Well, before we talk about the Mavs, let's look at how bad the 2003 Spurs support cast was. There are hundreds of posts I searched this site through, which posters have written detailing just how bad the Spurs support cast was, but this one is probably the best at capturing their suckiness (it's from the top 100 thread):
2003... greatest over-achievement season of all-time?
In 2003 Parker was so raw, a little known energy player named Speedy Claxton stole his minutes in the playoffs.
Malik was an undersized, unathletic, often overweight, energy guy off the bench who started a mere 85 games in his 813 game career (44 of those starts for the Isiah Knicks). He was a sucktaculous player frequently. When the Spurs gave him a $42mill/7 year contract to entice Tim to stay (because they were best friends) they were roundly condemned for massively overpaying. Thankfully for the Spurs, Isiah took his contract on.
D.Rob was a shell in 2003. He played 64 games for 26mpg and put up 8.5 and 7.9, playing like a stiff alot of the time. He was worse in the playoffs. Much worse. In game 4 he actually had more turnovers than points (1-0), and twice as many fouls as rebounds (6-3). He was a non-factor that series almost. In game 2 he played 17 minutes for a pitiful 4 points, 4 boards and 4 fouls. The Spurs won by 19 anyway. In game 3 when the result was reversed D.Rob was again a non-factor, 15 minutes for 4 points and 4 boards from 1-3 shooting. In game 4 D.Rob played 14 minutes, posting 6 fouls, 0 points and 3 boards. The next game 6 & 7 on 3/7 shooting, and the deciding game 7-5. The only decent game he had was game 1. D.Rob was basically a non-factor in the playoffs (and regular season generally) for a similar ratio. He'd have one solid game, then a 5 duds. Someone who is solid 1/6 games and pitiful the rest is not a desirable big man. Especially not when he misses games and can't physically play for more than 26mpg.
Manu played 20mpg for a reason, he was incredibly raw and all over the place. He shot poorly, he caused turnovers. S.Jax was such a rising star the best offer he got in the offseason was $1mill per year from the Hawks. The Spurs had offered a 3 year deal starting at $1.4 mill, but he turned it down. Nobody saw S.Jax as any kind of star in 2003, and while he later rose to the heights of MLE player (and then "overpaid GSW player") that was some years off. Bowen was a good defender, and a terrible offensive player. Teams understood his flaws, which is probably why they never offered him a big pay day to come play for them. He earnt over $4mill I think once in his career (barely). He was a very hard player to utilise, because he had no offence at all, no handles, no passing, just defence and the ability to hit a wide open corner 3. Without TD there to suck in defenders, Bowen becomes a huge liability.
Smith and Ferry were washed out. There is no shortage of bench bums who can hit 3's, but the reason they ride the pine is because they suck holistically as players, and such was true of Ferry and Smith in 2003.
1/15 ESPN analysts picked them to win the title in 03. Nobody really gave them a hope in hell. Duncan taking these guys to the title over prime Shaq and Kobe might be the greatest single man effort in the history of the NBA playoffs. I hear a lot of people whine that Horry let the team down in the playoffs to explain away the loss. I have 3 responses to that:
1) You shouldn’t be relying on a bench player to bail you out when you have prime frickin Shaq and Kobe
2) A lot of the reason Horry played so bad was because he was being guarded by Duncan. Not all the reason, but it’s strange people draw a disconnect between Horry playing badly, and Duncan guarding him a lot. Most importantly though,
3) Horry’s shooting actually had very little impact on the outcome. Taking a look at the numbers it's hard to see the argument that Horry's cold shooting (partly induced by good defence) was the decisive failure down the stretch. In the games the Spurs won Horry was 0-3 (Spurs win by 5), 0-2 (Spurs win by 19), 0-6 (Spurs win by 2), 0-2 (Spurs win by 28). The only one of those games it would have made an obvious difference in is game 5 (I think it's unrealistic to expect Horry to shoot 2-3 with Duncan guarding him most of the game), and I think a much bigger factor in that game was Kobe taking an incredible 31 shots (for sub-500 shooting), rather than lobbing it downlow to Shaq (though he took 38 shots in the game 1 loss... 38!) The Lakers bench in particular shot well that game. I can point to any game and say "if player X shoots better, they win", indeed should I cry about S.Jax, who didn't hit a 3 except in game 4 (which the Spurs lost), the rest of the series he was 0-10! Full credit to Tim, he really carried the Spurs that series.
Now let's look at the Mavs. They had 2 guys who were plainly better than the next best guy on Duncan's team- Chandler and Jason Terry. One of those guys is a borderline all-star type guard, the other is an all-nba player and DPOY. So before we begin this analysis, Dirk has already won, he's got by far and away the best Robin and Batgirl. The Spurs didn't have anyone who would even have sniffed an all-star appearance that year. But it gets worse for Dirk. Rounding out the team he has versatile Shawn Marion, Vet Jason Kidd and Barea off the bench, 29 games of Caron Butler. Even Peja and Haywood were above average for the roles they were in- Peja as a deadly shooter off the bench and Haywood a superior back up big 5. I'm not sure which Mavs you were watching in 2011, but guys like Barea made their money playing that year (so much so the Mavs couldn't keep him), and Jason Kidd for all his shortcomings was better than what the Spurs had in 03 (a guy so raw they had to pull him for Speedy Claxton), especially with his great outside shooting, and with Barea to switch with him when he was slowing. Transport Marion onto the Spurs in 03, and he'd have a good case as their 2nd best player (as would Butler while healthy), but on your team those guys are maybe the 4th best players.
