More in Defense of the Defense of Marcus Camby

From late July 2008, more forum writings that did not make it to Quest for the Ring until now.....

Two more quick but important observations:

1. I haven't forgotten about Mr. Karl being also responsible for the Nuggets raising the white flag. Had the Nuggets won a playoff series, as they could have and should have, then I very much doubt that Mr. Kroenke and company would have accepted the Clippers offer of a bag of chips for Marcus Camby. And the Nuggets one year payroll drop would probably have been under that 8-10% ruination level. When all was said and done, it took the combination of Karl's bad coaching and Kroenke's financial cut and run to sink the Nuggets powerful effort to become a real contender in the NBA. One of them without the other would not have been enough to ruin the project.

It seems very likely that the front office was caught in the middle between the two men making the big mistakes.

2. The Clippers are playing Camby at power forward, which is smart for them, and which is a reminder of how badly the Nuggets were hurt by the unavailability of Nene, a genuine post player. As I said frequently in my reports, Camby at center without a post player at PF is a potential defensive and/or a potential offensive problem. But Camby with a post playing PF is money. Camby with Nene would have been roughly the same type of combo that Kaman and Camby will be in LA.

But even without Nene, Camby was clearly neither the offensive nor the defensive liability that his critics claim he was, because the Nuggets were the fastest pace team, and Camby's occasional point guard tendencies, and his relative reluctance to get alot of finishes at the hoop were not big offensive problems for the Nuggets, as several other key players were not shy about taking it to the rim: Iverson, Anthony, Smith, Martin, and Kleiza especially. Indeed, one of the problems with the Nuggets offense was that overall they took it to the rim too much, which made them relatively easy to defend.

Defensively, the gripes about Camby are mostly putting style above substance, which is almost always a mistake to me. Generally, those claiming Camby was not truly a great defensive player are going to be those preferring the type of defender who camps out in the paint and simply blocks with his body, fouls, and intimidates his way to being a defensive force. Camby committed very, very few fouls, whereas the style that Camby's critics want requires for success that the refs assist by letting a lot of fouls go, something which does not happen every game. In other words, Camby's style works regardless of how the refs are calling the game, whereas the style his critics want works only if the refs let some fouls go uncalled.

Also, the type of defender Camby's critics want may be a little better against some centers and power forwards than is Camby, but Camby's style is far better against high scoring guards coming into the paint.

The 2007-08 Nuggets were the 10th best defense in the NBA ranked by defensive efficiency, which is number of points given up per 100 possessions. This is defense adjusted for pace. The Nuggets, to be exact, gave up 107.5 points per 100 possessions.

If you are right about MC, they will give up at least slightly fewer points in the new season, assuming that whoever replaces Camby has a more common style for a center, which is very likely. If I'm right, the Nuggets will give up more points per 100 possessions, and will be lower than the 10th best defense adjusted for pace. So we shall see when the season comes.

But we might not be able to tell for sure if the Nuggets make big changes in their overall style, in their pace, or if one or more players are a lot better or a lot worse defensively than last year.

Defensive Efficiency 2007-08
Nuggets 107.5 10th
Clippers 110.8 19th

2008-09???

I won't forget to revive this topic.

And we can also compare Kaman/Camby to ???/K-mart with the +/-, compare the front courts as a whole, and compare the Camby alone +/- to the Hunter or ? +/- alone. It's going to be interesting to see which wins out in this case: style or production as shown by statistics (substance)?

The Camby critics can not have it both ways. If they are really serious about Camby being overrated, then his replacement and KMart should be at least a little better than Kaman/Camby. And certainly the Hunter or ??? alone +/- should be better than the Camby alone +/- if the Camby critics are right.

Again, I will not forget to bring this topic back when this can be decided.

2007-08 NUGGETS CAMBY VS KMART
Camby / Najera / C Anthony .256/minute; +7.68 per 30 minutes
KMart / Najera / C Anthony Not in the top 50 3-player combos

Camby / Najera / Kleiza .345/minute; +10.35 per 30 minutes
KMart / Najera / Kleiza .123/minute; +3.69 per 30 minutes

Camby / C Anthony / Kleiza .014/minute; +3.12 per 30 minutes
KMart / C Anthony / Kleiza Not in the top 50 3-player combos

This disproves the idea, common among the Camby critics, that KMart without Camby in the game is better than Camby without KMart in the game. No, by a wide margin, Camby without KMart in the game was better.

Look, just as the TE is an accounting rule for the salary cap, and hardly means that the Nuggets get a free player to make up for the Camby giveaway, which those excusing the Camby giveaway are implying, with all their hopeful statements regarding the TE and how it can be used and how it can be traded, and this, and that, and the other thing. All the trade exception (TE) is is a relatively complicated rule for going above the salary cap. You have to want to go above the cap to use it, which right now seems to be the last thing the Nuggets want to do.

More broadly, cap space is like me waking up on a cloudy morning in a drought and hoping it's going to rain. It might rain, it might not. Just as with cap space, it might produce a good team, it might not. You don't automatically have a good team coming to you just because you have a big chunk of cap space coming up. Especially since there are 29 other teams competing for the same key players you are trying to get.

To go along with ocassional trades and off season acquisitions, you absolutely must consistently get what you need in the draft, and you must also have very good or outstanding coaching for your existing roster players, or you will never be a true contender.

You know, there are sports where style is more important than substance: figure skating, diving, gymnastics.

But I have never once seen those judges with the signs with the numbers on them on the sidelines in a bball game, raising their signs showing their rating of various scores and various stops. lol.

This is what needs to go in my signature I guess, a reminder that many of those who disagree with me are secretly wanting the style scores to come into the NBA!

Editorial Note: Please be aware that a "Fast Break" is a short and quick preview of some of the topics that will be explored and proved in more detail in upcoming regular reports. Fast Breaks will often reappear in full reports with only minor reediting, but there will be more important details, more evidence, and more implications and explanations in the full reports. Moreover, there will be topics that never appear in any Fast Break in a full Report.

Fast Breaks are especially useful for the first few days after major news breaks. They are also very useful for people who will seldom or never have enough time to read a full Game/Team/League Report. Fast Breaks are the type of article that more typical web logs feature almost all or all of the time.