Wow, I've never seen that before. If that is true (and I have no reason to doubt that it is) that is simply incredible...
Soy and Linde....you are comparing apples to oranges. What is hard to understand? Nitwitz FG% drops off significantly. Kobe's drops of as expected against playoff defenses. He drops off roughly the same amount as MJ about 1.5%. Nitwitz drops off around 4% pts (when you discount his non-playoff years), and drops off a whopping 7.5% in elimination series, where he shot 40%, and would be much worse if you take out his 42 garbage pts in the 20pt lose in the last game of SA dispatching them 4-1. Nice that you showed up in a Game 5 blowout Nitwitz. Peja shoots 38.8%. These two are being clamped down on once they meet their match. Besides, you should be comparing Nitwitz FG% to other pure shooters like Reggie (46%) and Larry (47%), not a 5-tool player--dribble penetrator/scorer/defender type. Kobe does so much more. You do not measure Kobe just by FG%. Look at the assists and make note of the 1st Team Defense.
Another thing guys. Kobe has a 16 game playoff run of 29.4 points at 46.9% with 7.3 rebounds and 6.1 assists under his belt. You cannot compare Nitwitz to that. So far, he has good first rounds then shoots poorly in 2nd rounds. Two yrs in a row. 40% in elimination series is not something that a pure shooter with no defense or passing can do.
If Kevin McHale were to take leave of his senses, and offer to trade Garnett for Nowitzki, there is not a single GM in the league who wouldn't accept it (assuming the trade was doable wrt the salary cap).
looks good but to be the first since kareem to have 4 straight 30 - 15 playoff games isn't to bad either
Blablabla...when it appears to support the point you are trying to make, it is comparing apples to oranges, when it doesn't, it is...
He did not have 4 straight in the same yr. You are counting is 42 pt performance in a 20pt lose to get bounced out of a 5 game series the yr before. He shot 26.8% in the first 3 games of that series to go down 3-0. Who cares if he woke up later to go down 4-1? His poor shooting in the first 3 games lost that series. He shot poorly against the Kings, too.
It is simple. You should compare Nowitski's playoff shooting to his regular season. It doesn't stack up. 1st Team defenders and playmakers like Kobe can bring more when their cold. <b>Here's something simple:</b> <b>26.8% shooting in 3 games</b> to go down to the Spurs 3-0 is called disappearing. <b>40% in 5 games to the Kings</b> is not bringing it. He is worse than Webber in big series.
If I remember right, Kobe didn't become Mr. Clutch until the past 2 postseasons. He has a lot more playoff experience than Dirk. Let's wait a couple more year before we compare their playoff performance. Heyp, I agree that Dirk is no Birk. . . uh. . . Bird. At least not yet. But Kiki is no Dirk either. At this point of his development, I think he is somewhere between the two white guys mentioned here. As for the other white guy being dragged into this comparison, I think Dirk has about the same value as McHale right now. (Why do we have to get all the white guys to compare with a white guy anyway?)
Fact is: Kobe *is* Mr Clutch and a great defender, while Dirk gets shutdown against 2nd round teams has zero defense. His rebounding saves him from being a complete liability like Peja when his shooting betrays him. Easy, I've actually wanted to compare him to McAdoo, but I expected people not to remember--hence, Kiki and Rudy. McAdoo is the better comparison, though. McAdoo got rave reviews early, and was widely regarded as the best shooter ever, not just best shooting big man. However, his career was just scoring, and he didn't do much in the playoffs. That could happen to Nowitski. Another McAdoo career has equal possibility to Nowitski reaching Kobe's clutchness and complete game. The Bird comparison is just sily.
That is not a fact. Kobe's post D is pretty bad. Is he a good on the ball defender...sure, but a great defender to me is great all around on D (ala a great shotblocker is not necessarily a great defender).
All personal opinions aside, It is a fact that he was" First Team Defense in 2000. Second Team Defense this year.
Being a Mavs fan I am kind of biased but I have to ask this question. Does it matter what people that Dirk and Kobe go against in the playoffs? So far Dirk has gone up against Karl Malone, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, and Chris Webber, possibly the four best power forwards in the game (yeah Karl could be a stretch). I admit I am not sure about this, but Kobe has gone against(in the last two years) Derek Anderson, Ruben Patterson, Bruce Bowen, Derek Mckie, and Doug Christie. One could say that those aren't bad defenders, but Kobe doesn't really have to bust his butt on defense to cover these guys. Heypartner, those career stats weren't that far off from Kobe's. The difference is Dirk is the best player on his team and Kobe has the most dominant player in the game right now on his team. One more thing to point out, Dirk still has a lot of things he can improve on and he has shown signs of making drastic improvements every year. Every offseason he points out a weakness and makes sure to improve it. I have every reason to believe that in five years, Dirk will be at least average (if not better than average) on defense and a good (not flashy but good) passer. I believe Kobe could carry a team better right now but not five years from now. I admit I could be wrong. It sure will be interesting to hear this argument in five years.
Dirk's playoff FG% does not match up with Dirks FG% in the regular season. not close. Especially 2nd round series. Dirk has a solid team around him, so you can't say he is a one-man team. That's not close, either. It is equally hard to double team Dirk has it is Kobe. Dirk plays zero defense. His shooting can't tail off. Kobe's can, and he makes up for it in rebounding, assists and stopper defense.
I know he *is*. My point was he *wasn't* very clutch until he got some playoff experience under his belt (I could be wrong). So, it's not fair to compare Dirk's playoff performance to Kobe's because Dirk didn't have a playoff team until the year before last. BTW, Kobe shot pretty poorly in general during the last playoffs in the first 3 quarters and then lit it up in the 4th. That's clutch. But that's also streaky.
That was an excellent point about who each of them go up against. I had never really looked at it that way.
Ha Ha funny joke Kobe possibly the next Jordan Dirk maybe bird due to shooting (still way off) Jordan or Bird to be nice to Dirk Kobe Kobe Kobe Kobe Kobe Kobe Kobe Kobe Kobe Kobe Kobe
Kobe is a great all-round player who has matured from a raw offensively talented player to a complete player who can finish with the best of them. With that said, however, I still think he is overrated -- he is not the second best player in the world. Playing with Shaq not only veils his teammates' defensive difficencies with his presence down low, but Kobe does not have to endure the constant double-teams and extra-attention the Iverson's, McGrady's and Shaq's have to face night in and night out for 40+ minutes. I think that is a HUGE factor that is often overlooked. Think about it, with Shaq on the floor demanding double and triple teams, even teams with the quickest help defenses' cannot afford to put multiple men on K.B. Sure you can say when Shaq is out for stretches Kobe maintains his high level, but 4-5 minutes of a game or 5-6 games of a season is not the same as the special attention 40+ minutes, 80+ games that many franchise players face. Kobe is a great player, but he is overrated, IMHO. Nowitzki is still improving rapidly and offensively is just as good, if not better than Kobe. His game is far from complete, and if he develops more of a low-post game, improves his passing and fine-tunes his defense he could easily be a top-3 player. In comparing him to Larry Bird, though, you have to look at the one thing that separated Bird from the pretenders; does he have the killer instinct? Azim da Dream
