More and more I feel like we should let this guy walk. Let's face it the Pacers ain't giving up Artest or Bender for him without giving up Pietrus or some of our team chemistry. Plus if Damp walks for nothing Fegan might be forced to handle JRich and Murphy differently next season if they try to get greedy too. I trust Mullin will hold out until a possible franchise star or an allstar player comes along, otherwise forget re-signing and then trading Damp. Let's just go into the season like we are and pick up a defensive small forward for cheap.
I think the interesting date could be...I think July 29th or maybe the 28th. Or the day of the deadline that the Clips have to match QRich's offer if they want to keep him. If he goes to the Suns, then there are a ton of SF/SG's in Arizona that could possibly be dealt in a sign and trade including Dampier. I don't know if Damp will still be available then, but I think that is the last possibility where something new will come up in an offer. Damp and Dunleavy for Marion and Casey Jacobsen would be a very good trade at least for the Warriors and possibly a decent deal for the Suns, in my opinion. Warriors Speedy/Fish/Dickau JRich/Pietrus Marion/Jacobsen Murphy/Cliff/Biedrins Foyle/Davis Suns Nash/Barbosa/Vujanic Johnson/Eisley QRich/Dunleavy/Zarko Amare/Lampe Dampier/Voskuhl Think of all the havoc Speedy, JRich, Marion, Pietrus, and Murphy would cause. That would be scarey with all that athleticism. It would sorta be like the Pistons, since that team was extremely athletic.
Nash and Dampier is kind of scary with Joe Johnson and Qrich + Amare. I don't like that trade even if we get Marion.
Well, it could be a little risky since the Suns are in the same division, but I think it's a risk worth considering. And I would personally like to see that roster of Speedy/Jrich/Marion/Murphy like i was saying before. However he is some other stuff. "According to David Aldredge on espn.com , he reviews off season moves. Pacers are #21 says don't expect Artest to be on Pacer roster come opening night. Says he's been shopped all summer. Aldredge also says do not expect to see Ron Artest on the Pacers opening night, says Pacers still working on a way to get Dampier. We shall see." This was from another board, but I thought I might borrow it for this thread. I think if the Warriors can get an Artest, Marion, maybe Carter or the likes for Dampier, then I'd hope they jump all over that deal. But if there's just a bunch of decent backups involved, I wouldn't be too excited about those deals, and just letting Dampier go then wouldn't hurt too much and would probably be beneficial. The Warriors have enough players. So I would only expect good talent for Dampier; anything less, I guess would mean just let Damp go to Atlanta. Maybe draft picks could change that strategy. But that's how I'm thinking about the Damp situation right now. Bring in good talent like Artest, Bender, Marion, etc. or if you just want to offer Croshere and Pollard, then you can forget about Damp, and Damp would I imagine go to Atlanta.
Well the defense would certainly improve with Marion starting instead of Dunleavy. And if you get guys like Jrich, Claxton, and Marion to drive to the basket more they could go to the line more often or set up Murphy on the perimeter or Foyle for a little 12' range jump shot. Can you imagine the kind of crazy offensive rebounds guys like Jrich and Marion could provide when they crash the boards? That's two great slam dunkers plus Murph who isn't bad himself when he drives and dunks. So if someone misses a shot off the rim one of them can just run up, catch it and slam it back down.
