For those who have read the previous two posts, there will be some redundancy here along with all the new stuff. I apologize for any repeating, which I generally avoid without much difficulty. I can't avoid it here because of the way the subjects here kind of blew up in importance without me knowing in advance, and because I have decided that it is very important for me to summarize everything with respect to these topics in one place, which is going to be this place. And I don't want to delete an already posted item.
With any luck, this article will once and for all clear up any and all confusion and hype regarding the defense of the Denver Nuggets and regarding Marcus Camby. Proceeding point by point:
1. In the post just prior to this one, a new report was introduced. this brand new Report, called NBA Breakdown, was done and was uploaded to the Internet via Google Documents as a spreadsheet. With this, not only can you review the Nuggets' defensive efficiency situation, but you can review the offensive efficiency, the defensive efficiency, and the overall efficiency situation for each and every one of the 30 NBA teams, and you can see instantly the changes in all of these things from 2007-08 to 2008-09.
2. Since it is expressed as a rate per 100 possessions, efficiency is standardized relative to the pace of teams. The pace of teams differs quite a bit, but those differences are irrelevant, as they should be, in this investigation of "pure" efficiency or quality of offenses, of defenses, and of teams as a whole. We want to know here about how good the teams or players are, and we are not at all concerned right now about how fast or slow they are.
3. The vast majority of basketball arguments that you see on the internet about teams as a whole, about offenses, about defenses, and about key players, are arguments involving what and who are more efficient than something or someone else, regardless of pace. Fortunately, you or I can get ready to prevail in any argument by focusing in on the efficiency ratings, which automatically allows us to avoid the irrelevant complications of pace.
4. (How to use the spreadsheet.) In the spreadsheet there are 6 sheets; you will see blue links to each sheet at the top. Google Documents is not rendering my descriptive headers properly, so I just removed them and settled for shading of columns by worksheet. When you view each worksheet, you will see that one of the columns is shaded yellow. That is the column that has been data sorted for that worksheet, meaning that whatever is described in the header for that column is how the teams are ranked on that particular worksheet.
So there are six worksheets as follows. Every worksheet has the same data. The only difference between worksheets is that the teams are ranked according to whatever is highlighted in yellow:
Sheet 1 Offensive Efficiency or Quality of NBA Teams of 2008-09 through Jan. 7, 2009
Sheet 2 Defensive Efficiency or Quality of NBA Teams of 2008-09 through Jan. 7, 2009
Sheet 3 Overall, Combined Efficiency or Quality of NBA Teams (Offense and Defense Combined) of NBA Teams of 2008-09 through Jan. 7, 2009
Sheet 4 Change in Offensive Efficiency or Quality of NBA Teams from 2007-08 to 2008-09 through Jan. 7, 2009
Sheet 5 Change in Defensive Efficiency or Quality of NBA Teams from 2007-08 to 2008-09 through Jan. 7, 2009
Sheet 6 Change in Overall, Combined Efficiency or Quality of NBA Teams (Offense and Defense Changes Combined ) from 2007-08 to 2008-09 through Jan. 7, 2009
5, As an example of one of almost countless things you could do with the 6 sheet worksheet, you can find that the Los Angeles Clippers, to whom Marcus Camby was given by the Denver Nuggets for nothing in return, are in fact improved defensively following Camby coming on that team, as Clippers Coach Mike Dunleavy predicted. Do not get lost or played here: Marcus Camby has substantially improved the defense of the Los Angeles Clippers. period. The Clippers are the 10th most improved team defensively in the NBA. The reason why the Clippers are a bad team is clearly shown by their offensive efficiency, which is literally the worst in the NBA. Folks, they have no offense at all to speak of. Defensively, the Los Angeles Clippers are the 17th best team in the NBA this year.
Now prior to getting ambitious and producing the new spreadsheet, I in a different post, this posting established and/or proved all of the following:
6. The efficiency measurements show that the truth is that the Nuggets' defense here in 2008-09 so far is almost exactly as good as the Nuggets' defense in 2007-08 was, no better and no worse.
7. The Denver Nuggets have been, so far at least, able to meet their controversial pledge of having a defense as good as last year’s despite the giveaway of Marcus Camby.
8. By implication, if you think that the Nuggets have a better defense this year than they had last year, you are way out in right field; you have swallowed the hype. But you can't be blamed too much, because even the television sportscasters have been falling over themselves gushing about supposedly how much better the defense is this year compared with last year. They are unfortunately flat out wrong with their gushing.
9. Just in order to match last year's defense, the Nuggets, in order to offset the giving away for next to nothing of Eduardo Najera and especially the giving away for almost literally nothing of Marcus Camby, had to bring in not one or two but three defensive specialists, none of whom are good enough offensively to be able to help to win playoff games. The three new defensive specialists are Chris Andersen, Renaldo Balkman, and Dahntay Jones.
The Nuggets also had to turn over the bulk of their practices into defending drills. And they had to in both practices and games put a lot more enthusiasm, aggressiveness, and effort into defending than into basketball offense, thus reversing last year's priority.
The Nuggets also had to step down from their frenzied pace of last year. They went from fastest pace team last year to 5th fastest this year; from 99.7 total offensive and defensive possessions per game in 2007-08 to 94.1 so far this season.
