Posts tagged Chauncey Billups at FanHouse

As Watson noted earlier, Baron Davis has been mentioned in some pretty hefty mega-super-uber deal between the Warriors and the Pistons. The rumor is that an Al Harrington and Boom Dizzle for Rasheed Wallace and Chauncey Billups swap would go down. The problem?

Baron can still opt out of his contract, meaning the deal simply could not happen. But Dizzle, through his agent, appears content to get paid $17.8 million next year and stick with the Warriors.

"It doesn't seem likely," [Todd] Ramasar said. "The market could change anytime, but it's unlikely."

[...]"Baron's adamant about remaining a Warrior, but we've yet to come up with an extension," Ramasar said. "As of right now, there's no guarantee that those talks continue, and from a player's standpoint, it becomes emotional."

Here's the second catch -- Baron can't officially not opt out until next Tuesday. And because such a deal between the Pistons and the Warriors would almost certainly have to include a draft pick (as MW, the 14th pick seems reasonable).

Of course, those timelines don't exactly match up. But it's not like the Warriors can't simply pick who Detroit wants and then make the trade for Big Shot and 'Sheed immediately following Baron's decision.

Now, there's puh-lenty of risk involved with that, namely that Baron doesn't opt out. But you would have to figure that Joe Dumars and Chris Mullin would have the particulars worked out ahead of time. Either that or Dumars just told him to hit up on the swell piece Tuesday if he didn't do anything crazy tomorrow. (Read: this smells like a dead end).

When Joe Dumars put his entire roster on the block, he opened the door for a summer of crazy rumors. First came the Carmelo Anthony rumors, which became so rampant that 'Melo demanded an explanation from Denver's front office. Today's speculation du jour? Baron Davis to Detroit.

Geoff Lepper of the Contra Costa Times got the ball rollling by citing an unnamed source within the Warriors who indicates that the Pistons "are now looking at Davis" and would be willing to offer Chauncey Billups and Rasheed Wallace in return. In order to get the money right, Lepper speculates that Al Harrington, who's already thinking about requesting a trade, would be thrown into the mix.

As Tim Kawakami correctly notes, the Pistons would be getting the short end of the talent stick in a Davis/Harrington for Chauncey/Rasheed swap. Could the Warriors sweeten the pot by throwing in the 14th overall pick? Well, possibly, but this deal can't happen on draft day (read: tomorrow!) since Davis has until July 9 to decide if he's going to opt out of the final year of his contract. So unless the Warriors happen to pick someone the Pistons really like, that's a dead end, too.

In other words, there are simply too many moving parts in this deal to think everything could line up perfectly. Chris McCosky of the Detroit News called this rumor "a total fabrication." I won't go quite that far -- Lepper's source isn't just making things up for fun, right? -- but it's possible Detroit's interest has been exagerrated or distorted, much like their alleged "pursuit" of Anthony.

Keith Olbermann is now the poster boy for left wing political news commentary, via his Countdown show which airs nightly on MSNBC. But it didn't used to be that way. Olbermann spent over 20 years as a sports broadcaster, including five as an anchor on ESPN's SportsCenter. So it was a little surprising when, as they showed Chauncey Billups at the Gore-Obama rally in Michigan last night, Olbermann went flipping through his notes to try to figure out what team Billups plays for.



Here's a hint, Keith: the rally's in Detroit. It's not like Billups has toiled away in obscurity either, the guy has played in the Eastern Conference Finals for the last six years. I guess Keith is much like the rest of us, in that at times, our real job is all-consuming and leaves us little time to pay attention to sports.

[via Awful Announcing, obviously.]

Near the end of the Lakers' series-clinching Game 5 victory over the Spurs, chants of "We want Boston!" were said to have been heard at Staples Center. With the Spurs scoring under 100 points and a Laker victory in hand, it's possible that the chant was actually "We want tacos!" instead.

Let's go with the assertion though that the fans were calling for a match-up against the Celtics in the NBA Finals. Are they sure they'd rather face Boson than Detroit? Neither the Celtics nor the Pistons would be a dream matchup for the Lakers, considering both teams stress a defensive and physical style of play. But at this point you'd have to think that the Lakers would have a better time defeating the Pistons.

This Celtics team may not have the years of experience playing together this deep into the playoffs, but they're quickly showing that they have no problems winning close games against the league's best. Plus, Boston's strength is their league-leading defense and physical presence on the boards, something the Lakers aren't necessarily built to deal with. And even though Pau Gasol didn't play in either of the two meetings between the teams this season, the Celtics absolutely manhandled the Lakers in those games, winning both easily.

Every now and again there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the L. Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.

Kendrick Perkins set the tone early for the Celtics last night: he had 14 boards by halftime, or four more than the entire Detroit roster! He came back to earth over the final two quarters but remained a defensive presence and overall pest, eventually finishing with playoff career-high marks of 18 points and 16 boards. It's not often one of Boston's role players is the difference, but without Perkins, the Celtics don't win this game.

Of course, Perk going off on Detroit is nothing new: he set a regular season career-high back in March by grabbing 20 boards in a game against the Pistons. Sooner or later the Pistons will remember to keep a body on him -- if not in Game 6 on Friday, then perhaps next season.

