Diop Back to DAL

[shrink]

We talked about this guy for the last six months, so it doesn't feel OT to me.

I expected a big MLE deal, but the length surprised me .. especially from the Mavs. Five-year, $31 million deal.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3480617


Knowing that this would have meant letting Gomes go, would you have done this deal for MIN, if Diop had agreed to come here?

[4ho5ive]

$31 mil for a on3 dimensional defender, albeit a good one, but not a great one. Diop is what he is. Not worth 5 years or 31 mil to me so i wouldnt do it if thats what it would have cost us

[Devilzsidewalk]

6 mil isn't that much for a quality defensive center, I'd give him that too, but Dallas seemed to have been the only one in the running since it was reported he'd return to them almost right after he was traded

[Carpe Diem]

No and h@ll no. These are the type of contracts that got MN behind the power curve in the first place. Dallas did miss him following the trade, but wow, this contract is over the top.

[mayorhoiberg]

Carpe's got it. These are the EXACT type of contracts that we don't need right now. a 1 dimensional center is not worth 6.2 mil a year. i wouldn't pay diop half that!

3mil MAX for a player like that.

[Devilzsidewalk]

he's not 1 dimensional, he plays post defense, help defense, and he rebounds. He just isn't a good scorer, but if he were he'd be making 12-15 mil.

[deeney0]

And I've been saying for months he was going to get this kind of money.

[Howler21]

What was the point of putting him in the trade in the first place. They would have been better served using the MLE on a sg.

[shrink]

What was the point of putting him in the trade in the first place.

With both teams over the cap, each was required to salary match in the trade, to be within 125% + $100,000. Jason Kidd makes a dumptruck full of money, so they probably needed Diop's salary to match. NJN really wanted the younger, cheaper Devin Harris and the picks anyway.

[Kestrel]

No and h@ll no. These are the type of contracts that got MN behind the power curve in the first place. Dallas did miss him following the trade, but wow, this contract is over the top.

Maybe not H-E-double-toothpicks no, but heck no at least.

Diop is a bench player who's looked good in that role, but he's not been good enough to push for a starting role on Dallas before despite the middling starter, Dampier. When Dampier was down, Diop did okay -- but nobody ever suggested he was moving into a clear starter's tier at that point, did they? I didn't much like him as a potential Wolves' signing given how the market was going to overpay him. Comparing him to signings like Hassell is apropos in my book -- exactly.

There may come a day when securing the services of a decent backup center is worth doing at a price, but now is not, not, not that moment.