Official Dirk is Great Thread

[Underdog]

Gonna sticky this for now... Brace yourselves, folks.

[EricaLubarsky]

Originally Posted by Underdog

Gonna sticky this for now... Brace yourselves, folks.

Why?

[yahyes]

Originally Posted by Underdog

Gonna sticky this or now... Brace yourselves, folks.

For what? Dirk being out another week?

[Underdog]

Originally Posted by yahyes

For what? Dirk being out another week?

Do players generally hold a press conference to announce that they're taking their injury day-to-day? I wouldn't at all be surprised if he was mulling over retirement then got a change of heart at the last moment... I'm sure he understands the odds of bouncing back from an achilles injury at his age -- not just getting on the floor, but competing at a high level again.

[rimrocker]

Dirk should just sit out the rest of this season and let the achilles fully heal and then give it a go next season.
We are not making the POs, and the achilles takes forever to heal, so I say we just develop young players, get a high draft pick, move our remaining vets for as many decent young players and draft picks as possible, and let Dirk come back next season fully healthy to give it one last shot.

Seems like a win-win strategy for the Mavs and Dirk.

[Melonhead]

Originally Posted by rimrocker

Dirk should just sit out the rest of this season and let the achilles fully heal and then give it a go next season.
We are not making the POs, and the achilles takes forever to heal, so I say we just develop young players, get a high draft pick, move our remaining vets for as many decent young players and draft picks as possible, and let Dirk come back next season fully healthy to give it one last shot.

Seems like a win-win strategy for the Mavs and Dirk.

This would be the best decision, but he doesnt have that type of personality to drop out of the season on his teammates only 20 games in.

[Thebo]

My guess UD is bracing for announcement no Mavs fan wants to read

[NeedlesKane]

This season is a testament to how incredible Dirk Nowitzki is. A healthy Dirk has always been able to carry any Dallas team's load on his back and carry them to a record of .500 or better. The only time this was not the situation was his rookie season in which the success was interrupted by Dennis Rodman's stint. Otherwise, that squad would have been .500 and probably would have landed a playoff spot.

[Thebo]

Must be JJ... Unless Dirk has bonded really well with new guys.

[Melonhead]

Originally Posted by Thebo

Must be JJ... Unless Dirk has bonded really well with new guys.

I could see Bogut or Deron

[Underdog]

Dirk Nowitzki said he could retire in 2017 if injuries persist

[Bryan_Wilson]

Originally Posted by Underdog

Dirk Nowitzki said he could retire in 2017 if injuries persist

Just thinking about it has me in one of those... stay in bed all day, curtains closed, phone off, leave me alone moods.

[Budapest Maverick]

Oh boy, we could wait for our next player of Dirk caliber for decades... Hopefully we get lucky next June.

[EricaLubarsky]

Dirk questionable for tomorrow.

Don't know how to feel

[nikeball]

Sports’ greatest Santa: The amazing story of Dirk Nowitzki and kids fighting for their lives

UNCLE DIRK

[tap2390]

Originally Posted by nikeball

Sports’ greatest Santa: The amazing story of Dirk Nowitzki and kids fighting for their lives

UNCLE DIRK

This got me teary-eyed. There will never be another Dirk. I can't believe some people are advocating replacing this man who is the epitome of class and dedication with a malcontent like Counsins as the face of the franchise.

Thanks for posting.

[dirt_dobber]

His humility is amazing.
Only athlete I ever teared up for was when Roger Staubach retired.
I may cry for a few days when Dirk is done...

[Melonhead]

His humility and generosity is inexplicable. I too got water in my eyes reading that article. Just a different caliber of a person, basketball or not

[dongtouch]

I'm a huge Dirk fan but I really hope he retires at the end of this season. He can't really do much except shoot. Right now, the only thing to play for in this season is to reach 30,000 points, which he's 414 points away. There are around 50 games left this season and he won't play them all. Hopefully he plays in 40 of them at least, in which case he needs to average 10.4 ppg to get there.

