Fast Break: Why the Nuggets Can Not Make the Playoffs or Win 50 Games Without Camby Nene fouled out. The Nuggets are almost totally dependent on Nene at center and he fouled out in the first game of the season. Some people have fiercely complained about the stylings of Marcus Camby, both offensive and defensive. They have complained that Camby is not an aggressive and totally reliable man to man defender on defense, nor a post-up or throw down specialist on offense. That’s the style they want in a center, partly, I’m sure, because traditionally the most dominant and powerful centers of all have had these traits. And even the damn Jazz television announcer piled on Camby’s style by informing the viewing audience that “the Nuggets’ brass told him that the Nuggets believe they can win 50 games again this season despite the giveaway of Marcus Camby, because Camby was not all that great at man to man defending, whereas Nene and Chris Andersen are much more so. To which I say: “good luck if you think the sum total of Camby’s defensive traits is something that you can replace with a player or two or three who are aggressive and persistent man to man defenders. You are going to need a whole heck of a lot of science fiction if your prediction that you can replace Camby with Nene or Chris Andersen or both of them together is going to come true. Because Camby may not have been a great man to man defender, but he has some of the best hands in basketball along with some of the best quick instincts for where the play is going. Those hands and quick instincts gave him the ability to disrupt the best laid plans of countless players with intentions of driving to the rim. Marcus Camby had (and still has, for the Clippers now) the kinds of hands, instincts, and athletic coordination to avoid committing fouls time and time and time again. The man has one of the lowest personal foul rates among centers in the NBA, which validates him having one of the highest blocks per possession ratios in the history of the NBA. Did it ever occur to those who hate Camby’s style, or to those who now confidently predict that the Nuggets defense will not be any worse without Camby than with him, that Camby simply did not have to be all that great of a lock-down type man to man defender, because he had some skills much more unusual than the more common ability to aggressively defend, and that those skills meant that Camby did not need to put all his eggs in the man to man defending basket in order to provide a very good defense for the Nuggets? No, it never occurred to them apparently. You see, when you are struggling to win a basketball game, you are not only battling the other team. You are also in a side battle with the referees. If the refs are in a no nonsense kind of mood they will call a game tighter rather than looser. And when that happens if one of your big strategies to win the game is to have your aggressive and bruising man to man defenders do their thing with abandon, you are going to be cruising for a bruising from those referees. So your wonderful man to man defenders end up in foul trouble and, in serious cases, they foul out and your game strategy is left in ruins. Nene fouled out. Marcus Camby almost never fouled out. No Nuggets, you can’t replace Marcus Camby with Nene and/or Chris Andersen and/or any other new player on your team and expect to still win 50 games. Camby’s hands and athleticism just don’t get replaced that easily, sorry. And another thing on the subject of style: all truly great basketball players, including the ones who go to the Hall of Fame and win various awards, need to make sure that their style matches their skills and capabilities. Within the range of possible styles prescribed by which of the five positions you are playing, you have to choose the style that is the closest fit with your exact athletic capabilities. Which is exactly what Marcus Camby did. Some people act as if Camby argued with himself or with his coaches about what style to choose and then chose the wrong one. No, that’s not how it works with the best players. They don’t have to think about “what style to choose,” because they know the style they have to use is dictated by their athletic and physical skills, characteristics and, yes, limitations. There is no choice for them if they want to reach their full potential. And the best athletes are going to be smart enough to instinctively know how to play in such a way that maximizes their potential. Did you ever wonder why the Nike marketing slogan “Just do it” became popular? One big reason was because it is a reference to the reality that great athletes don’t think about and make decisions about styles to use: they know instinctively because they know their capabilities instinctively, and they know they have to match them up. If a player thinks “Ok, I’m going to become a better player by changing my style. I’m going to start doing more of this and less of this, and then my basketball career prospects will get better." Wrong. Players get better, or stay the way they are, as the case may be, only by making sure that their playing style tightly matches their athletic and physical skills, characteristics, and limitations. Some less experienced players may not fully be able to do this, and that’s where a good coach can be of immense help, more so at the high school and college levels of course than in pro. But a good pro coach has to on occasion steer a (usually younger) player toward the style that is the closest match for his characteristics. So the Camby style haters can continue to think that he was “overrated on defense” but unfortunately for the Nuggets, they are in general overestimating the importance of style and they are specifically underestimating the total defensive value that Camby’s skills and style brought to the Nuggets. So do not get it twisted fans: unusual style and all, Camby was crucial for the Nuggets defense, and if all you have to replace him with is tough and relentless man to man defenders, you are in for a long, tough, and frustrating season. And that season just started with Nene fouling out.
