Let’s see, how much is a seven-footer worth? Not much, you say? What if that seven-footer is a still-productive center and a former Defensive Player of the Year? What if he averaged at least 3.0 blocks per game in each of the last four seasons? How about a minimum of 11.6 rebounds per game over the last three? Did I mention his amazingly affordable contract (two years, $15.7 million)?

So, how much is he worth?

Well, the Nuggets have decided that Marcus Camby is worth the right to swap future second round picks.

WHAT?!?

That’s right, the Nuggets have traded Camby to the Clippers, and that’s all they got. There are trades that are head-scratchers and there are trades that are simply mind-boggling. Like the Pau Gasol trade earlier this season, this particular trade is the latter.

Camby is 34 and has a history of injury, but he only missed 15 games in the last two seasons and his last five seasons (all in Denver) have been the best of his career. The Clippers get terrific interior defense and rebounding, two areas that were hurt by Elton Brand’s debacle of a departure. They were flirting with the idea of using their newfound cap space on Josh Smith and Andre Iguodala (hoping they could make an offer that the Hawks or the Sixers would be reluctant to match), but instead they used that money on Camby.

The team says it plans to play Camby alongside up-and-comer Chris Kaman, and it’s going to be interesting to see just how that works. Camby does have a little range on his jumper, but he’s not a power forward type that’s going to be able to space the floor. One positive is that Camby’s contract runs out before the vaunted free agent class of 2010 hits the market, so the Clippers should be in position to spend some money in two years. Regardless, Camby’s arrival should make the Clippers competitive in the West, but they’re still not in any danger of playing deep into the playoffs. Brand’s departure ensures that.

As for the Nuggets, this is a straight salary dump that virtually guarantees that the team will be less competitive in the short term. It seems like Denver’s management finally realized that the ‘Melo/AI marriage wasn’t going to get them anywhere, so now they’re trying to trim salary in an effort to rebuild around their youngsters (‘Melo, J.R. Smith, Linas Kleiza, and maybe Nene). They should have garnered more for Camby, but they didn’t want to take on any salary, so this might have been the best that they could do.

When asked to comment, head coach George Karl said the following…

“I’m not going to talk philosophically about what’s going on and why we did it,” Karl said. “I think all of us, Marcus and all the coaches, we’re going to have to think about it a little bit. It was a situation where I know that Marcus was a big part of our success. Any time you lose a player like Marcus, you’re going to have a tough time filling that void.”

I think if I were coaching the Nuggets and I just lost one of the few guys on the roster that had any real interest in playing defense, I’d be pretty ticked too. Karl sees the writing on the wall just like we do. His time in Denver looks like it’s winding down.