The DUST Chip Update: We Bean-Count Erick Dampier's Mavs Minutes

Mike Fisher -- DB.com

   With the Mavs’ awareness of the value of The DUST Chip becoming more and more of a matter of public record, we thought we’d make the bean-counting of Erick Dampier’s minutes more of a matter of public record, too.

   As you probably know, the non-guaranteed trickery in the Mavs center’s contract that will trigger next summer’s Damp Ultimate Sign-and-Trade option requires keeping a lid on his minutes.

   Dallas accomplished very little in Friday’s 92-81 loss at Philly. But the Mavs did keep The DUST Chip alive.

    Let’s get out the ol’ Excel spreadsheet:

    About 26 minutes per game is right where Damp has been all season … and is well below the “lid’’ of The DUST Chip.

    With help from Matthew of The 75-Member Staff, let’s break this down:

   Going into Friday, Erick Dampier needed to average 32.1 minutes per game for the rest of the season to guarantee next year’s salary (and screw up DUST).

     More specific to the way things are presently going: Entering Friday, if Dampier continues on his current pace through the All-Star Break he will have to average 34.03 minutes per game after the All-Star break to guarantee next year’s salary.

    Neither of those numbers seem to be in danger of being in play.

    We asked Matthew to “show his work’’: 

    *Remember that the final year of Dampier’s contract becomes guaranteed if:

     1. He plays 2100 minutes in the 70 regular-season games that he plays the most minutes; or

     2. If he plays less than 70 regular season games then he must reach 2100 total minutes played for the season.

     *Entering Friday, Damp has played in 32 games and is averaging 26.3 minutes per game. The Mavs have played 42 games and have only 40 games left. If Dampier plays in all 40 remaining games, we drop the two lowest minutes games played thus far, assume he will play the rest of the games at a higher level than the two lowest we are dropping, then we get the 70 games he plays the most minutes. His two lowest games played were 16 minutes against Philly on 11/30 and 7 minutes against Phoenix on 12/8.

   *In the 30 games remaining he has played 816 minutes. Therefore he has to play 1284 minutes in the 40 remaining games to reach 2100 minutes. 1284 divided by 40 gives you 32.1 minutes per game. 

   *So. … Dampier must average 32.1 minutes per game for the rest of the season to guarantee the final year of his contract.

    *Of course, from this point forward each game in which he doesn’t reach 32.1 minutes then he must average more minutes in the remaining games to get to his 2100 minutes. 

     *Let’s project. Entering Friday, the Mavs had 10 games left until the All-Star break.

     If Damp continues to average 26.3 minutes until the All-Star break then he would have played 1079 minutes (263 + 816). 

    The Mavs would have 30 games remaining.  To get to 2100 minutes he would have to average 34.03 minutes per game for the rest of the season. 

     Good work, Matthew.

     Let me add that none of this Coaching-via-Spreadsheet is anything new. I remember the last Cowboys regular-season game in 1992, Bears at Dallas, a meaningless game for Jimmy and Jerry except that the late Bob Ackles, a team executive and my friend, was sitting next to me in the press box, furiously penciling some calculations and then occasionally phoning the Dallas sidelines with updates.

     What was he doing?

     Feeding Jimmy Johnson and his defensive staff the number of plays Tony Casillas was participating in … making sure he was kept underneath a certain percentage in order to prevent the activation of a bonus.

    I think we can work under the assumption that Mark Cuban’s staff has its own spreadsheet, and that the Mavs are “keeping score’’ of Erick Dampier’s DUST Chip-related minutes.

    Doing so is a win-win. … even in the midst of a bad loss in Philly.