Speaker 1: The Volume. All right, welcome to's tonight. You're at the Volume,
Speaker 1: Havy Monday, everybody. Hope all of you guys had an
Speaker 1: incredible weekend. We are live on AMPS, so if you're
Speaker 1: watching on YouTube or listening on the podcast feeds, don't
Speaker 1: forget that AMP is the very first place that you
Speaker 1: guys can get these shows. We're continuing our top twenty
Speaker 1: five players the last twenty five years today with number
Speaker 1: ten Dirk Novitsky. Very very excited to talk about Dirk today,
Speaker 1: but we're also going to hit a little bit of
Speaker 1: the Steph Curry versus Magic Johnson debate that was going
Speaker 1: around last week. We're hit that at the top, and
Speaker 1: then we'll get to Dirk. You guys know the joke
Speaker 1: before we get started. Subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channel
Speaker 1: so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow
Speaker 1: me on Twitter at underscore Jason lt so you guys
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Speaker 1: whatever reason, you guys miss one of these shows and
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Speaker 1: You can find them wherever you get your podcasts. Under
Speaker 1: hoops tonight, all right, one last thing before we get started.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be hitting this Steph Versus Magic debate at
Speaker 1: the start of this video, but we're gonna do a
Speaker 1: mailbag style question at the start of every video for
Speaker 1: the next two weeks because obviously we're just doing one
Speaker 1: player per day on Monday through Friday this week and
Speaker 1: Monday through Friday next week. So today we're doing this
Speaker 1: Steph Curry Versus Magic Johnson debate. But underneath this video,
Speaker 1: in the comments, I want you guys to drop mail
Speaker 1: bag questions about absolutely anything pertaining to the NBA and
Speaker 1: we'll pick one every single day to hit in addition
Speaker 1: to the players that we're covering on the list. So
Speaker 1: drop some questions in the comment. So the Steph vers
Speaker 1: Magic Johnson debate, basically the genesis of this was Steph
Speaker 1: Curry himself declared himself the greatest point guard of all time,
Speaker 1: and then Michael Jordan got involved in this discussion. I
Speaker 1: believe through a text message to Steven A. Smith that
Speaker 1: he believes Magic Johnson is clearly the greatest point guard
Speaker 1: of all time. And I personally hate this discussion because
Speaker 1: to me, focusing on singular position groups to rank players
Speaker 1: doesn't make a ton of sense. I think Gilbert Arenas
Speaker 1: was the guy who put this best when he went
Speaker 1: on his show in the middle of this debate and
Speaker 1: basically said, like, why aren't we including guys like Lebron
Speaker 1: or Nicola Jokitchen this debate because they functionally act as
Speaker 1: the point guard for their team. Now. I don't agree
Speaker 1: with Gilbert in the sense that I wouldn't want to
Speaker 1: have a point guard debate with Lebron and Nicoley Jokitchen
Speaker 1: it because that doesn't make any sense to me either.
Speaker 1: But I think the larger point that he's hitting at
Speaker 1: and essentially talking about the positionless nature of basketball and
Speaker 1: the fact that any star should have the basketball in
Speaker 1: their hands a lot and functionally act as a point
Speaker 1: guard for their team, I think represents a better way
Speaker 1: to rank basketball players. So I would rather not focus
Speaker 1: on who's the best point guard or who's the best
Speaker 1: shooting guard, but rather who's the best perimeter shot creator
Speaker 1: for a team. I'll give you an example. Let's say
Speaker 1: we were talking about shooting guards. Who's the best shooting
Speaker 1: guard in the league right now? It's probably Devin Booker.
Speaker 1: Right If we go down my player rankings. Nikole Jokic
Speaker 1: at number one was a center. Steph Curry at number
Speaker 1: two is a point guard. Yiannis at number three is
Speaker 1: a power forward. Kd at four is a power forward
Speaker 1: or small forward. Embiads center, Anthony Davis center, Tatum small forward,
Speaker 1: Lebron power forward, Luka Doncicic power forward, point forward, point guard,
Speaker 1: depending on what you want to call him. Devin Booker
Speaker 1: shooting guard, and then Kawhi Leonard power forward. So of
Speaker 1: my twelve bona fide superstars, I've got one shooting guard.
Speaker 1: So technically, Devin Booker is the best shooting guard in
Speaker 1: the league. But if I swapped Steph Curry in for
Speaker 1: Devin Booker and had him do all the exact same
Speaker 1: shit that he does for the Suns, the Suns immediately
Speaker 1: become a better basketball team. Why Because Steph can play
Speaker 1: shooting guard better than Devin Booker can play shooting guard.
