Suns Emerge As Contenders For Dampier

[Frank Lee]

Yeah Frank but who would you rather have guarding Bynum or Duncan in the playoffs? Jones or Dampier.....

I'd rather have Frye or Lopez. Y'all are just clamoring for a name. We're talking 3rd string here.

This kid Jones has shown Gentry enough for us to acquire him, trade him, and reacquire him...By end of the season, he could be a more effective rebounder and defender if he isnt already. And at a bargain rate, he may just find himself being a 2-3 yr asset. He has my nod.

Damp's a softy. With quality bigmen always in demand, why is he soliciting employment?

Edit to fix my beerglish

[Sun Scorched]

It is funny that we are finally worried about having too many legitimate front-court players...

Suns currently have 1 and may possibly get 1 more. Hardly seems like too many, especially since it doesn't address the problem at PF.

You know what i'm saying. No reason to be a smartass. Finding minutes for all of the guys who the Suns FO conisder front court players will be tough.

[sunsfever68]

Lopez will be guarding those guys but Dampier would do a solid job spelling Lopez is what I'm saying. Or dampier should switch to a slower power forward like a duncan. He obviously couldn't guard a guy like Bosh or Kevin Garnett or Amare but against guys like Bynum, Al Jefferson, Duncan he'd do a good job.


We probably won't sign him anyway it's a moot point I think. My money says he signs with Chicago or Houston

[JMac1]

Dampier will be our Jarron Collins




Nash/Dragic/Janning
JRich/Dudley
Hill/Childress
Hedo/Warrick/Clark/Lawal
Lopez/Frye/Dampier/Jones

Sarver might consider it if he keeps under the tax!

As my boy Big E would say 'now that's where you dumb at." There is no way we are bringing Damp in to play the #3 center. We would bring him in so we can play Frye at the 4....A LOT!!

[Nando88]

whenever there's a chance a player might be interested in signing with us and we REALLY want him... we won't get, we should know by now lol

[JMac1]

whenever there's a chance a player might be interested in signing with us and we REALLY want him... we won't get, we should know by now lol

TRUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LOCK!

[phx#7]

You know what i'm saying. No reason to be a smartass. Finding minutes for all of the guys who the Suns FO conisder front court players will be tough.

I'm not sure in what way my comments came off as smartass. You said the Suns were having a problem with too many legit bigs(maybe you were being facetious, but if so I didn't pick up on it), I'm just not seeing that as a problem with or without Dampier.

[Christine-In-AZ]

Unless Dampier is signed by the Suns as a "break in case of emergency/Rolo goes down" player, I don't get it. We're already seriously in danger of having too many cooks in the frontcourt kitchen...now we might add Dampier?

Only 144 frontcourt minutes are available. Last year the Suns (mostly) went with a 9 man rotation. There was only a couple small portions of the season where Lopez AND Barbosa were in the mix together. Clark poked his head in here and there. But go pull up 4 or 5 box scores from closely contested games and you'll see that the Suns went mostly 9 deep, sometimes 10 and almost never 11. The '09-'10 Suns had a knack for either winning comfortably or getting absolutely wiped out...there was an inordinate amount of garbage time that skewed the PT totals. I can see the Suns going 10 deep for a rotation or even having #10 being shared by 2 players depending on the opponent. But a true 11? 12? or 13 man rotation...that's insane. No continuity of play will ever happen.

The scattered frontcourt PT situation at this time as I'm guessing, in a closely contested game with no garbage time (going as low and as even as possible)-

Hedo- 28
Hill- 22
Warrick- 14
Dudley - 24
Frye- 22
Lopez- 22
...that's 132 of 144. That's giving Childress no time at all as a forward (that's not good). Only 12 minutes remain for "Forward" Childress? Or Lawal? Or Clark? ...and now add Dampier? 13 in the rotation?

The Suns are going to have to settle on 10 players...maybe an alternate 11th player for certain teams, or this is NEVER going to come together. No familiarity or continuity is going to happen.

I love the idea of 10 and the hockey line strat...but after 10 it starts getting weird...non-productive.

