Drastic Change Needed in Big D

not going to happen. cuban and nowitzki have a lot of respect for each other. also cuban knows that dirk is a loyal personality.
more likely, cuban is going to exchange the supporting cast and/or add another big time player.
btw: not dirk, but terry/kidd/marion failed under the bright lights, but this issue has been discussed over and over…

It mains me to know that people will actually agree with the tripe written above. This is the sort of knee-jerk reaction that many have after a team exits the playoffs in consistant years but for one second replace Dirk’s name with Carmelo Anthony. Go ahead, do it. Denver hasn’t been to the finals recently and until last year were bumped from the playoff in the first round regularly. They were again sent home in round one this year by an undermanned Utah squad. That being said, let’s take a look at Dirk’s “soft” playoff numbers over the past three years. This year he averaged 26.7 points and 8.2 rebounds against the Spurs. I don’t know if you watched the series, but Dirk wasn’t the issue. He was the best player on the floor. So Dirk has a one-legged jumper, what’s your point? Kobe has a legs kicked out jumper that he relies on. In 08-09 Dirk averaged 26.8 points in the playoffs and 10.1 boards. The year before that he averaged the same amount of points and 12 rebounds per game. If these are soft numbers then what are hard physical numbers? Dirk is not the problem. The problem this year was that other key players were shut down or didn’t perform as they should have (Terry, Kidd, Marion). Trading a player of this caliber would be foolish on the part of any team in the league. I do like the idea of bring Bosh back here to Dallas but it won’t happen. Another big man is not what the Mavericks need. They need a real two guard, not a converted small forward. It’s a silly notion that Bosh is a better defender than Dirk. Let’s look at their regular season defensive ratings from the past three years. Dirk had ratings of 104 in 07-08, 108 in 08-09, and 105 this season. Fairly solid numbers for a soft player who is never recognized for the improvents on defense he has worked on aren’t they? So what are Bosh’s numbers? In 07-08 he had a rating of 105, 08-09 it was 108, this year it was 111. If I read that correctly it looks like his defense is getting worse by the year. Hmm, so that makes him a better defender, right? Dirk is not the problem in Dallas. He might not be a vocal enough leader for all his detractors but in their eyes he can never do enough. It is time to stop refering to him as soft because to do so only groups you into the majority of sports writers that still think it is 2003. Wake up Rip Van Winkle.

In the Spurs series, Dirk’s TS% was 64%; his teammates’ was 48%. Don’t act like this loss is on him, malek.

Why does Dirk choke so much!! If only he played like his teammates. . . .

Wow…Never read an article about Dirk that was more unrealistic and not-knowing Dirk and his success and his personality than this one! Awful job!

This is gonna sound crazy but it’s genius – Dirk needs to bail out and head to San Antonio. This will be brilliant. Imagine the playoff-like atmosphere during the 4 regular season match ups. I mean, the two texas teams hate each other’s guts as it is. Dirk bailing out and going to the enemy? Multiply that hate intensity by 100. And also, the Spurs aren’t going to get a title. They need to get rid of flop Richard Jefferson and bring Dirk in. Spurs. 2010-2011 champions, or the Twin Towers reincarnated.

Bosh couldn’t even lead his team to the playoffs in the East with a supposedly stacked team, what makes you think he would do any better than Dirk in the West? Calling Dirk a ball stopper is wrong too. Caron is a ball stopper, Dirk knows exactly what he’s doing and at times shows great court vision. Dirk was the only one consistently draining jumper after jumper, as his teamates fizzled under pressure. Sorry but whatever arguments made in this article were BS.

I must agree with the rest of the comments. This article is ridiculous. Bosh would leave Toronto for Dallas simply because Dallas is a ‘bigger market’? Maybe the author needs to work the Google on his Internet machine. Toronto is over twice the size of Dallas in terms of population, with 2.48 million people vs. 1.2 million in Dallas. So Bosh needs a big market to flourish? Why not just say that Bosh would like to go home to play for a Texas team? At least that would make sense. If Big-Market Bosh needs to play in a ‘big city’, why not immediately assume he’s already sitting outside Donnie Walsh’s office, pen in hand, waiting for July 1st?

The Mavs only had a few months to gel as a basketball team. Continuity breeds success in the playoffs. Let this team play together another year and see where it is.

