How About Chauncey Billups?
I know that we may be a bit late in covering this, but I felt that it was very apropos given the current state of the Cavaliers. As you all know, the Detroit Pistons have been bounced from the Eastern Conference Finals yet again. While I wish it was at the hands of the Cavs, you can’t help but think that they are just as frustrated as Clevelanders are. They’ve fired their coach, and GM Joe Dumars is not happy.
How unhappy? Well, it looks like he’s blowing up the team – the same team that has been atop the Central for as long as I can remember. The one that won a Championship not all too long ago, and the one that features several All-Stars each year. At the the top of the list of players likely to be moved?
Point guard Chauncey Billups.
Billups is most likely to go because teams covet point guards more than any other position, and the Pistons have two of them.
The Pistons believe Rodney Stuckey can be an elite point guard – sooner rather than later. Billups, meanwhile, is still an All-Star caliber player. Anybody with a young roster and a hole at point guard would have to be interested in him.
Billups has four years left on his contract, but the last year is not guaranteed. He is owed $36.3 million over the next three years – reasonable by the NBA’s unreasonable standards. So he is highly tradeable.
The article discusses Billups’ lack of defense and tendancy to not lead, but to that I say, “so?” Points to consider:
- We need a point guard
- Billups is owed a lot less money than Michael Redd, a guy at the top of most fans’ lists
- He creates his own shot
- Poor defense is still better than we’ve seen from Cavaliers point guards in the past
- He hits free throws at one of the best clips in the league
- He’s played against other Eastern Conference teams for years, so there would not be a lot of transition needed
I could go on for a while, but I think I’ve made my feelings pretty clear. Yes, we have Delonte West in the “resigning” wings, but I think the possibility of Billups being traded should put him above a ton of players that could be on the Danny Ferry short list. Would the Pistons be apprehensive about dealing Billups to a conference foe? You betcha. In fact, he’d likely go West – but we can still try, right?
Of course, the big catch might be the fact that we don’t exactly have anything that the Pistons would want…
What are your thoughts? I think Billups is the quintessential guard that would flourish in our system, despite not playing the best defense in the world. Given Redd’s injuries over the last few years, would you put Billups above him on the “want” list?
Let’s hear it…
Billups, ‘Sheed most likely to go [Detroit Free Press]
June 5th, 2008 at 10:13 am
Why not? It’s curious to imagine what we’d have to give up, although it would most likely be worth it, barring some insane demands by Dumars.
Given the playmaking ability that Billups have, he’d be a big step up from DW. I think although he doesn’t necessarily play D, the Cavs have been able to play good shutdown D as a team with guys at the 1 spot that aren’t exactly Gary Payton.
June 5th, 2008 at 10:16 am
Well with what hes getting paid it would be a steal to land him. I’m a huge Delonte fan though and would like to keep him as well, I’m not sure if he would be happy coming off the bench again although we could move him to the 2.
With Billups’ ability to hit clutch shots when it counts I think bringing him in would really make Gibson expendable, so we could shop Boobie around (perhaps he would be part of a deal to get Billups).
I still like the thought of getting a powerhouse scorer like Redd or Baron Davis so that we have someone other than Lebron that can consistently put up 20 a night.
June 5th, 2008 at 10:23 am
The only real assets we have to trade are expiring contracts, and possibly Daniel Gibson. I don’t see why Detroit would be that interested in trading for Wally’s contract, or Ben Wallace’s. (Although if there is a team in the league that might take Ben why not his old one…)
June 5th, 2008 at 10:34 am
Oh, they wouldn’t. As I’ve discussed with Natalie from Need4Sheed, they’re not having a fire sale. I just thought it would be worth adding another name to the list of guys that could be on the move this off-season.
June 5th, 2008 at 10:56 am
Taking all into consideration, especially the fact that its pretty clear that the franchise wants a championship NOW, I would say the more reasonable choice is Billups. Redd maybe a better choice a year or two from now (or never), but Billups would be another proven veteran with Finals experience on the Cavs. Do I want to see another Piston on our team–not particularily–but I enjoy even less not watching the Wine and Gold play in June.
June 5th, 2008 at 11:03 am
Redd got his stats on a team with a much worse supporting cast and most likely had the opposing teams best defender on him every game. Billups had talent all around him and Hamilton and Prince were probably taking the opposing teams best defenders…….just a little to think about.
June 5th, 2008 at 11:19 am
I think Redd’s the better choice.
