I think you are underestimating how good Haywood is. He isn't Dwight Howard but he is a damn site better then Eric Dampier.
he really just said i was cluless yet people on here think howard is as good as butler and haywood isnt an upgrade over dampier???? HAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHha aw man no wonder that jackass kpee gets away with failure!
Should this be pointed out everytime someone talks about how "good" Haywood is? This is the very first time in is whole FUCKING career he's shown he's worth more than league minimum. And guess fucking what? It's his contract year. Avoid praising players who finally start to show how 'good' they are in their contract year, because they tend to suck shit the second their contract is signed. You'd think Dallas would've learned their lesson when they got Dampier.
Joel vs. Haywood (cumulative stats) I only post this player comparison, because I hear people around here praise Joel all the time for being the most underrated center in the league, or for being dismissed because he's not a post scorer, etc. And somehow you think Haywood is a 'league minimum' guy? Interesting.
Yah, and I think Joel is a league minimum guy too. I wouldn't purposely trade for Joel, if it included anyone who was young and had potential. I'd sign Joel as a free agent the next summer, considering Haywood wouldn't all the sudden vault us to a significantly higher seeding (nor would, imho, Butler).
This year, he's a bit better. For their careers, there's not a lot of difference. I think you're probably slightly overrating Haywood and slightly underrating Dampier. Over their careers, both have been essentially league average. Dampier has, IMO, been underrated in general because he was deemed a disappointment from the start of his career. Which he might be, but that doesn't change the productivity he's had over the years. He's not a scrub (nor is Haywood).
I think for Dallas the big deal was getting a back center as opposed to a back up power forward. They did try to land Gortat in the off season after all. Haywood isn't as good as Gortat but he is better then absolutely nothing. In reality Dallas traded two guys who are about the same and a power forward for a center. I happen to think the deal is a good one for Dallas and not a horizontal move. I hope the trade sucks for them, though. I don't want Dallas to get any better then they already are.
I'm not talking about what either player would do for your seeding, I'm just taking exception with your characterization of Haywood as some kind of scrub who's about to snooker some team by putting up an uncharacteristically good season in a contract year; on a per minute basis, this is pretty much the same Brendan Haywood we've seen for the last 5 or 6 years. As for salaries, the league minimum? You realize how paltry the veteran's minimum is don't you? starting quality 7 footers who can rebound and defend have a pretty well established market value in the NBA and that market value is north of the mid-level of exception (Dan Gadzuric, please take a bow) so you can say what you would give him/them all you like, but it doesn't really matter because that's not even close reality.
