I hate to punt like this, but Bill Simmons hasn’t written much about the NBA in awhile, and his LVP to MVP columns are the best reading out there this week:
Part One
Part Two
A warning: he’s not exactly pro-Dirk, and I found myself racking my brain toward the end to figure out who his mvp was. His choice is not compelling.
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4 comments:
Cop-out....not you, Scott...Simmons
You may be right that Dirk is the MVP, but he's one of the least satisfying that I can remember. Not only have his numbers been slipping for weeks, but he played Antoine Walker-like in the two biggest games of the spring.
However, Simmons is wrong. Someone must win. Kobe's Lakers and T-Mac's Rockets ain't good enough. And Steve Nash is a sieve on the perimeter, not to mention a weak, gimmicky player. Therefore, I have to give Dirk the nod.
I say all this as a Dirk fan, of course. If he brings home the title, he will move up to the Mike Modano school of respectability and I will be the first to raise a toast.
It is kind of disconcerting that Dirk apparently decided to just stop rebounding a few games back. He’s only broken 10 rebounds in one of his last thirteen games, after getting 40 double-doubles in his first 64 games. Over those 13 games, he’s averaging 21.6 points and 5.2 boards.
On the other hand, Dallas won 10 of those 13 (76.9%)––which, it's worth noting, is a slip for them but is still a better winning percentage than any other team in the league for the season. In fact, last year’s Pistons are the only team in the past six yearss that have finished a season with at least s 76.9% winning percentage. So it’s hard to say Dirk has failed his team.
Still, the two losses to Phoenix didn’t look good, even if he did go for 30/16/6 in the first one.
As to the recent slack in stats, presumably Dirk is just taking a break, and we’ll see the fire again once the playoffs start?
And, the big question against Seattle is: will Dirk end the season at 50%? Right now he's 4 of 8; for the game he can miss 2 more than he makes and still end up at 50%.
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