Mavs' Dirk Nowitzki became more unfair by quickening his shot release
Dallas Mavericks' star Dirk Nowitzki is nearing the end of his historic run as a basketball player. He's not only one of the best international players in the history of basketball but Nowitzki is one of the greatest NBA players we've ever seen, period. He's one of the best scoring options from any era and arguably the best shooting big man of all-time. Nowitzki's mark on the game and how he changed the way big men are viewed and play will be imprinted in basketball forever.
Even though the 36-year old forward doesn't have many years left in his NBA career, that's not stopping him from improving his offensive attack. He worked with his legendary shot doctor Holger Geschwindner this summer on making his shot release a quicker process. If he pulls this off, he'll go from "slightly guardable" to the NBA needing rules on how many times he's allowed to touch the basketball during a game. From Marc Stein of ESPN.com:
Nowitzki's latest summer project: speeding up his shot release.
"I don't think, to the naked eye, you would see it," Nowitzki told ESPN.com. "I don't know if the [average] fan will see the difference. But I'm always trying to get better, and this is just a little tool for me to shoot a little quicker. We'll see how it works during the season."
Geschwindner has often referred to what he calls Nowitzki's "toolbox" and the idea of adding one new specialty every offseason.
"We worked on a quicker release," Geschwindner said, citing Golden State's Steph Curry as the standard-setter for getting shots off rapid-fire and insisting that Nowitzki also can become adept at getting the ball to the release point faster "if he sticks with it."
Nowitzki's accomplishments are impressive enough already. He was the 2007 NBA MVP, the 2011 Finals MVP, and he's a champion. He's made the All-NBA First Team four times, the All-NBA Second Team five times, and the All-NBA Third Team three times in his career. Nowitzki is 10th all-time in scoring and if he performs slightly above his scoring output last year, he could finish the 2014-15 season sixth on the all-time list. He's in position to pass Hakeem Olajuwon, Elvin Hayes, and Moses Malone with ease. Shaquille O'Neal at sixth all-time is a bit tougher to do this season.
After making the 8-seed and pushing the Spurs to seven games in the first round last year, the Mavericks have renewed life for being contenders this year. They added Tyson Chandler and Chandler Parsons in the offseason, although losing Shawn Marion, Jose Calderon, and Vince Carter will be tough for them. The key to how much the Mavericks will improve rests on how effective Chandler can be as the defensive anchor after a tough year in New York and whether or not Raymond Felton can be in any kind of acceptable shape this season. Nowitzki somehow being a more effective scorer with the quicker shot release could help a lot of this by making life tough for opposing teams.
Dirk also re-signed with the team for three years and $25 million this offseason, helping their salary cap situation.
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