[lilfishi22]

If Dampier knows our situation and how many minutes he'll likely get and is fine with it then I think signing him is a no-brainer. A proven C backing up Lopez is pretty much as good as it gets.

[nashill]

cant trust lawal, jones, siler and clark. bring in dampier

rolo/damp/frye
hedo/frye
hill/jchill/hedo/dudley
jrich/hill/dudley
nash/goran

10 man deep.

[Christine-In-AZ]

I'm hoping (and believing) the big/close game playing time spreadsheet will average out to something like this over the course of the season-

Nash-32 Dragic-16
JRich-30 JChill-18
***************************
Hedo-28
Hill-22 Dudley-24 JChill-8
**************************
Lopez-22 Frye-24
**************************
The "10th man"- "Warrick/Lawal"-16 (some nights going heavy on Hakim's hops and some nights we lean on Gani's physical presence)
*************************
The rest of the team are non-factors save for injury or Clark has an epiphany where he replaces Lawal as "10b"

11 players deep, but a pretty much a 10 man rotation per game. That's what I'm hoping pans out.

[Christine-In-AZ]

cant trust lawal, jones, siler and clark. bring in dampier

rolo/damp/frye
hedo/frye
hill/jchill/hedo/dudley
jrich/hill/dudley
nash/goran

10 man deep.

No PT for Warrick?

[Jdiddy701]

I don't think Damp fits in here at all... please don't waste money on him. I rather players like Hakim, Frye, Lawal, and Lopez get more mins.

[lilfishi22]

I don't think Damp fits in here at all... please don't waste money on him. I rather players like Hakim, Frye, Lawal, and Lopez get more mins.

We still have to fill out the 2 roster spots and neither of those players will likely get minutes anyway so it's not like not signing Damp means Warrick, Frye etc will get more minutes.

[Christine-In-AZ]

We still have to fill out the 2 roster spots and neither of those players will likely get minutes anyway so it's not like not signing Damp means Warrick, Frye etc will get more minutes.

Huh?

No sarchasm and with a respect for your opinion, I don't understand your reply.

[lilfishi22]

It just means that Damp won't take any minutes from our front court guys since he's going to be an end of the bench, insurance big. Understand?

[Christine-In-AZ]

It just means that Damp won't take any minutes from our front court guys since he's going to be an end of the bench, insurance big. Understand?

Gotcha!

I'm gung-ho on signing Damp if he is good with signing and waiting in the wings for someone to drop...

...that being said. I seriously doubt that if he does sign with the Suns, that will be his role.

Chicago is his best play. I hope he goes there. Erick Dampier might have something small to offer to the Suns in the very short term...or he could convolute further what already seems to be a convoluted frontcourt.

The Suns aren't winning a championship this year. They're trying to make the playoffs, staying relevent and transitioning for a future run...Erick Dampier is obviously not part of the Suns future. Why give him any valuable time and money?

[lilfishi22]

If I was Damp I'd go to Chicago. With Boozer out for some weeks and with them thinking about playing Noah at the 4 for some stretches, Dampier could get some decent burn.

[DRK]

I don't think Damp fits in here at all... please don't waste money on him. I rather players like Hakim, Frye, Lawal, and Lopez get more mins.

+1. All he will do is steal minutes away from those guys.

He;s used to playing heavy minutes, and for him to be sitting on the end of the bench every game will only disrupt chemistry.

[TheMan44]

I don't know if we can give Dampier the minutes he could get on, well, any of those other teams. Lopez and Frye will spend about all their combined time at center since Hedo, Warrick, Lawal and Clark are all fighting over PF minutes. So Lopez and Frye combined should easily be 48 minutes...we'd be using Damp for like 2 minutes per game, if that - possibly benching him until injuries arise. Don't know if he'd bite on that.

Well, the only way Dampier could get significant play time is if he is a direct backup center to Lopez.

In order for that to happen, Frye has to become a power forward.

In order for Frye to become a power forward, Hedo must slide to his natural small forward.

In order for Hedo to be small forward, Dudley or Childress have to fall out of rotation.

Get the flow?

C Nash - Dragic - Janning
F Rich - Child - Janning
F Hedo - Hill - Dudley
G Frye - Warrick - Clark
G Lopez - Dampier - Lawal