How good was Nowitzki?! Was he the best shooting big man in NBA history? How did he grow and evolve over his career? And without great passing, how big of an impact was he able to have on his team’s offense?
This episode is part of the the second season of the “Greatest Peaks” series. Season 2 focuses on the legends of NBA offense, examining unique archetypes, controversial players and stylistic spearheads who have influenced the game over the years.
Footage: http://www.usasportsondvd.com
Support at Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thinkingbasketball
Book: https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Basketball-Ben-Taylor/dp/1532968175
Podcast: https://player.fm/series/thinking-basketball or at https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/ben-taylor/thinking-basketball-podcast
Website: https://www.backpicks.com
Twitter: @elgee35
Ben Taylor is the author of Thinking Basketball, a Nylon Calculus contributor, creator of the Backpicks Top 40 series & host of the Thinking Basketball podcast.
Stats courtesy:
http://www.pbpstats.com @bballport
https://www.basketball-reference.com
https://stats.nba.com
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Footage in this video is owned by the NBA and its partners. It is intended for critique and education.
Music:
Confronting the Void (Cody Martin)
Alter Ego (Lost)
Hair (Fairlight)
#ThinkingBasketball #OffensiveLegends
34 Comments
On 2017 J.J. Barea, Devin Harris, Yogi Ferrell, Dwight Powell, and Dirk Nowitzki were on fire during a stretch of the season. All in part thNks to his gravity. I think they lead the league in dunks for part of the season also. Great player. Dirk made possible that Jj had a career. Jj is my favorite player. Love to see their pick and roll.
Manu Manu Manu. Can’t wait to see him.
when u think about this.. this is like the denver nuggets. well balanced team and a player you cannot stop!
The big 3 vs. the only one. But that one was Dirk, with all the legacy marbles on the line. And it never felt like he'd lose.
That little nuance on what u showed on Marion + Bowen + Bosh dang
Engagement
That's what I've been saying. The last 1/3 of this video explained it all. Dirk didn't score as much and didn't assist as much but his overall impact on offense for the team is insane
Number 6 in scoring
These kind of analytics are so impressive and must take so long to go over. But i really appreciate it. You don't get anything like this in main stream sports media. Seriously this channel is awesome
13:37 bald Jim Carrey?
FINALLY. As a Dallas fan, I've waited for this since the Greatest Peaks series.
Waiting for this one a good while
You run arguably the best basketball youtube channel in existence. Your claims are backed by data, not emotions. You should be the one hired as an NBA analyst, not idiots like Perkins or Stephen A. Smith
cause he was 7 feet
Maybe his shooting looks crisper in his later years because its HD 😎
8:01. “The category is… Automatic points.”
great work that perimeter gravity was like the preview to what Steph would do! dirk as the main scorer allowed for some different combinations of offensives leading to real title-contending teams 03,06,11 I would say 07 too but losing to the we believe team ..
Great video. One thing I found kind of fascinating, even though it's a side issue that you discussed more in the Nash video, is how the Nash+Dirk pairing (speaking about offense only here, obviously there are defensive weaknesses) wasn't quite the sum of its parts. You'd think that an on-ball dribbling maestro who loved to go downhill to the rim would be a perfect offensive fit with an incredible off-ball shooter who could pull big men out of the paint. But, the offensive on-off numbers you cited, along with what I recall from the Nash video, suggest that putting them together didn't really produce the offensive supernova you might expect, just very good offenses not much better than what you had with one of the two on the court. I'm curious if you have any thoughts on why that might be–the main thing I can think of is that Dirk excelled at high-difficulty shots and Nash's game was all about creating low-difficulty shots for teammates.
Dirk was so good because he always made the right decision.
Great his whole career but his peak was untouchable
He's a double-double machine in the playoffs averaging 25/10 so he's not a slouch in the rebounding department.
His turnover numbers are low for someone who is the focal point of the Mavs offense for 20 years.
Statitsically speaking, a 25-year old Dirk has the same numbers as AD with better 3 pt.%
So if someones wondering what a young Dirk can do in today's NBA, he'll be at least at Lauri Markannen level.
By the way, at the same age as Lauri now, he's already the focal point of the Mavs offense. At the same age as KP, he already went to the NBA finals.
Love these different series you make !
Dirk’s run in 2011 has more value than Lebron rings (except 2012), KD rings and Joel’s MVP combined.
what a beautiful intro, goosebumps
Hey Ben, Can you plzzzzz make a video on Chris Webber? I feel people dont appreciate the genius of him. Easily most underappreciated player in history
Can’t wait for Wade next
every big man who likes to operate a midrange game needs to watch and learn
guys like Embiid, Markkanen, Porzingis could take their games to another level if they start train to emulate more of Dirk's approach to the game in the late 2000s
I was pretty surprised when I put championship leading scorers against postseason league average true shooting and found Dirk may have had a better scoring postseason than even Curry in 2015. They were roughly the same but I'd argue Curry benefitted from his teammates offensively more, similar (though to a lesser degree) to the other seasons that beat out '11 Dirk ('17 Durant & '20 Davis).
Shoutout to Ben for mentioning that young Dirk was a hell of an athlete.
Dirk was unfairly seen as someone who was bad in the playoffs just because of two very notable series (MIA, GSW) yet his playoff production as a whole was elite during his prime 2001-2012.
In his prime – 2001 to 2012, his playoffs FG% is 46.3%, and rose 48.5% in elimination games.
His averages from 2001-2012 in elimination games are 28.9 PPG, 48.5% FG, 40.8 3pt%, 90.8 FT% 11.4 RPG, 2.8 APG, 1.0 STL, 1.1 BLK, . An 11-10 record.
His game 7 averages during his prime, 2001-2012 – 28.0 PPG, 53.3 FG%, 40.0% 3PT, 87.5 FT% 14.8 RPG, 2.0 AST, 1.3 STL, 2.0 BLK, 4-0 Record.
Hi Ben, just letting you know Nowitzki is misspelled in the video title! (k and z transposed)
Dirk was absolutely like that
4:40
Him and Rick Carlisle are a match made in heaven. An offensive cannon with access to 2pts almost on command and an offensive magician who can make good offenses without high usage ball handlers for his technician. The Mavs just magic up points