[dirno2000]

Interesting that Dirk and KVH had a better plus-minus than Dirk with Damp. You say it was only 320 minutes with the former. How many minutes with the latter?

Dirk and Damp played 1,334 minutes together.

In my mind, it comes down to a philosophical question. You say that Dirk is a finesse player and he needs a center alongside him to do the dirty work. I wonder two things: A) is Damp really doing the "dirty work," if that's the best strategy?, and B) is that really the way to maximize the benefit we get from having Dirk on the floor?

I’m going to say yes and yes since Dirk just had his best season as a pro despite losing one of the top two PG’s in the league.

In other words, would the Mavs be better off with a center who could enhance the things that Dirk does well? Maybe a guy who could draw his defender away from the basket to give Dirk room to work. Or a guy who could come along with Dirk and the rest of the team on the break, since that is something that over time we have seen Dirk do very well. Or, and perhaps most importantly, a guy who is a legitimate offensive threat in the low post, when Dirk gets the ball at the elbow like he is prone to do.

A perimeter center to help space the floor has it advantages…if you’re asking me, I’d prefer our center to hang around the basket and collect the garbage when Dirk misses. Damp came through with HUGE offensive rebounds and put backs in the 4th quarters of games 3 and 4 in Houston.

Like you, I’d love a center that was a threat to score a lot of points in the low post. Problem is there aren’t that many in the league and you find one you max him out you don’t trade him.

And by the way, Dalembert doesn’t fit either of the profiles you just mentioned. He’s a younger, more athletic but worse rebounding version of Damp. Philly grabbed a higher % of the available offensive and defensive rebounds when Dalembert wasn’t on the court than when he was.

I see the ideal center to play alongside Dirk as someone who can match his athleticism. This puts the ultimate pressure on the defense. No interior gets to take a break. No interior defender gets to cheat off his man, who is not an offensive threat, to help against Dirk, who is trying to carry the offensive load.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but it sounds like you’d like to have Brad Miller as your center. Nice player and an All-Star and he’s going to get you killed on the glass.

So my conclusion is that Dirk needs to be paired with a centerman who has respectable offensive skills. Anything less is not taking advantage of what Dirk brings to the table. Dirk is the bell cow of the franchise, and like it or not, Dirk is a guy who helps you more on the offensive end than the defensive. You need toi maximize that advantage.

My conclusion is that what you gain in efficiency out of Dirk, you’ll just lose in team defense and rebounding…we should get a better read on this next season as KVH will presumably be here for the full year…or at least until the trade deadline.

EditAt least I got you to admit that Damp is "passable" [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]