Sports With Bob McFlurry
I’ll admit I was excited when I first saw Sam Dalembert’s athleticism on the court early in his career. He reminded me of Theo Ratliff a little bit they way he went after blocks. I thought this guy could be really good, he’s raw, give him a couple of years to mature and develop and he could be a force in the middle for the Sixers.
Flash forward to 2009, I can’t stand when Dalembert is on the court. I’m not sure why he’s starting other than the fact that he’s making 10.5 million dollars this year. He has two years remaining on his contract which tops out at 12 million in 2010/2011. Dude is making double digit million dollars a year to go out on a basketball court and suck (thanks Billy King).
Yes he blocks some shots, yes he does some rebounding, yes he’s one of the better defending centers in the Eastern Conference but he’s an offensive liability, refuses to learn from mistakes or what teammates tell him to do and is constantly in foul trouble.
This is a guy who got summarily dismissed from Team Canada’s Olympic Basketball team. I couldn’t find another guy on Team Canada’s roster who I had even heard of and they booted Dalembert, one of the two NBA players who expressed interest in playing for them.
The coach of that team was quoted to say this about the Dalembert dismissal, : “Everybody who’s here now wants to be here and wants to be a part of this team. If that’s not your agenda you’re not here.”. There really wasnt any further explanation from the coach but I’m thinking Dalembert’s head was just not in the game much like about 90% of the games he plays for the Sixers.
This season he continued to lose minutes to Theo Ratliff, Reggie Evans and rookie Marreese Speights averaging 24mpg. It seems Sammy wants to be to involved in the offense when it’s clearly not his strong suit. Every time I see him take a 15 foot jumper I cringe. The guy should be averaging 15 boards, 8-10 trash points on accident and 3 blocks a game. That’s what he needs to do, rebound, block shots and defend.
It’s time for this experiment to end. We need a real center. Unfortunately this is not Team Canada and we cannot just fire him, we’re stuck with him for two more years and his salary and play will make it hard to move him. Can we give him 10 million to go away?
Sam Dalembert Regular Season Stats:
| Year | Team | GP | GS | MPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | PPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001–02 | Philadelphia | 34 | 0 | 5.2 | .440 | .000 | .389 | 2.0 | .1 | .2 | .4 | 1.5 |
| 2003–04 | Philadelphia | 82 | 53 | 26.8 | .541 | .000 | .644 | 7.6 | .3 | .5 | 2.3 | 8.0 |
| 2004–05 | Philadelphia | 72 | 60 | 24.8 | .524 | .000 | .601 | 7.5 | .5 | .6 | 1.7 | 8.2 |
| 2005–06 | Philadelphia | 66 | 52 | 26.7 | .531 | .000 | .705 | 8.2 | .4 | .5 | 2.4 | 7.3 |
| 2006–07 | Philadelphia | 82 | 82 | 30.9 | .541 | .000 | .746 | 8.9 | .8 | .6 | 1.9 | 10.7 |
| 2007–08 | Philadelphia | 82 | 82 | 33.2 | .513 | .000 | .707 | 10.4 | .5 | .5 | 2.3 | 10.5 |
| 2008–09 | Philadelphia | 82 | 82 | 24.8 | .498 | .000 | .734 | 8.5 | .2 | .4 | 1.8 | 6.4 |
| Career | 500 | 411 | 26.4 | .524 | .000 | .688 | 8.1 | .4 | .5 | 1.9 | 8.1 |