Also Receiving Votes:
He's baaack! Ray Allen silenced his doubters on Wednesday by scoring 29 points, with over half of them coming off his 5-for-6 performance behind the three-point line.

Chauncey Billups put concerns about his health to rest, as well, by leading the Pistons with 26 points. His shot has been off as he's struggled with both his timing and his nagging hamstring injury, but he turned in a solid 7-for-17 night from the field, going 3-for-7 from long distance and 9-for-9 at the stripe.

All of the home team dominance this postseason ended up providing a lot of background spice for this series, because we assumed that the Celtics would probably win the first two in the New Garden. Then Detroit flat out grabbed the second game and seemed to take control of the series heading back to Detroit.

But you just knew Boston would come out strong after being embarrassed at home. Which they did, taking a 2-1 lead over the Pistons as only Rip Hamilton and Rodney Stuckey really shown for Detroit. Kevin Garnett was dominant again and someone decided to exhume Ray Allen, so we certainly have a series. But the biggest storyline is the "leash" that Chauncey Billups will deal with tonight, as Flip Saunders has made it known he is not scared to pull "Mr. Big" if he can't perform up to standards.

Momentum swings with every quarter and almost every full game in the playoffs, but two things could doom the Pistons tonight: a slow start and, from the obvious department, a loss. Heading back to Boston down 3-1 is not what you could call enviable.

And then there were four. In the latest of our continuing series, we look at the Eastern Conference Finals, Game 2 tonight between the Pistons and Celtics. Be sure to stop by later for our Live Blog of the game.

1. We're going streaking! If you haven't heard that Boston is 9-0 at home in the playoffs ... well, you haven't been watching the playoffs. Can they make it 10 in a row? That hasn't done since Michael Jordan's hey-day with the Bulls. After sitting for a week and showing plenty of rust in Game 1, the Pistons hope to play the role of spoiler. They've done it before: they gave Boston their first regular season home loss back in December.

2. Be aggressive ... While the Pistons went a whole week between games, Chauncey Billups went nearly two after sitting out nearly three whole games against the Magic with a strained hamstring. He wasn't quite 100% in the first game, but he needs to get past that mental block and quit being tentative. He attempted only six shots and finished with just two assists.

3. ... but not too aggressive. Rip Hamilton was fined by the NBA today for throwing an elbow at Kevin Garnett's temple in Game 1. The Pistons caught a huge break -- David Stern has suspended players for lesser offenses in the past. This is already a physical series, but you don't want to see things get too chippy. We've waited all year for these teams to meet -- you'd hate to see the series decided because someone went out and got themselves suspended.

Biggest Reason You Should Watch: This is the match-up we've wanted all season long: the new-look Celtics versus a Pistons team who's back in the Conference Finals for the sixth straight season. If you need a reason to watch the top two seeds in the Conference play a seven game series, I don't know what to tell you. I think there's hockey still going on or something.

Detroit Can Win If: They bring the energy right from the start of the series, and avoid prolonged offensive droughts on the road. When Detroit is focused and on their game, they're the better team. They'll need that focus, especially on the road, to take one from the Celtics in Boston.

Boston Can Win If: They can win on the road. I know that thy have home court advantage, so technically they don't have to win in Detroit. But the Pistons have a winning record on the road in the playoffs, and I fully expect them to get one in Boston.

NBA Essentials ranks our six favorite stories of the day.

1. NorthJersey.com: The Nets are talking trade for Carmelo Anthony, the Nuggets are listening. [via SLAM]

2. Dime: "Hornets Shutting Up the Haters"

3. The Sporting Blog: Deron Williams has a Twitter feed. Sure he does.

4. Third Quarter Collapse: Chauncey Billups sat out Game 5, but somehow got an assist anyway.

5. Deseret News: Could Andrei Kirilenko get deported before Game 6?

6. Channing Frye's Blog: Advice on keeping the ladies happy.

Notes from a trip to the NBA Playoffs.

About 45 minutes before Game 5 between the Pistons and Magic tipped off Tuesday night, Rashard Lewis and I had a conversation about his team's string of bad luck, how competitive the series has been and the role Detroit's experience plays in determining the outcome. As you know by now, his hopes of extending the series were dashed, but Lewis did correctly call yet another hard-fought game.

Matt Watson: Coach [Stan Van Gundy] was talking just now about how one or two plays can kind of change the tone of an entire series. Do you kind of feel like you guys have come up on the short end of the stick a couple of times?

Rashard Lewis: Yeah, the ball hasn't been bouncing our way. We feel like we're a better team than what the series says, 3-1. Turnovers, offensive rebounds, just one point away from the series being tied 2-2. Unfortunately, it's 3-1 and hopefully we can try to get this win tonight and take it back to Orlando.

MW: When you factor in the whole plane troubles, it seems like nothing has been going your way this entire time.

RL: Yeah, nothing has been going our way. It's been a little bumpy for us, but at the same time, it's not over yet. Hopefully we can get some luck tonight and throughout the rest of this series, and maybe we can turn this around. We can't get the bad end of the stick every night.