What Ben Wallace was to defense, Chauncey Billups was to offense. He was not just the offensive conductor of the championship Detroit Pistons, but he was one of the most gifted offensive point guards in the NBA.
Wallace was, perhaps a touch more dominant, and he was certainly more celebrated. He had the huge afro, the bulging muscles and the emphatic blocks. He had the bell that tolled every time he did something amazing.
Billups had none of that. He was a quiet, deadly assassin nonetheless. His game was cerebral. Surgical. Precise. He wasn't a high-flyer, he didn't have a killer crossover, and he didn't take too many contested fadeaway 20-footers.
Instead, he, as Larry Brown said, "played the right way." He took care of the ball. He found open teammates. He was deadly from the perimeter. He got to the free-throw line a lot and hardly ever missed. It might not be sexy but it was effective.
And almost universally underappreciated.
Billups was the best point guard in the NBA from 2002-2008, period. If you tell a causal, or even committed NBA fan this, he will likely scoff. Sure, he was good, but he was never great. Wrong.
He was overshadowed by flashier players -- Allen Iverson and Steve Nash. Jason Kidd and Stephon Marbury. But he was better than all of them. They had more All-Star appearances, scoring titles, highlight plays. They had the MVP awards, but Billups never finished higher than fifth.
That year a fellow point guard named Steve Nash won his second consecutive MVP award. The only problem was that Billups probably had a better season that year.
Yes, Nash orchestrated the seven seconds or less Suns offense. But he didn't play quality defense. He never got to the free-throw line and he turned it over much more than Billups. If you look at the advanced metrics for that season and look at the two players, Nash edges out Billups as a shooter, but it's close. Not many people understood True Shooting Percentage back then, but it is the best measure of offensive production -- account for field goals, 3-pointers and free throws. At the time, most people just paid attention to Field Goal Percentage, and here Nash was a clear winner 51.2 percent to 41.8 percent. But the advanced stats tell the whole story:
Billups | Nash | |
TS% | .602 | .632 |
3PAr | .420 | .324 |
FTr | .514 | .264 |
AST% | 39.3 | 44.4 |
STL% | 1.3 | 1.1 |
TOV% | 12.0 | 19.0 |
USG% | 22.9 | 23.3 |
OWS | 12.7 | 10.3 |
DWS | 2.8 | 2.1 |
WS | 15.5 | 12.4 |
WS/48and | .254 | .212 |
OBPM | 6.9 | 5.4 |
DBPM | -2.2 | -1.6 |
BPM | 4.7 | 3.7 |
VORP | 4.9 | 4.0 |
It's the same story if you look at the Billups era in Detroit. No point guard was better at getting to the free-throw line. Few point guards could match Billups' ability to simultaneously distribute and protect the ball. Few point guards were as deadly from the perimeter.
No point guard had more overall Win Shares and no point guard had more Win Shares per 48 minutes. Billups was not only the offensive soul of the Going to Work era, he was the best point guard in the NBA during his time in Detroit. Period.
He might not have gotten the accolades, but he deserves enshrinement in the Palace rafters. He was criminally underrated, but he gets his due tonight. Finally.