Nuggets put chip on his shoulder

"When we heard the deal was done," he said, "I jumped pretty high, and I've got a bad knee."

Denver was looking for salary-cap space, meaning they had to unload something costly, and Camby, at age 34, was it.

Denver gained roughly $40 million worth of cap space when he left. The Clippers told the Nuggets they were about to tender the offer to Smith and once they did, their interest in helping Denver's financial ledger would diminish greatly. Hours later, Denver said goodbye to Camby and hello to new fiscal flexibility.

That part is understandable to Camby.

"I know this is a business," he said. "I've been traded twice before. I've got a thick skin. I played in New York. Your skin can't get any thicker than that."

The part he didn't like, in addition to terms of the trade that made it look to the guy on the street as if they let him go for a Snickers bar, was how it was handled.

"Nobody called, nobody said anything," he said. "The day before I was told, I was with plenty of team people who could have given me a heads-up. I found out when my agent called me."

The Clippers, of course, consider this was a great acquisition. Camby averaged 13.1 rebounds and 3.6 blocks a game last season, along with 9.1 points on a team that had more gunners than a field full of duck hunters. Dunleavy said Camby will be the power forward alongside incumbent center, and strong rebounder, Chris Kaman.

Camby is especially adept at helping out and clogging the middle on defense, a skill born of necessity on the Nuggets, a team that features several players who have never guarded anything closely except their wallets. We won't name names, but two of them are spelled Allen Iverson and Carmelo Anthony.

Dunleavy laughed when Camby talked about his former teammates, how much he will miss them and how much they said they'd miss him.

"They should miss him," the coach said. "He saved their [butts] every night."

Now, the only question remaining is whether he can do the same for the Clippers.

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Bill Dwyre can be reached at bill.dwyre@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Dwyre, go to latimes.com/dwyre.