stick to debating... Well anyway, I do think it's close between Dirk and Pau. I do think it is situational. But anyway, I'm not going to debate this issue anymore with you. Good night!
Stop wasting my time on this. Look, when you said you didn't care about clutch stats, I assumed you would had no idea what Dirk's clutch stats were. Or that you simply want to discard an inconvenient point for you. If this is not the case, by all means I'll apologize then. I'll just assume you're one of the few people who don't care about Dirk's clutch stats, though you keep bringing up that GS series for some reason. Everything is situational if you want to go that route. (Edit- Philosophical BS ) :] Gasol is also a finesse player at the end of the day though, he's not a better forward.
