The Scouting Report on Marcus Camby

If the Portland Trail Blazers' reported deal of Travis Outlaw and Steve Blake for Marcus Camby happens, here's what WW's Blazers blogger Casey Jarman had to say about Camby last month in his piece looking at big men the Blazers might try to acquire:



Upside: Bigtime defender at 6-foot-11 who can shoot well and pass like Arvydas Sabonis. Contract expires this year, so it's not a big commitment.

Downside: He's old (35), and his big paycheck (he'll make more than $9 million this year) means Portland would have to part with a couple of pieces to make a trade work.

Numbers This Season: 8.3 Points, 11.7 Rebounds per game.

The Dish: The clips—whose backup point guard is the inconsistent Sebastian Telfair (remember him, Blazer fans?)—Probably wouldn't mind having Andre Miller to keep a fire under Baron Davis' feet and to work in tandem with natural scorer Eric Gordon. And with the season lost and Blake Griffin returning soon, they simply have too many big guys.

How Portland Is He: So Portland. Clean record (aside from the league-standard pot offense in the late '90s) and active with various charities. The tough part would be letting camby go at the end of the season.

I'd add a coupla things to Casey's analysis, now that it's Blake and Outlaw who have been identified as what the Blazers are willing to surrender.

1) This is a deal that should improve the Blazers' playoff position this year, increasing the odds they can make it out of the first round. And they did it without sacrificing anybody who's part of the longer-term effort to build a championship contender. Good on them.

2) As former Blazers coach Jack Ramsay said this morning on 95.5 The Game, it's worth noting that Camby has been injury-prone and the Blazers obviously don't need another big man to succumb to the team's unfortunate history of centers with injuries (Bill Walton, Sam Bowie, Greg Oden, etc.)

3) And while Blazers fans should be happy if the deal happens, there's got to be a smidgen of sympathy for Clippers fans who once again are on the short end.

4) Tonight's home game against the Clippers suddenly got a lot more interesting.