2003 Mavs vs 2006 Mavs

Blazers-1977 · Post #1 » by **Blazers-1977** » Sat Jun 11, 2022 6:43 pm

Out of the two Dirk teams that made it past the second round prior to 2011, which team would you say was better. I would say 2003 as while Dirk was better in 2006 than 2003 , I do think the uptempo Mavs offense from 03 would beat the 06 version

ceiling raiser · Post #2 » by **ceiling raiser** » Sat Jun 11, 2022 11:03 pm

2003. What was the first year Dirk started going to the post more again? From my recollection, post usage starts spiking in 07-08 in Synergy.

TroubleS0me · Post #3 » by **TroubleS0me** » Sun Jun 12, 2022 12:52 am

ceiling raiser wrote:2003. What was the first year Dirk started going to the post more again? From my recollection, post usage starts spiking in 07-08 in Synergy.

think it was 06

Masigond · Post #4 » by **Masigond** » Sun Jun 12, 2022 8:42 am

I really liked the 2003 team which was a tad better on the defensive end than the 2006 team while being arguably as good on offense and more balanced overall. They had three players as rim protectors (not necessarily with the best reputation for that, but it worked for Dirk, LaFrentz and Bradley), with gritty players like Najera, Griffin and Bell providing some perimeter defense.
On offense Dirk, Finley and Nash were great together, and Van Exel was an excellent sixth man.

Unfortunately Dirk got injured in the Western Conference finals series against the Spurs. Maybe they would have lost anyway as they didn't have true means to stop Duncan (nobody did...) but Dirk's injury sealed the deal for good. After that Cuban went full panic mode and thus a worse team was built by stacking up the forward position with Walker and Jamison coming in forcing Dirk to play a stretch 5 for many games with the overall team defense getting really bad. They needed a couple of years to recover from that and the result was the 2006 team which was more balanced again, but IMO not as balanced as 2003. That this team was so successful is a testament for Dirk's improvement and overall greatness. Terry was quite a one-trick pony: If his shot didn't fall, he was basically useless, Howard was good, Stack played the Van Exel 2003 role but was worse in it, and the rest of the team was gritty but far from excellent.

Bomb81 · Post #5 » by **Bomb81** » Sun Jun 12, 2022 4:43 pm

2006.

capfan33 · Post #6 » by **capfan33** » Sun Jun 12, 2022 4:57 pm

Weren't the Mavs in a decent position to win the series vs. the Spurs in 2003 before Dirk went down? I know it wasn't guaranteed by any stretch but they were very competitive from what I remember before the injury. I would probably go with 2003 in that case, they likely win the finals if they get past the Spurs.

Masigond · Post #7 » by **Masigond** » Sun Jun 12, 2022 7:20 pm

capfan33 wrote:Weren't the Mavs in a decent position to win the series vs. the Spurs in 2003 before Dirk went down? I know it wasn't guaranteed by any stretch but they were very competitive from what I remember before the injury. I would probably go with 2003 in that case, they likely win the finals if they get past the Spurs.

The Mavs were down 1-2 after Dirk was injured in the last minutes of game 3 (and they would have lost that game almost certainly anyway. They were -14 when he had to leave the game). In game 4 in Dallas the Mavs lost by 7, then won in San Antonio by 8, and the Spurs closed the series in game 6 when they shut down the Mavs in the 4th quarter (the Mavs led for three quarters, but the Spurs went 32-9 in the last quarter to win the game and the series).
Yes, the Mavs were in a decent position to win, but we'll never know how it would have been without Dirk's knee injury. I refrained from calling them a certain champion that year even if Dirk would have been available for the whole series but this was one of the years when it was possible.