Semi-crazy, vet's minimum 15th man suggestion: Ike Diogu anyone?

So we all know that most of the free agent class is already signed and gone, and Dallas will likely make no more big splashes on that front.  However, there are still some needs that need to be filled, and I hope I have found the answer to one of them.

Right now the only areas that seem to need additional depth are PF and (arguably) SG.  I won't address our needs at the 2-spot in this post, but it is clear that somebody needs to back up Dirk. The current in-house answers that I've seen discussed most often are Shawn Marion and/or Ian Mahinmi, and none of these are exceptionally satisfying.  Marion, though a great defender, is undersized and Mahinmi is too inexperienced and injury prone to be trusted with the role.  Thus, an outside solution seems to be in order. 

So why not Ike Diogu? I know that most people who view this question will probably ask, "why on earth would we want a guy who didn't play in the league last year and put up 4.1/1.9 the year before?"  This is a perfectly reasonable question, although "earth" in this instance should be capitalized, generic question-asker I made up.  Anyway:

He's certainly not the sexy answer, but with names like Anthony Tolliver and Craig Smith being thrown around, I'm not sure there's a sexy answer in the league right now.  I was recently looking at the PF options being discussed, and decided to compare them based on their 36-minute averages.  Here's what I found:

Craig Smith:   17.1pts./8.4reb (2.8 offensive reb.) - not bad at all, certainly good enough production to be a backup PF on a contending team.

Anthony Tolliver:  13.6pts./8.1reb. (2.1 offensive reb.) - not particularly inspiring, though he does shoot .329 on 3-pointers, for what it's worth

Ike Diogu (2008-2009 stats, since he didn't get any minutes with the Hornets last year): 19.9pts./9.4reb. (4.4 offensive reb.) - pretty good, especially considering the high proportion of offensive rebounds

Brandon Bass's last year with the Mavs (for the sake of comparison):  15.7pts./8.4reb. (3.0 offensive reb.)

So Diogu seems to have potential to be a pretty decent backup PF, but he hasn't yet had the opportunity.    In 2008-2009, he found himself doing a decent amount of sitting in Golden State.  That year, he only played more than 20 minutes in two games, and in those two games (the last two of the year) he put up 32/11 and and 28/13, respectively.  He then foolishly parlayed this impressive year-end performance into a one-year contract in New Orleans, where he found himself sitting behind about a half-dozen PF candidates. 

If the Mavs were to give him an opportunity to get into the mix behind Dirk could he turn that potential into consistent production?  If they had the roster space, they could almost certainly acquire Diogu for one year on the vet's minimum.  His low-post game would fill an offensive hole on the team, but his defense will need to be more consistent than he has given in the past.  At the very least, he would be a cheaper, taller towel-waver than Matt Carroll.  At the best, he would be an offensively potent, low-post option behind Dirk.

Personally, I'd like to see Craig Smith or even Brandon Bass (if he can be had) in the primary backup 4 role, but if the Mavs are unable to do this, I would like to see Ike get a shot as the last man on the bench.

What do you think?