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I agree that he needs to find a happy median. Dirk is primarily a jumpshooter, and as anybody who has ever played the game can tell you, perimeter players need their touches in order to get into a flow and stay hot. That was part of the problem last year I think, we clinched so early and Avery rested guys for the last two weeks, and I definitely think it affected his timing and rhythm when we were finally playing meaningful ball again against Golden State.
We beat San Antonio and Phoenix two years ago by Dirk scoring a ton of points, and his production dropped off against Miami and we lost. He went from 25 and 9 on 50% shooting in the regular season to 19 and 10 on 38% shooting against the Warriors and we lost. There are times when the correct play is to pass out of a double-team. He needs better post moves, his teammates need the repe ion and practice of handling the opportunities that come with him drawing so much defensive attention, because in theory he becomes more dangerous if he's setting his teammates up and then can get his when his team needs it like a Tim Duncan or a Steve Nash. The great players are always like that, they get their teammates involved, since guys tend to play better in all phases of the game when they're getting touches.
But the main difference between Tim Duncan and Dirk is that Duncan doesn't need to score 35+ points to be dominant. Dirk is a decent rebounder for his size, while Duncan is a great one. Duncan can control the paint, block shots and guard opposing bigs while those are things that Dirk is not great at. So it's one thing for Pop to tell Duncan: rebound and play d, Parker and Manu will score for us tonight. Duncan isn't a rhythm jumpshooter either, he doesn't need to be "hot" to score when he needs to, he has his arsenal of post moves.
Avery is a great motivator, he's made this team accountable to play defense, which is something Nellie wasn't as committed to, but sometimes I get the feeling that Avery borrows a bit much from the Spurs "right way" approach. Dirk isn't Duncan, it's a completely different skill-set, and no amount of work is going to turn Dirk into another Duncan. And watching the game last night, I was a bit puzzled, like why Ager was getting burn in the 2nd Quarter instead of garbage time, and I agree with the poster upthread who said it looks like Avery is trying to see what he has outside of Dirk, Josh, Jet and Stackhouse, get a feel for who on his roster can do what. If unproven or raw guys like Brandon Bass are going to make a meaningful contribution in May, now is the time for them to get experience and for the coaches to see what he can and can't do.
