Looks like the Dallas Mavericks are poised to trade Christian Laetner, Eduardo Najera and a first round pick for Erick (not a typo) Dampier, Dan Dickau and Evan Eschmeyer. At first glance it seems like a good deal for Dallas except fot getting Even Eschmeyer back, that guy is completely worthless. How do you end up with this guy, not once but twice? It's not like they loved his skills the first time around.
I must admit that I have a soft spot in my heart for the Gonzaga alum, which doesn't mean necessarily that I think he can play in the NBA. Dampier is obviously the jewel of the trade for Dallas. He has legitimate size for a center, will bang underneath and grab rebounds. However, I tend to agree with the sports writers who think his 12 point 12 rebounds per game last year was directly related to this being a contract summer for him. His stats tend to show marked improvement before he's due to sign a new contract.
This trade seems like a desperation move on Dallas' part to placate the reporters and sports talk show hosts, who keep pointing to the lack of a legitimate center as blocking the Mavericks from greater success in the playoffs. This past offseason they've aquired 5 new centers (Booth, DJ, Dampier, Evan, and the next big white stiff Podkolzin). None of them are particularly skilled players. I don't see Don Nelson utilizing any of the centers they've assembled effectively. His tendency is to prefer playing 5 smaller skilled players than a traditional NBA starting 5. Which makes me think that Dampier essentially takes Fortson's spot on the bench this year.
I have trouble believing that Dallas will make the playoffs this year. They've lost Nash, Jamison, Walker and Najera while picking up Jason Terry, Jerry Stackhouse and Erick Dampier. While I like Terry and think that he will be a better perimeter defender than Nash was, I can't picture the Terry and Nowitzki pick-and-roll being anywere near close to the pick and roll perfection Nash and Nowitzki had going. Jamison settled in great a sixth man last year even winning the sixth man award. No way in hell do I see Stackhouse being happy with a bench role. I predict him to have received the locker room cancer award by the end of year.
At least they still have Marquis Daniels, Josh Howard, Dirk and Finley. And I do like the additions of Jason Terry and Devon Harris. With any luck they will still be fun to watch.
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4 comments:
Centers are currency in the NBA. I think they are hoarding them to make a big trade for a quality defensive stopper to slow the Dallas game down some.
Or they've got a point guard (Jason Kidd?) in mind. The Nets have a gaping hole in the 4 and 5 spots and I think they've decided they aren't going to be competitive this year.
This is Joey BTW. No fucking way I'm getting a Blogger account.
Oh yeah. Go spend $20 and get ESPN NFL football. It is bad ass and I don't want you to have any excuses when we have the cage match.
Centers are the currency because there aren't many good ones just lot of mediocre to bad ones. At least Dampier has been a starter for a couple years, the rest of them have "career backup" written all over them.
As far as defense goes, I think that Dallas will be much better defensively this year. Nash was a horrible perimeter defender, which one of the reasons why the Dallas bigs tend to get into foul trouble. When people are running free down the lane it'd be hard for anyone to defend the rim without drawing a foul. Jason Terry and Marquis Daniels should really help the perimeter defense. Walker, Fortson and Jamison were horible defenders in the post, so they shouldn't be any worse there, and it should mean more minutes for Josh Howard. I think that they have some decent defenders at center now with Booth, Bradly and Dampier.
Stragely enough, I hope that Dallas isn't making all these moves to get Jason Kidd. I can kind of understand letting Nash go, because the contract he signed was for too many years and would be a problem in a couple years. Kidd's contract is much worse and he seems to be breaking down with several years left to go on the contract. I'd be willing to wait and see what Jason Terry and Devon Harris can do at the point.
If they did make a trade, I wish that they could find a old school small forward with a low post game a la Mark Aguire, Adrien Dantley or Charles Barkely. Do these types players even exist any more?
Sorry about the blogspot account deal. This is all temporary. My intentions are to tie this a TikiWiki blog module to this blog from my main web site. Hopefully, that will enable me to bypass the need for registration.
Picked up ESPN NFL football yesterday. I'll see you in the cage!
I totally forgot about the Jason Terry trade. I like him and think he just needs a good system to play in.
Dan Dickau is a fav of mine. He's going to shine on the Mavs.
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