Speaker 1: Biggest Steph is a very versatile basketball player. They can
Speaker 1: fill any role. But even then, let's look at what
Speaker 1: that means. What does it mean to be a two
Speaker 1: guard in the NBA? In the two guard at the
Speaker 1: two guard position in the modern NBA, you're expected to
Speaker 1: run pick and rolls, run ISOs, maybe some post ups
Speaker 1: if you've got a size advantage, gerbil handoffs, wide pinned downs,
Speaker 1: running the lanes and transition, spotting up and attacking closeouts.
Speaker 1: But those responsibilities are the same for every perimeter star.
Speaker 1: I would argue that exact same list is fulfilled by
Speaker 1: Lebron James or Jason Tatum or Kevin Durant or Jimmy
Speaker 1: Butler or Luka Doncicch. You get the point. They're just
Speaker 1: basketball players, perimeter oriented basketball players. Now, the ones that
Speaker 1: are bigger might use their size more and play a
Speaker 1: different style. Guys that are more skilled might lean on
Speaker 1: that more. Obviously they played differently, but they all feel
Speaker 1: the fundamental same role on a basketball team, which is
Speaker 1: creating shots for your team. And so I don't see
Speaker 1: any point in isolating point guard as a position group
Speaker 1: because there are a lot of players that don't technically
Speaker 1: play point guard but can do point guard stuff better.
Speaker 1: All the point guards do and basically do that for
Speaker 1: their team anyway, so the debate doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 1: I prefer to rank players based on two types. Those
Speaker 1: of you guys have been following the show for a
Speaker 1: while know exactly where I'm going here. To me, you're
Speaker 1: either a perimeter based shot creator as a star, or
Speaker 1: you are a center, and that's basically it. Everybody kind
Speaker 1: of falls into those groups. The only guy that really
Speaker 1: I've seen that bridges that group at the highest level
Speaker 1: is Nikole Jokic because he's like legitimately a center, but
Speaker 1: you can't just deny him the ball or double team
Speaker 1: him out of a game the way you do with
Speaker 1: maybe Anthony Davis, and even Joel Embich struggles with that
Speaker 1: a lot. If you do that, he can dribble, vault
Speaker 1: the floor, and he can run. He can create offense
Speaker 1: for himself off a live dribble. So like Jokic kind
Speaker 1: of bridges that gap. But outside of that, everybody kind
Speaker 1: of falls into one of those two groups. Right Like
Speaker 1: when I don't rank Tim Duncan among perimeter players. Typically
Speaker 1: if I'm doing all time lists now doing it for
Speaker 1: our top twenty five list, because I'm grouping them all
Speaker 1: together for that list. But if I was doing just
Speaker 1: an all time greatest players in NBA history, I'd prefer
Speaker 1: to split it into two lists. I want to rank
Speaker 1: all these perimeter guys, and I want to rank my centers.
Speaker 1: Let's talk Kareem Duncan, right, Will Chamberlain, Shaquille O'Neil. Let's
Speaker 1: talk about those guys over here, because they do something
Speaker 1: fundamentally different than what the perimeter players do. And then
Speaker 1: let's rank the perimeter players over here. So from that lens,
Speaker 1: there is a debate to have about Steph Curry in
Speaker 1: Magic Johnson. Ironically, I have them right next to each
Speaker 1: other in the list. If you look at my list,
Speaker 1: I have Michael Jordan at number one, Lebron James at
Speaker 1: number two, Kobe Bryant at number three. So if I'm
Speaker 1: talking the greatest perimeter players of all time, I'm going MJ, Lebron,
Speaker 1: Kobe won two three. At that point, the next three
Speaker 1: guys on my list are some combination of Magic, Stephan Bird. Right,
Speaker 1: it used to be Magic and Bird steps entered into
Speaker 1: that conversation. But let's take a look at those three championships.
Speaker 1: Magic Johnson five, Steph Curry four, Larry Bird three Finals,
Speaker 1: MVPs Magic three, Steph one but should be two, Larry
Speaker 1: Bird two, League, MVPs Magic three, Steph two, Larry Bird
Speaker 1: three First Team All NBA's Magic nine, Steph Curry four,
Speaker 1: Larry Bird nine. Now, one of the big things that
Speaker 1: was going around last week I saw it was people
Speaker 1: talking about supporting casts. I think that's ridiculous. I think
Speaker 1: all three of those guys, Bird, Magic and Steph all
Speaker 1: played on top tier talented teams in their era, from
Speaker 1: basically two thy fifteen to the to Kevin Durant leaving
Speaker 1: the Warriors after like when Klay Thompson came back from
Speaker 1: the Achilles injury, they weren't the most talented team in
Speaker 1: the league anymore. And we'll talk about that twenty twenty
Speaker 1: three title in a little bit, but before that, from
Speaker 1: base sickly twenty fifteen to twenty nineteen, the Warriors were
Speaker 1: either among the most talented teams in the league before
Speaker 1: they got KD and then became by far the most
Speaker 1: talented team in the league with KD. They like, he
Speaker 1: won two titles with Kevin duran on his team. Right,
Speaker 1: So you're not gonna sit here and complain about talent
Speaker 1: as a Warriors fan, right. Magic Johnson literally plays with
Speaker 1: played with a six time champion, one of the all
Speaker 1: time great players in NBA history, the guy who was
Speaker 1: a leading scorer before Lebron got there. Kareem Abdul Jabbar.
