Now Presenting: Mr.Clutch Himself

[hipster.doofus7]

Re: Now Presenting: Mr.Clutch Himself

In the 2006 Finals his ppg dropped. You would think a MVP/superstar would step his game up more than ever in the Finals...D-Wade did. Dirk is a good player but not tough mentality and physically.

Uh-huh. And I'm sure Wade having three veterans among the league's all time greats (Shaq, Alonzo Mourning Pat Riley) had nothing to do with it. Meanwhile, who did Dirk have? A skeleton crew. There were no other All-Stars in his roster after Nash & Finley bailed. And that playoff series is a textbook case of 6-time champion Pat Riley making a mincemeat out of rookie coach Avery Johnson.

You are judging Dirk's entire career based on that one playoff series? That's exactly the kind of idiotic unfairness that's rampant with all these Dirk bashers. Do you say the same thing about Gary Payton? Allen Iverson? Charles Barkley? Karl Malone? LeBron James? All these guys lack the ability to "will" their team into winning... because they lost in the NBA Finals? They too lack mental and physical toughness because they lost in the Finals?

Gimme a break. Charles Barkley was just as mediocre a defender as Dirk, but nobody ever questioned his mental toughness. Karl Malone was notorious for consistently missing all his free throws at crucial moments, but somehow fans didn't question his mental toughness as much as they do with Dirk.

Dirk Nowitzki is undefeated in all five double-elimination games he has faced in the playoffs. That includes a perfect 4-0 record in Game#7 situations. And people are still questioning his mental toughness --- it's ridiculous.

[hipster.doofus7]

Re: Now Presenting: Mr.Clutch Himself

This thread has the potential to get out of hand. I will pose this rhetorical question though. How has Dirk performed against coordinated defensive teams in the 4th quarter in recent years? The Bostons, San Antonios, Houstons, Clevelands, Lakers?

Errr... did you not even bother to watch the videos? It's funny how Dirk haters just start bashing him on instinct without even bothering to look at the original post.

If you're asking for samples from the past year, then (again) look at those videos. Dirk scored a tip-in in the final 17 seconds of the 4th quarter against the Spurs, then eliminated them with 11 points in overtime.

What about that other video against the Lakers last year? Dirk tied the game with 2.0 seconds remaining in regulation, then won it overtime.

Did you not see that video of Dirk scoring 29 points in the 4th quarter of a comeback win against Jerry Sloan's Utah Jazz last month?

What about the video of Dirk scoring 19 pts in the 4th quarter against the tough Nuggets defense 6 months ago? He tied the game twice in the final 2 minutes in a comeback victory. In fact, Dirk was a monster in that series, averaging nearly 35 ppg & 12 rpg. But the Mavs still lost the series because every single one of Dirk's teammates basically stunk it up.

[vaballer34]

Re: Now Presenting: Mr.Clutch Himself

You are judging Dirk's entire career based on that one playoff series? That's exactly the kind of idiotic unfairness that's rampant with all these Dirk bashers. Do you say the same thing about Gary Payton? Allen Iverson? Charles Barkley? Karl Malone? LeBron James? All these guys lack the ability to "will" their team into winning... because they lost in the NBA Finals? They too lack mental and physical toughness because they lost in the Finals?

Gimme a break. Charles Barkley was just as mediocre a defender as Dirk, but nobody ever questioned his mental toughness. Karl Malone was notorious for consistently missing all his free throws at crucial moments, but somehow fans didn't question his mental toughness as much as they do with Dirk.

Dirk Nowitzki is undefeated in all five double-elimination games he has faced in the playoffs. That includes a perfect 4-0 record in Game#7 situations. And people are still questioning his mental toughness --- it's ridiculous.

