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Originally posted by: Poindexter Einstein
MADAPE ...Signing Nash would have added money to the payroll, dollar for dollar. He was a free agent. Then, on top of that, he was offered far OVER market value by Phoenix - no one disputes that fact.
By contrast, Dampier was not a free agent signing (adding payroll) but rather was a trade - where you have to match contracts and send away what you take back. So the cost was Najera and Laetner - which is a yawnable price.
You are funny, cause the Mavs finally have a quality center who makes them good defensively, which they have lacked for many years, and you cant even recognize it. Are you STILL being madly in love with your boy Shawn Bradley as if he can provide everything the Mavs need at center? Sounds like it.
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First of all, Laettner's contract expires this year, and Najera's soon after.. the next six years are certainly added salary cap over what we'd pay if we simply would shown a little patience and waited out those contracts.
The real story however is that we aquired three other centers this offseason before we decided to change direction and go with Dampier. I don't think it's out of the realm of reality to think that MBenga, Pavel, or Booth could average 8 points and 7 boards. Those numbers are Dampier's career averages, and incidentally they are exactly what he's averaging this year. Don't be fooled. Those numbers are fairly pedestrian.
We certainly could have aquired ANOTEHR center for far less than we're paying Damp that could put up the kind of numbers we're seeing out of Damp. In fact, I think we have four centers on the roster now who could do exactly the same, if not more if given the same number of minutes. Dampier gets the benefit of playing time here, which is something that no other center has ever received under Nelson. That's the ONLY reason why people are noticing a difference between this year an last. I don't doubt for a second that any of our four other centers could easily match or exceed Dampier's production thus far. In fact, we could have signed Oestertag, Keon Clark, Chris Mihm or any run of the mill center for peanuts, played them 30 minutes and they would have given us around 8 points 7 rebounds.
What you don't do is pay nearly $80 million for that kind of production. No way in hell you do. Add on the fact that we gave up 2 first round draft picks and two solid veteran rotation players and the deal looks ridiculous. There's a reason that most experts laughed out loud when they read the terms of the deal, and it's not because they're Mavericks fans. They laughed because Cuban got played BIG time. We've got one of the worst starting centers in the league, and we pay him like he's an all-world player.
And you can spin the Nash bafoonery all you want, but it's arguable that right now he's the best point guard in the NBA. I don't doubt for a second that the guy will be busting people up well into his late thirties. He's going to earn every last dime of that contract, and he'll go into the Hall of Fame wearing his Phoenix Sun Jersey. When he retires, columns will be written about Cuban's decision to let him go, and they will be far from complementary.