Billups

[Chris Littlefield <chris@mjr.com>]

Hi, Sashi,

	While I am happy that Billups had a good game and agree that his
shot looks pretty good, he did shoot 5-13 from the floor last night and had
5 turnovers.

	I agree with the Billups as 2-guard argument.  He is not a point
guard.  He has an opportunity to be one of the better guards in the league,
a la another 6-3 guard by the name of Joe Dumars.  But Kenny Anderson, in
two games, has shown more point skills than Billups did in his 45 as a
Celtic.

	I think both teams benefitted from the trade, but I think the Celts
are decidedly better as a unit and a team with a rejuvenated Kenny Anderson
running the team than they are with Billups and Dee Brown dribbling slowly
up court, heads down.  And the logjam at guard has eased somewhat, which is
good.

	I'm also heading down the road to thinking that Walker might be
better suited as a small forward.  At least that's what Pitino seems to
think, as the small forward position is wide open.  Neither Minor, nor
McCarty, nor Jones provide real stiff competition at that position.  With
Kenny Anderson we have a legitimate upper tier veteran point guard.  With
Mercer we have a young All-Star in the making.  Walker is a young-All-Star,
albeit one in a pretty deep funk right now.  Bet he's thinking about the
money.

	This summer, an ideal situation would land us a top free agent and
a good draft pick (perhaps trading up?) to give us something vaguely
resembling a front line.  I personally like Austin better than Geiger, but
I think Austin's going to either Utah or Phoenix.

	Has anyone seen this kid Michael Olowokandi?  He's putting up good
numbers (21/11) in a weak division but in non-conference play he did well
against teams like Stanford, though they lost close games.

	Is he a legit 7-foot?  Is he mobile?  Does he have an NBA body? Any
info would be appreciated, 'cause if he's seen as a Foyle-type project, he
may slip up.  But maybe he wouldn't be a Foyle...


Chris




>------------------------------
>
>Date: Mon, 23 Feb 1998 10:13:08 -0600 (CST)
>From: Sashi Kumar <kumarsas@duke.usask.ca>
>Subject: Billups in Raptors' game
>
>I saw the whole Raptors' game vs Grizzlies yesterday. Billups had
>27 points, a career high. John Thomas did not dress for the game
>and Rogers did not play. Dee was okay and played major minutes.
>
>About Billups.....His shot was nice and smooth. He shoots with
>tremendous poise and confidence, especially for a 21 year old rookie.
>I am sure 6'3" or 6'4" he will always be a great shooting guard. May
>be Larry Brown knew this and wanted a backcourt tandem of Iverson
>and Billups as PG/SG intermixable players.
>
>But Billups decision making and playmaking [taking nothing away since
>he has to learn the raptor system if they really have one!!] seems not
>that great. I realise that he is only 21 with just 2 year college play.
>He again [as someone else pointed out here before] dribbled too much and
>lost too much of the 24 second clock; also did the same curse .... up in
>the air and lost in the paint stuff.
>
>In an interview Billups said that he was sad to leave Boston. He said
>that he had grown very close to Mercer, Dana and Pitino's family. He
>had only great stuff to say about Pitino.
>
>I wish Billups was still with Celts....hope that Kenny A. will prove
>that Celts did not get a bad trade.
>
>				Sashi
>