If you're think Marion and Artest are about the same caliber, and even if you think Marion is a bit better, I can think of two good reasons why you'd be better off trading Dunleavy and Damp for Artest rather than Marion. 1. When you compare their contracts, Artest is a MUCH better value. Artest has 4 years left on his deal with a player option for a fifth year. He'll make 5.8 mil this year and 7.8 mil in year four. By comparision, Marion has five years left on his current contract and he'll make 11.3 mil this year and 16.3 mil in year five. With that contract, Marion would have to be the Warriors center piece. If they got Artest, they'd have the flexibility to keep Richardson, Pietrus, and Murphy or parlay them into a max caliber player. 2. Trading Damp to Indiana keeps him out of the west. Phoenix has the same problem that Memphis has, no size in the middle. They'd both love to get Damp to fill that hole. I'd rather not improve either team if I could help it. The Warriors could trade Damp and Dunleavy for Artest, Pollard, and a future pick. I don't really want to lose Dunleavy, but if people are willing to give him up for Marion, they should certainly be willing to give him up for Artest.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting wtwalker77:</div><div class="quote_post">If you're think Marion and Artest are about the same caliber, and even if you think Marion is a bit better, I can think of two good reasons why you'd be better off trading Dunleavy and Damp for Artest rather than Marion. 1. When you compare their contracts, Artest is a MUCH better value. Artest has 4 years left on his deal with a player option for a fifth year. He'll make 5.8 mil this year and 7.8 mil in year four. By comparision, Marion has five years left on his current contract and he'll make 11.3 mil this year and 16.3 mil in year five. With that contract, Marion would have to be the Warriors center piece. If they got Artest, they'd have the flexibility to keep Richardson, Pietrus, and Murphy or parlay them into a max caliber player. 2. Trading Damp to Indiana keeps him out of the west. Phoenix has the same problem that Memphis has, no size in the middle. They'd both love to get Damp to fill that hole. I'd rather not improve either team if I could help it. The Warriors could trade Damp and Dunleavy for Artest, Pollard, and a future pick. I don't really want to lose Dunleavy, but if people are willing to give him up for Marion, they should certainly be willing to give him up for Artest.</div> Totally agree with those points.
I would definitely continue to try to trade him. I don't think that trading Dampier will help the Ws much in the short term, because I don't think that anyone wants to give up talent plus give a big money contract to a guy who has questions (work ethic, injuries), but there is posssible long term upside. I should preface this by saying I just don't think the Warriors are a very good team. If you compare the Ws to the Pistons, not one W would start for the Pistons. Face it, we have a lot of nice roll players, but we need some real players. I am also not interested in competing for the eighth spot in the playoffs, just to get smacked by SA, I want to build a CHAMPIONSHIP LEVEL team. One place we might get real players (for cheap) is in the draft (I think Biedrins has a chance to be a real player, but probably not for 4-5 years, he's only 18 now), and I'm all for losing next year and getting one of the stud PGs coming out, or a multi-skill, athletic front line player. If we can't get a good young player for Damp, we should try to ship Damp for expiring contracts and try to get one or more of the following (a) a future first round pick or two quite a few years out, or ( rid of the Esch contract, or © a young role player with a friendly contract that would have trade value, and look to package a couple young guys for a better player around the trade deadline and/or keeping cap room so we can pick the players WE WANT next year and not get someone else's throw aways. Helping Damp get his contract could help us work with his agent Fegan when we negotiate with JRich and Murph, but probably not. The world doesn't really work like that. What I do like is that we are sending a message to other GMs that the Golden State won't be a bunch of spineless pusses when talking trades anymore. Finally, I wouldn't trade Dun unless we got something special in return. I know this forum is down on him (myself included), but his skills are for real. The problem is this: if you read talent evaluations, they range from he will be a star to he's nothing special. No one seems sure how good he will be, but if we trade him, I think we need to talk to teams assuming he will be a star, because some teams believe this, and they are the teams that would give up talent.
I hoping its Damp for Artest for reals next week. Indiana wants him gone and they don't really need another shooting guard/forward for him. But getting a big man that would compete in the East with Jermaine O'neil would be a super plus. The Pacers would probably move Bender to the starting small forward spot with Stephen Jackson at shooting guard. I guess since getting rid of one headache with NE to Portland we now have room for another and maybe guys like Fisher, Foyle, Davis, Robinson can provide a better team environment for Artest should we get him. BTW if we give up Speedy in a trade the one spot is doomed because we lose any chance at stopping faster guards and getting to the foul line more than once in one night. Also Claxton seems to be the main guy that's going to create for Fisher or Dickau when they put up a 1-2 combo guard in there. Bigger guys hate guarding smaller faster guards because it makes them work that much harder. You throw in artest to play some forward with the smaller lineup and also Pietrus, that's some tough D on the other end as long the Warriors controls the tempo the entire game. Also if its a half court game we got Murph, Dunleavy, Dickau who are great shooters and Biedrens, Richardson, and Pietrus are great cutters to the hoop. Dunleavy is also a decent when decides not to stand there waiting on the arc. In fact, I think its Dunleavy who should be moving without the ball more and making cuts because he's the tallest mismatch at 6-10/6-9. And let's not forget Artest, he can do a lot of things even though he's not the fastest guy, he's strong, hard to move and he anticipates well. He's a decent outside shooter and he can handle the ball decently as long as there is no pressure or going through traffic.
