Marcus Camby ESPN 2006-07 Evaluation and 2007-08 Outlook

From ESPN, here is the Marcus Camby 2006-07 evaluation and the 2007-08 outlook. Look for a Nuggets 1 response, probably within 24 hours.

2006-07 season: Camby showed the first signs of aging last year: He forgot to get injured. The big man shocked the masses by playing 70 games for only the second time in his career, setting a career high in minutes and used his shot-blocking expertise to win the league's Defensive Player of the Year award.

While that honor may have been a bit of an overreaction, he was certainly impressive. Camby saved the bacon of Denver's guards with amazing frequency, racing in from the weak side to record the second-best rate of blocked shots among centers. He also controlled the glass, ranking sixth among centers in rebound rate.

Camby was at his best when he could guard a nonscorer and roam. In a late season game against Utah he was allegedly guarding the Jazz's Ronnie Brewer, but left him alone on the perimeter to hang out in the paint and go after blocks and ended up swatting five in the first quarter. That tendency gets him in trouble when he guards better players, though.

Offensively, Camby stopped hoisting so many 17-footers from the top of the key, apparently realizing the idea was for him to dump the ball into the post from that spot. His assist ratio nearly doubled from the previous season and ranked third among all centers, while the portion of his shots that were long 2s dropped from 45.8 percent to 34.1 percent. In a related story, his shooting percentage and true shooting percentage both went up.

Scouting report: Despite myriad injuries, the rail-thin Camby is as quick and active at 33 as he was when he entered the league. Though he doesn't have the muscle to bang with bigger centers, he is a force on the boards and an incredible layup eraser from the weak side. The shift to smaller, quicker lineups has helped him immensely, as does the pairing with a more physical big man in Nene who can handle strength matchups.

Camby is an excellent ball handler for his size and will occasionally lead the break or drive against a slower big man from out high. More often he gets his points in transition or on feeds from his guards. He frequently posts high and likes to shoot from the free-throw area, where he has a long wind-up on his behind-the-head shot and iffy results. A bad foul shooter as a younger player, he's improved quite a bit and has made better than 70 percent each of the past four seasons.

2007-08 outlook: The question with Camby is never how well he'll play, but how often. Last year the Nuggets got lucky when he stayed in the lineup most of the year, but Camby misses multiple games every year with all types of ailments and this season should be no exception.

When he's on the court he should be just as productive as he's been the past few years, but that might be a more rare phenomenon than it was last year. Nuggets fans should expect 55-60 games and be happy if they get more, but as long as Camby is on the court come May, he could take the Nuggets on a deep playoff run.

Most similar at age: Elden Campbell