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would Dirk rank up with KG and Kobe in the top players of the generation if the Mavs had won the 2006 series and Dirk received the Finals MVP?..

he was regarded as a top 5 player in the NBA in that year and the year after..always an all-NBA first team candidate..

the Warriors series put him down, but it would have been a lot less significant had he led a team to a title the previous year..

HarlemHeat37 wrote:would Dirk rank up with KG and Kobe in the top players of the generation if the Mavs had won the 2006 series and Dirk received the Finals MVP?..

he was regarded as a top 5 player in the NBA in that year and the year after..always an all-NBA first team candidate..

the Warriors series put him down, but it would have been a lot less significant had he led a team to a title the previous year..

He certainly would. He would probably be 3rd after Shaq and Duncan. He would have both a finals and a league mvp to go along with leading the league in PER a few times and Win Shares, OWS.

Yeah. That would have definitely solidified his MVP bid the next season, too. IMO he should have won in 2006 anyhow but that's a moot point. However, I don't know if the Mavs have the fire to come back and reel off a bunch of winning streaks without that Finals chip on their shoulder.

I think he would be considered on or near the level of KG because he's one of the best shooters in NBA history. He's also a solid rebounder (better than Pau Gasol though most wouldn't have you believe it). And he is one of the better passing bigs, along with Garnett.

I think Garnett's terrible scoring efficiency would come more into light, too. Especially with this debate. You would have people ripping Dirk's average defense while lauding Garnett's, and then trashing KG's FG% while they point to Dirk's 50/40/90.

im not sure if he's liked enough to be put in that category but maybe 2 plays change everything. for one dirk hit a potential game winning shot in game 5 only to have wade get bailed out. maybe the mavs go onto win the series and his perception is changed forever

Malinhion wrote:I think Garnett's terrible scoring efficiency would come more into light, too. Especially with this debate. You would have people ripping Dirk's average defense while lauding Garnett's, and then trashing KG's FG% while they point to Dirk's 50/40/90.

Garnett's "terrible scoring efficiency"? Garnett's basically a 50% FG/80% FT shooter for his career. His FG% is actually higher than Dirk's. KG doesn't shoot the 3 like Dirk and Dirk is one of the best FT shooting big men in history, but I hardly see that as reason to say that Garnett has terrible scoring efficiency.

Also, Kirk is a bit younger than Kobe or Garnett so he hasn't got the body of work; but it would put him ahead of Wade for sure and probably ahead of LeBron . . . at the moment I would think LeBron would rate clearly higher than Dirk and Wade close

drza wrote:

Malinhion wrote:I think Garnett's terrible scoring efficiency would come more into light, too. Especially with this debate. You would have people ripping Dirk's average defense while lauding Garnett's, and then trashing KG's FG% while they point to Dirk's 50/40/90.

Garnett's "terrible scoring efficiency"? Garnett's basically a 50% FG/80% FT shooter for his career. His FG% is actually higher than Dirk's. KG doesn't shoot the 3 like Dirk and Dirk is one of the best FT shooting big men in history, but I hardly see that as reason to say that Garnett has terrible scoring efficiency.

Career Numbers...

Dirk takes a lot more threes. KG's shooting % this season was phenomenal, but he has struggled far too often with his FG% while settling for fadeaways and taking jumpers instead of being physical. Taking 4 fewer field goals and going to a team with 2 all-stars will do that.

Also KG has DPoY on his side whereas Dirk would have won finals MVP.

That probably would put him ahead of everyone of this generation besides shaq, duncan, kobe and kg. Maybe (big maybe) after the 2006 season, dirk's career might look better than kg because his career resume would be more impressive. But then kg winning dpoy and a title would even things out. And KG, in a player to player comparison, is better than dirk.

He's already with KG and Kobe as top players of this era. If he won, he would be at lowest, 5th on the list behind:

1) Shaq
2) Duncan
3) KG
4) Kobe
5) Dirk

Right now, he's easily top 10, but he's somewhere with Nash, Tmac, and Lebron.

Malinhion wrote:

drza wrote:

Malinhion wrote:I think Garnett's terrible scoring efficiency would come more into light, too. Especially with this debate. You would have people ripping Dirk's average defense while lauding Garnett's, and then trashing KG's FG% while they point to Dirk's 50/40/90.

Garnett's "terrible scoring efficiency"? Garnett's basically a 50% FG/80% FT shooter for his career. His FG% is actually higher than Dirk's. KG doesn't shoot the 3 like Dirk and Dirk is one of the best FT shooting big men in history, but I hardly see that as reason to say that Garnett has terrible scoring efficiency.

Career Numbers...

Code: Select all

             PPG   FG%   TS%   eFG  3PA
The German  22.4  .471  .583  .512  3.5
The Ticket  20.4  .494  .546  .499  0.6

Dirk takes a lot more threes. KG's shooting % this season was phenomenal, but he has struggled far too often with his FG% while settling for fadeaways and taking jumpers instead of being physical. Taking 4 fewer field goals and going to a team with 2 all-stars will do that.

Also KG has DPoY on his side whereas Dirk would have won finals MVP.

There's a difference between "Dirk has great shooting percentages" and "KG has a terrible scoring efficiency". I have no qualms with saying that Dirk is a great shooter, because he is. But KG doesn't struggle with FG%...he's a 50% shooter for his career. His shot selection has nothing to do with it... no matter where he's shooting from he's hitting them at a good efficiency. And his shooting percentage this year was only one percent higher than it was two seasons ago in Minny when his sidekicks were Ricky Davis and Mark Blount, so it's not like playing with Allen and Pierce took him to an unprecedented shooting percentage this year.

I'm not even making a KG vs. Dirk argument here. I'm just saying that the statement "KG has a terrible scoring efficiency" is pretty silly.

I'd rather have Dirk then KG to build a team around.

I would rather have KG to build a team around. Also wouldn't it be weird to see Charles putting Dirk on his fave 5.

why would it be weird? its not like charles really hates dirk, he blames his teammates for the majority of the mavs shortcomings