By Kevin Sawyer
Well, it’s that time of year again. No, not Christmas, and I am so offended that you made assumptions about my religion. It’s time to stuff the ballot box with votes for Piston players carefully consider and cast your vote for the 2008 all-star lineup. You know this, of course, you have probably already voted at least once, and I’m certainly preaching to the choir… But nonetheless, here is my case for Chauncey Billups to start in the NBA all-star game.
As I’ve stated before, Chauncey is having the best year of his career, producing his best numbers with slightly less playing time than usual. However, the guard position in the East has been pretty top-loaded, with luminaries like Wade and Arenas, and high-scorers like Iverson and Redd. But this year, Billups unquestionably deserves your vote. More so than any other guard in the East, Chauncey Billups should be starting in the all star game.
What Billups does is often under appreciated. His contribution is a product of his efficiency. In particular, his ability to get to the line (augmented by a gaudy free throw percentage), combined with his ability to hold on to the ball make him one of the deadliest offensive threats in the NBA. Take Sunday’s game against the Warriors as an example. His stat-line might look unspectacular: nineteen points with two assists and six rebounds. But he scored those nineteen points while taking only five shots.
Is efficiency what we are looking for in the all star game? I think so. How much do YOU enjoy watching players loft alley-oop passes into the 10th row? The first time, it’s funny. The second time, I’m going to get a beer.
And there’s storyline value. Imagine Chauncey hooking up with Garnett for a killer drive, dish and dunk. Cut to a shot of a pensive Kevin McHale, visions of Marko Jaric dancing in his head.
Of course, none of this takes into consideration that Billups is a top-tier defender.
And let’s examine the guard situation in the East for a moment. Let’s take it as a given that Dwyane Wade is getting in. Arguably the best player in the NBA when healthy. No protest here. But the rest of the list is problematic.
We have Ray Allen, the brilliance of whose team is overshadowing what is easily the worst year of his career. The world’s most famous three point specialist isn’t shooting any better than Billups from the outside and it isn’t for lack of open looks.
Gilbert Arenas seems well-positioned to win the Vince Carter memorial “is anyone even paying attention to this game?” vote. He was playing lousy basketball even before a knee injury, um, freed up more time for blogging.
It’s a good thing the all-star ballot lists the Western Conference first, sparing the league office from having to answer 200,000 phone calls complaining that Allen Iverson isn’t on it. Some fans will probably waste their vote on Michael Redd, a one-dimensional player for a mediocre team, and pat themselves on the back for being savvy fans.
And then there’s Jason Kidd, who is (say it with me folks) NEARLY AVERAGING A TRIPLE-DOUBLE! Nonetheless, he is averaging 11 ppg on 37% shooting. Triple doubles (and migraines) aside, he isn’t even outplaying Vince Carter, another likely recipient of pure name-recognition votes.
Further, Billups falls victim to the notion that the Pistons play as a team. It is true that the Pistons play great team ball… It’s just the Billups plays it a little better than the other starters. Even the alphabet is unkind, giving careless fans two easy picks (Allen and Arenas) before they get to “Billups, Chauncey”.
So it isn’t enough for us to simply stuff ballot boxes. We have to evangelize for our boy. Tell your cocky Cavs fan friends to do the right thing. Tell suicidal Blazers devotees that a Billups vote will help them in the afterlife. I’ve done my part, having already sent an e-mail to all six Minnesota basketball fans, making the case for the former Timberwolf.
Let’s get it done.
I’ve long been part of the Contrarian Camp regarding Chauncey. When he got the Finals MVP, I remember feeling angry amid what should have been pure joy for another Larry O’Brien trophy. To this day I still truly hate the “Mr. Big Shot” moniker, because he is NOT Robert Horry (who somehow never misses in the last mintue of a game). Chauncey doesn’t really deserve some sort of name praising his big shot production, because it was in the past. He makes some big shots unquestionably (a lot more back in the two seasons we were in the Finals), but I’d say he misses probably as many as he makes (blown call-should be turnover and subsequent missed 3 in the last minute of the Houston game last week ring a bell?). And that’s not criteria for a “Mr. Big Shot”.
BUT, as much as I have lamented about Pistons’ fans passivity in accepting Chauncey as a stud, savior, team MVP, Finals, or even league MVP (not reality) or whatever designation you wish to bestow upon him, THIS season he deserves some serious dap. This year, yes, I would say in the Eastern Conference, he deserves to start. There is no one playing better than him at PG in the East. And he is playing some of, if not the absolute best, ball of his career.
