Dampier

Yeah I love that Damp. He's doing a lot of damage in the court. In sunday's game with Suns, the mavericks loss and they hardly missed the service of Damp.

You can't seriously think Erick Dampier's the Maverick's most valuable player. When you say "most valuable," it means it's the player who absence can cause the most damage to his team. Dampier can be replaced with Diop, and in fact last season Avery Johnson opted to play Diop over Dampier in a lot of situations. And tell you what: this playoff series between the Golden State Warriors and the Mavs where Don Nelson chose to play small-ball, Dallas had no choice but to leave Dampier (and Diop) off the floor. Why? They just won't be able to keep up and it's going to be too much of a sacrifice for them to stay running on the court without getting to the other side on time. Why not just pick the obvious team MVP, Dirk Nowitzki? When healthy, there's just no way you can say you can do without him. He's the franchise player, the Mavericks are built around him, and there's not a thing you can say why Dampier can be more valuable than him.

I don't know if he is the MVP of the Mavs but he is one of their most valued role players.

I love what Damp does, yet he's part of an ensemble that ultimately supports the real MVP of the team and the NBA - Dirk Nowitzki.

He's a valuable role player, but that's it. He didn't even start much of last season and the Mavs won 60. Dirk is by far the MVP of the Mavs, as well as MVP of the league because he's the leader and go to guy.