Friday, April 30th, 2010 at 9:00 am  |  68 responses

Dirk Nowitzki to Think About His Options This Summer

Following their demoralizing, season-ending loss in San Antonio last night, the Mavs may need to convince Nowitzki that Dallas remains the right place to continue his career. Dirk didn’t sound entirely sure in the postgame presser. From The Dallas Morning News: “This time, after 12 seasons in Dallas, Nowitzki can exercise an option in his contract and become a free agent. All season, he said he could foresee no reason why he would use that option. But Thursday night, 31-year-old Nowitzki stopped well short of declaring himself a Maverick for life, ready to forge into an uncertain future with possibly another revamped Dallas roster. ‘I wanted to obviously have a long playoff run here and go for my dream again,’ Nowitzki said. ‘And now I’m just obviously too shocked and too disappointed. I haven’t really thought anything about my future yet. I guess I’ve got some time now to think about some stuff, think about my options.’ Gulp. That’s the sound of Mavericks fans swallowing hard at the mere thought of a future without Nowitzki. Nowitzki pointed out that he has until July to make a decision about his contract option. But in a moment of level-headed reflection amid the disappointment, Nowitzki added: ‘Everything’s too fresh right now. I’ve got some time to think about some stuff.’ If this was, heaven forbid, his final game as a Maverick, what a bizarre way to go out – and yet somehow fitting, given the scale of Dallas’ recent playoff failures.”

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  • MikeC.

    My suggestion to Dirk: You have one more year on your contract. Tell Cuban that if the Mavs don’t make it to the conference finals at least, you’re going to leave. I’m not an ‘insider’, but that seems fair to me, as a regularass guy.

  • erich

    @ Spacesh*t Jay
    “See how whoever Dirk is defending eats him alive? ”
    I think he found a way to score 26.6 points per game.
    Dirk bashing gets curious because it’s obviously not about his game.

  • larrylegend

    @mikeC i am with u with most of what u saying, esp the teeth story, hell! but his rebounding is under-average for his position, u still have the 2001-2006 dirk in mind.

  • http://slamonline.com Allenp

    Darksaber
    I know Dirk is your guy, but, come on.
    Dude had a stacked team. He’s had several stacked teams in Dallas. The Mavs have NOT failed to surround him with talent.
    Exactly where is he going to go that’s going to be so much better?
    The only think he lacks, is another alpha dog, and most superstars in the league DON’t have one of those playing with them.
    So, is Dirk an alpha dog? A superstar?

  • http://slamonline.com Allenp

    Put it this way.
    If Lebron, Kobe, Chris Bosh, or Kobe had Dirk’s teammates and failed to get out of the first round, would anybody be shy about saying that they had failed as a leader and player?
    Seriously, look at that squad. And while some cats played poorly (Kidd) other cats had solid games. Terry, Caron, and some of the others had decent games. And Dirk did not ball out of his mind in every game. While he might have outplayed Duncan offensively, Duncan made his biggest difference defensively, and with his ability to control the pain on both ends, in my opinion.

  • The D Train

    Dirk’s line for the first-round ouster: 27, 8, 3 on 55% FG, 57% 3′s, 95% FT. Next highest scorer was Butler at 20, followed by JT at 13. Butler shot 43%, JT shot 38%, Kidd shot 30%, Marion shot 41%. Next highest rebounder was Kidd at 7. Dirk had the second highest assist per game behind Kidd’s 7. The overall team FG% was 43%, minus Dirk it was 39%. So if Lebron, Kobe, or Bosh’s team shot 39% without them and lost in the first round to a 4-time champion with a substantial coaching advantage, wouldn’t we be shortsighted to pin the blame on them since their supporting cast was so awful?

  • http://thetroyblog.com Teddy-the-Bear

    Wow please, everyone just stop it with the “So-and-so is not a first option” argument. Please, just stop it. This is one of the most ridiculous arguments anyone can make about a player. Let’s get this straight: There are only a handful of LeBron James’ and Kobe Bryants in this league.
    So according to most of you, those guys are the ONLY players worth building around? Cut the crap: TEAMS win ball games. If you’re lucky enough to land a player of Dirk Nowitzki or Joe Johnson or Brandon Roy’s caliber, YOU WORK WITH IT; YOU BUILD AROUND HIM. You surround that player with a better TEAM. You do NOT throw away your best player for cap space to chase LeBron James with 20 other Donnie Walshes in this league, for the mere fact that you think “Dirk Nowitzki isn’t fit to lead a team.”
    Your guys’ logic is why a good 24 out of the league’s 30 teams threw away their seasons to chase cap space for a handful of like SEVEN free agents in 2010–free agents that most of them aren’t going to get.