30k points is a huge accomplishment given he's never averaged close to 30 ppg and the people before him have all been league leaders in scoring at one point of another. Dirk has been able to get on this list due to his consistency.

[sefant77]

I also think its the best for everyone that he plays this season, gets his 30k as goal and then ride into the sunset with his three young kids. Mavs tank another one or two seasons...

But he needs to get healthy soon....35 games at 15PPG...

[Underdog]

“To me personally, it’s hard really to put into words quite honest. Just like a brother, inspiration, teacher, I learned so much from him watching him. Stuff that he doesn’t even know. Things that I have picked up in my time here. Him being the ultimate competitor, but not only that he changed the game. There is a generation coming up whether it is Porzingis, Dragan, that wants to be just like Dirk. That grew up watching him, idolizing him. Trying to patent their game after him and see if they can take it to the next level with their twist on what he created. Not only what he means to me, but what he means to the game, the city of Dallas. I was just telling my teammates I have never seen that level of basketball in my life in that 2010-11 run, I have never seen a player play at that level. To see how locked in and focused he was. As an athlete and competitor, I will be forever indebted to him and I will love him forever because he helped me reach my ultimate goal as an athlete winning a championship. He can call me anytime for anything, the only thing I can describe it as is brothers.”

Tyson Chandler On His Bond With Dirk Nowitzki

[EricaLubarsky]

Originally Posted by Underdog

Tyson Chandler On His Bond With Dirk Nowitzki

Time for Ty on this team is over, but I still love the person. What a great guy he is.

[nikeball]

The color of love: Dirk Nowitzki opens up on his interracial marriage

[sefant77]

Finally bdotadot did a Dirk clip too...but he missed the signature fist-tongue

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEpWolS6BUQ

[dongtouch]

Originally Posted by sefant77

Finally bdotadot did a Dirk clip too...but he missed the signature fist-tongue

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEpWolS6BUQ

I think he missed the tapping/shrugging his sleeves/shoulder area, whatever you call that, and saying 'obviously' at the start of every other sentence.

[Melonhead]

Originally Posted by sefant77

Finally bdotadot did a Dirk clip too...but he missed the signature fist-tongue

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEpWolS6BUQ

I actually think its his worst one. And I like all of his impersonations

[sefant77]

Its not bad...the running back is perfect etc, but he missed a lot of potential here.

[mac222b]

Yeah not his best work

[Skywalker]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3F80gKYG52k

[Thebo]

"Hopefully play healthy next year".

Well, that is good to hear, he is thinking about next year and not simply focused on this season.

[Thespiralgoeson]

Dunno if anyone posted this yet.

Jonathan Tjarks
Staff Writer, The Ringer
5 hrs ago
Dirk Nowitzki Has Given the Mavs One Last Hope
In the twilight of his career, the Dallas legend is yet again doing what he’s done all his career: serve as a basketball revolutionary
(Getty Images/Ringer illustration)

After being left for dead following a brutal start to the season, the Dallas Mavericks are playing good basketball again. Dallas has gone 8–3 in its last 11 games, including a back-to-back sweep of the Spurs and the Cavs. It was their first win in San Antonio in seven years, and their first win over LeBron James since the 2011 Finals. A team that was playing for ping-pong balls a month ago is suddenly alive in the playoff race, only 2.5 games out of the no. 8 seed out West.

The Mavs’ sudden turnaround is all thanks to a lineup change they made before their January 12 game against the Suns in Mexico City. After experimenting with a number of different lineups over the previous few months due to injury and ineffectiveness, Rick Carlisle went all in on small ball, starting Dirk Nowitzki at center next to Harrison Barnes, Wesley Matthews, Seth Curry, and Deron Williams. The Mavs came into the season expecting to start Andrew Bogut at center with their other four veteran mainstays, but that group was too flat-footed to keep up with opposing teams in a smaller and faster NBA. Their original starting lineup wasn’t able to threaten defenses with much playmaking off the dribble, either. In 43 minutes together this season, they have a net rating of minus-40.2.

