GAME 80 DIRKIE: Jalen BUCKETS (48%)

[Hogmelon]

I like that. For what its worth, the original “Dirkie” was actually meant to recognize exactly the type of player you’re describing — the most underrated / overperforming player of the night.

Dirk would almost always be the ‘player of the game’ and he was obviously the clear-cut #1 player over the course of the season for the team — so the Dirk-ie was created to recognize whoever stepped up to be Dirk’s “Dirkie” on any given night, which would be a different player all the time. At some point tho people just started voting for the best player overall tho. 

It sounds kinda weird now that I type it all out but it made perfect sense at the time lol. 

If we resume goin by that standard, I’d only vote for Luka or KP if they have an outstanding performance relative to their own expectation.

THANK YOU! Precisely! 

I have always loved the Dirkie, but this is why i have. The purpose of the award was NOT to go to the actual Dirk of the team(or Luka/Porzingis in this new era) you would give the award to the JETs or the Marions of that game. The guys who were the X-Factor and were the best reason we won, outside of our star/s.

Once in a blue moon Dirk would shine so hard, we would give it to him. This was always known to be an exception to the rule, not the standard. 

So 90-95% of the time Luka and Porzingis should not be awarded the Dirkie. It should be the Curry/Wright/THJ/JJB/Brunson/Powell/Jacksons/DFS of the crew.

Then only if the rest of the team stunk but Luka and/or Porzingis stepped it up so much that we absolutely shouldn't be giving it to anyone else? That is the only time Luka or Porz should get it.

I absolutely LOVE Jalen, but this game did not look like an outlier from him. Not to me. I think he finishes behind Josh, Marquis and Davis all three. But ok, I guess.

Many people don't vote this way. 

I vote for the person without whom I believe the game would've been a loss. "Outlier" has nothing to do with it, from my perspective.

Really? I’d vote Luka 99% of the time by that standard.

...which would explain why he always gets at least one vote.

In this game, I actually thought Brunson was the main force behind whooping Detroit's ass in terms of scoring in the paint, which is why Dallas was able to hang in through the first two quarters. So, he got my vote!

It seems like the definition/criteria for the Dirkie has always been relatively ambiguous.

On some occasions, reasonable minds may differ about which Mav played the "best" overall game.  When the "grading on the curve" aspect is thrown in, however, reasonable minds are much more likely to differ.

It's all in good fun, though.  Right?