Floor general: Nuggets' Billups commands respect

Team rallies around leadership of true point guard

By Chris Tomasson, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published December 1, 2008 at 8:47 p.m.

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Photo by Garrett W. Ellwood / Getty Images

Chauncey Billups, right, pictured with Nene, sees the point guard as "the temperature of your team. I think the team kind of takes on the personality of a point guard."

CORRECTION: A list of top point guards in Denver Rockets/Nuggets history with an earlier version of this story should have noted that the franchise has played 41 ABA and NBA seasons.

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Shine your shoes. Make sure the socks in your locker are properly rolled up.

Chauncey Billups has arrived. It's time for the Nuggets to make sure they're looking shipshape.

"It's like when a general walks into the room," Nuggets coach George Karl said of his new point guard. "When a leader walks into a room, there's a presence to him, and Chauncey has that."

Since Billups arrived in the Nov. 3 trade with Detroit in which the Nuggets dispatched Allen Iverson, a sense of order has been restored in Denver's barracks.

Not that it was McHale's Navy before. But the Nuggets hadn't had a true point guard since Andre Miller was sent to Philadelphia in the December 2006 deal that landed Iverson.

Iverson started at shooting guard in his Nuggets tenure, with Steve Blake first running the point and then Anthony Carter. But that wasn't getting the Nuggets where they wanted to go.

"It makes it easier for any team when you have a true point guard on the floor," said ESPN analyst Mark Jackson, a former point guard who led the NBA in assists while splitting 1996-97 with the Nuggets and Indiana. "Allen Iverson is a hell of a basketball player, but the Nuggets got away, the last year or so, (from) playing without a point guard on the floor."

Title on resume

The Nuggets went 50-32 last season in Iverson's only full year with the team. But they were quickly dispatched in the first round of the playoffs by the Lakers.

The thinking from Nuggets brass was a top point guard was needed to better distribute the ball, including to rising star Nene, who wasn't getting a lot of touches at center, and that the 6-foot-3 Billups would provide more of a defensive presence than the 6-foot Iverson.

"Chauncey guards. Iverson doesn't," said Clippers assistant Kim Hughes, an assistant during Billups' previous Nuggets stint of 1998-2000. "Chauncey's a big guard, so you don't need to help him out in the low post."

Billups also has a championship ring from 2004, when he was named Finals Most Valuable Player as the Pistons ousted the Lakers. Not that every day is show and tell in the locker room, but those on the Nuggets know what he has accomplished.

The Nuggets don't have another player who has won an NBA title. They're hoping Billups, 32, can lead them to the promised land.

"I think a point guard is basically the temperature of your team," Billups said. "I think the team kind of takes on the personality of a point guard, whether that's good or bad. So I just think a point guard is the most vital position in basketball."

The temperature of the Nuggets (12-6) now is white hot heading into tonight's game against the Toronto Raptors at the Pepsi Center. They're 11-3 since Billups put on a Denver uniform, including a 94-85 win Nov. 21 at defending champion Boston.

"We thought it would take time, but he's a great player," Nuggets forward Kenyon Martin said. "He came in and he's receptive with everything that's going on. He stayed late to learn the plays and all the extra stuff. . . . That tells you the type of person he is and the type of player he is."

Extra ingredient

Billups is averaging 18.6 points and 6.7 assists for the Nuggets. But just as important have been the intangibles he has brought.

The Nuggets have won games when he has shot 2-of-13, 2-of-10 and 7-of-23. They've won when he has had three and four assists.

"He's making every possession count," Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony said. "When you have a point guard like that, that has the ball in his hand as much as he does, the way we play changes. The whole pace of the game. The whole tempo of the game.

"A guy like that, who has won a championship and is known around the NBA as one of the top point guards, that respect comes with it."

Having such a point guard is making it easier for Karl. On the day Billups was acquired, Karl said without a true point guard "you have directorship of maybe 80 percent" of the game but predicted it would drop to "a little more than half" with Billups.

"The really good point guards have instinctive decision-making that just happens," Karl said.