Speaker 1: You know, Larry Bird played with Kevin McHale. Even in
Speaker 1: addition to that, they had star level role players or
Speaker 1: guys who starred in their roles or low lower level stars,
Speaker 1: whatever you want to call him. That's Klay Thompson, and
Speaker 1: that's Straymond Green, that's James Worthy and Byron Scott. That's
Speaker 1: Dennis Johnson and Robert Parrish or Bill Walton coming off
Speaker 1: the bench in nineteen ninety six or nineteen eighty six, right,
Speaker 1: all those teams were talented. So to me, that's irrelevant.
Speaker 1: You're splitting hairs if you're trying to talk about which
Speaker 1: team was better. The nineteen eighty six Celtics are resoundingly
Speaker 1: considered one of the greatest teams in NBA history. The
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty seven Lakers are resoundingly considered one of the
Speaker 1: greatest teams in NBA history. The twenty seventeen In twenty
Speaker 1: eighteen Warriors were literally the most talented rosters that have
Speaker 1: ever been assembled in NBA history. The twenty sixteen Warriors
Speaker 1: without Kevin Urant won seventy three games. You guys get
Speaker 1: the point. They won sixty seven games in twenty fifteen.
Speaker 1: Talent is not related, is not relevant here in my opinion,
Speaker 1: except for that twenty twenty three title, which we'll get
Speaker 1: to in a little bit. So in terms of real
Speaker 1: life actual accomplishments, it's not close in my opinion between
Speaker 1: Magic and Steph. Magic has more titles, he has more
Speaker 1: finals MVPs. Even if we give Steph twenty fifteen, which
Speaker 1: I do, he has more MVPs, and he has more
Speaker 1: than twice as many first team All NBA selections. So
Speaker 1: Steph does have to accomplish significantly more in my opinion
Speaker 1: to pass Magic Johnson. Now Larry Bird is where it
Speaker 1: gets interesting. Steph has more titles, should have the same
Speaker 1: number of finals MVPs, and I think the twenty twenty
Speaker 1: three NBA Championship with Andrew Wiggins as his best player
Speaker 1: is best teammate on his team against the Celtics team
Speaker 1: that was significantly more talented than the Warriors. In my opinion,
Speaker 1: that accomplishment was greater, in my opinion, than anything Magic
Speaker 1: or Bird accomplished. Now, it's not enough to make up
Speaker 1: the gap with Magic in my opinion, although it does
Speaker 1: make it close, but I do think it gives him
Speaker 1: the edge over Larry Bird. So when people ask me
Speaker 1: who's the greatest point guard of all time, Magic Johnson
Speaker 1: or Steph Curry, I don't really have a take on that.
Speaker 1: If I had to pick up point guard, I'm taking
Speaker 1: Lebron because he kind of functionally played the role of
Speaker 1: a point guard. But even then you could say, you
Speaker 1: could say Michael Jordan did, and he played point guard
Speaker 1: for the Bulls in the late eighties. So again, that
Speaker 1: whole conversation is just silly to me. But if I'm
Speaker 1: ranking the top perimeter players in NBA history, I'm going
Speaker 1: mj at one, Lebron at two, Kobe at three, Magic
Speaker 1: at four, Steph at five, and Bird at That's where
Speaker 1: those guys land. For me. That's just again, everyone's gonna
Speaker 1: have a different take on this. You're gonna have a
Speaker 1: lot of traditionalists that are gonna be like, screw that,
Speaker 1: at point guards to point guards a point guard, we
Speaker 1: gotta rank point guards. But then they want to conveniently
Speaker 1: leave out that Magic Johnson like straight up played center
Speaker 1: in the NBA Finals, and that he played alongside a
Speaker 1: point guard who actually played point guard. You get the point, Like,
Speaker 1: it's just all these things. It kind of goes back
Speaker 1: to what we were talking about with the Chris Paul situation,
Speaker 1: Like there's anytime you set up criteria, there are holes. Right,
Speaker 1: My criteria has holes. Your criteria as holes, and there
Speaker 1: are gonna be guys who slipped through the cracks and
Speaker 1: who are not properly rated in those situations. But for
Speaker 1: me personally, I don't like to rank by positions. I
Speaker 1: like to rank by just general archetypes of stars. You're
Speaker 1: either a perimeter star or you're a center. And for me,
Speaker 1: Stephan Magic are very close among perimeter stars. But Magic
Speaker 1: has a clear edge to be the fourth best perimeter
Speaker 1: player of all time in my opinion. All right, let's
Speaker 1: move on to our number ten. Dirk Novinski. He's best
Speaker 1: player on a championship team with the two eleven maps,
Speaker 1: four time First Team All NBA, twelve time All NBA overall,
Speaker 1: We're gonna start getting into some crazy resumes from now on.
