[chumdawg]

D2K, I'd be interested in exploring a little further the question of whether Dampier is an excellent pairing with Dirk.

Interesting that Dirk and KVH had a better plus-minus than Dirk with Damp. You say it was only 320 minutes with the former. How many minutes with the latter?

In my mind, it comes down to a philosophical question. You say that Dirk is a finesse player and he needs a center alongside him to do the dirty work. I wonder two things: A) is Damp really doing the "dirty work," if that's the best strategy?, and B) is that really the way to maximize the benefit we get from having Dirk on the floor?

In other words, would the Mavs be better off with a center who could enhance the things that Dirk does well? Maybe a guy who could draw his defender away from the basket to give Dirk room to work. Or a guy who could come along with Dirk and the rest of the team on the break, since that is something that over time we have seen Dirk do very well. Or, and perhaps most importantly, a guy who is a legitimate offensive threat in the low post, when Dirk gets the ball at the elbow like he is prone to do.

I see the ideal center to play alongside Dirk as someone who can match his athleticism. This puts the ultimate pressure on the defense. No interior gets to take a break. No interior defender gets to cheat off his man, who is not an offensive threat, to help against Dirk, who is trying to carry the offensive load.

But as for your plus-minus pairings...I submit that WHOEVER was the center of this team, as long as that guy was passable, Dirk was going to have his highest plus-minus ratings with. In other words, this stat is meaningless. It stands to reason that Dirk will do better with a decent center than he will with a guy like Henderson. But then again, it's intriguing how well he did with KVH.

Here's what I believe about the NBA. I believe that there are two ways to get it done. If you have a team without an overwhelming player--a team like Detroit--you try to play in a way that minimizes the weaknesses of all the players collectively. If you are lucky enough to have one of the top six or eight talents in the game, you try to play in a way that maximizes the abilities of that player, given that only five guys are on the floor at any one time and that, hence, one player can make a tremendous impact.

If you've got one of those guys, as the Mavericks do with Dirk, everything you do should be in an effort to take advantage of the problems that he poses the other team. So when it comes to interior play, the problem that Dirk poses--and this is how Dirk differs from someone like Peja--is that Dirk can beat you from both the outside and the inside. So what you want to avoid at all costs is a lineup that allows the defense to help out on one of the threats (beating you inside), which kills your two-pronged attack.

So my conclusion is that Dirk needs to be paired with a centerman who has respectable offensive skills. Anything less is not taking advantage of what Dirk brings to the table. Dirk is the bell cow of the franchise, and like it or not, Dirk is a guy who helps you more on the offensive end than the defensive. You need toi maximize that advantage.