Dirk and the Other Guys - Part 2
A few days after the post below about Dirk, The Dallas Morning news posted an interesting article about him. Eddie Sefko compared him to some of the greatest power forwards of all time. Below is part of the write up.
“…we thought it would be enlightening to see where Nowitzki ranks on some of the key statistical lists for power forwards.
These lists are confined to players who spent most of their careers playing power forward, though some might have also played center or small forward at times.
We used 15 power forwards: Charles Barkley, Tom Chambers, Terry Cummings, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, Elvin Hayes, Jerry Lucas, Karl Malone, Bob McAdoo, Kevin McHale, Nowitzki, Charles Oakley, Bob Pettit, Jack Sikma, and Buck Williams. Players who specialized in one area (think Dennis Rodman) were omitted for this exercise. Nowitzki, Duncan and Garnett are still active.”
NOTE: For the sake of time, I have not listed all 15 players and their stats.
| Rebounds | |
|---|---|
| Player | Rebs. |
| #1 Elvin Hayes | 16,279 |
| #14 Dirk Nowitzki | 6,916 |
| Minutes | |
|---|---|
| Player | Min. |
| #1 Karl Malone | 54,852 |
| #14 Dirk Nowitzki | 29,514 |
| Field Goal Percentage | |
|---|---|
| Player | Pct. |
| #1 Kevin McHale | .554 |
| #10 Dirk Nowitzki | .472 |
| Free Throw Percentage | |
|---|---|
| Player | Pct. |
| #1 Dirk Nowitzki | .873 |
| #2 Jack Sikma | .849 |
| Steals | |
|---|---|
| Player | Steals |
| #1 Karl Malone | 2,085 |
| #10 Dirk Nowitzki | 751 |
| Assists | |
|---|---|
| Player | Assists |
| #1 Karl Malone | 5,248 |
| #12 Dirk Nowitzki | 2,167 |
| All-Star Teams | |
|---|---|
| Player | No. |
| #1 Karl Malone | 14 |
| #7 Dirk Nowitzki | 8 |
| Rinig Count | |
|---|---|
| Player | Titles/Finals Trips |
| #1 Tim Duncan | 4-4 |
| #11 Dirk Nowitzki | 0-1 |
There are a few things I take from this.
1) Dirk is special. We are in the midst of greatness. He is not last on any of the lists and is middle of the way on most. And here is the thing: he is only 30. He has, barring injury, a LOT of basketball left.
2) I hope Dirk gets another chance to win a ring…preferably with the Mavs. Back to my previous post, please get Dirk some big-time help!
3) Karl Malone was good. He was 2, 1, 4, 10, 1, 1, 6, 1, 9 in the lists respectively. Only mark against him was 0-3 in Titles/Finals trips.
This was a fun topic, tell me what you think by posting a comment below.
February 19th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
I think the comparisons do more to show Dirk as decidedly second-tier among the all-time statistical greats. That’s not chopped liver, but it’s not as if top-tier players are particularly rare either — right now active are Duncan, Garnett, Kobe, Shaq, probably Kidd, and maybe Iverson, and barring injury we’ll probably add Lebron, Dwight Howard, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Paul at least.
The main problem is that Dirk has never gotten anywhere close to as many rebounds as the peak seasons for power forwards like Duncan, Garnett, Barkley, or Malone — and there’s an even bigger gap with the older guys like Hays and Lucas, just because they played in an era with bigger rebound numbers in general.
The all-time lists are skewed toward Malone partly because he played for so long, although he was consistently good for a really long time. Dirk’s the same way — his stats for any given season aren’t so impressive as his consistency in putting up the same numbers every year. He’ll definitely be HOF, both because of the big totals and because he won the MVP. And I do enjoy watching him climb the charts. But his position in history doesn’t make me giddy just yet.
February 19th, 2009 at 5:28 pm
The twin hallmarks of the #4 position are two things that can’t be measured statistically: an effective low post game and solid defense. Duncan, Garnett, Malone, McHale, Oakley, and Williams had both. Dirk has neither.
A year ago, I came to the conclusion that this is Dirk’s fundamental flaw. He doesn’t fit the NBA scheme. That doesn’t mean he’s not a great player. But it does mean he’s unlikely to win a championship without some serious frontline help at #3 and #5.