Speaker 1: He's the MVP of the league in two thousand and
Speaker 1: seven NBA Finals, MVP in twenty eleven. His prime I
Speaker 1: put down from two thousand and one to twenty fifteen.
Speaker 1: In that stretch, Dirk Novitski averaged twenty three points, eight rebounds,
Speaker 1: and three assists per game on fifty eight percent for shooting,
Speaker 1: and then in the playoffs twenty five points per game,
Speaker 1: ten rebounds, and three assists per game on fifty eight
Speaker 1: percent through shooting. I think Dirk's claim to fame, the
Speaker 1: thing that we'll all remember him for, is that he's
Speaker 1: the best shooting big man of all time. When we
Speaker 1: think about shooters, obviously we think about Steph number one,
Speaker 1: Klay at number two, you know, some combination of Reggie Miller,
Speaker 1: Ray Allen after that, right, But those guys are all
Speaker 1: traditional perimeter players that you expect to be great shooters.
Speaker 1: When it comes to the legitimate big men and their
Speaker 1: ability to shoot the basketball, it's Dirk. He's the guy
Speaker 1: that gets the recognition there. I think that Nicole Joki
Speaker 1: has an opportunity to enter into that discussion in the
Speaker 1: long run, but even then, he doesn't take enough jumpers
Speaker 1: in general, just in terms of volume in my opinion,
Speaker 1: although he's very, very accurate in those situations. He also
Speaker 1: was one of the best scorers of all time over
Speaker 1: his prime from two thousand and one to twenty fifteen,
Speaker 1: he was second to Kobe Bryant in total points score
Speaker 1: to twenty six, two hundred and ninety nine. His archetype
Speaker 1: just a seven foot power forward. Never a great athlete,
Speaker 1: although he was a decent athlete when he was younger.
Speaker 1: But he was a master of manipulating defenders through leverage,
Speaker 1: which we'll get to in a little bit. I want
Speaker 1: to focus heavily in on the isolation situations and the
Speaker 1: post up situation. So ISO situations for Dirk, generally speaking,
Speaker 1: were face ups. Right. So a face up is I'm
Speaker 1: going to be a triple threat. Right, So hasn't used
Speaker 1: to dribble. He has an opportunity to dribble, usually left foot,
Speaker 1: pivot foot, and for Dirk, usually right about the nail.
Speaker 1: They experimented with a bunch of different spots in his career,
Speaker 1: but they love to use Dirk at the nail. Now
Speaker 1: the nail is at the free throw line, right right
Speaker 1: in the middle of the freight line. The reason why
Speaker 1: they like to work with Dirk at the nail or
Speaker 1: at the top of the key, somewhere between the nail
Speaker 1: and the nail and the top of the key, is
Speaker 1: because it was harder for teams to double team. So
Speaker 1: we've talked about this a lot on the show, and
Speaker 1: there are advantages both ways. If you go clearside ISOs,
Speaker 1: you do have a lot of space to operate, But
Speaker 1: it's harder to beat teams with the skip pass right
Speaker 1: because so for instance, I have this hyeh cleared like
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler was doing with the heat and he's working
Speaker 1: off the dribble. That skip pass to the corner is
Speaker 1: a really tough pass to make, and so teams can
Speaker 1: load up and load up the paint. Although that's also
Speaker 1: hard spots double team from right at the nail. Everywhere
Speaker 1: is one pass away. Right, I'm not making a skip
Speaker 1: pass to the corner, I can throw it to the corner,
Speaker 1: throw it to the corner, throw it to the wing,
Speaker 1: throw it to the wing, throw it to the dunker.
Speaker 1: So it's actually a harder spot to double team out of,
Speaker 1: but it's also a much harder position to play offensively.
