Dre™

So you're saying you'd rather have the players stomping all over him? You're constantly confusing me in this thread.

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xray

http://www.basketballreference.com/p...lkid=NOWITDI01

Rather exhausting comparison, but I wanted to see just how Dirk's projected path was coming along when considering other players at this point in his career. They have T-Mac as Dirk's closest statistical match.

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t1no

Did you read my post? i said maybe it's good thing since we have many young players in the Mavericks, and i said brought "more" to the table then just yelling and getting through the player's head. Read my post again, i think overrall he did good last year, our defense really improved but i still think he could have done a better job in the finals, i didn't see many adjustments.

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DALLAS MAVERICKS

Jet

t1no

If he wins a championship i think he will make the HOF.

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StackAttack

I'm still undecided after all these months, but Pop-a-***** seems to think so:

Popovich thinks Nowitzki is bound for Hall of Fame

Web Posted: 01/06/2007 12:33 AM CST

Johnny Ludden
Express-News

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich didn't need to see Friday's performance by Dirk Nowitzki to offer an opinion on where the Dallas' forward will end his career.

"He's definitely a Hall of Famer," Popovich said before the game. "He's definitely going to be one of the greatest forwards ever to play the position because he has not only established himself as one of the best players in the league, but he's improved.

"He couldn't get a rebound when he first came in the league. In some ways, he couldn't even get a shot off. Then you think about where he is now, where nobody can guard the guy.

"And not only does he rebound, but he knows where the most important rebounds are. In Games 3 and 4 (of last season's Western Conference semifinals series) at their place, we've got the game in hand, and he goes and gets offensive rebounds in both games. That turned the fortunes of both of those games around."

Nowitzki did nothing to diminish his credentials Friday, scoring 36 points while making 14 of 23 shots. He scored 31 when the Mavericks beat the Spurs on Nov. 24.

"He's a big-time, big-play player on top of being who he is in the first place," Popovich said. "He makes Manu Ginobili-type plays at the end of games. For a seven-footer to do that, that's pretty special."


My bad: The Spurs weren't the only ones who missed Jason Terry's critical rebound late in the fourth quarter.

So did their stat crew.

Terry's rebound and basket of Nowitzki's 3-pointer with 1:44 left were both mistakenly credited to Josh Howard in the official box score. The error also was reflected in the final stats.

After the oversight was noted, Terry had 10 points (5-of-11 shooting) and seven rebounds, including four offensive. Howard had 16 points (6-of-16 shooting) and 11 rebounds, two offensive.

Sigh: Dallas owner Mark Cuban wore a blue T-shirt he had printed for Friday's game: "I went to the San Antonio River Walk and all I got was a rash."

Cuban called the River Walk an "ugly-***, muddy-watered thing" during last season's playoffs. The city announced plans to clean up the San Antonio River shortly afterward.

Offensive performance: Ripped by their coach in recent days for their inconsistent play at the defensive end, the Spurs corrected that problem Friday.

But as good as they were defensively, the Spurs were worse on offense in the critical fourth quarter. A scoring drought that lasted nearly five minutes cost them an opportunity to expand on a lead at a time their defense was producing stops at the other end of the court.


"Sometimes it's going to happen," said Ginobili, who had three-point plays — one the old-fashioned way and one with a shot from beyond the 3-point arc — on both ends of the lapse that lasted from 8:37 of the fourth period to 3:38. "Thing is, we have to keep them away from scoring during that five minutes, and they didn't score that much then, either."

Briefly: Bruce Bowen ended his 0-for-leather streak. After going 0 for 12 in two games since the NBA switched from the microfiber ball to leather, Bowen missed two more shots Friday before making a runner late in the second quarter. ... One fan held up this sign: "Matt Bonner stole my girlfriend and I'm totally cool with it."

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"You can't do nothing to D-Wade," Rasheed Wallace said. "If you say 'boogety-boogety booh' to him, that's a foul."

LineOFire

He's a borderline hall of fame player right now. I think he will win MVP this year and when he does he will be a lock. A shiny championship trophy would guarantee him a place at Springfield.

Dre™

If he was an average player, he'd have a shot just on the strength of his breaking international barriers. But him being one of the best of his generation also? Shoo-in.

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Ninjatune

Lebron better find him a decent sidekick before he even thinks about dominating anything. Last I checked, the NBA wasn't 1 on 1.

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