Posted this in another article because the the continued Dirk-bashing is beyond ridiculous. I won’t lay out all the stat-based data that shows that the only player on Dallas would played above average this series, besides Dirk was Butler, and even that was only for the last couple of games. So ignore the fact that the rest of the team crapped the bed. Ignore the fact that SA-Dallas is almost always a toss-up. Ignore the fact that SA is a four-time champ and that Pop is far superior to Rick Carrey. Just focus on this fact: Since MJ left the league, here is the list of guys who have led their team to the title…Tim Duncan with David Robinson, then Manu and Parker as his sidekicks. Shaq with Kobe as his. Wade with Shaq as his. KG with Paul Pierce and Ray Allen. Kobe with Kung Pau. Chauncey and the entire starting 5 in Detroit. That’s it. 5 guys in the entire league (6 counting Chauncey, although that was an aberration because the Shaq-Kobe led Lakers imploded). Every other franchise and player in the league must therefore be referred to as “playoff failures”, correct? Dirk has never had anyone that complimented him that was anywhere near the quality of sidekick all the above mentioned. As for the soft label, like it or not a feathery fadeaway jumper, even if you hit it over 50% of the time will always be considered soft. On the flip side, when Kobe starts chucking up fadeaway jumpers to save his finger or limit the pounding he takes, he’s playing smart or taking what the defense gives him. Dirk was 8th in the league in free-throw attempts, and averaged approximately the same number of rebounds as the ultra-aggressive Kendrick Perkins and K-Mart. I just think that a seven-foot white guy with flowing blond locks who shoots primarily fade-away rainbows will always be viewed as soft, even if all statistical evidence says otherwise. And oh yeah, Dirk is one of only five players in NBA history to average a 25 and 10 for his playoff career, joining other soft, playoff rejects like Shaq and Hakeem.

And, honestly, if you want a proper example of “choking” you need to look at Karl Malone (supposedly one of the “toughest” players to have played). Losing does not equal to choking, theres only 1 winner out of 30 teams a year. If the writer of this article actually watched the games he would have realized that Dirk did everything to keep his team in it. Remember, game 1 where he didn’t miss? Yeah, his team ONLY won by 6 despite Dirk making Ridirkulous shots all over the the court showing how the rest of his team isn’t stepping up to the plate.

Co-sign all the comments of disagreement. Dirk has his faults, but he sure tried this series. And Bosh is not even close to being the answer, evident in his failure to make T-dot relevant year after year – dude would be an ideal second banana, but he shoots too many jumpers (the same charge Dirk gets, except Bosh has less range) and is a little too lean to be that dominant 4 man. Not a well-thought out piece.

Oh and Down with Ason, it’s over, big guy. Leave…now. (2nd year in a row i’ve had near cardiac arrests because Ason’s overrated self could not perform in the playoffs. Good thing Mavs have Devi… They don’t? Arrggghh)

trade bosh for dirk straight up!@

Isn’t Bosh considered to be soft too? I really don’t follow him too much to be honest, but the general idea I have of him is soft. He definitely doesn’t strike me as an aggressive player. Someone on here also mentioned in another article that Bosh is basically a black Pau Gasol. Pau is the posterboy for soft players. I’m just saying, please correct me if I’m wrong here.

Dallas is washed up. The reason they lose isn’t due to their best player. If you look at the contenders, all have more than 1 great player (except Cavs), who will get bounced this series for this reason. Dirk has always shouldered the load and never had a great player, wait,,oh yeah,,Steve Nash was a Mav…That move alone ruined the future of the mavs, Cuban signs Dampier to 73 mil, Marquis Daniels to 35mil , and low balls Steve Nash at 50mil…its actually so disgraceful that I bet in the history of modern sports, no team has ever let a player go and that then went on to win an MVP the next season…then they sign back a 40yr old jason kidd..painful

Hey dumba**.
I nearly went insane reading the sh*t you just wrote.
But after I read the comments I calmed down….a bit.
It’s cool to see that their are guys that do recognize game. You don’t.
Two points not mentioned in the comments above.
FIRST
It was Dirk who made Dallas a big market.
never forget that.
SECOND
Some of Dirk’s usual offseason retreats:
2001 European Championships Topscorer
(brought a team of nobodies (no disrespect) into the semifinals)
2002 World Championships MVP and Topscorer
(3rd place with the nearly the same team)
2005 European Championships MVP and Topscorer
(2nd place)
2007 European Championships Topscorer
(5th place).

So, Chris Bosh is the answer in Dallas? That’s a reach. And this entire soft label put on Dirk is such a joke. Dirk had a few of Carl Landry’s teeth embedded in his elbow during a game this year, leading to a nasty cut and infection. He didn’t shoot free throws left-handed as a result or complain about the pain. These media labels are groupthink at best. When has Dirk pulled a Paul Pierce act when nursing an injury? Co-sign Darksaber. Glad to see Dirk get some frickin support.

