Before people immediately bash me on this, at least hear me out. There was a lot of talk that the Nuggets would look to get rid of Camby for next year due to luxury tax reasons since they owe AI, Melo, Nene, and Kmart about 56 million dollars next year and about 61 million in 08/09. They arent going to get rid of Melo, I dont think they are ready to give up on the Melo/AI experiment, they seem in love with and committed to Nene, and no one in their right mind would take Kmart and his contract. That leaves Camby. As for him being a Rocket, it makes sense to me. He would make up for all of Yao's defense and rebounding weaknesses. He is quick enough to stay with any of the athletic/perimeter PF (Marion, Dirk), and long enough to contend with any bruiser PF (Boozer, Brand). His offense is not great, but surely he can finish around the basket better then Hayes does now. He doesnt have the outside shot which we all seem to want from our PF, but lets face it, there isnt a sweet shooter, long athletic, defensive monster PF that is going to fall into our laps. Now the hard part. He makes 8 million or so a year so that is reasonable for what he does. Of course he is signed long term, so we have to pony up a trade. Denver needs cap relief so Sura has to be included. They were interested in John Lucas this year and should be even more so with the possibility of Blake leaving. Course that still leaves quite a bit of money to make up. Would they bite on Juwan knowing his contract is short and he will add veteran leadership to their young team. Draft picks would have to be included probably, but we could let Deke go since Camby can obviously fill in some C mins as well. Just an idea, but he would be my top target this offseason.
Camby would be a GREAT fit on this team. Especially because he can play both the 4 and the 5. And his length and quickness would be huge next to Yao. The problem is we just dont have the assets to get him and I doubt Denver would want to trade him within the conference. I am sure Denver can find an expiring contract SG from some team in the East that would benefit them more.
Camby is not even a possibility. Camby just won DPOY. What assets do the Rockets have to trade for him?
we cant get anyone. we're stuck. we cant trade anyone. we'll only have the MLE to work with....we're stuck until juwan gets off the books and rafer in 09
I actually like the idea of Camby in a Rockets uniform. He would be straight up nasty against the likes of Boozer, Okur, Duncan, etc while covering up for Yao's deficiencies. I used to think a more perfect fit for the Rockets would be an athletic, 3 point-shooting, solid passing/defending PF like a Rasheed Wallace/Robert Horry type of player but with the lack of a slashing, board crashing, interior beast of a player with size that can defend quick big men (sorry Chuck, your awesome but not the final solution) I have changed my mind. Since all of the Rockets except Kirk are stand around and spot up shooters, we need a badazz bruising PF that will punish teams for double teaming Yao and TMAC, one that can crash the offensive boards, guard the defensive rebounds, and generally clean up the mess that comes with stand around outside shooters that only make 30ish percent of their shot-jacking.
One other pro for Camby is the fact that he is a very underrated passer. The Nuggets use quite a bit of "big man passing from the high post" offense to get easy backdoor dunks.
I don't think it would be impossible. Denver has got to be in a bind with the huge contracts of Melo, AI, Nene, etc. I'm not sure Denver could afford to keep him even if they wanted to. Maybe they would be willing to take on JHo's contract. Maybe this is where a guy like Morey becomes a factor. Hell, if Morey somehow got Camby and Steve Blake that would transform the Rockets 180 degrees. We can always dream I guess.
Dont compare Dwade and Lebron to Camby. First his salary is only about 8 millions. Second Denver most likely will need to dump him. I agree it will be very hard to get him, but they can not take salary back for him so its not like they can expect to get equal value. Sura gives them cap space immediately next year, a player like juwan frees up more cap space a year later, throw in a pick and either JL3 and Vspan and at least it would be something to consider. I dont think it will happen, but at least its possible, unlike billups or KG, and would have an impact, unlike Mike James or Atkins.
