The Dallas Mavericks are in town to take on the Toronto Raptors. That means a lot of attention on Dirk Nowitzki, one of the best to ever do it and the greatest shooting big man of all time.
Raptors head coach Dwane Casey had the pleasure of coaching Nowitzki when he was a Mavericks’ assistant from 2007 to 2011, seeing first hand the type of work that goes into Nowitzki’s success. Casey was around Nowitzki when he was a young pup in his early-30s and saw even then what Nowitzki would do to ensure his long-term success. Here’s Casey from shootaround Tuesday:
He’s a worker. There’s not a player on that team that works harder than Dirk. 24-7, he’s back in there at night time working on his 3-point shot, he’s working on his footwork, he stays in tremendous shape year-round. It’s nothing that work doesn’t take care of. There’s not a player in the NBA that works harder than him, and that’s why he’s able to keep his edge, keep the fountain of youth that he’s kept over the years. He’s done it through hard work.
It’s incredible that Nowitzki remains a highly effective offensive player several years later, here at age 37. He’s averaging 17.2 points, seven rebounds, and 1.9 assists while shooting 48.1 percent overall and 38.9 percent on threes. He’s on pace to hit 112 triples for the year, a mark that would rank 12th all time among players age 37 or older. And again, this is a 7-footer with more than 50,000 minutes on his odometer between regular season and playoffs, not including his substantial international contributions, too.
Unlike some other stars who have found their way as role players later in their careers, Nowitzki remains largely the same O.G. Again, here’s Casey:
It’s still the same Dirk. He still does what he does, as far as shooting the ball. His footwork’s the same, his positioning on the floor is the same. He’s still doing what he’s done for years and that’s shoot the ball. He keeps the ball so high up, it’s hard to get to. He knows that, he works on that. He does some crazy drills each day, every night. Holger (Geschwinder), his personal shooting coach, has done a great job with him over the years to keep him sharp.
Nowitzki stretching out defenses over the last two decades has helped shape the way the game has gone, with bigs more or less required to shoot now if they’re not highly effective interior players. There are exceptions, but for the most part Nowitzki has helped shift things to the point where most teams at least want the option to be able to go four-out.
The Raptors have one such big in Patrick Patterson, a 6-foot-9 power forward with a 36.2-percent career mark from long-range. Patterson will be tasked with helping contain Nowitzki on Tuesday, something he believes will be a daunting task. Here’s Patterson at shootaround:
His skillset. His mindset. He may be older than the average player in the NBA but he’s vintage. Just like wine, he gets better with age. He’s so creative with his post moves, his shot’s impossible to block. He always gets to his move no matter what you do. All you have to do is hope that he misses when you do a strong contest and try to make him as uncomfortable out there as possible. But he’s so reliable from the three, just unconscious when it comes to shooting the ball. He’s just an overall great player, so he’s just extremely hard to guard offensively.
Godspeed, Patterson et al.