I honestly would rather have Chris Bosh on my team than Dirk. I think Chris Bosh is a better defender, and I think he’s a better rebounder. More importantly, I think his style of play is more traditional, which makes it easier to build around him. Plus he’s way younger. The Mavs would be stupid to turn down a Bosh trade.
Also, I think it’s ridiculous to pretend that Dirk hasn’t had teammates. True, his team hasn’t been stacked EVERY year, but he’s never been burdened by the collection of bums that Lebron, Wade and kobe have managed to drag to the playoffs.
Dirk has played with Nash, Finley, Devin Harris, Caron Butler, Jason Terry and Shawn Marion. All of those players have their strengths and weaknesses, but none of them are “bums.”
I think it’s hard to dominate as a team when your main low post guy shoots jumpers. I’m not saying that Dirk isn’t the best in the league at shooting mid-range jumpers, he is. And his jumper is a solid post move. But, outside of the jumper, what does he really have down on the block? Plus, he’s still not a great passer, and he still relies to heavily on pick and roll to get the ball and his shots.
Now, I agree that Jason Terry and Kidd played poorly, (I don’t include Marion because he played like Marion has played for several years now) but I have seen Terry at least have monster series. I also remember that Dirk had several games where he played poorly against the Spurs.
The bottom line is that if you’re the franchise player, when your team fails, you get the blame. Taht’s the way the game works. I think Dirk is a great player, but I’m not convinced that his style of play will ever lead to a ring unless he’s paired with another top shelf guy.

When the Mavs were pursuing the Jason Kidd trade a couple years back, I kept screaming at my computer “Damn it Cuban, go get Billups instead!” If Dirk is going to be their offensive big, and roam the elbows-3pt line area, then they need a guard that can go in the post, draw a double team and kick it to Dirk. Billups would have been the perfect sidekick for Dirk, and he knew how to play that post-up guard role, kicking it out to Rasheed in Detroit. Billups is also championship-tested, and is willing and capable of taking over in the clutch if needed. Maybe the Nuggets will blow it all up this summer and Dallas can get Billups for one more run before tearing it all down.

Bottom line, Dirk is never going to move past the debacle against Golden STate until he gets back to the WCF or Finals. That’s it. When you crap the bed that badly, people tend to remember it despite how well you perform in the future, particularly when you don’t have team success.

@ allenp its just funny that lebron won’t get the blame if the cavs fail against boston. And of course Dirk will not win a ring without another top shelf guy, but no one else will either, no Kobe, Wade, Lebron or anyone else for that matter.

@Allen: I agree with your statement at 4:37. I love Dirk, but I said well before the playoffs (during the 13 game winning streak) that Dirk and Dallas will never live that GS series down…unless they win it all. Even being up 3-0 in the Finals would only call up images of Miami or GS. Dirk, and the Mavs in general, have the stigma of being choke-artists. I don’t think Dirk gets a pass for “repeated failures to advance deep in the playoffs,” because he wears the choker and soft labels in the majority of the media, and GS and Miami are repeatedly brought up whenever Dallas is mentioned as a contender. Those of us that defend him point to lesser coaches, lesser supporting casts and point to his overall output. Right or wrong we can’t deny that he’s only led his team to the NBA Finals one time (same as Lebron, KG, Wade, more than Nash and host of other great players), or that at various points of his career he has stood toe-to-toe in the playoffs against in-their-primes KG and Duncan, and bested both of them. He helped win a game 7 in SA. He has been ousted from the first round 4 times, the conference-semi’s 4 times, and has been to two WCF, winning one. All in all, during a decade that they were in the same conference as 4 time champion SA and 4 time champion LA, it’s not that terrible of a track record. In fact, you could also note that Dallas is the ONLY western conference team besides LA and SA to even make the finals this decade. So yeah, we tend to get our panties in a bit of bunch when someone says that Chris Bosh is the playoff answer, or that Dirk shrinks in the bright lights. For all intents and purposes, you really cannot say that without being half-wrong, just like we can’t say he’s the consummate playoff performer without being half-wrong.

This argument is flawed. It makes the unstated assumption that Bosh has any meaningful desire to play in his home town. In addition, the point about Dallas being a contender for years to come is kind of weak, because based off the last decade, it is reasonable to believe that they would still be a contender for years to come by just keeping Dirk. So that is kind of a wash. Now, to move onto the “basketball” side of your article, and not just the poorly structured argument- are you sure Chris Bosh is the guy that you want to replace Dirk? I mean if your problem is a soft post-player that is weak in the mind, why would you swap one soft player for another? Chris Bosh has not shown the ability to lead a team, or invoke fear in his opponents. Moving him to the beautiful state of Texas won’t change that. All that aside, I do agree Dirk needs to leave, just not for Toronto and not for Chris Bosh.

Allenp: NO PLAYER CAN WIN unless they’re paired with another “top shelf” guy (unless your name is Hakeem Olajuwon and you were the best player in the NBA during 1994).

Honestly, what’s this infatuation with “post moves” that people have? Yeah, Dirk doesn’t have a sweet little baby hook but its a just a method of shooting. If your 7 foot and you are able to do a jump shot in the post than more power to you. If you make it frequently you don’t need a running hook/drop step. Before Shaq came along a lot of the HOF big men relied on their jumpers too but they weren’t as deadly as Dirk, so they mixed in more conventional post moves. The only real knock on Dirk imho is his defense, but I havent seen real emperical proof that his defense is the reason Dallas loses games, it would be nice to see how much the scoring the guy Dirk marks scores. I am sure it’s not…”whoever Dirk marks burns him everytime” seeing how McDyess didn’t average 20-10 against Dirk.