In the 11 games since the Mavs made the switch, including a loss to the Thunder in which Dirk sat out, the team has an offensive rating of 111.5, which would have them tied for third in the NBA for the entire season. Considering their personnel, the company they are keeping is amazing. The top-three offenses in the league are all powered by multiple elite guards — Steph Curry and Klay Thompson for Golden State, Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan for Toronto, James Harden and Eric Gordon for Houston. The Mavs’ starting guards are Williams, a shadow of his former self, and the younger Curry, on his fifth team in four seasons. With Williams out the last three games, they have plugged in Yogi Ferrell, an undrafted free agent whom they signed to a 10-day contract on Saturday, without missing a beat. If the best offenses are powered by strong guard play, how are the Mavs succeeding with two recent D-Leaguers in their starting backcourt?

“It’s obvious what makes them tough to guard,” said 76ers coach Brett Brown before their game against the Mavs on Wednesday. “The fact that Dirk can pick-and-pop and shoot 3s at an elite percentage. There are 5s who can shoot 3s, but he’s a 4 who can really shoot and is now playing at the 5. It’s an unusual sort of position that when people can do that it causes tremendous defensive problems.”

This version of the Mavs shoots 3s as well as any team. Every player in their starting five has to be guarded 25-plus feet from the basket, putting the defense in an almost impossible position.

No player has benefited more than Curry, who is starting to make his own name in the NBA. He’s averaging 15.8 points on 50.4 percent shooting in the last 11 games, including an eye-popping 47.5 percent from 3. He’s shooting about as well as his brother, in part because he’s one of the only guards in the NBA playing in more space than Steph. Just look at this sequence against the Spurs where Curry makes a game-sealing basket with less than 17 seconds left. Once he runs a pick-and-roll with Nowitzki, there’s no second defender to help when he beats his man off the dribble. He’s playing against the second-rated defense in the NBA on its home court, and he might as well be shooting a layup in the park on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

“First of all it’s a lot of space out there. We’ve got a lot of shooters out there who can knock down shots,” Curry said in a radio interview on Tuesday. “We’ve got multiple playmakers with myself and Yogi, or when Deron’s in the lineup, whatever the case may be — a couple guys who can make plays with the ball, get in the lane. Obviously Dirk and [Barnes] draw a lot of attention, so that’s good for us with getting open looks.”

In a league where point guard play is more important than ever, it hasn’t mattered that much who has been running point for the Mavs. In the 98 minutes when Williams has played with Curry, Matthews, Barnes, and Nowitzki this season, the Mavs have an offensive rating of 111.8. In the 44 minutes when Ferrell has played for Williams, they have an offensive rating of 107.7. That’s the power that floor spacing can provide.

Ferrell had a 10-game stint with the Nets earlier in the season, and his play with the Mavs is the closest thing to a controlled experiment that you will see in the NBA. If you prorate his playing time over 36 minutes, he’s the same player he was in Brooklyn, except he’s doing a much better job taking care of the basketball.

“Playing with Dirk definitely helps a lot, especially for me. I can use my quickness to come off the ball screen,” Ferrell said Wednesday. “If I got a layup, I’ll take it. If they stay with me, you got Dirk at the top of the key where he can get into his iso. That’s what [Carlisle] wants me to do. Attack, go downhill, make the right pass, knock down the right shot.”

It’s a lot easier to read the floor when the defense is spread this far out. The game becomes very simple.

Of course, the flip side of playing Nowitzki at center is what it does to the defense. He was never the most mobile big man to begin with, and now, at the age of 38, he moves like his feet are encased in carbonite. At 7 feet and 245 pounds, he has the size to hold his own as a post defender, but there’s not much he can do when it comes to protecting the rim or guarding in the pick-and-roll. The Mavs’ strategy against the two-man game is to plant Nowitzki in the paint and pray the opposing guard misses the open jumper. If an opposing player gets a lane to the basket, the best Nowitzki can hope to accomplish is stand in place and avoid the foul. Despite playing so close to the basket on defense, he averages only 5.9 rebounds and 0.8 blocks a game.

