Erick "Self Proclaimed 2nd Best Center" Dampier scored only two points and had only one rebound during Tuesday's 111-107 loss to the Warriors. Don Nelson yanked him, and inserted Calvin Booth after seeing Dampier ineffectively struggling. This season, he is averaging only 8.5 points, 7.5 rebounds and 1.1 blocks in 27.3 minutes per game. Dampier has only four double-doubles this season. Mavs signed him to a seven-year, $71 million contract this summer. The least he could do is block more than one shot a game and rebound more then 7.5 for that much money.
Is this a trend? Player is effective one or more seasons, re-signing comes around, player gets huge contract, player stats tumble.
Even thought I hate Dampier, I have to agree with this statement. His number won't really matter that much. Dallas is a very good shooting/rebounding team. As long as Dampier can slow down opponent's low-post threats (Duncan, Weber, KG, Yao, Amare, etc), he would have earned his paycheck. Cuban is rich anyway.
I watch all of the mavs games...the defense is SOOO much better with Dampier in the game. There's really no comparison...all of this is a result of nellie hating conventional players.
If Erick "I mailed it in for seven seasons and then started padding my stats and now I'm the second-best center in the league" Dampier is worth ~$70 million until he's 37 years old, why didn't Cuban just give Nash the extension he wanted? If he's so rich, why not just sign both?
It's more than a trend, it's NBA rule of thumb. This year we get to watch Eddy Curry, Tyson Chandler, and Kwame Brown try to do the same. If unsuccessful, they'll blame the team for 'keeping them down' and demand a trade (like Curry's already done). Solid money says Brown tries to get out of Washington by early February. Evan
Cato can do that for less. Dallas should have asked to do a trade with us. Before now I trully believe that Dampier was better than Cato. Now I am not sure anymore. Cato is more athletic + smaller contract. 7.5 rpg and 1.1bpg game is just poor for a $10M plus guy.
Easy, by signing Nash, they would still be the same team they were the last five years that had no chance at winning a championship. I think everyone knows that the Mavs would never win if they had to continually play lineups consisting of four guards and Dirk or if they had Bradley playing 30 minutes a night. It is obvious that you guys haven't watched the Mavericks much. Mavs fans are more than happy with the way Dampier is playing. The only problem Mavs fans have is Nellie not playing him enough. I would think Houston fans would understand the impact he has had on games since they saw it first hand. Dampier had 5 and 9 against Houston in game 1 and 8 and 5 in game 2 but Mavs fans could care less as long as he is holding Yao to 4-15 and 3-11. Dampier adds something that the Mavs haven't had in over 10 years and the Mavs know his impact is bigger than the box scores will ever show.
the mavs could've definitely been a lot better this season if they would've made some different choices this summer.
But Najera didn't keep people from attacking the basket the way Dampier does. F*ck Nash, he does this every year. When the playoffs come around, he will be worn out from playing nearly 40 minutes every night, and Phx fans will be tired of his ole defense. Don't forget, Dirk is also getting MVP consideration. Dallas fans would rather have Terry and Dampier then Nash and Bradley anyday.
? Like what? They're on pace for another 50+ win season, despite the shake up. Isn't it fair to say we saw what the Nash/Fin/Dirk squads were going to do? Really good regular seasons and a couple rounds in April/May? They made one of the better plays for Shaq, but missed out since Kupchak would have rather shot himself in the head than send O'Neal to Sacramento or Dallas (or anywhere in the West). They unloaded Walker and Jamison (couldn't keep him with Dirk at the same spot), decided not to match Nash's straight-stupid contract (6 years? Really? 6?), and ended up with nicely balanced team. Not a bad summer's work. Seeing how we all but closed shop after bringing in McGrady, the arguement could be made that Dallas had the better offseason. Evan
