(Boulder-CO) I’ve decided that during this thin part of the off-season when the only thing Nuggets fans can do is sit and watch other franchises in the playoffs. I would take the opportunity to breakdown this team player-by-player and honestly weigh in on their 2006-07 season. I plan on going in reverse order of what I deem contribution, so today’s evaluation is going to spotlight Jamal Sampson. Otherwise known as, “The 12th man”. When he was signed this previous off-season the report was that he was one of, “George Karl’s guys”, dating back to 2002 in his rookie season with Milwaukee. The good news about Jamal Sampson is that he just missed tying a career-high in games played with 22, but the bad news is it was for less than six minutes per appearance and for meager averages of 1.1 points, (and I use the plural sense of that word very liberally), 2.2 rebounds, and not even large enough of a percentage of an assist to mention. So much for being, “One of George Karl’s guys” parlaying into playing time.
My honest take on Jamal is that I still don’t even know what this 6’11”, 240 pounder can do! I would have liked to see whether or not he could have been a contributor, but once again it was a season with the best seats in the house for Sampson. On that same note, and as you will see in the rest of these player report cards, the Nuggets need to drop some of the dead weight on this bench and I am sorry to say that Mark Warkentien and his management crew would be well advised to shop Sampson around this off-season in combination with a couple of other not-so often utilized players in hopes of being able to play more than two or three deep come playoff time.
Jamal earned $774,551 in salary for 2007.
Anybody looking for a very well rested big man?
3 comments:
Good idea, these Report Cards, I like evaluations by insiders. Lookin' out for the others!
There will probably be one later tonight too, so stay refreshed. Unfortunately, they really will not get exciting until I get to some of the real meat and potatoes of the team.
Thanks for reading,
The Nugg Doctor
Nugg Doctor, once again thanks for your coverage of our team. Now that I am back in Denver (finally!!), I can follow my team much more closely than I was able too the past few years.
As far as Jamal Sampson is concerned, while I agree with you that the bench needs to be shored up, I am just not sure if Jamal is a guy you should trade. The bottom line is his trade value will not be very high at all, and he is a very cheap "insurance big" to have on the bench. You never know with this team who will be injured, especially amongst our power forwards and centers, so having Sampson is a nice luxary.
I truly feel that the best move the Nuggets can make is to trade Reggie Evans for a shooter/defender/combo guard. If we could get that done, I think that would be the best. With Nene, Camby, and Kmart, not to mention Najera, we have enough bigs. We need to get rid of Evans in my opinion.
But that being said, I am impartial to Sampson, as I really don't care that much. But all being equal, I think it would make more sense to keep him as an insurance 12th man, and get rid of someone of more significant salary like Evans.
Great coverage once again Nick!
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