The other side of this coin is that, basically, Marcus Camby alone provided the same quality of defense that all of the above adjustments combined have done, which reminds you of the reality that Camby is one of the very best defenders in the NBA. The Nuggets had to do about a dozen big maneuvers to make up for losing Marcus Camby, yet there are still, even now, uninformed fans claiming that Camby was a defensive liability for the Nuggets! What Universe are they living in, anyway?
Here are the relevant statistics for this ivestigation, the defensive efficiency for the Nuggets and for the Clippers for last year and for this year. Defensive efficiency is simply the average of points allowed for every 100 possessions.
2008-09 Nuggets 106.5
2007-08 Nuggets 106.3
2008-09 Clippers 106.6
2007-08 Clippers 109.1
Since Marcus Camby went to the Clippers, the Clippers’ defense has improved substantially, from 109.1 points allowed per 100 possessions last year to 106.6 points allowed per 100 possessions this year. So Coach Mike Dunleavy of the Clippers was correct in predicting that Camby would improve the Clippers’ defense. The Clippers’ poor season this year is due mostly to having, literally, the least efficient offense in the League.
Meanwhile, since Nene took over the center spot from Marcus Camby, the Nuggets’ defense is a tiny bit worse. The change is not at all statistically significant, so Denver has been able to meet its pledge regarding having the same quality of defense after giving up Marcus Camby.
Specifically, the Nuggets’ defense went from allowing 106.3 points per 100 possessions last year to 106.5 points allowed per 100 possessions so far this year. In order to pull this off, they had to bring in several players known much more for their defense than for their offense, to replace not only Camby but also another defensive specialist who was lost during this past off-season: Eduardo Najera. The Nuggets brought in defensive specialists Chris Andersen, Renaldo Balkman, and Dahntay Jones.
If you look at the rate of scoring, you will find that because the Clippers games are generally much slower paced than are Nuggets games, Marcus Camby is allowing substantially fewer points now with the Clippers than he was allowing last year when he was on the Nuggets. But this is due to the pace and not to Camby’s defending.
The main reason I bring up this pace subject is to point out another reason why those who bitterly criticized Camby’s style last year were off base, a reason that I don’t think I thought of until now. Which is that anyone trying to defend for one of the fastest paced teams in the NBA is going to lose some style points along the way; no defender is going to stylistically look as good defending for a fast paced team as he would for a slower paced team. Marcus Camby while defending for the very fast paced Nuggets had to look at times just a little like a chicken with the head cut off.
Tim Duncan, Amare Stoudemire, Elton Brand, Kenyon Martin, anyone you want to name is going to get beat more often while trying to defend man to man on a fast paced team as compared with a regular or slower pace team.
The slower the pace, the easier it is for a defender to impress fans who think of style in general and tough man to man defending in particular as important. So among those who think style is important, Camby is having an easier time impressing fans of the Clippers than he had impressing such fans of the Nuggets. The Camby haters should either quit completely or at the very least they need to realize that what they really want to criticize is the defensive liability that being a fast paced team is.
And one last very important thing. The Camby haters all focus on Camby's relatively poor man to man defending against powerhouse centers and power forwards. There is a grain of truth in that, but the problem is that the Camby haters are ignoring the forest for the trees. Marcus Camby gets so many defensive rebounds that he gets defensive rebounds that no one else can get. He ends possessions of the other team where no one else could get the rebound and end the possession.
This means that the other team doesn't get as many chances to score than they would get if Camby was not in there. In turn, this means that any team with Marcus Camby on it does not have to worry about in and near the paint man to man defending as often as does a team that does not have Camby on it.
In other words, great man to man defending is great, but even greater is if you are able to cut down on the need for man to man defending in the first place. With his unbelievably outstanding rebounding and blocking, Camby cuts down on the number of possessions that his team must man to man defend well or give up a score. He puts you ahead of the game defensively before you even need to start talking about man to man defending.
And don't forget that unlike so many wonderful man to man defenders, Camby is seldom if ever unavailable due to foul trouble. Camby gets very few personal fouls and very few loose ball type fouls compared to the defenders who have to rely much more on man to man defending to be good defenders.
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