Fact Checking Rick Carlisle: Is Dirk A Top 10 Player?
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – Dirk Nowitzki's performance during this year's playoffs has drawn wide praise and helped land the team in the Western Conference Finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
While much attention was paid to Charles Barkley's statement that Nowitzki was a better player than the Lakers' Kobe Bryant, the highest praise came from Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle, who tagged Nowitzki as a top ten all-time player.
While Carlisle's words were mostly seen as hyperbole, the topic was discussed Sunday on CBS 11's "The Score."
Here's a graph of the top five scorers of all time, their point totals right now and their averages per season until the age of 32, Nowitzki's current age.
Assuming Dirk follows this path, he'll have seven years left in the league. Here's how these players aged during their last seven years.
If O'Neal retires after being severely limited by injuries during the latter half of this season, these players will have finished playing at an average age of 39.
If Dirk's career follows the same blueprint, he'll average 1,132 points over the next seven years – retiring with 30,720. This would place him ahead of O'Neal and fifth all-time.On average, the top five performed at 64.6 percent of the level they once played.
For the sake of thoroughness and curiosity, we ran the same numbers on Kobe Bryant. Under the same calculation, he would finish third all time, sandwiched behind Karl Malone and ahead of Michael Jordan. This would push Nowitzki to a mere No. 6 slot.
