Evaluating the Camby Trade
Nathan Begley | Monday, February 15, 2010 at 10:54PM At the time of this writing, the trade and its specifics have not been made official, but the basics seem conrcete enough to address: the Blazers have traded Steve Blake and Travis Outlaw to the Clippers for 2007 Defensive Player of the Year Marcus Camby. All three have expiring contracts, making the trade salary neutral. Presumably Kevin Pritchard hopes that shoring up the Blazers inside defensive presence will give the Blazers a firmer push into the playoffs than they would’ve from the return of Travis Outlaw’s offensive prowess and Steve Blake’s oscillating play.
Camby, 35, has always had a great defensive rating, even on teams that were not that good defensively. Offensively, Camby has maintained an above average PER throughout his 13 year career. Currently Camby has a PER of 18.5 according to Basketball-Reference. His 12.1 rebounds per game is second in the league, while averageing near two blocks, three assists and 1.4 steals.
The Blazers will almost certainly start Camby at center, he is equally able as a power forward. Camby currently makes $9 million. Were the Blazers to re-sign him next year—and Przybilla as well—they’d have quite a formidable front line. Camby is instersting as a potential backup to Oden & Przybilla not only because of their injuries, but becuase his own tribulations could provide a good model and inspiration for Oden (at one point Camby played 58 games over the span of two seasons).
Of course, Portland loses Travis Outlaw, a high flying fan favorite who can score from anywhere and Steve Blake, a steady if unspectacular point guard who always plays hard and has a great stroke from beyond the arc. It is also interesting that, as things currently stand, GM Kevin Pritchard seems to be showing such faith in Jerryd Bayless, who has been everything but consistent this season.
Both Blake and Outlaw’s contracts expire at the end of the season and Portland would likely be able to re-sign one of the two with part of the Mid-Level-Exception in July. It is unlikely that Portland could manage to re-sign both.
The loss of Steve Blake will open up more playing time Rudy Fernandez and perhaps increase Patty Mills chances of seeing the court this season and/or Peterri Koponen’s chances of being brought over from Europe.
I believe the loss of Outlaw will not be felt as deeply because the team has played so many games without him this season. As Outlaw played power forward almost exclusively last year, Juwan Howard, Dante Cunningham, and Jeff Pendergraph will all continue to back up Aldridge and Camby with Cunningham likely seeing spot minutes at the small forward position. Small forward will continue to be held down by Webster and Batum with the aforementioned spot minutes of Cunningham, along with Roy or Rudy in a three guard lineup. The loss of Outlaw’s bench scoring will hopefully be mitigated by the rise of Jerryd Bayless and a return to last season’s form by Rudy Fernandez, although both slumped their way into the All-Star break.
Steve Blake is a steady veteran who doesn’t make many mistakes and Travis Outlaw is Brandon Roy’s best friend on the team, a locker room glue guy, and one of the most interesting characters on the Blazer’s team. Both will be missed, though possibly not for long.
Reader Comments (6)
This is just awesome. This was one of the few trades I really thought we could pull off that would benefit our team. When Denver was shopping Camby around back in the Iverson days I used to dream of him in red, white and black. I couldn't be happier about this move. It's sad to see Travis and Steve go, they both may have had their shortcomings, but they were model players who brought it every night and kept great attitudes for our team. I wish them the best in LA.
This was likely the only viable deal after Haywood went to Dalllas. I'm happy KP pulled the trigger, though I was beginning to be convinced by those who were suggesting the Blazers call an injury mulligan and just focus on next year. Sure, it's sad to see Outlaw gone, but would he have stayed with a midlevel exception this summer (and would KP have offered it) given the glut of talent on this team, including the emergence of young players? I'm not so sure, and I think this was KP's logic.
Look, all this team needed was a big man who plays defense and rebounds (a Joel clone). I believe the Blazers just added 3-4 more wins to this season's total with this move, probably taking them to the 5th seed in the playoffs.
I'm nervous. Anxious to see how losing a fan & locker room favorite AND our only pure, if unspectacular, point guard who won't lapse into the occasional selfish silliness. One hopes that Pryz and Roy can keep floating their mojo over the team when (if?) they're stuck on the bench.
I *know* Roy won't be the type to sulk over Outlaw. He can't be. But will Camby? I hope a 35 year-old can be mature enough yet flexible enough to adapt to the new situation.
Hopefully, winning will cure all.
beautiful trade and it will increase our playoff hopes. Blake is as good as he will get and Outlaw is good at one thing only. Miller is a true point guard and he will teach Bayless the ropes, Maybe even some minutes for Mills.
Cool dudes but its for the best
We just traded 2 expiring contracts for players I don't think they would have resigned anyway to rent Marcus Camby for 2.5 months. How is this not a good deal? Steve Blake is a nice back up, but we need to know what we have in Jerryd Bayless: another Jarret Jack, or a PG of the future. Good move all around.
Notice that the Chinese know how to do a stimulus package, while no one in power seems to know how to do a stimulus package here in the US.
ed hardy uk