Actually Cuban is 6 years ahead of the pack when he signed Dampier and added a non guaranteed 6th year. That took vision or it could have just been Cuban trying to hedge his bet just in case Dampier broke out and truly did become the best center in the west. Either way it worked out well for Cuban and Morey has been following that strategy ever since his been on board with adding non guaranteed years for players like Chuck and Dorsey, etc. So while Morey may not have been ahead of the pack he was still smart enough to see a good thing and capitalize on it.
I kind of wish people would stop using the absolute first contract numbers as gospel, as those are numbers teams allow agents to release, in order to make themselves and their clients look good. It's almost like football contracts now. You have to squint to look at the guaranteed money.
