TAKE DAT WIT YOU 9/8

[michaeltex]

Oh, ok. You and Clutch were talking about two different things. You're right, of course, Dirk had to learn how to deal with double teams running at him. And the Golden State series shined a light on that. And it didn't take him long to learn from that series! I remember a few folks turning on Dirk after that, which was crazy.

BUT, what Clutch is saying happened too. Dirk had to figure out how to handle small defenders getting up into him. I'd have to research to remember when that was a focus, but I'm 99% that it was. I remember the discussions, and that he progressed fairly quickly to be able to punish that tactic.

Maybe I'm wrong, but this was the point where the one-legged fadaway was born, or at least became a signature move for Dirk. After the GSW series in 2007, undersized defenders never seemed to bother Dirk as much unless they were cheap shotting him.