2012 Atlanta Hawks Player Review: Erick Dampier

Season Summary:

With the Atlanta Hawks down two bigs at the time (Horford and Collins), the Hawks made a desperate move by signing a 37 year old Center to a 10-day contract. After the first 10-day contract expired, the Hawks didn't hesitate to give him a second one.

In the span of those two 10-day contracts, Dampier appeared in only six games averaging 5 minutes per game. Despite only seeing limited playing time on the court, the Hawks still decided to keep him for the remainder of the season soon after the second 10-day contract expired.

Dampier played a total of 15 regular season games and only managed to score 2 points in 82 total minutes of playing time. In the playoffs, Dampier's role and production slightly increased. In 4 playoff games, Dampier averaged 11 minutes per contest and 4 points per game and 3.5 rebounds per game.

Positives: Not to many positives, Even though he gave Larry Drew another big body, he didn't use him much. He did unexpectedly play more and better in the playoffs though. He out-performed Collins in a lot of games he played in.

Negatives: Came to the team clearly out of shape when he was signed. He somehow showed us that there are players that are even slower than Twin. He also hurt the team's average in age.

Best Moment/Game: Given that he only scored 2 points in 15 regular season games, it wasn't hard for him to have his best performance in the playoffs. In Game 3 and Game 4 of the playoff series vs. the Boston Celtics, Dampier played a total of 34 minutes and was surprisingly serviceable averaging 6 points and 4.5 rebounds per game. He wasn't great (or even good), but he was still far better than Twin.

Final Grade: D

Youtube Video:

Exit Question: If you had to choose between re-signing Dampier or Collins, who would you choose?

Full Hawks Roster

Josh Smith
Joe Johnson
Al Horford
Jeff Teague
Zaza Pachulia
Marvin Williams
Kirk Hinrich
Willie Green
Tracy McGrady
Ivan Johnson
Jannero Pargo
Vladimir Radmanovic
Jerry Stackhouse
Jason Collins
Erick Dampier