When I asked Carlisle about how they could defend better with Nowitzki at the 5, he essentially conceded defeat at that side of the ball: “A lot of it comes down to offense. Execute well and get good shots and you can position yourself to get back and guard more effectively than if you have turnovers,” he said. “We have to play an efficient game. We have to be tied together. The ball has to move. Once we get a shot, we have to get back.”

There’s a feedback effect in basketball. Great offense leads to good defense because the other team is always inbounding the ball from under their own basket, allowing the defense to get set. Over at Nylon Calculus, Seth Partnow ran the numbers for the 2014–15 season and found that teams’ effective field goal percentage was 6.3 points higher off a live ball — when the defense is scrambling to get back in transition — than a dead ball. The Mavs have been living in that feedback effect, allowing 102 points per 100 possessions in the last 11 games. The Rockets have seen similar results this season. For as much as people worried about their defense, they have been so good on offense (no. 3) that it has lifted them to league-average defensive efficiency (no. 17).

For the Mavs, at least, the question is how sustainable that level of defense is over the course of the season. As opposing teams gather more film on them with Dirk at the 5, they will undoubtedly run more sets designed to punish him in the pick-and-roll. That would go double if Dallas were to make it to the playoffs, when opposing teams change their entire offensive game plan to attack weaknesses in the other team’s defense. The Rockets ran the Mavs off the floor in the 2015 playoffs by attacking Dirk in space, and it’s hard to see lineups with him as the primary rim protector being very effective against some of the best offenses in the NBA in a seven-game series.

Nevertheless, for the Mavs to even be thinking about the playoffs is a miracle considering how poorly they started the season. They were one of the worst teams in the league until they found a cheat code that turned their offense into a low-rent version of the Warriors. Dirk Nowitzki’s ability to shoot 3s from the power forward position helped changed the NBA. For his last act in the league, he’s trying to do something similar at center.

https://theringer.com/dirk-nowitzki-...9e5#.fveaeayhe

[BPo001]

Earl K. Sneed: Dirk Nowitzki: “It’s about that time. Holger is coming. He’s coming after the break & dragging me into the gym, so I’m just trying to keep rolling.” – via Twitter EarlKSneed

[BPo001]

Dirk is 93 points away from 30,000 for his career.

[Underdog]

@TheMavsFanatic: Dirk told a German newspaper that he's definitely playing next year and possibly the year after that via @fishsports on @1053thefan

[Underdog]

Originally Posted by Underdog

@TheMavsFanatic: Dirk told a German newspaper that he's definitely playing next year and possibly the year after that via @fishsports on @1053thefan

Nobody getting excited about this news??

Seems like Dirk knew something big was about to happen when he gave this interview...

[EricaLubarsky]

Wonder if having a defender of Noel's caliber allows us to play Dirk at the 4. May be our only chance to keep Noel happy enough to re-sign with us this summer while continuing to see Dirk. Last thing we need is Noel throwing a temper tantrum about his minutes and running to team who will guarantee him a starting spot.

[BPo001]

Originally Posted by EricaLubarsky

Wonder if having a defender of Noel's caliber allows us to play Dirk at the 4. May be our only chance to keep Noel happy enough to re-sign with us this summer while continuing to see Dirk. Last thing we need is Noel throwing a temper tantrum about his minutes and running to team who will guarantee him a starting spot.

This is my hope. Its only 25-26 games, so hopefully we can at least experiment with it.

[rimrocker]

Interesting tidbit of information....was watching Kansas vs. Texas yesterday and Bill Walton was announcing the game on ESPN.

He mentioned that Frank Mason (KU's 5'10" PG) idolizes Dirk Nowitzki.
Frank is the front runner for College Basketball's Player of the Year.

Mason is a senior and nowhere on the draft radar so we should bring him into summer camp if nothing else for that reason.

[Underdog]

67 points away from 30k.

[Underdog]