12 Worst free agent signings in Mavericks history

3. Erick Dampier

The Mavs landed Dampier in a sign-and-trade from the Warriors in 2004. He was coming off what would be the best season of his NBA career where he averaged 12.3 points, 12.0 rebounds, and 1.9 blocks per game for Golden State, and Dallas rewarded him with a seven-year $73 million contract. The Mavs were looking for a starting big man next to Dirk Nowitzki, and they viewed Dampier as the answer.

The 6’11 big man was a serviceable rotation option over the next six seasons, including helping Dallas reach the NBA Finals in 2006 where he played nearly 24 minutes per game off the bench. He never came close to living up to his contract, though.

Dampier averaged 6.5 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks in 24.4 minutes per game in his 424 games with the Mavericks before being traded to the Bobcats in the summer of 2010 in the deal that brought Tyson Chandler to Dallas. Chandler was a key piece on the Mavs title squad, which made the Dampier signing look slightly better.

Still, Dampier earned north of $10 million per season over his six years in Dallas as a rotation big man. The Dallas Mavericks were hoping for more, but it just did not happen.