Oh Yeah, I Forgot. He's Good.

In credit to last night's announcing crew for Heat-Knicks, the always good Hubie Brown/Mike Tirico combo, pointed out Chauncey Billups was not a mere throw in to sweeten the Carmelo deal, but was actually key. Basically when it comes to announcing crews, you don't want them to screw up the game; don't be annoying, don't fall back on tired cliches. What you say might not always be conducive with stats, but whatever, the educated audience understands the limitations. So while I didn't agree with everything Hubie said last night, I did appreciate his explanation and rationale behind his statements, rather than "Billups is a solid veteran" tired bullshit. What I did agree with was that Billups makes this deal work for the Knicks, and allows them to be competitive, instead of Melo/Amare and a junk-pile. I watched the game with a friend, who echoed the sentiments of my cousin who texted me when the deal went down, which were "Billups is old and sucks/not very good." But Billups sparked a 2nd quarter run that got the Knicks back in the game, as well as hit a ballsy deep 3 that put the Knicks up for good. One game means little, but hopefully it reminds people, oh yeah, he IS good.

I looked more into Billups' career, the one with the trite late-bloomer tagline I've heard about ever since he joined the Pistons. When people who aren't Hubie Brown talk about Billups, they aren't good enough at their job to come up with anything better than "he just wins! His numbers won't blow you away, nor will his athleticism, but he's a winner!" Do you know why he wins? Because he's good! He has good numbers. Since the 3 point line was installed (a big part of his game) in 1979-80, of the point guards to play at least 300 games, Billups is 10th in PER. Those claiming PER isn't the end-all method are right, and that's because PER doesn't account for defense. Well, in that regard, Billups gets screwed because he's one of the best defensive PGs of his generation, along with a younger Jason Kidd and Gary Payton. The list of 3-point era PGs goes as follows:

1. Chris Paul
2. Magic Johnson
3. John Stockton
4. Kevin Johnson
5. Steve Nash
6. Gilbert Arenas
7. Terrell Brandon
8. Mark Price
9. Sam Cassell
10. Chauncey Billups

You could make a convincing argument Billups should jump everybody below Stockton if you accounted for his defensive prowess. 1.2 PER points separate Billups and Nash, but Nash was/is nowhere near Billups' area code defensively.

When Billups was being bounced from Boston, to Toronto, to Denver, to Minnesota over the course of 4 seasons, he posted respective PERs of 15.4, 11.1, 15.1, 10.5, 14.1. You're doing okay when you hit the 15 range, but that isn't star material, and it's borderline starter material. In those early years, Billups struggled with efficiency, and consistently assisting teammates.

But when he became viable in Detroit. Ironically, his worst year in Detroit was his least efficient, when they won the championship. Still, his PER was 18.6. His statistical prime was a 3 year stretch of 23.4, 21.3, 23.6 PERs. His True Shooting Percentage frequented in the 59% range, peaking at 62%. He's traditionally good in regards to turnovers, Usage Rate, and posting solid Assist Rates. So his teams don't win because he's heady or has some mystic qualities to will his team to victory; he wins because he's posted a 19.1 career PER!

So there you go. More than a throw-in. A top historically good PG, arguably top 10, still playing at a high level. He's most certainly a valuable commodity that may have the Knicks in a better position than some realized.