He has dropped significantly in all aspect of his game. Its as if his teammates aren't trusting him as much and he isn't getting as much touches. Yes, yao hasn't done as well statistically as last year either, but that's due to a new system and new coach, and yao is still doing better than dirk, who has the same teammates and coach.
I don't watch the Mavs much. But from what I've seen: 1 Dirk hasn't recovered from his tank job against the Warriors. Listening to a couple of his interviews over the summer indicated he had serious trouble putting that series behind him. 2 Avery has been more impatient with Dirk than ever before. AJ and Dirk have very different personalities. It's always been apparent to me that they really don't like each other that much, and after last season, AJ is less inclined to coddle him. 3 Maybe Dirk's teammates don't respect him as much. They have memories too. I wouldn't blame them at all for viewing him differently. 4 Dirk seems like he is ceding "leadership" of the team to Josh Howard and Jet Terry. He isn't an alpha male to start with and perhaps he's tired of trying to act like one. Sometime during the season I expect him to snap out of it and play with more confidence. But it's quite possible Dirk will never be an MVP candidate again and won't be considered a consensus top 5 player anymore.
This will prove to be a good thing for the Mavs in the long run. They will fail with Nowitzki as the leader, they needed someone else to step up and claim that role. He provides nothing on either side of the floor on the low block. You can't depend on a guy like that.
Josh Howard and Devin Harris are the future of that franchise. The Mavs would be wise to dump Dirk at this point while he is still worth something and get some young talent and maybe some picks for him. Nothing against Nowitski, but the guy is just not a franchise player and never will be a go-to-guy. Trade him to a team in this East like the Hawks for some fresh talent and lottery picks.
Hate post. Spoiler Golden State exposed him. The guy can't even back down a point guard!!! Put an athletic swingman on him an he's done. For some reason almost nobody did it before the GS series though it's always been evident that he has no post game, pound for pound could be physically the weakest player in the NBA and shies away from contact. Never was a top10 player and never will be. I have to say though that I actually somewhat believe what I wrote.
With the way T-Mac is playing currently, I'd rather have Dirk right now. It's so funny how many Rockets "fans" bash Dirk with the best of it, when we call that McGrady dude the "franchise player".
I've never been a fan of Dirk. Not to mention he was the biggest joke of an MVP in league history. He flops and he folds like a deck of cards when you get physical with him. I've been telling my boys and other die hard Mavs fans that for years. Golden State finally exposed him for what he is last year in the playoffs....I feel better now.
As much as I hate Dallas, I'll attempt to give a relatively unbiased answer. Dirk just doesn't seem like a superstar, nor is he. I don't watch Mavericks basketball aside from when they play the Rockets, but just some observations from the Golden State series and just Dallas playoff series in general. Dirk has the smoothest jump shot in the league, but that's all he is. A 7'0 jumpshooter whose height allows him to get off a ton of shots others can't normally. Dirk is mentally weak, more mentally weak than T-Mac right now. It's been mentioned already, but the guy just flops and whines over and over again. When he doesn't get a call every 30 seconds, it's the second coming of the apocalypse. More importantly, Dirk just doesn't have "it". "It" being the ability to take over games and really strike fear into the other team in the clutch. When you look at Dirk, you don't see a player like Jordan or Kobe that can light you up even after a bad half or most of a night.
Actually, we did shut him down w/ Tmac in 04/05 but for some reason, no one else in the league tried the same thing until Golden State. Actually, Nelly prolly learned how to shut down Dirk from watching Gundy put Tmac on him all series.
i don't think he's mentally weak. he's just not as strong as other players. even when they beat the spurs, they lost a 20 point lead and trailed by 3 with seconds left. no foul by manu and nobody would have see them choke to the heat. but i think other players just have more will. stockton and malone were weak, they just weren't as strong as jordan.
I'll hold my judgment till the playoffs. the only significant drop this year is his 3pt percentage. It was 41 and now its 29. That would explain why the drop in pts. he is also taking 2 less shots. I respect Dirks game, I can choke at times but he lead his team past Phoenix and SA 2 years ago. That is more than i can say for any of our "superstars"
This team is 7 games above .500 and are third in the west behind SA and PHX (I don't think anybody expected anything else at this point) Dirk is still averaging a respectable 21 pts on 47%, 8 rebounds, and 4 assists a game. I find this thread to be hilarious considering YOUR superstar is averaging 21 pts a game on 50% and 10 rebounds a game. Dirk is not going to be play more than 35 or 36 minutes a game and neither is any other Maverick. It's also A LOT easier when you have 5 players on your roster averaging 10 points or more a game. You don't have to rely on one or two superstars to get the job done on most nights. Maybe his numbers have dropped from last year, but Howard and Terry are playing better because of this! Don't forget, basketball is a team game. Mavericks have finally played some defense the past 3 games for the first time all year. It's known that once you make stops on defense, it's easier to score points on the other end. I'm eager to see how they respond tonight against the Magic. If they have taken a step back from the past few games, then I might start to worry. But right now I'm happy with the way they're playing, including Dirk.
He is averaging a career high in assists per game this season with 4.1 (career av 2.7) So his scoring is down a couple of points - 1.4 from his career average - but the extra 1.4 assists per game gives him a greater offensive contribution. Sure his rebounding is down just a tiny bit - but he's playing less minutes than any season except for his first 2. The only area I see him struggling is with his 3 point shot atm. Apart from that the Mavs stil go to him in the crunch, and he tends to deliver... I agree with redefined - they are 3rd in the West aren't they?? And I think AJ WANTS them to get better as the season goes on. Maybe our interpretation of his 'poor form' is because he's on our fantasy teams???
This team has no egos. It just makes it that much more enjoyable. Dirk was 12-24 tonight and had 31 points 11 rebounds. And they won against one of the best road teams in the NBA. What more do you guys want from him? And no, this is not one game, he's been playing well for a while now
When has T-Mac ever played on a team that good? T-Mac hasn't gotten out of the first yet but I have never seen him look like a complete, scary broad during a playoff series. I have seen it 3 times for Dirk (against us, against Heat and against Warriors).
As I also stated in the same post (which you left out), "Sometime during the season I expect him to snap out of it and play with more confidence." Maybe tonight was the first step. But it's a long season and scoring against matadors like Rashard Lewis and Turkey-Glue ain't the hardest thing in the world. I'll repeat that I don't watch the Mavs much. They just aren't that interesting to me.