In sum, they had to do a whole long list of things and make a truly large number of changes in order to offset the loss of Najera and Camby.
In sum, they had to do a whole long list of things and make a truly large number of changes in order to offset the loss of Najera and Camby.
10. So do not get it twisted. It is true that this year as compared with last year the Nuggets are trying harder on defense. It is true that the top team priority has shifted from offense to defense. It is also true that there are fewer Nuggets not very concerned about defending this year as compared with last year. It is also true that the team now has a greater sheer number of defensive specialists. But it is not true that the end result is that the Nuggets' defense is better this year than it was last year.
11. Most Camby haters are hung up about style. Generally you should avoid becoming very concerned about style in order to be correct about evaluating individual players. Substance is far more important than style. The fact that things get done is generally more important than exactly how things get done.
12. On any fast paced team, all defenders will get beat more often than they get beat on average pace and slower paced teams. And not only will they get beat more, they will look worse getting beat while trying to defend for a fast paced team than they will look when they get beat while defending for an average pace or for a slower paced team. So those who are hung up on style will have a lot more to criticize and get hung up on when looking at man to man defending on a fast paced team. Specifically, there were bound to be and there were times when Camby's defensive style did look bad, in the context of the the Nuggets' fast pace offense. But the substance of his defense was always there and was always extremely valuable to the Nuggets, even when his style didn't look so great in a fast paced game.
Now as promised, let me make a few brand new, final points regarding why everyone who thinks Camby was a poor defender for the Nuggets are completely and totally wrong.
13. The Camby haters all focus on Camby's relatively poor man to man defending against powerhouse centers and power forwards. There is some 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. In other words, he cuts down on the offensive rebounds that the other team can get.
This means that the other team doesn't get as many chances to score as 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. And while good man to man defending is great and very important, it is even greater and more important 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 from the get go 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.
14. Currently there are only 7 NBA teams who commit more fouls than do the Nuggets. 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 despite snagging all those extra rebounds. Meanwhile, Nene is not a particularly good rebounder, and has been in foul trouble from time to time this year after having taken over for Camby at center.
CAMBY, IVERSON, AND MCDYESS HATRED IN COLORADO EXPLAINED
So why has there been so much hatred of Marcus Camby, Allen Iverson and, for that matter, Antonio McDyess among the Nuggets fan base? I truly believe that the answer to that is as follows.
The extremely demoralized Denver fan base at the end of the disastrous playoff series with the Lakers in early May 2008 knew they were stuck with George Karl, despite the fact that it has been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that he can not win in the playoffs even with a set of players who are among the most talented in the NBA. He just can't win in the playoffs, period, end of story. But even were it not for the economics emergency, the Nuggets were most likely not going to eat Karl's contract and get a new Coach for 2008-09; the economics emergency made it a no brainer for them that they were going to have to keep Karl until his contract is over with.
But then things went from bad to worse as the owner panicked in the wake of the economics emergency and demanded an immediate termination of liability for the luxury tax. So in order to effect a huge and sudden reduction in team payroll, Camby was given away for nothing, Najera was given away for very little, and essentially nothing was gained from the 2008 NBA draft.
Now the Nuggets were obviously heading South. Most basketball analysts were immediately agreeing that the Nuggets were most likely not even going to make the playoffs in 2008-09. So each Nuggets fan was left with two main choices, neither one of which was very pleasant. He or she could become a very ticked off former fan, which to me was the only logical thing to do. Or he or she could take out frustrations on players who had been thrown overboard and try to, with the aid of rose colored glasses as needed, create an alternative, hypothetical reality, one where the Nuggets organization was acting professionally and intelligently by getting rid of Camby and Iverson and by letting McDyess go on his merry way back to Detroit.
So sure enough, since by definition the Nuggets' fan base does not want to be a former fan base, there were numerous bitter criticisms of the styles of and alleged shortcomings of Marcus Camby, Allen Iverson, and of Anonio McDyess, while the facts regarding the getting rid of those players, the substance of those players contributions, the failure of the Nuggets to coach Camby and especially Iverson correctly on offense, and the disloyal treatment of McDyess from several years earlier, were all mostly ignored by them.
FOR THE RECORD
For the record: Camby was given away for nothing due first and foremost to the owner panicking over the economics emergency. A team has the right to decide that it wants a different type or style of defense than one anchored by Marcus Camby. But a team can not simply give a player of the caliber of Marcus Camby away for nothing and still expect to be considered a serious NBA franchise.
And Iverson was traded for Billups because the Nuggets were living in a dream world when they thought that Iverson was going to miraculously change his own game or was going to perfect the Nuggets offense merely by virtue of being out on the court, after having been instructed by the Nuggets to not make any changes whatsoever from what he had been doing in Philadelphia.
And the Nuggets either did know all along or else they should have known that after being traded along with Chauncey Billups to them from the Pistons, that Antonio McDyess was going to refuse to suit up for them and give them some toughness in rebounding and defending, so badly needed by the Nuggets if they were ever going to win a playoff series in anyone's lifetime. Only a franchise in distress, confusion, or both could have had the McDyess incident play out the way it did.
So if you have been confused by all the Camby, Iverson, and McDyess hating coming from the Nuggets' fan base, don't be confused anymore my friend. For the Denver fan base, hating those three fine players became a matter of survival.
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