Erick Dampier underwent successful shoulder surgery Friday to repair a small tear of the right rotator cuff.

Mavericks president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson said that Dampier was to be commended for having the surgery early in the summer rather than waiting until closer to the season. Training camp begins in early October with the regular season starting a month later.

"He's done everything we've asked and more," Nelson said of the 6-11 center. "Initially, it was a very small tear and we wanted to let nature take its course and see if it would heal on its own.

"But it wasn't healing as quickly as we'd have liked. So we wanted to go in and clean it up and get started fresh with it."