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Room For Erick?
'Cats Could Help Mavs Get Dampier

By David Lord -- DallasBasketball.com

A sign-and-trade for Erick Dampier could happen any day now, and there is circumstantial evidence that the Mavs could be in the mix.

On Monday, Charlotte dealt center Pedrag Drobnjak to Atlanta for a draft pick, opening up cap room for the Bobcats and reducing cap room for Atlanta. Charlotte now has about $7.5M remaining cap room, out of the $29.25M they are allotted, and that amount could make them a major factor as the 3rd team in a 3-way sign-and-trade involving Dampier.

By acquiring Drobnjak, Atlanta seemed to signal that they are out of the running for Dampier, since their cap room for 2004-05 is now around $6.75M. That would be less than the $7.5M or more apparently needed for the reported $40-50M offer that they had been offering the Golden State center.

Rumors that Dallas was at the center of 3-way trade talks for center Erick Dampier from Golden State, with Charlotte the other team involved, first surfaced late last week in an interview on Mike Fisher's radio show.

These rumors fit what we have been saying all along: Golden State is only interested in sign-and-trades that essentially leave their cap room and payroll intact, while sending them something of value like cash or a draft pick or a young unproven player with a cheap short contract (like Stefansson).

Dampier is expected to command a contract starting in the $7-8M a year range. For a team like the Mavs who are over the cap, to accomplish such a feat under the NBA's trade rules, they would have to send away salary that matches Dampier's within 15%, in order to acquire him via trade. Since GS does not want any salary, the solution is to find a way to send away some salary elsewhere in a 3-way transaction, by using a 3rd team with enough cap room and a willingness to take the players Dallas is required to send away.

We first wondered if Golden State might be interested in moving Evan Eschmeyer as part of such a sign-and-trade deal, and then accept even more salary back. Eschmeyer is injured, and is mediocre when healthy. But taking Eschmeyer, who still has 3 more years on his contract, seems to be too high a price for anyone.

By trading Drobnjak, Charlotte is now far enough under the cap that they could completely absorb enough contracts from Dallas to make the deal happen. In addition, Charlotte has a whole roster full of cheap unproven players and may be willing to send one or more to GS in such a transaction, as part of the compensation to GS for making the deal.

There is an interesting “however’’ here: While the move for Drobnjak appears to close the door on Atlanta's pursuit of Dampier, it does leave them enough room to compete with Charlotte to provide 3rd-team cap room in a Dampier sign-and-trade, if they so desired. (While Dampier has expressed apprehension at joining a rebuilding team like Atlanta, prospective teammate Antoine Walker is promising to try to recruit him to the Hawks. And Dampier, a native of Mississippi, already has a home in Atlanta).

Also note that since both of those teams have the needed cap room in its entirety to be that 3rd team, other teams such as Memphis, New York, and Indianapolis now can attempt to utilize the same method with one of those two teams and get Dampier.

Dallas could offer players such as Christian Laettner, who is in the final year of his contract and who was a star at Duke, and Jerry Stackhouse, who starred at North Carolina and has been an all-star in the past. Both might be desirable for a Charlotte team that could use a proven NBA talent and regional star to draw fans, or for a Hawks team needing a short-term infusion of talent. Charlotte may have passed up both of those players in the expansion draft before knowing what cap room they may have left, and Dallas may offer other compensation to make those players even more desirable.

Other players who might also fit for Charlotte could be Shawn Bradley or Calvin Booth, centers who likely would become expendable with Dallas' acquisition of Dampier.

The Mavs continue to refuse to offer any comment on questions related to Dampier. We note that because while up until recently Dallas said unfavorable things about Dampier, team officials now saying nothing marks a change that may be significant.

It should be noted that August 23rd in on the horizon, and after that date Laettner and/or Stackhouse can be traded in a multi-player deal. It has long been speculated that one or both of those players might be destined for a trade at such a date, since neither player has yet to come to Dallas or to be introduced here in a press conference since their acquisition on June 24 during the NBA draft. NBA rules require the Mavs to keep each player for 60 days before trading them elsewhere if they are traded away with other players.