You act like I'm saying Dirk is a bum. Dirk has had a very nice career...some will say a Hall of Fame career. If Dirk would of made that freethrow in Game 3 of the 2006 Finals, I'm pretty sure he would have a ring. His ppg during that season (MVP season) dropped during the Finals. Most MVPs and superstars would step their game up if they know they have to win 4 games to win it all...Dirk didn't do that.

You mention GP, Iverson, Barkley, Malone, and Lebron. Gary Payton is the only point guard in NBA history to win Defensive Player of the Year because of his tough defense. Only thing tough about Dirk are some of the shots he make. GP also won a ring in 2006. I'm not going to disrespect Iverson by comparing his toughness and will to Dirk's.

Barkley was like 6'4 or 6'5 and averaged 12 rebounds for his career. Dirk is 7'0 and has never averaged 11 rebounds for a season. Malone is #2 on the NBA's all-time scoring leaders. Barkley and Malone played during the Jordan era and everyone knows that Jordan kept a lot of great players from winning a ring. Lebron is still consider young and there are times I question his toughness and will.

Again Dirk is a very good player. IMO he should be killing the league averaging 30 and at least 11 and the only one that's keeping Dirk from doing that is Dirk. He's not tough enough to do that.

[J.R. Locke]

Re: Now Presenting: Mr.Clutch Himself

Dude you can't use other players to justify Dirk as a clutch player. That is a dumb arguement since I could argue the value of each of those players.

Dirk is slighted because he isn't athletic enough. That is his problem. Because his game is to take fadaway jumpers when he does this in the clutch he is slighted for not being clutch or being soft. It is all based on appearance.

[PrettyT11]

Re: Now Presenting: Mr.Clutch Himself

Again Dirk is a very good player. IMO he should be killing the league averaging 30 and at least 11 and the only one that's keeping Dirk from doing that is Dirk. He's not tough enough to do that.

I'm sorry but this is just a flat out foolish statement. Do you know the kind of numbers you are throwing out?? Only ONE player has done that for a season in over the past 20 years. Outside of that one year nobody has put up those kind of numbers since the early 70's. The number of players that have done up more than once can be counted on one hand. So if only a few players in NBA history have put up those kind of numbers what makes you think Dirk should just be easily able to?? NOBODY in the NBA puts up those kind of numbers. It has nothing to do with toughness or lack there of. It just doesn't happen for anybody.

Bigs don't average 30 points in the NBA anymore. Karl Malone is the only PF or Center to average over 30 a game since the 70's and he only did it once. So I don't know what makes you believe Dirk should easily be able to put up those kind of numbers.

[vaballer34]

Re: Now Presenting: Mr.Clutch Himself

I'm sorry but this is just a flat out foolish statement. Do you know the kind of numbers you are throwing out?? Only ONE player has done that for a season in over the past 20 years. Outside of that one year nobody has put up those kind of numbers since the early 70's. The number of players that have done up more than once can be counted on one hand. So if only a few players in NBA history have put up those kind of numbers what makes you think Dirk should just be easily able to?? NOBODY in the NBA puts up those kind of numbers. It has nothing to do with toughness or lack there of. It just doesn't happen for anybody.

Bigs don't average 30 points in the NBA anymore. Karl Malone is the only PF or Center to average over 30 a game since the 70's and he only did it once. So I don't know what makes you believe Dirk should easily be able to put up those kind of numbers.

I don't understand how someone like Lebron can average 30 by going to the hole damn near everytime and Dirk, with his offensive skills, can't average 30. Dirk is a tougher matchup than Lebron.

Dirk is not your traditional "back to the basket" big. He is pretty much a 7'0 wing player who should be unstoppable. The only bad thing I can say about Dirk's offensive game is that he doesn't post up more when he's checked by smaller players. Is it because he doesn't like contact? That's what's keeping him from averaging 30.

IMO Dirk should be averaging like 11 rebounds. What's keeping Dirk from doing that? Its definitely not because Erick Dampier eating the glass.

