These are some of the reasons I like Oberto over Dampier. Also, Oberto is more mobile, more of a hustle player, has a long history of being a complimentary/glue type player, and is, I suspect, more likely to accept his role on the team. I think this is good news.
10 minutes with a broken down player is still 10 minutes of marginal production no matter the experience or "skills" they possess. Meh, whatever, I guess he's an upgrade over Steven Hill or Raymond Sykes (marginal players with almost no experience or definable NBA skill).
The intangibles are what actually make the case for Oberto so I am pretty sure you can't just ignore them. At what point in Dampier's career was he known as a team guy who did all the little things you need a bench player to do in their limited time on the floor? Besides which, if either of these guys get signed and end up playing significant minutes Portland is well fucked no matter which one is on the team.
Oberto has been bad the last several years, and he was TERRIBLE last year... what "intangibles" did he bring to a bad Wizards team? He was waived by the Pistons for salary cap savings, and the best he could do was a sub-$2m deal with Washington last summer. The guy is a stiff who might not even belong in the league. Compare that to Erick Dampier, who is closer to be a starting-level C than to being out of the NBA... it's not even close. Ed O.
So, just like Juwan Howard before we signed him, right? What makes you think Dampier wants to come here? I thought I read something somewhere that said Cho had said he knew that Dampier was going elsewhere.
I wasn't ignoring the argument, I was saying that I don't perceive there to be a significant difference in intangibles. So I was disagreeing with it. Never. Generally the people who are "known for it" aren't very good at anything else. And I'm not a big fan of evaluations by the wisdom of crowds. Fans are swayed by all sorts of things, some valid, some not. The fact that Dampier has massively disappointed based on his draft position has caused the widespread view of him to be that he's worthless, when he actually defends well and rebounds well. It's a common dynamic: once a player fails to live up to expectations, almost all their good points are ignored.
"Address the post, but not the poster." - barfo http://sportstwo.com/posthistory.php?do=compare&p=2444343
Here are Oberto's stats from the World Championships this Summer. So he's better than Tyson Chandler but not half as good as Hamed Haddadi...
Who said anything about crowds? I was refering to Greg Popovich's opinion of the guy. Dampier wouldn't be a good fit here primarily because he is more talented. You only sign that guy if you know for sure at least two of our current three centers won't be able to play significant minutes this season. I don't think Portland knows that yet. You honestly believe Dampier would be happy sitting on the bench game after game? The last thing Portland needs is more drama in the locker room. If Dampier is signed to replace Joel, Camby or Greg then great. If Portland is signing an insurance policy guy who is going to sit at the end of the bench, cheer guys and go hard in practice then Dampier is not your man.
You asked me when Dampier was "known as that kind of guy." I'm assuming Popovich opined on Oberto, not Dampier. Dampier is generally not given credit for much of anything positive, but that doesn't mean he doesn't do any of those things. And I agree that Dampier probably wouldn't be happy shoved into a deep backup role, but it's not like he's beating away offers. If he comes here, it's eyes wide open and probably because Portland was the most lucrative option. He'll play a lot of minutes early (since Oden is confirmed out for a while at the start of the season and Przybilla is still a question mark, IMO). Later in the season, even if the team's big men are miraculously all healthy...who's going to care if he gripes? I really don't think Dampier has the cache to become a "problem." I may well be wrong on that, I'm certainly not trying to speak authoritatively on whether Dampier could be a locker room problem...but my opinion is that that concern is overblown. As long as no one lies to him in signing him, I don't think anyone (other than him) is going to be too concerned if he plays a lot in the first quarter or first half of the season and then is benched.