Speaker 1: The reason why is you have to have really good
Speaker 1: awareness of the entire floor looking both ways. So if
Speaker 1: I have my back to the basket, I'm looking this way,
Speaker 1: I can't see this side of the floor right, Whereas
Speaker 1: if I'm on a clear side ISO and there's nobody
Speaker 1: over there and it's just me on the left side
Speaker 1: of the floor. I can look this way and see
Speaker 1: the entire floor and kind of survey all nine other players, right,
Speaker 1: So it's it's a harder pass to make from that
Speaker 1: side of the floor, but it is actually easier to
Speaker 1: make reads. But if you have a player who is
Speaker 1: smart enough and can see the floor well enough to
Speaker 1: make reads from the middle of the floor, that is
Speaker 1: the hardest spot to double team from, and every pass
Speaker 1: is a quick little rifle pass away. Nikole Jokic has
Speaker 1: been destroying the NBA with this for years now. He
Speaker 1: catches in the middle of the floor, and there are
Speaker 1: so many players that catch in the middle of the
Speaker 1: floor and they can't functionally see everything well enough to
Speaker 1: make reads. Jokic can. Dirk could as well, so he
Speaker 1: liked to work from the nail because when he was
Speaker 1: in his triple threat, if any team shaded over from
Speaker 1: any side, it was an easy pass to somewhere on
Speaker 1: the floor to kill the defense for that specific mistake.
Speaker 1: But that from the nails where we're starting from. Everything.
Speaker 1: The foundational great skill for Dirk obviously shooting, like we
Speaker 1: talked about, but from the standpoint of isolation skill it
Speaker 1: was his ability to get that jump shot off with
Speaker 1: just the tiniest bit of space. Dirk leaned back on
Speaker 1: his jump shot and had a very high release, and
Speaker 1: so even if you were up in his space, he
Speaker 1: could just kind of bump you with his shoulder a
Speaker 1: little bit and then quick lean back and get enough
Speaker 1: separation to knock that shot down. That forced defenders to
Speaker 1: literally get right up into his airspace. So when Dirk
Speaker 1: would catch at the foul line, dudes were like literally
Speaker 1: putting their chest on his shoulder. From there, everything is
Speaker 1: about using his attack foot. His attack foot is his
Speaker 1: right foot, so if he's got his left foot as
Speaker 1: his pivot foot, he's leaning into you with that right
Speaker 1: foot to then try to lean back to take the
Speaker 1: shot or if you're pressing too far up on him
Speaker 1: once he gets that attack foot past your foot, So
Speaker 1: imagine the defensive player has his right foot up here.
Speaker 1: Once Dirk gets his foot past him, he's buying him.
Speaker 1: At that point, you can use a little chicken wing
Speaker 1: and he's all the way to the rim. So with Dirk,
Speaker 1: he would get you into his airspace with the threat
Speaker 1: of the jump shot and then use leverage to go
Speaker 1: around you. Using that attack foot, and so Dirk would
Speaker 1: get a ton of dribble penetration being a guy who's
Speaker 1: not a great athlete, a guy that you would think like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna put you Donnis haslam on him, He's gonna
Speaker 1: slide his feet and be able to keep him in front. No,
Speaker 1: because Eu Donnas has to be up into his space
Speaker 1: to take away the jump shot, and as soon as
Speaker 1: he does that, Dirk can feel where his body's at.
Speaker 1: Everything about this, the ISO and the post up stuff
Speaker 1: with Dirk is all about feeling the body. If he's
Speaker 1: got his back to the basket and the dude's leaning
Speaker 1: heavy on his shoulder, he's pivoting this way. If he's
Speaker 1: leaning heavy on his shoulder, he's pivoting that way. In
Speaker 1: the drive. When he's in a face up situation, if
Speaker 1: you're up in his space and he can get that
Speaker 1: attack foot past your foot, he's going around you. But
Speaker 1: if you stay back to stop that attack foot, he's
Speaker 1: leaning back and taking it shot. And it just made
Speaker 1: him completely unguardable because again, like you had to concede something,
Speaker 1: and a lot of the biggest shots in Dirk's career
Speaker 1: were conundrums that he put defenders in because they didn't
Speaker 1: know which of those two to go with. Even though
Speaker 1: I would argue the biggest shot of Dirk's career that
Speaker 1: game two, game winner against the Heat in the twenty
Speaker 1: eleven finals, and we're going to talk about that shot
Speaker 1: a few times here. That shot was a drive. Greatest
Speaker 1: shooting big Man of all time. Biggest shot of his
Speaker 1: career was a driving left handed layup. He ripped through
Speaker 1: to the right. Dirk loved to go right left. Even
Speaker 1: when he would start right, he would spin back left
Speaker 1: and again like that spin. That little bit of leverage
Speaker 1: with his shoulder was important to him because he wasn't
Speaker 1: a great athlete, so he had to beat people with leverage.
