Just joined Mavs Moneyball (visiting from Blazersedge) and I had to accept the terms

“Don’t be mean”

And this is the first comment I read.

And really, I’m a loveable teddy bear…I really am not being too serious here. I think Dirk is cool, just not better than Tim Duncan or KG.

Here is the All NBA 1st team this year

PF- Kevin Garnett, Boston
SF – LeBron James, Cleveland
C – Dwight Howard,, Orlando
SG – Kobe Bryant, LA Lakers
PG – Chris Paul, New Orleans

All NBA Second Team
SF – Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas
PF – Tim Duncan, San Antonio
C – Amaré Stoudemire, Phoenix
PG – Steve Nash, Phoenix
SG – Deron Williams, Utah

Sorry to flipflop here and swing to what I like about Dirk, but seriously. Dirk is cool because he can swing from C to PF to SF. The only thing is I don’t think he’s better at the power-forward position than Duncan or KG. You can argue whether or not he’s better overall than either of them (tough, especially since he has no rings and they both do….but you could do it), but as a PF, I think he’s firmly in 3rd. Maybe not overall, but as a PF, he’s at least 3rd.

But I don’t think that who makes the All-NBA team is the truest test of who’s better than who. If we look back just a few years we see an all NBA second team of

Jermaine O’Neal, Indiana
Peja Stojakovic, Sacramento
Ben Wallace, Detroit
Sam Cassell, Minnesota
Tracy McGrady, Orlando

and a all NBA third team of
Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas
Ron Artest, Indiana
Yao Ming, Houston
Michael Redd, Milwaukee
Baron Davis, New Orleans

I think it’s pretty fair to say that the 3rd team was, is, and always will be better than the 2nd team. Even if you use last year’s all nba teams, i think the 3rd is better than the second. So using this is pretty subjective.

So yeah, I love Dirk in the regular season, I just haven’t seen enough in the playoffs to fall for him head over heels.

I agree with the title of your post. The rankings do blow. I was mostly riled up by Blasco’s ridiculousness rather than any personal vendettas against players/commentors. I mean, Dirk 10th is an outrage! I agree wholeheartedly.

And I was being silly with the you disgrace your family and friends….sorry if I sounded too serious.

but I think I still would be cautious to take Dirk over Amare, as it might be a toss up for some of the reasons you mentioned above. It will be interesting to see him without both Nash AND Snaq, as I probably would have said a year ago that he was not better than Dirk. But watching him play at the end of last year, the guy was an animal with not only is inside game, but his outside game as well. He has a different inside game than Duncan does, in the sense that he doesnt post people up and hit a hook, but he is explosive inside and can score on a lot of scrappy points down low. He is always a top of the league in dunks. Of course that’s arguably because of both Steve feeding him and him padding his stats at the end of games when Mr. Mustache would leave him in blowouts.

My thinking could change on this, should Nash break down even more so and it have a direct effect on his game… we could then get a better feel for where he is at. It’s easy to assume that he’s more dependent on Steve of course, and has yet to really carry a team by himself yet, so it will be interesting to see. Dirk can and has carried a team, but falls short in some of the athletic areas were Amare excels. That’s why for now I say its a toss up.