June 5th, 2008 at 11:24 am
Thats just because you have “Bucks” in your name…
June 5th, 2008 at 11:33 am
The link needs fixed for firefox, one to many h in http.
Rasheed would be awesome, but we don’t have much to offer.
I would love to see something worked for Tayshaun. I’ve always loved watching him play and don’t understand why Detroit would want to part with him. So what if he gets overpowered by a handful of players, put LeBron on them. I feel he’s a solid 3rd option though, we would still need an all-star.
With Billups we’d also get an expiring contract in 2 years (when he’s going on 35), so for a 2 year pickup I like it the more I think about it. However, with out an offensive coordinator he’s just going to end up standing on the other side of the court while LeBron dribbles 10 sec off the clock before hoisting up a 3.
June 5th, 2008 at 11:59 am
Link is fixed, thanks for the heads up.
Not sure what the fans here would think of Rasheed. But he does seem like one of those guys that you can only like if he’s on your team. Similar to Brendan Haywood.
June 5th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Chauncey would be a nice addition, but I just can’t fathom a scenario where Dumars sends him to Cleveland. (Unless he felt we were getting hammered on the deal.)
Tayshaun is a nice player, but again he’s not really the Pistons’ problem.
Just say no to Rasheed. So much talent wasted. Inside and outside game to boot, but he’s nowhere near a Garnett or Duncan impact.
June 5th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Just say no to Rasheed!!! He is always an explosion away from costing the team a game.
Michael Redd = a much younger player who has had more experience making his own shots against better defenders.
Other news, Jermaine O’neal (or his agent) stated in a press conference that he expects to be traded to the Cav’s in the offseason.
So id Danny Ferry DOES grow a pair and get these trades done….what would our starting line-ups be?
PG Delonte West
SG Michael Redd
SF Lebron James
PF Ben Wallace
C Jermaine O’Neal
If O’neal and Redd can stay healthy and Wallace can avoid “allergy” problems this would be a very strong move to make something happen now.
June 5th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
The Pistons don’t want to do anything that would make us better, so theres not even a remote possibility of any trading going on between Detroit and Cleveland. 2 rivals never trade with each other. And Sheed is done, he is over the hill, he is a cancer, and he might be the player I hate the most in the NBA. They wouldn’t want expiring contracts anyways, they want to win now. They wouldn’t want Ben, they didn’t want to pay him this money a few years ago I don’t think they would want to now. I’d love Billups, but this just won’t happen
And I think its really unfair that the only thing holding us back has been Ferry lacking testicular fortitude. What if he had pulled the trigger on the Mike Bibby trade last offseason? That would have been a disaster. Trades are hard to pull of in the NBA and we don’t exactly have a lot of pieces to make a trade happen (which is def Ferry’s own fault)
June 5th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
And am I the only one worried about Michael Redd? He had his worst season in a few years last year, and he is an awful defender. He has never shot 40% from 3 in his career. Wil, I don’t know what you are talking about when you say he is much younger than Billups and has more experience making shots against better defenders. Billups is 31 and still has some good years left, and Billups has experience actually winning a championship and going deep in the playoffs every year, has Redd ever been in the playoffs? All Billups does is create his own shots, he is a pg, and he does it against the best teams in the playoffs. I also really don’t want them to trade Boobie, we do not have a lot of good role players, but he is one of them and he is one of the best 3 pt shooters in the game. And LeBron loves him. We have to keep him
June 5th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
Ricky, Billups is 3 years older than Redd. Redd is at the prime age for an NBA player (28) while Billups is already 3 years past that. Billups is an awful defender also……..however Billups is not guarding the other teams primary scorer while Redd is most of the time. Billups had a much better supporting cast to keep defenses from pressuring him……Michael Redd did not. It is much easier to create when the defense has people like Rasheed Wallace, Tayshaun Prince , Antonio McDyess, and Richard Hamilton to worry about compared to Andrew Bogut, Charlie Villanueva, Desmond Mason, and Mo Williams.
June 5th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
I do not want O’Neal. He’s a clubhouse cancer, injury prone (games over last 4 years 44, 51, 69, 42), his points and rebounds are way down. If we did get him Z would start at the 5 and O’Neal would start at the 4.
I don’t think it’s fair to completely blame Ferry for a lack of pieces. He hasn’t any draft picks to work with because of Paxton, but he did overspend. He has shown a willingness to take some chances, if you keep chasing mistakes with bigger chances you end up like the Knicks.
