Just as I was about to go to bed I went over to NBA.com to find out about the new Celtics championship DVD. I'm not even trying to be obnoxious right now. And BOOM the Clippers acquired Marcus Camby. The running joke will definitely be that one of the worst defensive teams in the league just went and traded the one guy that actually played defense. And citizen zhiv over at Clips Nation is on board with the deal. I have a few reactions of my own.
1. Talk about a crazy summer in LA. First Baron Davis unexpectedly signed there. Then Elton Brand unexpectedly bolted. And then the Clips unexpectedly avoided the restricted free agent (Josh Smith, Emeka Okafor) route by landing Camby for a second round pick. A second round pick? That's excellent. On top of that Camby is on a 2-year deal that runs out in that much talked about summer of 2010. Seriously look at the guys who lack restrictions that summer. LeBron, Bosh, Wade, and more. That makes me the 1,000,000th person to bring this up...today
2. I had to jump into the archives for a Q&A (I hate typing that) I did with Jeremy from Pickaxe and Roll back in February. Let's just say Jeremy is not a huge Camby guy:
"I found the calls for Camby to make the All-Star team laughable. Camby is great at what he does, but he is an atrocious offensive player. He has no post game. Earlier in the season Golden State was guarding him with Mickael Pietrus. Any self respecting center would take that 6' 6" defender in the post and light him up. Camby never even gave it a thought. The only thing Camby is good at on offense is driving to the basket with his right hand.Defensively he is incredibly overrated. Yes, he is a great weak side shot blocker and he is a very good rebounder. He has tremendous instincts. He cannot guard players of any significance in the post because of his frail frame and he never tries to step out and stop the ball handler in a screen and roll situation because he wants to sit back and try to block shots. The result is an endless string of open fifteen footers or driving lanes through the paint.
In the last game before the all star break against Orlando Camby had to sit out most of the fourth quarter because he could not guard Dwight Howard inside not could he guard Rashard Lewis or Hedo Turkoglu on the perimeter.
Camby is very good for the Nuggets because they have Kenyon Martin and sometimes Nene to guard the big post scorers of the NBA, but if Camby had to guard every post scorer on his own, he would never, ever be in consideration for the Defensive Player of the Year."
Other Blogs to Check Out:
ClipperBlog
Nugg Doctor