Posted by: John Schuhmann NBA.com
Free candy is great. Free Camby may be even better.
The Los Angeles Clippers moved up a few rungs on the NBA ladder when they got Baron Davis. Then they moved back down when they lost Elton Brand. But the Clippers are climbing again by acquiring Marcus Camby from the Nuggets for essentially nothing.
Camby isn't the player that Brand is, but L.A. has seemingly landed on its feet after last week's failure to keep their star big man. Camby, Davis and Chris Kaman form a big three of sorts, and with Eric Gordon and Al Thornton, the Clipps certainly have some talent around them.
Are they a playoff team in the loaded Western Conference? Well, I can think of one 2008 playoff team that has gotten worse ...
The Nuggets are calling the trade "a chess move." They do get a big trade exception that they can use to acquire another player before it expires in a year, but this move was clearly not about basketball. Denver had a bloated payroll, and trading Camby certainly lightens the financial load.
They could have had made a deal with New Jersey for actual live human beings, but the money was more important. Down the line though, it could actually turn out to be a smart move.
In previewing the 2007-08 Nuggets last October, I wrote this:
If they're healthy, they're the best frontline in the NBA, but that "if" is the biggest "if" in the Association.
At the time, they had Carmelo Anthony, Camby, Nenê, Kenyon Martin, Eduardo Najera and Steven Hunter filling their forward and center spots. That is deep. But now, they've lost Camby and Najera, and the frontline is looking rather shallow.
And this deal has other repercussions as well, because the Clippers were the last team with cap room that was actually willing to use it. So, restricted free agents like Josh Smith have suddenly lost some bargaining power.