Chauncey Billups
Teams
Boston Celtics - 1997-98
Toronto Raptors - 1998
Denver Nuggets - 1998-00, 2008-11
Minnesota Timberwolves - 2000-02
Detroit Pistons - 2002-08, 2013-14
New York Knicks - 2011
Los Angeles Clippers - 2011-13
Playoffs
Appearances - 12 (2001,2002,2003,2004,2005,2006,2007,2008,2009,2010,2011,2013)
Conference Finals - 7 (2003,2004,2005,2006,2007,2008,2009)
NBA Finals - 2 (2004,2005)
Championships - 1 (2004)
Awards and Honors
Finals MVP - 1 (2004)
All-NBA Second Team - 1 (2006)
All-NBA Third Team - 2 (2007,2009)
*(actual in bold, deserved in italics)
All-Time Ranks
Free Throw Percentage - #5
Three-Pointers Made - #17
Total Assists - #46
Assists Per Game - #95
League Leads
Free Throw Percentage (#2-1999,2008,2011, #4-2009,2010, #5-2005)
Total Assists (#2-2006)
Assists Per Game (#4-2006)
Three-Pointers Made (#5-2006)
Chauncey Billups was one of the greatest high school basketball players in the history of the state of Colorado before enrolling at the University of Colorado, where he averaged 18.5 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 5.1 assists per game over 2 seasons before he decided to enter the NBA Draft, where he was selected #3 overall by the Boston Celtics.
His pro career got off to a rough start. He didn't fit well with Boston's scheme, so he was traded midway through his rookie season to the Toronto Raptors, where he finished off the year. In the offseason, he was traded again, this time to Denver, his hometown, where he averaged 13.9 points per game in his lone full season with the team.
He suffered a shoulder injury early in his third season, and was then traded to the Orlando Magic, where he spent the rest of the year but never played in a game. He signed as a free agent with Minnesota after the season, hoping to get a chance to get his career going.
He spent his first season with the Wolves backing up Terrell Brandon, but when Brandon got hurt the next year, Billups got the chance to start, and he started to show some promise, averaging 12.5 points and 5.5 assists per game. However, the team decided to stick with Brandon the next year, and Billups was allowed to leave as a free agent.
Billups joined his 6th team, the Detroit Pistons, to start off his sixth season, and that's when everything changed. He averaged 16.2 points in his first season with the team, then played a big role in the playoffs. He scored 40 and 37 in back-to-back games to end the first round, then guided them past the second round as well before they fell to New Jersey in the Conference Finals, which would become a familiar place for Billups.
The next year, he was able to help the Pistons avenge their loss to the Nets the previous season, this time in the second round, before pushing past the Pacers in one of the lowest-scoring series of all time to reach his first NBA Finals. The Pistons were able to surprise everyone by beating the heavily-favored Lakers in 5 games, and Billups won the Finals MVP with his average of 21 points per game in the series.
Billups and the Pistons nearly repeated the feat the following year, returning to the NBA Finals as defending champs, but they fell to the Spurs in 7 games. After that loss, Billups' personal performance took a big leap forward, and he had his best season in 2005-06, when he averaged 18.5 points and 8.6 assists and was named to the All-NBA Second Team for the only time in his career. Unfortunately, they failed to reach the NBA Finals, losing to Miami in the Conference Finals in 6 games.
Billups played 2 more full seasons in Detroit, leading them back to the Conference Finals 2 more times, making it 6 years in a row, but they fell in that round both times in 6 games, ending up short of the ultimate goal again. Just 2 games into the next season, Billups was traded back to the Nuggets, where he teamed up with Carmelo Anthony to guide Denver to their first Conference Finals since 1985, making it 7 in a row for him, the first player to do that without doing it with the Lakers or Celtics.
The next year, Carmelo had asked to be traded to New York, and in order to make the deal work, Billups had to be traded as well. The pair helped the Knicks reach the playoffs, but Billups was injured in the first playoff game and missed the remainder of the series, which New York lost. After the season, he was waived by the Knicks.
He was claimed off waivers by the Clippers, where he was moved to shooting guard to play alongside Chris Paul, but he played only 20 games that year after tearing his Achilles, and only 22 the next year with various injuries. He was not resigned after the season, so he signed with Detroit again, but was only able to play in 19 games because of knee injuries, and he decided to retire after that season.
For a point guard, Billups did not average a lot of assists, only dishing out more than 7 per game twice in his career, but he knew how to win, and he is one of a very small group of players to reach the Conference Finals in 7 straight seasons, and he also has a Finals MVP to his name. He averaged at least 15 points per game for an entire decade starting from the day he first arrived in Detroit, and he should be remembered as one of the greatest players of all time.
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