The quality of Marcus Camby’s defense will always be great fodder for statistical debate — he’s like the Adam Dunn of basketball. There’s no denying the value of Marcus Camby’s presence in the paint against teams that attack with dribble-penetration. But we’ve also seen that more active PFs with outside games — guys like Luis Scola — can present problems for the Clippers, because Marcus tends to play off his guy. He’s also a bit passive as a P/R defender.
But enough perception. What do the stats show?
Thus far, 82games.com likes what it sees from Marcus Camby. Their ratings don’t include last night’s game in Oklahoma City. They show that the Clippers give up 102.7 points per 100 possessions while Marcus in on the floor, but a whopping 117.2 points/100 possessions when he’s not.
How bad have the Clippers’ reserves been? It’s worse than you think. When the starting unit is off the floor, the Clippers are almost five points/100 possessions worse than the 29th ranked team, Orlando. And only Dallas’ reserves have a less productive +/- number.
Early-season stats often take a while to settle. I don’t expect Mike Taylor to finish with a better defensive rating than Baron Davis. There are also tons of contradictory data. For instance, despite Camby’s defensive prowess, opposing power forwards are destroying the Clips. If Camby is so effective, why are opposing PF’s compiling a collective 22.4 PER? That can’t all be attributable to Tim Thomas, can it?
4 Responses
Our bench has been so bad early it can only get better. The rookies should get better with more experience, and if Ricky Davis doesn’t improve soon he’s gonna have to be benched or released.
Kaman & Camby look like they just might work out as starters, but one thing we don’t have is a PF who can play both sides of the ball adequately
Posted on November 20th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
yes. it is all tim thomas’ fault. he is a bum.
Posted on November 20th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
Our bench is struggling because Tim Thomas is terrible after having had a decent start, and Ricky Davis is God f’n awful. Yet both continue to get the bulk of the minutes off the bench because Dunleavy is obviously obsessed with veteran hierarchy. Have you looked at Ricky’s stats?! RIDICULOUS! His scoring average is down TEN pts!!! compared to last year. And his shooting % is putrid inside and from beyond the arc. He is also garbage on D. There is no rhyme or reason why this guy is still part of the rotation. ZERO.
Thomas and Davis have sucked 9 out of 10 games with no end in sight – it’s time to bench those 2 guys and let Gordon, Novak and Paul Davis try to do better for a 10-game stretch. I bet the farm our bench scoring would go up by 15 pts a night.
When will Dunleavy finally see the light….?
Posted on November 21st, 2008 at 4:05 am
So is what we’re hearing in NY true?
The Knicks, Warriors and Clippers may be on the verge of a deal that would involve Jamal Crawford, Zach Randolph and Mardy Collins being traded in a cap-clearing move that would see the Knicks bring in Tim Thomas, Cuttino Mobley and Al Harrington.
The Clippers would land Randolph and the Warriors would receive Crawford.
Posted on November 21st, 2008 at 8:37 am
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