Tuesday Night Special: Marcus Camby

The Clippers and Dunleavy seemingly played this out very patiently and thoughtfully going into the weekend and over the last couple of days. They didn’t jump after Smith and Okafor or Iggy and tied up their capspace only to have the player get matched. They met with those guys to see what they were like and to see if they would fit. At the same time they went down the trade possibilities looking for something more immediate, looking at useful PF/Cs on teams that might want to move guys, checking to see what they could get without giving up anything substantial. My guess is that Marion was the first stop but the Heat don’t want to dump him. Rasheed might have been a tougher deal because he played for Dunleavy in the past, and the Pistons also want to get something for him. They might have dangled the 2nd round pick for Randolph without fully committing to making the deal. Good luck to the Knicks now, although they’ll probably be back in a few months or sooner, trying to make a deal for Thomas or Mobley or even Camby eventually. Man, the Clips are going to have a lot of capspace in 2010, and a bunch of expiring deals in the season leading up to it, unless they keep going.
But, just to continue down the list, Camby’s name must have been pretty close to the top, and picking him up for the 2nd round pick is a really nice deal. The fact that the Nuggets had to do it just shows how bad deals can really kill you. They had to give up a productive player with a very reasonable contract because, unless I’m wrong, they have bad deals with KMart and Nene, and they have to pay Carmelo and AI. It’s kind of sad.

This acquisition also makes the Jordan pick look even better. The Clips got a guy who is a viable 10-12 pick who has all of the athleticism and size, who is backing up a very productive but older guy, along with Kaman, who gets tweaked and injured. It’s the type of thing that you see on a solid playoff roster: maybe Camby and Kaman play about 70 games, with one thing or another, and Jordan picks up some experience in the meantime.

Great job by the Clips and Dunleavy. Very happy for Baron Davis—nice team being put together for him.

i guess so far we traded Brand/Maggette for Davis/Camby. I don’t think that is too bad. I think it will actually be a much more running and just fun team to watch. Davis is a PG like the Clips have never had, and Camby can run the floor better than Brand, although his mid range shot is surely not as good. Defensively we can match up to the Spurs with Duncan, the Lakers with Gasol/Bynum and the Suns with Stoudamire. I like the team.

We need a little help from John R to figure out how much money the Clips have left and what kind of players are in their price range.

It seems like they’re out of the running for Posey and his ilk. Basically, they need a replacement for QRoss who has at least a little bit of offense. I know that Dooling is out there and wonder if he might not be a decent choice. I suppose he’s a little on the small side for the role we’d be looking for him to fill, but the needs right now are very different from his last Clipper tour of duty. He’s probably too small.

Marcus Camby is a Clipper—with a major chapeau to bballanalyst, who was apparently breaking down the Denver scenarios just as the trade went through.

Thanks, I actually already heard the rumor on hoopsworld so I decided to throw it out as a scenario. Turned out to be true just 30 minutes later!