[Sarah]

Re: Now Presenting: Mr.Clutch Himself

Gimme a break. Charles Barkley was just as mediocre a defender as Dirk, but nobody ever questioned his mental toughness. Karl Malone was notorious for consistently missing all his free throws at crucial moments, but somehow fans didn't question his mental toughness as much as they do with Dirk.

Cmon now. Charles Barkley a mediocre defender? You must have only seen him on the twilight of his career. Even with his height, he can hold his ground against the best low post players of his era like Malone, Mourning, and the likes. Here is a sample.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoqYWjCCGRs

Barkley just like all of the best big men in his era can play both sides of the court effectively. He may not be a shot blocker, but he was physically intimidating enough defensively and offensively. Nobody question Malone or Barkley's mental toughness because very few defenders can intimidate them. Nowitzki can easily get intimidated by people way smaller than him who can play physical defense like Bowen, Harrington and the likes. That is probably the reason why his mental toughness is in question. He has a tendency to treat the low post like it has land mines if physical pain is waiting for him.

[hipster.doofus7]

Re: Now Presenting: Mr.Clutch Himself

Nowitzki can easily get intimidated by people way smaller than him who can play physical defense like Bowen, Harrington and the likes.

That is about the most laughable statement I've seen in this thread so far.

Have you actually watched Nowitzki play? I think not. Your contention that he gets intimidated by a smaller player is utterly ridiculous... because Nowitzki seldom gets defended one-on-one for an entire game. On the rare occasions that he does, he has consistently scorched the opponent. A prime example is the Denver series last Spring. Carmelo & Birdman took turns covering him one-on-one, and Dirk averaged 35 ppg & 12 rpg in the series. It was a calculated move on the Nugget's part though, since they won the series anyway. They opted to let Nowitzki go wild and keep his teammates in check.

Tim Duncan & Kevin Garnett have tried defending Dirk one-on-one many times over the years. And even they had a rough time keeping him in check without help.

All those times you saw smaller guys like Bruce Bowen pester Nowitzki into poor shooting nights... usually they were the 2nd guy collapsing on him for a double team. For the past decade, that has been the formula that worked best in slowing him down. '

Honestly... have you really seen Nowitzki play? Or are you just going by Sports Center highlights and forum heresay? The fact that you would assume smaller players have been consistently "intimidating" Dirk one-on-one is such a ridiculous statement. Wow.

[hipster.doofus7]

Re: Now Presenting: Mr.Clutch Himself

The only bad thing I can say about Dirk's offensive game is that he doesn't post up more when he's checked by smaller players. Is it because he doesn't like contact?

Early in Dirk's career, he tried posting up smaller players. He simply wasn't great at it. He is a great shooter, and posting up isn't playing to his strengths. The Mavs soon realized that it was far more practical for Dirk to simply shoot over smaller players.

Surely you've seen his bread-and-butter move by now? He backs up the smaller player closer towards the paint. Then makes a turnaround fadeaway jumper. It's almost impossible for smaller players to contest a fadeaway jumpshot from a 7'0" guy. It's not very macho, but it's helluva effective. It doesn't matter how Dirk scores against a small player, as long as he scores.

Against tall players, Dirk doesn't bother backing them up anymore. You can't expect Dirk to post up Tim Duncan or Kevin Garnett or Shaq, can you? That's just unrealistic. He'll never be able to do that, no matter how much he tries. So he doesn't. Tall players are extremely reluctant to guard him in the perimeter, so he uses that to his advantage.

IMO Dirk should be averaging like 11 rebounds. What's keeping Dirk from doing that?

Dirk is a shooter, he spends a lot of time around the perimeter. He also tries to draw opposing big men out there with him, to unclog the lanes for Josh Howard. It's kinda hard to grab 11 rebounds every night when you're standing 15 feet away from the basket.

[Sarah]

Re: Now Presenting: Mr.Clutch Himself

That is about the most laughable statement I've seen in this thread so far.