June 5th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Adam, In the previous rumors Big Z and Sideshow Bob were what the Cav’s would be giving up. That’s why I didn’t add Big Z into the starting line-up. I would love to get rid of Wallace and Sideshow…..but I don’t think the Pacers would want Wallace’s contract.
June 5th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
im not saying a trade for o’neal and/or redd is out of the questions. However, 1) i dont see the cavs trading Z at all. i just dont see it happening. 2. why would either the pacers or the bucks want to take on Z, an aging center with a large contract (2 more years after this?) on the downside of his career? it woudnt make sense for either team to try and rebuild by taking on someone like Z and his contract.
June 5th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
I don’t get some people’s fascination with Redd. Is it the OSU tie-in? He could’ve come here if he wanted but he chose the money. He’s not the right wing man for LeBron. Ricky is right on, Pistons will not deal with their arch rival and why should we trade them Boobie to see him torch us for years down the road? Let’s be patient and think this through but Ferry better be ready to pull the trigger soon.
June 5th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
I often wonder the same thing, Dave. I do believe that the OSU tie has a LOT to do with the demand for the guy. I think that Clevelanders just like area guys. Joe J, LeCharles, Quinn, etc.
I think choosing the money over the location was his motive a few years ago. Now he realizes that he’d like to win as well – since he already has the contract. Best of both worlds – you know?
June 5th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
the fascination with redd is very simple…he’s an outstanding shooter who stretches the floor, can create his own shot and take some pressure off of LeBron. for his career, as a jump shooter, he shoots 45% from the floor, 39% from the 3 and 85% from the line, and averages over 20 ppg. how does that confuse people?
large NO to any trade for o’neal, for all the reasons that adam said, in addition to which moving Z and AV for o’neal would demolish our frontcourt depth. plus, there is absolutely no way the cavs have the pieces or the stomach for the luxury tax to pull off trades for both redd and o’neal.
finally, billups would be fine, but i’d rather have redd. and while i know this is sort of fantasy-ish, it’s hard to get past the fact that the cavs and pistons would pretty much never ever ever deal with each other.
June 5th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
Here is the lineup that I would LIKE to see:
PG Ty Lawson Backup = Delonte West
SG Michael Redd Backup = Daniel Gibson
SF Lebron James Backup = Devin Brown
PF Jermaine O’neal Backup = Joe Smith
C Zydrunas Ilgauskas Backup = Ben Wallace
I do realize everything would have to work out perfectly for this.
June 5th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
If we’re going to summon the OSU pipe dream, why not end up with Mike Conley?
Or hell, why not just go for broke and call up Scoonie Penn?!?!
Hang on Scoonie, Scoonie hang on!
June 6th, 2008 at 12:07 am
Redd only shot 35% from 3 last year…that isn’t that great when what your best at is shooting and you are making a max contract. And Billups isn’t that great of a defender, but Redd is literally one of the worst defenders in the league. He has no lateral quickness. Also Mo Williams is a good PG and does a good job of setting up Redd, although LeBron would obviously be better at that. Don’t get me wrong though, he is good and would make this team better, but he isn’t the #1 guy I would want but it all depends on who is available (Baron Davis is who I really want). I wouldn’t go as far as to call him an outstanding shooter…but maybe I am just more strict when it comes to handing out praise. He did have the 8 ranked PER for SG’s last year though….higher than T-Mac, Rip, and Joe Johnson. That is indeed quality, which i suppose goes against what I was just saying.
And if we draft Ty Lawson, which I think I would be happy with, he wouldn’t start right away. Probably not even for 2 years. PGs take some time to develop, especially those drafted at the 19 spot. He might even struggle as a backup for a year, it took Jordan Farmar a year to become decent. And you can say goodbye to Devin Brown, if we do want him back he probably wouldn’t want to come back since he didn’t get any PT in the playoffs
June 6th, 2008 at 11:34 am
This just goes to show you how badly Cleveland has spent their money:
http://games.espn.go.com/nba/features/traderesult?players=2779~406~2172~788~796~831~2419~885~110~996~2384~862&teams=5~3~19~19~13~13~19~13~5~5~5~5&te=&cash=
They are paying enough that their starting line-up could be:
PG Chris Paul (although this will probably change when he gets a new contract)
SG Kobe Bryant
SF Lebron James
PF Pau Gasol
C Dwight Howard
and still have Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Delonte West, Devin Brown, and Daniel Gibson (although his new contract will probably be up a lot higher also)
Remember I’m just showing that this is how much we are spending salary wise……in NO WAY am I suggesting this as an even close to possible trade.