TRADES THAT MAKE TOO MUCH SENSE (Part 1: Dallas And Clippers)

How many sleeps until the season starts?

News is at it's slowest point so far this offseason, with all the major outlets publishing ranking articles, and trade analyses type stuff.

So I'm going to start a mini-series of "TRADES THAT MAKE TOO MUCH SENSE", where I propose some trades which work for both teams, addressing key needs for both, and of course, running it through the trade machine to see if the numbers fit.

In this issue, we look at the Dallas Mavericks and the LA Clippers, and a proposed transaction which benefits both teams.

CHRIS KAMAN (10.4M, 3yrs) for ERIC DAMPIER (12.1M, 2yrs--final year essentially non-guaranteed, AKA expiring contract)

This straight up trade was happily swallowed up by the trade machine, and spat out a curious result of adding +1 wins to the Clippers and -1 wins to the Mavs. Pay no mind, this is pretty much a result of Chris Kaman's pathetic season in which he played only 31 games. Somehow Dampier only bettered Kaman's PER by 1.2 points.

HOW THIS TRADE HELPS THE MAVS

Lets see...Kaman will start at center, and Dampier will no longer start at center. I think that helps. Kaman is a solid rebounder and decent interior defender, and he should be familiar with Nowitzki's game (pretty much the most important thing if you're joining the Dallas organization) from their time spent playing together for the German National Team.

Kaman is also a decent interior scorer, and I promise you he'll drop half the amount of Jason Kidd passes as Dampier does. Seriously, Kidd had NO confidence in Damp in the second half of last season. If anyone can actually pull that stat from somewhere, I'd like to know how many times Kidd actually passed to Damp.

The Mavs would sport a decent starting lineup of Kidd, Howard (maybe), Marion, Nowitzki and Kaman.

Of course, this trade would mean they no longer have the Dampier contract to dangle in a possible deal for a starting SG (Michael Redd, maybe?) but the addition of Kaman, and the subtraction of Damp should provide a reasonable boost. Kaman's remaining 3 years also fits nicely with Dirk's window.

HOW THIS TRADE HELPS THE CLIPS

With all the fuss being made about the Knicks and the Nets and whoever else clearing up cap space for 2010, did anyone realise that the Clips (already, before this hypothetical trade) also have a ton of space? Think LA isn't a big market? Think players wouldn't rather play with Baron, Blake and Gordon than David Lee and Nate Robinson? I'm just saying....

This hypothetical would also add another 10M to the Clips cap space in '10. In the present, it would also ease the logjam at the center position (remember Camby?) and allow the Clips to battle-harden Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan a bit more too. Dampier would also get exactly as many minutes as he SHOULD get. That is, however many is left over after Camby and Jordan are done.

WHY THIS TRADE PROBABLY WON'T HAPPEN

Aside from the fact that deals that make sense rarely happen, the Clips may easily rest on their laurels after drafting Griffin and dumping Randolph. And they'd be entitled to. That's a good day's work.

Dallas might balk at swallowing more contract, especially if Mark Cuban wakes up and realises that Dirk is not leading an NBA team to a title (yes, I said it). As good as he has been in seasons past, and I know there are a lot of Dirk-lovers around Bleacherreport that won't appreciate this, I'd argue that at this stage, he is probably about as good as Pau Gasol. Taking into consideration Pau's surge in efficiency, and Dirk's inability to dominate consistently (strongly influence, but not dominate), I'd say yes, they are about equal. This means that at this stage his best shot at winning a title is as a second fiddle. Maybe one day when Durant decides to come back to Texas ;)