Makes even more sense now than when I suggested it a few days back. At this point I'd certainly rather have him soaking up minutes up front than the other options.
I honestly feel more confident starting Damp at Center and sliding Jo to PF rather than starting Taj at PF and leaving Jo at Center When Booze is back , Damp is our 3rd big with Taj as our 4th big . We can then be patient with Omer Asik's development and get him right - so that - when Kirk Thomas and Damp hang it up in a season or two .. we have two quality guys as our 3rd and 4th bigs in Omer and Taj that could start in the event of injuries but whose main role would be to back up Jo and Booze
This could well factor in to Booze's rehab but RSI is a risk Its a good situation for Booze to develop his left hand
So if we make a run at Damp who would we have to cut? Has Kyle Weaver been cut yet ? If he is cut wouldn't this take us down to 15 ? And if this is the case we would have to make a choice to burn John Lucas Mark 3 or Brian Scalabrine Hmmmmm.
Asik, at least for his first game, didn't look like a two year project. If he gets his free throw shooting in somewhat workable order, I could seem him playing meaningful minutes in the first two months of the season.
History is not on his side for getting that fixed to any reasonable level of effectiveness. He didn't look awful to me, and Thibo definitely has hope for him, so I'll trust him and wait and see. Nevertheless, getting Dampier makes a lot of sense right now, though I tend to agree with Sam that maybe shooting guard is a greater concern. But Thibo seems determined to work inside out, and Noah is maybe not the right guy to do that with as a primary option. It'll be like Deng was set free but Noah locked up.
Damps next to Noah makes sense against certain matchups. Damps could take 20-24 C minutes and let Noah play 12 at PF. Gibson wouldn't be overwhelmed then. The bulls could go big or small then.
http://www.suntimes.com/sports/basketball/bulls/2783416,CST-SPT-bull08.article While in Dallas, general manager Gar Forman met with free agent Erick Dampier Wednesday night, but a team source said the Bulls aren't interested in signing the veteran center at this point. With Boozer out for at least the first month of the season, the Bulls would love to add a low-post scorer. But the 35-year-old Dampier hasn't averaged more than 7.1 points in any of the last five seasons. The Bulls have roughly $2 million in salary-cap room remaining, but will wait to see if a better option emerges.
I don't think there is a better option. The problem with Dampier is he's old (35). He probably won't do much worse than last year, and he puts up numbers like Noah's but more efficient (super high FG%). Certainly not as athletic as Noah, but he had a better PER against than Noah did last season... We may as well play Asik and Kirk Thomas.
What would a better option be? "The Bulls aren't interested..." immediately after going out of their way to actually meet the guy and having their biggest player out for two months is some sort of beat writer speak for * "He's not interested in us" * "He ate 47 hot dogs during the meeting" * "He's taking time to make a decision, but we like to phrase things like we're in control" Any could be the case. He's talked to half the league at this point, and either he's just not that eager about any of the situations he sees or he's turned off a lot of the teams he's talked to. Or both.
