Report: Marcus Camby considers Spurs as potential destination

April 6, 2012; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Houston Rockets center Marcus Camby (29) beats Los Angeles Lakers power forward Josh McRoberts (6) to the boards for a rebound in the second half of the game at the Staples Center. Rockets won 112-107. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE

Unrestricted free agent Marcus Camby narrowed down his potential free agent destinations to the San Antonio Spurs, New York Knicks, Miami Heat, Boston Celtics, Dallas Mavericks and the Houston Rockets according to Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com.

Camby, 38, won’t visit any particular team because “he’s been in the league for so long and knows what he is looking for.” In addition to a sufficient monetary value, Camby is looking for a team that can contend for a championship. The teams he’s narrowed his list down to, he believes, fulfill that requirement.

At this juncture of his career, Camby remains an elite rebounder and shot blocker. He corralled an insane 22.8% of his teams total rebounds (Portland and Houston), good for first in the entire league. His defensive and offensive rebounding percentages both ranked in the top five among players that logged at least 700 minutes.

Camby blocked a ton of shots as well — 4.8% of his opponents shots, specifically. The league’s most prominent enforcer, Dwight Howard, couldn’t even muster a block shot at the same rate as Camby. The value he provides is enormous in the aforementioned defensive categories.

That kind of interior defense could vastly improve the Spurs’ defense. Protecting the rim isn’t an area that needs to be addressed but you can’t have too much rim protection either. San Antonio, as currently constructed, has shown a stark tendency to prevent shots at the rim and Camby’s presence may lower that mark even further.

It should be noted that Camby’s lack of mobility would hurt the Spurs in pick-and-rolls. They already struggled in that facet so, while block shots are always nice, maybe Camby’s defensive boost would be a little overstated.

San Antonio won’t be able to rely on Camby for scoring either. He finished a below-average 48% of his shots inside the restricted area indicating that even low difficulty shots are too much to ask for. The lineups containing Camby would be difficult to score against yet at the same time difficult to create points because of his poor offensive ability.

Camby is a double-edged sword in this instance. Do the Spurs attempt to fortify their interior defense while sacrificing pick-and-roll defense and offense? That’s something R.C. Buford will have to delineate.

What do you think Spurs fans? Does Marcus Camby make a good fit?