Have you actually watched Nowitzki play? I think not. Your contention that he gets intimidated by a smaller player is utterly ridiculous... because Nowitzki seldom gets defended one-on-one for an entire game. On the rare occasions that he does, he has consistently scorched the opponent. A prime example is the Denver series last Spring. Carmelo & Birdman took turns covering him one-on-one, and Dirk averaged 35 ppg & 12 rpg in the series. It was a calculated move on the Nugget's part though, since they won the series anyway. They opted to let Nowitzki go wild and keep his teammates in check.

Tim Duncan & Kevin Garnett have tried defending Dirk one-on-one many times over the years. And even they had a rough time keeping him in check without help.

All those times you saw smaller guys like Bruce Bowen pester Nowitzki into poor shooting nights... usually they were the 2nd guy collapsing on him for a double team. For the past decade, that has been the formula that worked best in slowing him down. '

Honestly... have you really seen Nowitzki play? Or are you just going by Sports Center highlights and forum heresay? The fact that you would assume smaller players have been consistently "intimidating" Dirk one-on-one is such a ridiculous statement. Wow.

DAL against GS. The 7-foot Nowitzki was supposed to make it work, but he failed to take advantage of his size against a Golden State starting lineup featuring no one taller than 6-foot-9 in Game 1. And they say 2007 was the year MVP Dirk will muscle his team on his shoulders to the finals again. That was the hype until Dirk met Jackson and Harrington. I did not even know Jackson and Harrington can play defense until that series. Can you really imagine Duncan or Bron being intimidated by this two defensively in a playoff series?

AGainst Bowen, here is a link titled Bowen bugs, hugs Dirk.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailyd...ilydime-060508

[Sarah]

Re: Now Presenting: Mr.Clutch Himself

Dirk is a shooter, he spends a lot of time around the perimeter. He also tries to draw opposing big men out there with him, to unclog the lanes for Josh Howard. It's kinda hard to grab 11 rebounds every night when you're standing 15 feet away from the basket.

This is a huge weakness in his game though against championship caliber teams. Against SA, Duncan seldom chase him outside to prevent the low post from weakening. Instead, Bowen will chase him up there to pester his shooting %. He goes down in the low post where Bowen can do little to stop him, Duncan will just switch on him.

All a team need to expose Dirk's weakness is a great perimeter defender (like Bowen) or an athletic big man like (Harrington or Battier) to chase and pester him outside and a physical low post defender to intimidate Dirk in the low post. Championship teams has this kind of people in thier lineup and some playoff teams also.

Inorder for Dirk to be a success, he needs a big man that commands respect from the opponent defensively as his partner to score on a tough low post defense so he can just work on keeping himself open.

[hipster.doofus7]

Re: Now Presenting: Mr.Clutch Himself

DAL against GS. The 7-foot Nowitzki was supposed to make it work, but he failed to take advantage of his size against a Golden State starting lineup featuring no one taller than 6-foot-9 in Game 1... Can you really imagine Duncan or Bron being intimidated by this two defensively in a playoff series?

That was the first year the Mavs ever had to go up against their mentor, Don Nelson. He was the architect who created the Mavs --- he drafted, signed, or traded for every single player on that Mavs roster. He handpicked the entire Mavs coaching staff. He brought in his own son to be the Mavs GM. He personally trained Dirk since he was a teenager from Germany, and personally groomed Avery Johnson to replace him as coach. The Mavs were clearly Don Nelson's team from top to bottom, inside and out. He knew the players and the schemes better than the Mavs knew themselves.

Don Nelson then used that knowledge to dismantle the very team he had created. He made the entire Mavericks team --- including NBA Coach of the Year Avery Johnson --- look like befuddled amateurs in that playoff series. It's utterly ridiculous for anyone to blame that fiasco on Dirk alone. Of course, if you're only getting your info from 30-second clips at Sports Center every night... then you would make that kind of weak assumption.