  • http://slamonline.com Allenp

    D-Train
    Good point.
    But, honestly, hasn’t Lebron played with that caliber of team for the past four years? And hasn’t he been criticized for not winning a championship, let alone losing in the first round?
    Hell, people were calling Kobe out for losing to the Suns that first year after LA got up 3-1 instead of praising him for actually getting up 3-1 with the bums he was carrying around.
    Dirk has talent. He’s had talent for years. Nash, Finley, Butler, Terry, Kidd and assorted smaller role players. To be honest, Dirk has consistently had better talent than ever other superstar not named Kobe and Tim Duncan, and even Kobe had some down years.
    I think that at this point in his career, losing in the first round is unacceptable. Period. It would have been no shame to lose in the second round, or conference finals, but losing in the first round just feels nasty.
    And they didn’t just lose, they pretty much got manhandled.

  • http://thetroyblog.com Teddy-the-Bear

    Allenp: And what would you have said about Duncan if the Spurs lost? Both were great teams with great players; only one team wins. If it’s unacceptable for Dirk to lose in the first round, it’s equally unacceptable for Duncan to lose in the first round–actually, MORE. But they were playing each other in the first round of the stacked Western Conference playoffs, and only one of them could advance.
    Dirk lost to a great team. Okay. How is this Dirk’s fault?

  • http://thetroyblog.com Teddy-the-Bear

    The year they lost to the Warriors was unacceptable. This year? Reasonable.

  • http://slamonline.com Allenp

    Teddy
    The Spurs had been written of this year and came in as a seven seed. Now, if Duncan would have lost, the whole year would have been an indictment of him and the Spurs and rightfully raised the question of whether the team needed to retool because their window was closed.
    After all, they backed into the playoffs as a seven seed, and are annually beset by a bevy of injuries.
    In contrast, Dirk’s team came into the series as the number two seed, and had just had a blockbuster trade after the all-star break. Honestly, outside of the Lakers, Nuggets and possibly Thunder, who has more talent than the Mavericks?
    I can’t think of anybody really.

  • http://thetroyblog.com Teddy-the-Bear

    I agree Allenp, the Mavericks had a great team this year–maybe the best they’ve ever had on paper. However, I just don’t see how you can blame Dirk Nowitzki for his TEAM falling short. It doesn’t mean he can’t be an “alpha dog,” it just means his teammates choked and his coach made horrible decisions throughout the series (ie benching Caron Butler for the entire second-half of game 3, subbing Beaubois out when he was balling out of his mind, etc).

  • http://thetroyblog.com Teddy-the-Bear

    lol co-sign Ronald. Shaq’s clutchest shot ever was the alley-oop he caught from Kobe, after which he proceeded to ignore Kobe’s high-five so he could point his hands to the sky and get a proper “kodak moment” to be remembered by.

  • http://slamonline.com Spaceship Jay

    @erich; How is Dirk not being able to defend NOT related to his game?

  • 6marjons

    i love dirk but who do you get to play second fiddle or even first fiddle, there’s better players than him but with wade they both need the ball, i see him working in pheonix with nash a much better option especially if amare is bailing

  • Pingback: SLAM ONLINE | » Mark Cuban Not Worried About Dirk Leaving

  • Caviliers0003

    Dirk And NAsh they played well together before and it would be quite a year for phoenix they could almost Guarantee a championship if they would do well together.

  • http://www.slamonline.com/onlin/nba/2010/04/ bill

    I believe that Dirk should go to toronto. this sounds crazy but he could help andre bargaini out. D Montiejunas might be playing there. hedo is their, m Betila, jose, and Rasho. This would be an all star Euro team. The Euro team could make a run. Crazier things have happened. Bosh would need much help in Dallas but Toronto would be dangerous.

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