Speaker 1: But he caught the ball against Bosh there on that
Speaker 1: left extended elbow, and he ripped through to the right,
Speaker 1: and then when Bosh slid, he spun back to the
Speaker 1: left and went all the way to the rim with
Speaker 1: that left handed layup, so getting him the ball at
Speaker 1: the nail or near the top of the floor of
Speaker 1: what was really difficult to double team, weaponizing the shot
Speaker 1: to force guys to press up into his body and
Speaker 1: then using leverage to go past them out of the post.
Speaker 1: It was a very similar type of situation. He preferred
Speaker 1: the right block. He would almost always go to his
Speaker 1: right shoulder because he had a really good right shoulder
Speaker 1: fade away. Again, like right handed players love to shoot
Speaker 1: over their right shoulder. He would just kill teams making
Speaker 1: this like little right shoulder fade away at like sixty
Speaker 1: percent clip, which was insane. But if anybody ever reached
Speaker 1: behind to go for the basketball, he's just going all
Speaker 1: the way to the rim for a left handed layup.
Speaker 1: If you got out of position at all, whatsoever, he's
Speaker 1: going around you. And so he just put teams in
Speaker 1: a really difficult predicament with how good he was at
Speaker 1: driving to the basket to compensate for his jump shot.
Speaker 1: Crowning achievement for Dirk Novitski the twenty eleven championship run.
Speaker 1: It was a perfect encapsulation of everything that peaked Dirk
Speaker 1: Noovitsky could do well. His jumper was completely locked in.
Speaker 1: He shot fifty percent on catch and shoot jump shots
Speaker 1: in that playoff run, sixty percent when you weigh it
Speaker 1: for threes, fifty one percent on dribble jump shots, fifty
Speaker 1: two percent when you waited for threes, so he literally
Speaker 1: made more than half of every jump shot he took
Speaker 1: like that, that's just dead eye shooting. In the playoffs,
Speaker 1: barbecued every defender he faced in the playoff Roun twenty
Speaker 1: eight points and eight rebounds on sixty one percent true shooting.
Speaker 1: Went through the Lakers, the thunder and the Heat, so
Speaker 1: he went through Kobe KD and Lebron was absolutely off
Speaker 1: the charts good in clutch situation. So when the score
Speaker 1: was within five with less than five minutes left, he
Speaker 1: was fifteen for twenty eight from the field, three for
Speaker 1: five from three, thirty three for thirty four from the line,
Speaker 1: so just dead eye locked in when the game was
Speaker 1: on the line. He had sixty six total clutch points
Speaker 1: in the playoff runt. Lebron was second place in that
Speaker 1: playform with forty three, so he had twenty three more
Speaker 1: clutch points than anyone else in that playoff runt. In
Speaker 1: the NBA Finals, again it's a heat team that was
Speaker 1: heavily favored, he was eight for thirteen in clutch situations,
Speaker 1: so eight makes and five misses, one for two from three,
Speaker 1: nine for nine at the line. The MAVs were plus
Speaker 1: eighteen and eighteen clutch minutes with dark on the floor.
Speaker 1: There were three big moments in that series that I
Speaker 1: want to hit on. He hit the game winner in
Speaker 1: Game two. Again, that's spin move on Bosch, like we said,
Speaker 1: kind of cleared side. Actually it wasn't clearst of his
Speaker 1: shooter in the corner. I think it was Jason Terry
Speaker 1: in the corner if I remember correctly, But uh yeah,
Speaker 1: because he sat like a wide pinned down for Dirk
Speaker 1: to get up to the top of the floor and
Speaker 1: Lebron couldn't help out of the corner anymore. He does
Speaker 1: a hard rip through the right spin back to the left,
Speaker 1: left handed layup. Game four, by the way, that and
Speaker 1: by the way, Dirk finished Game two on a nine
Speaker 1: to two run by himself as and that was the
Speaker 1: crazy comeback game. I remember the heat We're up fifteen.
Speaker 1: D Wade was doing the celebration in front of the
Speaker 1: MAVs bench. It was a big comeback win for the MAVs.
Speaker 1: Game four, now, this is a pivotal game in the
Speaker 1: series because after the heat blue Game two, they went
Speaker 1: into Dallas in one Game three. Dwayne Wade was incredible
Speaker 1: in that game. They go up two to one in
Speaker 1: the series. So in Game four, the Mavericks have the
Speaker 1: ball up by one with twenty nine seconds left. It
Speaker 1: was eighty two to eighty one. There's a five second
Speaker 1: gap between the game game clock and the shot clock,
Speaker 1: so if the Heat get a stop, they have a
Speaker 1: chance to go down and score and win the game.