This is a huge weakness in his game though against championship caliber teams... All a team need to expose Dirk's weakness is a great perimeter defender (like Bowen) ... and a physical low post defender to intimidate Dirk in the low post. Championship teams has this kind of people in thier lineup and some playoff teams also.

Interesting theory.

Gee.. you know what team had a "physical low post defender" to go along with a "Bruce Bowen type" defender? Well, the San Antonio Spurs, of course. Why, they even had Bruce Bowen himself! But they've been losing to the Mavs consistently since 2005, including a playoff series that came in the midst of that Spurs' 3-championship run. Kinda puts a damper on your theory, eh?

The Spurs had won the Championship in 2005 & 2007, so I'm pretty sure they qualify as a championship caliber team. Why didn't they win in 2006? Because they lost to Dirk Nowitzki's Mavs. That's a 7-game playoff road series at san antonio... where 6 of the 7 games either:

1. went into overtime, or
2. were decided by 2 pts or less.

That's the most gruelling 7-game series in NBA history, on the road, against a team that won the championship the year before (and the year after). Don't tell me that Dirk Nowitzki is incapable of beating championship-caliber defenses in the playoffs. That would be an argument that makes absolutely no sense.

[ZB9]

Re: Now Presenting: Mr.Clutch Himself

You act like I'm saying Dirk is a bum. Dirk has had a very nice career...some will say a Hall of Fame career. If Dirk would of made that freethrow in Game 3 of the 2006 Finals, I'm pretty sure he would have a ring. His ppg during that season (MVP season) dropped during the Finals. Most MVPs and superstars would step their game up if they know they have to win 4 games to win it all...Dirk didn't do that.

You mention GP, Iverson, Barkley, Malone, and Lebron. Gary Payton is the only point guard in NBA history to win Defensive Player of the Year because of his tough defense. Only thing tough about Dirk are some of the shots he make. GP also won a ring in 2006. I'm not going to disrespect Iverson by comparing his toughness and will to Dirk's.

Barkley was like 6'4 or 6'5 and averaged 12 rebounds for his career. Dirk is 7'0 and has never averaged 11 rebounds for a season. Malone is #2 on the NBA's all-time scoring leaders. Barkley and Malone played during the Jordan era and everyone knows that Jordan kept a lot of great players from winning a ring. Lebron is still consider young and there are times I question his toughness and will.

Again Dirk is a very good player. IMO he should be killing the league averaging 30 and at least 11 and the only one that's keeping Dirk from doing that is Dirk. He's not tough enough to do that.

Dirk is one of FIVE players in the HISTORY of the NBA to average at least 25 ppg and 10 rpg in his playoff career (Dirk averages 25.5 ppg and 11.2 rpg)

the other four players to do so are Hakeem, Shaq, Bob Petit, and Elgin Baylor...all HOF'ers and a future HOF'er

ok with that little factoid im out...interesting that the detractors rarely drop any facts whatsoever

[TheMatrix31]

Re: Now Presenting: Mr.Clutch Himself

Dirk's got balls the size of grapefruits.

[hipster.doofus7]

Re: Now Presenting: Mr.Clutch Himself

Nowitzki's clutchness was on display (yet again) tonight. I think he's had half a dozen of these game-tying, game-winning shots already this season. But few people seem to notice...

The Mavs were trailing the Bobcats most of the game. He was uber-clutch on THREE separate clutch situations

• Bobcats lead by 2 pts with 10 sec remaining in 4th
• Bobcats lead by 1 pt with 23 sec remaining in OT
• Bobcats lead by 1 pt with 1.8 sec remaining in OT

In all three instances, Dirk Nowitzki answered with clutch baskets. One shot to force overtime. One shot to take the lead with 23 sec remaining. Then one final game-winning shot to retake the lead with 1.8 sec remaining. He made all three shots with Boris Diaw right in his face.

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