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Chauncey, again.
I recently posted a defense of Chauncey Billups to this list and pretty much
got blasted by the people I was rebutting. My point was this. You can not
evaluate a player's abilities based on box scores alone. Yes, I look at them
too and belong to a fantasy league. But this tells you very little about a
player's skills. I know not everyone on this list can watch all the games, and
you still have valid opinions, but what is the point of just endlessly quoting
statistics that anyone can find at NBA.COM or in their newspaper.
The problem someone had with my post was that they couldn't understand when I
said that Billups had a 'sweet' shot, or that he was 'composed'. I don't see
the problem here. I've watched lots of players over the years, as have the
rest of you. We can all tell a shooter from a non-shooter. It sometimes has
little to do with percentages. Dennis Johnson was not a shooter, but I believe
he probably had a pretty respectable percentage because he took smart shots.
I would love to hear some opinions of who else we should have taken if not
Billups. Maybe Antonio Daniels. He seems to be doing better so far, and is
about the same size. Obviously Pitino thought Chauncey has more potential.
What do you think? Were there any big men taken after #2 that are doing well?
No one really leaps to mind. I think we got the best mid-size player available
in Mercer. He deserved to be taken at number three. Maybe Pitino was too
smart for his own good when he talked down Mercer to move him to number six.
I'm willing to listen to criticism about Billups, in fact I'll level some
myself. He doesn't know what he's going to do with the ball when he takes it
to the hole. He can finish and he can pass, he just hasn't been making very
good decisions so far. Do we need a point guard to make good decisions? YES.
Do I wish we were able to get him in the draft? YES. Is he doomed to be a
lousy player because right now his shooting percentage is .368 and he commits
2.3 turnovers per game? Absolutely not. I see enough skills in his game to
give hope that he can develop into a solid starting NBA player, which is more
than can be said for Bowen, Knight, Declercq and most of the rest of the
Celtics right now. I think he will improve as the team improves around him.
Please, tell me what you think, not what his statistics are.
Jim