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Burks is the Best Wing In Class

Numberica Wrote:

If you take Nowitski off of the playoff Mavericks, they are still a playoff team because no one NEEDED the ball in their hands to be effective, and everyone except their Cs could punish you from 3. Personally, I'd like to try to build a team where the strength of the shooting and collective versatility/unselfishness make EVERYONE a lot better than they are individually. Kind of like the Jazz teams of the past, but not bricklaying, non-elite talents like the Boozer-era teams.
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This is absolutely false. Yes, Dallas does have a group of players that can be effective without the ball in their hand's and they can also punish you from 3 point land, but all of that centers around Dirk. Take away Dirk and the defensive attention he demands on a nightly basis and then go and ask that team to win 45 games and make the playoffs. It wouldn't happen.

I agree that Utah is in desperate need of a 3 point attack, but IMO it doesn't have to come from Burks. Utah's frontcourt is shaping up to be rather impressive for years to come. Defenses are going to have to pay a lot of attention to Utah down low, and if Burks ends up being as good at attacking the hoop as advertised, it's going to free up somebody on the perimeter to knock down shots. Granted, that "somebody(s)" aren't on the team yet (with the exception of Hayward IMO), but I don't think we've seen Greg Miller or KOC come out and declare this Utah Jazz squad a finished product.

The biggest thing I think Burks has going for him is that he's shown not only the ability to be a better than average passer, he also has the willingness to share the ball. I agree with Numberica that as of right now, Maggette is Burk's closest comparison, but what may end up seperating Burks is his willingness to create penetration and then find his open teammate.
 
jazzman12 said:
This is absolutely false.
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There's no way for either of us to prove our point, I will just say that's what the Mavericks were when they closed out Miami. Nowitski played a simply bad game and they carried him. And it wasn't anyone breaking down people off the dribble and getting to the line either. *shrug*

But we agree on the Maggette comparison (except, again, I THINK he'll be a better team-player in the situations he's given, but there's more to playing in an offense than passing off the dribble).
 
NUMBERICA said:
There's no way for either of us to prove our point, I will just say that's what the Mavericks were when they closed out Miami. Nowitski played a simply bad game and they carried him. And it wasn't anyone breaking down people off the dribble and getting to the line either. *shrug*

But we agree on the Maggette comparison (except, again, I THINK he'll be a better team-player in the situations he's given, but there's more to playing in an offense than passing off the dribble).
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I agree, but if you have a guy who can get to the rim at will (if that's indeed what Burks can do) and pass off the dribble then I think he can be a special player with/without a strong 3 point shot. The key will be this: Is KOC going to surround him with players who can knock down the 3? As I've already stated, I think Hayward can, but that's not enough. If Burks is going to be our longterm starter @ the 2, we need better shooters at PG and coming off the bench at SF behind Hayward.
 
NUMBERICA said:
There's no way for either of us to prove our point, I will just say that's what the Mavericks were when they closed out Miami. Nowitski played a simply bad game and they carried him. And it wasn't anyone breaking down people off the dribble and getting to the line either. *shrug*
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Did you miss the part where Dirk carried the team in the fourth. If Dirk doesn't take over in the fourth they probably lose that game.
 
Burks is easily at the top of the players playing right now in the NBA.
 
Dallas has a good team. There were several playoff games against top notch opponents when Dirk was really off, but other guys stepped up and Dallas won anyway.
 
yea, pretty sure Dallas won at least one game each against the Thunder, Lakers, and Heat in which Dirk played badly. That does not happen if the rest of the team is weak. You don't win 4 playoff series in a row with only one good player, that's ridirkulous.
 
northeast said:
yea, pretty sure Dallas won at least one game each against the Thunder, Lakers, and Heat in which Dirk played badly. That does not happen if the rest of the team is weak. You don't win 4 playoff series in a row with only one good player, that's ridirkulous.
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Exactly.

Just ask Duron when we played against the Lakers in the playoffs for about 10 straight years... If AK and Boozer weren't injured, they played as if they were injured. We had 1 1/2 player. Duron, and ronnie Price (who for some reason, seemed to always bring us back against them)
 
northeast said:
yea, pretty sure Dallas won at least one game each against the Thunder, Lakers, and Heat in which Dirk played badly. That does not happen if the rest of the team is weak. You don't win 4 playoff series in a row with only one good player, that's ridirkulous.
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I'll stand by the opinion that I don't think Dallas is a playoff team without Dirk. Your example of Dallas winning a few playoff games when Dirk played "badly" is flawed. Regardless of how Dirk played in those games, he was still on the court, which means that the opposing team had to account for him and had to stick with a defensive gameplan that probably revolved 90% around him.

Does Dallas have more than one good player on their team? Obvsiously, but Dirk is the superstar cog that makes it all work. That Dallas squad without Dirk would be a mess over the course of an 82 game season. Who would lead that team to the playoffs? Jason Terry? A 38 year old Jason Kidd? Brendon Haywood or Tyson Chandler? Me thinks not.
 
Maybe, but I don't get Jazzfanz preoccupation with having one guy who is the designated "leader". Dallas had a deep team. Dirk was key, but the whole squad made contributions, and I don't think it was all due to Dirk drawing all the attention to open up everyone else, or him carrying everyone else with his leadership.
 
northeast said:
Maybe, but I don't get Jazzfanz preoccupation with having one guy who is the designated "leader". Dallas had a deep team. Dirk was key, but the whole squad made contributions, and I don't think it was all due to Dirk drawing all the attention to open up everyone else, or him carrying everyone else with his leadership.
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I don't think the key is a "single player who is the focal point" as much as it is a "well designed scheme, executed to perfection." In the case of Dallas, Dirk is powerfull enough as a singular player to create a scheme of him as a focal point in the high pick and roll and then the other team members responded to the defense based upon the outcome of that inital pick, primarily focused on wide spacing and thus hitting a lot of 3s. Its a model similar to the Hakeem/Houston of hte 90's. (Hakeem was exlusively low in that model however.)

It is clear that Dallas has excellent/the right role players for this scheme. San Antonio does too for example. Dallas might not be a playoff team without Dirk using that scheme, but they'd probably not run the same scheme without him. Maybe JJ Berea would dribble around and throw lob passes to Chandler all day; we've seen that model before. And JJ is an example of a player that if he goes to the wrong system, will look average at best.
 
Also with respect to the 3pt shooting percentage and Burks, it is important to take the stat with a grain of salt. I'm betting if Kobe had the job of standing in the corner waiting for the ball to shoot the open three, his percentage would be much higher (like Bruce Bowen.) B Russ made it to the 3pt shoot out one year doing that job. (And he wasn't close to being a 3pt sharp shooter.) Really, how many 3pt sharpshooters are there in NBA - 5? 10? (I'm too lazy to look up the list and evaluate them.)

If Burks is ccalled upon to shoot as well as J Kidd (this year) or D Stevenson, its very possible he could get there (by using the Lockedonsports details.) But its unlikely he'll be a 3pt sharpshooter.
 
i just found that cubuffs.com has on-demand archives of most of their MBB games from this past season. i'm checking it out in lieu of having any summer league to watch this year.

too bad kanter didn't play anywhere last season...
 
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