Tony Ronzone, Pistons international scout extraordinaire, thinks Chauncey Billups is a good fit to lead Team USA in the Olympics. From the Detroit News:
"Chauncey is just perfect," Ronzone said.
"He can adapt to any style of play. In the international game they play so much zone. That's one of the reasons we've been getting beat. They will run 1-3-1 zones, 1-2-2 zones, box-and-1, and they force your worst shooters to shoot the ball.
"With Chauncey, he's a guy that can penetrate and make plays, but he can make the long-distance shot. He's a guy that can really open the floor for our big guys.
"Remember how frustrated it was for Tim Duncan in the last Olympics? Teams were able to just lock down on him, and we didn't have enough shooters to make them pay for that. As good as Jason Kidd was, Chauncey will be better simply because of his ability to make shots and bring the defense out."
We first mentioned Ronzone in this space last week when he was named to Team USA, as an advance scout, but I didn't realize until reading this article that he was also in his first year as the Pistons' Director of Basketball Operations. Now he's not only on the list of guys I want to interview for this site, but from the sounds of things he's far more accessible than I thought. After first reading about him, I figured he'd be holed up in some tiny gym in Africa or South America, but if he's just down the street (relatively speaking) in Auburn Hills. . .
International instincts [Detroit News]