Speaker 1: They run the exact same type of play that they
Speaker 1: ran in game two. They actually in this game the
Speaker 1: Heat go with Eudonis Haslim on Dirk, same sort of situation.
Speaker 1: They put Jason Terry in the right corner again instead
Speaker 1: of going from the left elbow, this time, Dirk's going
Speaker 1: from the right elbow. They put Lebron. They stashed Lebron
Speaker 1: away in the opposite corner or in the strong side
Speaker 1: corner with Jason Terry on, and Lebron's not going to
Speaker 1: help because Jason Terry was dead eye in that situation.
Speaker 1: And in this case, Eudonis Haslim is heavy overplaying the
Speaker 1: left shoulder, which is taking away Dirk's jump shot. But again,
Speaker 1: like we talked about, Dirk always weaponized that leverage against
Speaker 1: the defender. So eudonas is taking away the jumper, but
Speaker 1: he's literally giving a right hand drive. And it's funny
Speaker 1: because he rips through to the right and you can
Speaker 1: actually hear I think it was Jeff Van Gundy on
Speaker 1: the broadcast complaining like he's going too early. He's going
Speaker 1: too early, but Eudonas was giving him a layup, and
Speaker 1: Dirk didn't give a shit because if he makes a layup,
Speaker 1: they go up three. It's a you're safe now. They
Speaker 1: can't beat you, they can only send the game to overtime. Right,
Speaker 1: So he rips through to the right. Lebron doesn't help
Speaker 1: bosh ops to box out Dirt Tyson Chandler instead of
Speaker 1: go for the block, and Dirt gets an easy layup
Speaker 1: to put them up by three. Mike Miller ends up fumbling.
Speaker 1: Adin Wade ends up fumbling the game tying possession, throws
Speaker 1: it to Mike Miller. He throws up a prayer and
Speaker 1: he airballs it and the series is tied at two.
Speaker 1: Significant swing in that game. Dirk just getting an easy basket.
Speaker 1: That's always the dead giveaway. It's like, it's not Nicole
Speaker 1: jochicch in Game four against the Lakers this year, one thirteen,
Speaker 1: one thirteen, and he just makes it look easy to
Speaker 1: get a basket against Anthony Davis when when a guy
Speaker 1: is scoring easy in huge leverage situations, that's always a
Speaker 1: sign that you've mastered the game. And then in Game six,
Speaker 1: Dirk scores ten points in the fourth quarter to execute
Speaker 1: the heat win his first title. Each of the five
Speaker 1: baskets had a little bit of that Dirk flair to
Speaker 1: it right first, one is a double pick and roll
Speaker 1: with Tyson Chandler. Jason Terry's running it with Tyson Chandler
Speaker 1: setting the screen and with Dirk set in the screen.
Speaker 1: Dirk pops Tyson rolls, Jason Terry throws a really nice pass,
Speaker 1: hits Dirk. Eudonnas is just a touch slow to close out,
Speaker 1: knocks down the jumper. After that, a right block post up,
Speaker 1: same type of thing we were talking about. He's posting
Speaker 1: up on that right block, left handed dribble. Eudonis's garden.
Speaker 1: Himonis just barely reaches, just barely reaches, and then changes
Speaker 1: his mind and pulls back. But in that split second
Speaker 1: where he went like this, Dirk just went right around him.
Speaker 1: It was crazy how good he was at reading that
Speaker 1: body leverage stuff, goes right to the basket, makes a
Speaker 1: left handed layup. Then there was this crazy player where
Speaker 1: Chadler gets the ball in a broken play right around
Speaker 1: the right around the nail, and Dirk is kind of
Speaker 1: relocating above him, and he pitches it back to Dirk,
Speaker 1: and Chris Bosh is like all over the place, spun
Speaker 1: in circles, tries to close out, but then Dirk just
Speaker 1: hits him with a wonderable pull up and knocks it down,
Speaker 1: just beautiful wondribble pull up just hits nothing but net.
Speaker 1: And then the last one is the one we all remember,
Speaker 1: the left elbow iso against Chris Bosh cleared side. This
Speaker 1: time Bosh just smothers him along the left baseline, literally
Speaker 1: walls him up like this, and Dirk pump bakes and
Speaker 1: then literally just kind of bumps Bosh and then leans
Speaker 1: to his left and makes a jump shot, just a
Speaker 1: ridiculous shot. Then he got a garbage time layup and
Speaker 1: pick and roll after the Heat had already quit, if
Speaker 1: you remember, in that game, like Dirk had demoralized the
Speaker 1: Heat so much that they weren't even boxing out in
Speaker 1: the final minutes and the Mass just kept getting offensive rebounds.
