you might want to brush up on your past a bit. Bird although he did play PF at times is generally considered a SF not a PF.
You are comparing Dirk to all time greats. He doesn't have to be as good as Hakeem or Jordan to have a "good" finals. He is an elite scorer. He played like an elite scorer in the finals. He had a good finals.
Someone else brought up Jordan (I brought up dream out of curiosity). I'm not comparing them to him, I'm comparing Dirk to Dirk. (However, if you want to compare them to him, as is the case with this thread, i.e. Dirk #2 all-time PF? Then Dirk's case looks even worse) He was not an elite scorer in the Finals. He had a below average Finals. The numbers back me up on this. What evidence do you have?
Leading scorer in Games 1, 2, and 5. Most points in 4th quarter all series. He was the best scorer on the floor 50% of the time, and 100% of the time in the 4th. How did he not have a good finals?
1) Leading scorer means nothing if you take too many shots to get there. 2) 4th quarter points only matter if you miss your shots in the 1st through 3rd quarter. 3) Jason Terry was a better scorer than him every moment he was on the floor. Your entire argument is based on volume scoring > efficient scoring and 4th quarter points > rest of game points... sorry, but I'm not buying it. Nowitzki had a sub par Finals. Tore it up during the rest of the playoffs though.
Nah, just pointing out the facts. Jason Terry played out of his mind. (60.56% true shooting) Dirk played below his standards. (54.15% true shooting) All other stats remaining equal, Terry got better in the Finals, while Dirk got worse.
Did you read the final statistics? Terry had a better Finals than Dirk. Of course Dirk had good moments, but on the whole, he was outplayed by Terry, who elevated his play in the Finals. While Dirk declined.
My List: Duncan Malone Dirk Garnett Barkley McHale Webber Honorable Mention: Bob Pettit (dominant but in a different era) Garnett is the most talented PF of the bunch. He had it all: scoring, blocks, steals, passing, and SICK rebounding numbers, but has shown that he is a better second option. Early on in Garnett's career he has shown a reluctance to take the big shot, and while the wolves surely wasted his talent with the trash they've assembled for him, unlike Dirk and Duncan, he hasn't been there when his teams need him the most. He's not a chocker like Chris Bosh, but he isn't the alpha dog type player either. Malone was 2nd on the all time scoring list and 1st in Defensive Rebounding while making the playoffs for 18 consecutive seasons. In that regard, the recent maverick teams remind me of the Jazz of old: impressive regular season performances with limited playoff success...until recently. Dirk's career is not over and Malone had played in the league or 6 more years than Dirk; however, thus far Malone was clearly the better player. I'm not saying Dirk won't get to a point where he can be considered the second best PF of all time, but he's not there yet.
To me its : 1) TD 2) Malone 3,4,5,6) Garnett-Dirk-Barkley-Baylor not sure in wich order, mchale also was right there. And to add to the debate if duncan was a center or a pf, he was a pf. The thing is, he never was athletic, so now that he is older he can only match centers speed. But he is for sure the best pf to play the game. He almost got a quadruple double on nba finals game 6 against new jersey, with 22 points, 21 boards, 10 assists and 8 blocks. That series he averaged 24.1 points, 17 boards, 5.3 asssints, 5.3 blocks. He have 4 nba championships, 3 finals mvps, 2 regular season mvps, if he is not a top 10 all time, he is right there. I Think the gap between him and number 2 its pretty big.
What is asinine is predicating your argument that Dirk had a "good" Finals on him being better than Jason Terry for a few moments here and there.
Your definitions are asinine. You think being the leading scorer for 3/6 games is "here and there". You think "good" means all time great or legendary.
Sigh. Do I really need to explain to you why being the leading scorer for your team when shooting under 40% from the field is NOT something to be proud of? And do I really need to explain to you that a "good" finals means that you performed near, at, or above your ability? Something which Dirk undeniably did not do.
