Dampier

Supposedly Eric Dampier, Evan Escmeyer, and Dan Dikau are coming to big D in exchange for Eduardo Najera and Christian Laettner. On the face of it this looks like a good trade for Dallas. They get a legit 7' center in Dampier and a back up to him to boot. They get rid of Laettner, whom nobody wants and give up Najera. The downside to this trade is that you lose your hustle guy in Najera who can give a team a big lift off the bench. He was key to Dallas' playoff performances the last few years as he was the only person willing to really play defense. The other potential problem is Dampier. He averaged 12-12 on a subpar team and this was his best season ever. He was clearly playing for a contract. He says he wants to go to a contender, but he was getting close to signing with the Atlanta Hawks. He's 30 years old. I think he may be poison to Dallas much the way Olowakandi was in Minny. If he comes to ball this year like he did last year then Dallas is in pretty good shape. They'd role a starting line up of Damp, Diggler, Josh Howard/Jerry Stackhouse, Michael Finley, Jason Terry/Marquis Daniels. This overall is a pretty impressive starting 5, especially now that Shaq has crossed the Mississippi. I'll hand it to Mark Cuban, he is not afraid to deal if he sees something he wants, and I'm impressed that all he gave up was Najera and Laettner. I'm still predicting Dampier to be a bust, but I haven't really seen him play as he's been in Oakland for a while.