And it's not that a soon to be 36 year-old Marcus Camby is the second coming of Bill Russell and that this Blazer team is now the favorite to win it all in the NBA, but of all the players available, Camby clearly fills the Blazers' needs and the asking price was relatively low. And I love both Steve Blake and Travis Outlaw as much as anyone, but their production and value to this team is replaceable, while Camby will plug many if not all of the holes that have had the Blazers struggling so mightily this year (well, he's not a doctor who can heal season ending injuries or someone who can go back in time and select Durant over Oden, but bear with me for a minute).
If I made a list of all the things that Portland was lacking this year, rebounding, shot blocking, front-court depth, help defense, size and length would be at the top of the list. Marcus Camby is extremely tall and long (check and check, even though he is skinny as hell), provides exceptional help defense (check), is currently second in the NBA in rebounding (check) and averages just under 2 blocks a game (check, and I would add that his career average is 2.59 and he has compiled 2,093 blocks in his career, good for 13th all time). Adding Marcus Camby to Portland's roster solves all of these problems.
Since front-court depth was the Blazers' most glaring weakness (and the root of all their other problems), let's start our analysis there. With Camby starting and playing the big minutes, Juwan Howard can stop killing himself every night and go back to the second unit where he and everyone else will be more comfortable. Howard is more likely to hold up this way because of reduced minutes and more favorable match-ups, and the second unit players will benefit greatly from the calm, focus and consistency that he delivers. As a consequence, Jeff Pendergraph and Dante Cunningham will feel less pressure and won't have to play out of position, so this can only be seen as an incredible positive for all of them (though I suppose there is something to be said for developing rookies by giving them meaningful minutes).
As for Portland's length and shot blocking issues, Camby will help immensely here as well. Although Camby is not a totally complete defender, he does provide excellent help defense (sometimes to a fault) and likes to patrol the rim and changes the way opponents attack the paint. Until now, if you pounded the Blazers in the paint they had very little recourse and no way to intimidate opponents or contest and alter shots effectively. None of the healthy Blazer big men were shot blockers, and all of them but Aldridge lack the length necessary to bother elite low post players or the best slashing guards and wings. Add Camby tothe mix and all this changes. Now when one of the Blazers gets beat on the perimeter, the opposing player still has something to think about other than how easy it is to score at the rim against such a woefully undersized team. And when Pau Gasol posts up down low, instead of being able to look over Juwan Howard or Jeff Pendergraph and realize that nobody on the court can affect his shot, he'll either be faced with the length of Camby immediately or soon after he drives toward the rim.
And even though Portland ranks first in opponents' rebounds per game (a paltry 38, tied with Cleveland) and are an outstanding 6th in rebound differential this year, they desperately need help on the glass. Right now, Portland has to gang rebound to control the glass, and this takes a toll on the smaller Blazers, who are often left to box out a bigger man. Adding a solid, reliable rebounder like Camby will reduce the stress on the other Blazers and should also help Portland's overall defense and transition game in the process. And Camby has only gotten better at rebounding with age, so any concerns about that area of the game should be squelched immediately.
Admittedly, this is the sunny evaluation of Camby, and it's focused more on the things he does well than the opposite at this point, but here is my thinking on the matter. In Portland's system, with a collection of solid to good defenders around him, Camby's strengths can shine and his weaknesses will be obscured. Similarly, I feel like he's the kind of player that can make everyone else better at the same time, so this trade could stand to benefit Portland greatly. The advanced stats support Camby as an excellent defensive player, and while his detractors point to things like poor screen/roll defense and his unwillingness to leave the basket area, the thing that matters more to me than anything is this: Marcus Camby made the Allen Iverson/Carmelo Anthony Nuggets a solid defensive team and raised everyone else's game on that team when the Nuggets played defense. Before this Denver renaissance that got them to the West Finals last year, Camby was the only thing preventing opponents from having a lay-up line against that team. Without Camby, that Nuggets squad would have been worse than Phoenix, Golden State or anyone else for that matter. He anchored that team and was instrumental to their success as a group, 'nuff said.
And what is the cost of this rental? The biggest loss is Steve Blake, who despite a recent shooting slump had been the Blazers' most consistent shooter and did everything the right way to help his team win. Blake plays defense, he hustles, he moves without the ball, he can shoot, and he doesn't take risks with the basketball, but at the end of the day Andre Miller is the better player both for this Blazers squad and in general. And with a creator like Roy at the other guard and guys like Jerryd Bayless and Rudy Fernandez in the mix as well, it shouldn't be too hard to replace Blake's production in the rotation.
As for Travis Outlaw, I will surely miss him and the energy he brought to the Blazers, but he truly was a confounding player and is very expendable. Even though he is still young, freakishly athletic and had become quite a good shooter recently, Travis Outlaw is not the most aware player and I always felt like his ceiling as a player was much lower than other people thought. The only thing he did really consistently was subject himself and all of us to the most painful brain farts and provoke more "what ifs?" than almost any other current Blazer. Watching him play, I was always impressed by his speed and athleticism, but confounded by his inability to convert easy baskets and finish in traffic. Yes, his pull up jumper was untouchable and even won a few games for the Blazers, but at the same time he made far too many easy shots incredibly difficult by painting himself into a corner and having only one move to get free.
And for a guy who stands 6'9," Outlaw was never a force on the glass nor an impact player on defense. I hate to see him go, but I get the feeling like ten years from now we could easily be asking the same questions about Travis that we are today. Plus, with a logjam at forward, he really has become expendable for the Blazers, who have younger and cheaper options to fill his void. Nicolas Batum has a better body (if that were possible) and does all the little things that Travis would never be able to do, and yet he can still stretch the defense and find ways to score even without having plays run for him.
The only part of this trade that gives me pause is the question of where and how far this gets Portland this year. Camby's contract expires after this year, and Greg Oden and Joel Przybilla will be back next year, so we must weigh this trade on what it does for Portland now. Yes it fills all of the holes in the Portland roster and yes it will help to cover many of the "warts" that these Blazers have, but does this piece put Portland over the top this year? Maybe there's a 0.5% chance that it does, but in all likelihood the Blazers are not getting to the promised land with this Marcus Camby deal. At this point they're in the playoffs and could make serious noise if Brandon Roy and everyone else ends up healthy, happy and firing on all cylinders, but man those are some big ifs.
What is realistic is to assume that Portland can and will make the playoffs, and depending on who they play win a series. But at this point I don't see the Blazers getting too much farther than that against a loaded Western Conference, nor do I see them stacking up against the elite teams in the East. So this deal can salvage this season and keep hope alive, but I don't think it puts the Blazers over the top and means that they can hang with the Lakers or Denver. Only time on the court will tell, so we'll just have to watch the games and see for ourselves.
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