Steve Nash for Erick Dampier.

That, essentially, is the trade the Dallas Mavericks made this off-season. And if they weren’t having second thoughts about the swap already, the Game 1 debacle in Phoenix on Monday night served as a sobering reminder.

Nash received the league’s MVP trophy before the game and proceeded to carve up the Mavs’ defense with 13 assists. Dampier, meanwhile, was outscored by Phoenix center Amare Stoudemire 40-0 in a 127-102 Phoenix victory.

That’s right: 40-love. Frequent readers know I’ve been harsh on Dampier during this postseason, but Monday’s performance took the cake. In addition to the scoring deficit, Dampier got hammered on the boards (16 to 5 in Stoudemire’s favor), and didn’t have a blocked shot or a steal to his name. In fact, his performance in the loss was so underwhelming that Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki called him out in the press after the game – a first for the normally mild-mannered German.

“We’ve got to get something out of our center position,” Nowitzki told the Associated Press. “He was always a step slow. He got in foul trouble and couldn’t be aggressive. He’s got to find a way to stay in the game.”

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. The Mavericks had grown weary of getting bullied in the interior in the postseason, which is why they decided to go after Dampier last summer. That’s one reason they didn’t match Phoenix’s offer of six years and $66 million for Nash, opting instead to fill the point guard spot by trading Antoine Walker to Atlanta for Jason Terry. With the money they would have paid Nash, the Mavs acquired Dampier in a sign-and-trade deal with Golden State. He’s now making more money than Nash on a seven-year, $73 million deal.

The plan worked well during the regular season. The Mavericks improved from 52 wins a year ago to 58 this season, largely on the heels of their defense. Dallas improved from 26th to ninth in Defensive Efficiency, my measure of points allowed per 100 possessions, and much of that difference can be credited to Dampier’s presence in the paint.

The improvement shows up, oddly enough, in the number of 3-pointers Dallas allowed. A year ago, they were second to last in 3-pointers allowed with 534, but this year they cut that number to 451, good for 11th in the NBA. The reason? With Dampier around, there was no need for Dallas to constantly double-team opposing big men. Thus, the openings that produced so many easy long-range looks disappeared.

Dampier even frustrated Miami’s Shaquille O’Neal so much that the Big Aristotle resorted to fighting with words instead of dunks. “Damp is soft. Quote it, write it, tape it, and send it to him,” O’Neal said after the Mavs beat Miami 109-104 on February 1. “I tell you, there’s nothing there.”

Shaq’s claims seemed laughable until the postseason began. In the second round, Dampier has indeed seemed softer than a case of Charmin. In the first-round win over Houston, Houston’s Yao Ming schooled Dampier, averaging 24 points and eight rebounds while shooting 65.5%. Dallas won the series only because its guards, led by Terry, ran Houston ragged.

When Round 2 rolled around, it was Stoudemire’s turn to dominate Dampier. Early fouls played a big part. Historically, the refs let more things go in the postseason, but not this year. Dampier has picked up quick fouls in nearly every game, and fouled out twice in the Houston series. For the postseason as a whole, he’s averaging a foul every five minutes, which makes it tough to keep him on the court for long.

But don’t take my word for it. Ask Dirk. “He has always been in foul trouble. The first series was the same thing. He gets a quick two fouls in the first two or three minutes, and we can’t be aggressive any more. Then he gets his third one and has to sit.”

Dampier’s foul trouble leaves Mavs coach Avery Johnson with a major dilemma, because Dampier is the only Maverick who can defend low-post studs like Stoudemire and Yao. Shawn Bradley and Alan Henderson are both too slight to provide much resistance. That leaves Johnson with only one option: playing Nowitzki at center. In practice, this sounds ridiculous; the Mavs are understandably reluctant to have Nowitzki guard Stoudemire, because if the Phoenix center gets Dirk in foul trouble, the Mavs are finished. But if this were a bad movie, our protagonists would snap their fingers and say, “It’s crazy, but it just might work.”

The switch has advantages for Dallas. With Nowitzki at center, the Mavs can play a smaller lineup with Josh Howard and Jerry Stackhouse as the forwards, forcing Stoudemire to guard one or the other. Plus, Stoudemire isn’t a traditional overpowering post player in the mold of Yao and Shaq. He’s phenomenally quick and athletic – traits that Nowitzki matches up against better than Dampier does. Stoudemire also gets a lot of his points by receiving a pass from Nash and driving to the basket. Nowitzki himself received those passes for six seasons, so he should have a good idea of where they’re headed.

What do the Mavs have to lose by trying this? Stoudemire was the one big man Dampier couldn’t contain even during the regular season, averaging 32.7 points per game on 58.1% shooting in the three meetings with Dallas. In fact, the only game Dallas won against Phoenix this year was the one Dampier didn’t play.

Leaving Dampier on the pine while Nash is running the explosive Phoenix offense may not make the de facto trade of Nash for Dampier any easier to stomach. But what’s done is done. If the goal is to make this series competitive, Johnson will need to turn the tables somehow, and improving that 40-0 disadvantage at center seems the most promising prospect.

It’s asking an awful lot of Nowitzki to cover Stoudemire at one end and run the offense at the other, but every other tactic Dallas has tried has proven ineffective. In the playoffs, desperation makes teams try things they wouldn’t otherwise consider, and this is a perfect example. It’s crazy, but it just might work.