Jermaine O'Neal would like some big help in the frontcourt.  Erick Dampier seems to fit the bill.

"We've talked an awful lot this summer," O'Neal said of Dampier. "I told him he should do a one-year deal.  The only option out there for him is Atlanta. It's his judgment call. He understands we'd love to have him."

Dampier has a six-year, $50 million offer to play with the Atlanta Hawks, but the 30-year-old wants to go to a winner after eight bad seasons in Golden State.

Dampier was drafted 10th overall by Indiana in 1996.  A sign-and-trade deal that would send him to New York appears to have slim hopes.  

Now the Knicks seem to have given away most of their mid-level salary cap exception to Vin Baker, leaving too little for Dampier in New York.

"I'd love to play weak side and go get a couple of offensive rebounds and do stuff like that rather than coming down and having to bang against everybody and try to get the ball in there and score," O'Neal said. "That's hard on you.  I've been begging (Pacers CEO Donnie Walsh) and those guys, 'Please get a big guy. Please get a big guy.' My back won't be hurting as much, my legs won't be hurting. I love Jeff Foster ... but we also have to have another big guy."