Speaker 1: But it was a little bit of everything that made
Speaker 1: Dirk great showing up on the biggest stage they upset
Speaker 1: the Miami Heat to win Dirk's first NBA championship. One
Speaker 1: hell of a crowning achievement, one of the most impressive
Speaker 1: playoff runs in NBA history. Biggest what if I have
Speaker 1: two for Dirk Novitski Number one, what if the MAVs
Speaker 1: got a better whistle in the two thousand and six finals.
Speaker 1: So if you remember the two thousand and six MAVs
Speaker 1: went sixteen to twenty two, Dirk was third in MVP voting.
Speaker 1: By the way, Lebron James, at age twenty one, was
Speaker 1: second MVP voting that year. It's crazy how good he
Speaker 1: was when he was young. The MAVs take a two
Speaker 1: zero lead in the finals, and they were up by
Speaker 1: thirteen points with six minutes left in the fourth quarter
Speaker 1: of Game three, but Dwayne Wade goes on a crazy
Speaker 1: run to tie it and Gary Payton it's the pull
Speaker 1: up jump shot that puts him up by two, and
Speaker 1: then Dirk actually ends up getting fouled and misses makes
Speaker 1: the first but misses the crucial second free throw, and
Speaker 1: then they end up losing right two games to one.
Speaker 1: But that starts a run where the Heat win four
Speaker 1: games in a row and they actually steal that title
Speaker 1: from the MAVs. But here's the thing. Dwayne Wade attempted
Speaker 1: an astonishing seventy three free throws over the final four
Speaker 1: games of that sit There's a lot of conspiracy theories
Speaker 1: about what may or may not have been taking place,
Speaker 1: but there's no doubt that he got a good whistle.
Speaker 1: Two things are true in this situation. One, the MAVs
Speaker 1: could not guard Dwayne Wade. He was way too quick
Speaker 1: for them. No one could keep him in front of
Speaker 1: the dribble, so he was constantly flying downhill. He's also
Speaker 1: just an incredible athlete and he fell down a lot,
Speaker 1: so he was a very difficult player to officiate. There's
Speaker 1: no doubt. But he also got a lot of calls.
Speaker 1: So I think there's a version of that story where
Speaker 1: Wade gets a tighter whistle, the MAVs get the benefit
Speaker 1: of the doubt on some of those calls, and they
Speaker 1: have a better chance to win that series. So Number one,
Speaker 1: what if they get a different whistle in six do
Speaker 1: the MAVs have two titles? Number two, what if the
Speaker 1: mass had kept Tyson Chandler after the twenty eleven finals.
Speaker 1: Tyson Chandler's rim protection played a huge role in the
Speaker 1: twenty eleven championship. The MAVs were eighth in defense that
Speaker 1: year and they were the third best defense in the
Speaker 1: league at protecting the paint, but they let the Knicks
Speaker 1: post poach Tyson Chandler in a three team, three team
Speaker 1: sign in dread. I should say Tyson goes on to
Speaker 1: anchor really good Knicks team for the next couple of years,
Speaker 1: and those were the best Knicks teams of that decade,
Speaker 1: which I think Tyson played a big part in. And
Speaker 1: then the MAVs just slide their backup Brandon Haywood back
Speaker 1: into that starting position. They also made a move for
Speaker 1: Vince Carter, which was something that didn't really pay off.
Speaker 1: He didn't play very well for them, although he did
Speaker 1: hit a huge buzzer beating three at one point in
Speaker 1: a playoff game. But they were the third worst defense
Speaker 1: in the twenty twelve playoffs and they got swept by OKC.
Speaker 1: So it kind of sucks that they immediately got rid
Speaker 1: of their defensive anchor right after winning a championship, and
Speaker 1: they didn't really have a legitimate chance to defend their title,
Speaker 1: which is frustrating. So that's another big what if what
Speaker 1: if they had kept Tyson Chandler? Do they win the
Speaker 1: twenty twelve championship or at least do they have a
Speaker 1: rematch with Miami? And do we have a chance for
Speaker 1: Lebron to redeem himself in those situations? Right? So another
Speaker 1: big what if in drk Novitzky's career. All right, guys,
Speaker 1: that is all I have for today. We will be
Speaker 1: back tomorrow with number nine. Don't forget to drop a
Speaker 1: mailbag question in the comment. So no, so you guys tomorrow.
Speaker 1: The volume