If someone wants to tell me he’s better than Chris Paul, or Steve Nash, I might have to go back to being a contrarian on Chauncey (as I perceive a great deal of my frsutration is directed at Piston fans’ superfluous, blind praise over the past few years). The guy owns the East and he’s probably having his best season ever, but he’s not even an automatic Top 3 PG in the league, and he’s maybe a Top 5 but at least an argument could be made that the following are all better than him: Nash, Parker, Williams, Paul, Davis. I’m not going to make that argument. It’s irrelevant, because we’re winning and he’s one of or THE major reason. This is supposed to be praise for Chauncey from a guy who is almost always reticent to give it out, but can ardent Chauncey fans please stop talking about ‘05-’06 and how he deserved more MVP consideration (because he didn’t at all), please? Let’s live in the present REALITY, where Chauncey and the Pistons as a whole are getting it done.
Oh and, good article Kevin
ESPN’s John Hollinger’s PER ratings for Point Guards were just posted yesterday. It has Paul at #1 and Chauncey at #2.
Food for thought.
Here is the link:
http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/statistics?sort=per&qual=true&pos=pg&seasonType=2&action=upsell&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsider.espn.go.com%2fnba%2fhollinger%2fstatistics%3fsort%3dper%26qual%3dtrue%26pos%3dpg%26seasonType%3d2
re:LawyerBoy
As Slate gets into, Big Shot Bob/Rob has also missed a high-percentage of potential game winners:
http://www.slate.com/id/2121018/
In his own words:”If I hit it we win, if I miss y’all are going to blame the stars for losing the game anyway. There’s no pressure on me.”
I think people are more likely to remember the ones that go down rather than the ones you miss, unless it’s like a dunk. Or if your body language is terrible and its clear you don’t want to be out there.
On a similar note, the Stones come in at 3rd on Marc Stein’s Power Rankings this week (5th last week). We passed the Magic and the Suns and sit behind Boston and San Antonio respectively. I don’t know if the 25th game of the season can be considered “big”, but I can’t really accept treating this showdown as “just another game”. I want this win quite badly, and preferably with Ray Allen in the lineup.
All I know is when Billups plays head to head with Nash. He always comes up on top.
OK, ballot’s posted:
http://d2.myfreefilehosting.com/d2/AllStar.JPG
Greetings from Bulgaria
Chauncey looks like he’s lost a step to me. And the days are over when I was shocked whenever he missed a pull up three.
But, his performance in Finals against the Spurs was amazing. Flawless. If they didn’t let Bowen manhandle him in Game 5, Sheed’s blunder wouldn’t have mattered.
I think the mention of Christmas at the begining of this article is offensive to Muslims and continues to be part of Kevin S’s vast conspiracy to insult Nazr Mohammed AND Jason Kidd (who is not Muslim but hates Christmas, just ask him).
As for the article, it sorta reminds me of something Bill Simmon’s wrote once on ESPN (though I say that meaning well, sometimes Bill’s observations are hardly those of a great writer but in this case he was spot on). Basically he was bemoaning the combination of the 1 and 2 guard spots into one All Star catagory “Guard”. Basically this was done because there are about a BILLION deserving 2 guards in the West every year and nobody wants to hear about how Tracy McGrady missed the All Star game because Kobe was just that much better. After watching the game that year he came up with the idea that each conference should name 2 “point” guards per squad, and no matter WHAT at least one of them HAD to be on the floor by rules mandate. I think he had Kidd/Billups for the East and Nash/Someone Who’s Name Escapes me for the west as suggestions. His arguement of course was that it simply made for a BETTER game to have distribution first PG’s on the team and running the offences, from an entertainment standpoint… even though fans would ALWAYS vote for the biggest names.
I think Kevin is absolutely right that Billups deserves serious consideration for the starting PG spot on the east team. I also thought Bill Simmons was absolutely right about the whole “Guard” slot on the All Star ballot being a mistake…Otoh this is the NBA so I won’t be suprised at all at all when the starting “Guards” for the east are Vince Carter and Dwyane Wade.
Still, good analysis or not, absolutely nothing is going to prevent Nazr from “going Jihad on Kevin’s ass”. (Seriously, I’m saving that line for the rest of my life).
If this Yahoo! article is any indication, Kenny Smith’s basketball analysis is horrible. Smith ranks the PGs this season:
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=ArAg6VYaQce0ltYTnvnLXTC8vLYF?slug=ks-pointguards121807&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
Chauncey is ahead of Chris Paul AND Deron Williams and Williams is ahead of Paul. Chauncey ahead of Deron Williams? Okay, an argument can be made, I suppose. But Chris Paul behind both of them? Whatever. I’m a big fan of David West, but he is NOT Carlos Boozer. Paul is making that team go, and he makes his free throws (*cough* Deron *cough*), which is invaluable. And damn you Kenny Smith for trying to solidify the Mr. Big Shot moniker for Chauncey’s (often absent) clutch shooting.
And oh yeah, he has Kidd as the 1a to Nash’s 1. HA. That’ll go over well here.