But it didn't happen overnight for the Denver native and former University of Colorado star. After being drafted with the No. 3 pick by Boston in 1997, it has been well chronicled how Billups bounced around, playing for five teams before he found his niche after arriving in Detroit in 2002.

"It took a lot of studying," said Billups, regarded as more of a combo guard early in his career. "Not just myself, but studying other players, studying what guys did at certain times of the game. Just a lot of homework that brought me the knowledge of the game I have today."

Perhaps the most influential teacher for this aspiring pupil was Larry Brown, the Hall of Fame coach who once was a solid point guard in his own right. Brown led the ABA in assists three times and finished his career by averaging 7.1 for the Denver Rockets in 1971-72.

Brown coached Billups with Detroit from 2003-05, the first season when he was named Finals MVP and the second when he likely would have hoisted another trophy had the Pistons been able to beat San Antonio in Game 7.

"L.B. helped me tremendously, with things like patience and embracing sacrifice for the betterment of the team and for the win," Billups said. "He showed me little stuff, like knowing when the clock is running down, what to do. Knowing when I can take over scoring. Knowing when to get the ball to guys in certain circumstances."

Now, Billups is bringing those things to the Nuggets.

Focus on winning

Billups generally is a pass-first point guard. But he knows there are times the Nuggets need his offense.

Anthony was ruled out for Sunday's second half against Houston due to a sore elbow. So Billups scored 24 of his season-high 28 points after intermission in the Nuggets' 104-94 win.

"With Billups, they're one of the best teams in the West," Rockets forward Ron Artest said after watching Billups' show, which included 10 assists.

Billups played the entire second half until Karl called him to the bench with 23 seconds remaining and the Nuggets comfortably ahead. It was one of the few decisions Karl needed to make in the second half regarding Billups.

"It's great, because the communication is easier," said Boston coach Doc Rivers, a former All-Star point guard, of what it means to a coach to have a top-notch point. "When you talk, the guy actually knows what you're saying and gets it. And (Billups is) playing to win. Through the young part of his career, he was still trying to prove himself. Now he's just trying to win."

Indeed. When Billups was asked if he's seeking to play in a fourth straight All-Star Game, he merely shrugged and said, "All I'm thinking about is trying to win."

Well, it was Karl who compared Billups to a general. Guys such as Grant, Eisenhower and Patton earned their respect through winning.

WHAT BILLUPS BRINGS

A look at some of the attributes Chauncey Billups brings to Denver.

Running the team with confidence: Billups is always under control when leading the offense and finding the open man. "Chauncey can run the offense where, previously, Allen (Iverson) just kind of dribbled around and the rest of them watched," Clippers assistant Kim Hughes said.

Leadership. With his credentials, Billups has commanded instant respect. "We have a fairly young team," Nuggets coach George Karl said. "I think a point guard (such as Billups) has a way of developing young players faster." One of those young players, J.R. Smith, called Billups "the glue that holds us all together."

Experience in big games. Billups has played in two NBA Finals and the past six Eastern Conference finals. "He's a veteran guy who's played in big games," Milwaukee coach Scott Skiles said. "There's not a whole lot that's going on out there that he hasn't seen."

Defense. At 6-foot-3, Billups can guard opposing big guards without a lot of help. He twice has made the NBA all-defensive second team. "You add an all-NBA defender, (and) the trade magnified what we were doing in training camp," Karl said of stressing defense.

Clutch shooting. They don't call him "Mr. Big Shot" for nothing. "He makes huge shots," said Boston coach Doc Rivers, who saw Billups regularly when he was in the East with Detroit. "In close games, he becomes unbearable for us."

• December 2, 2008

  7:45 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  The_KIMN_Chicken writes:

  Yes, the Nuggets have finally fallen a$$ backwards into something good, now don't trade him to Orlando for Johnny Taylor and then give Nick Van Excrement a max deal.

• December 2, 2008

  8:03 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  gatengreen writes:

  It's quite an improvement, not having Iverson dribbling around until the shot clock is down to 6 seconds, driving the lane, jumping up and trying to throw a pass or shoot and then yell at the ref for not bailing him out with a foul call.

• December 2, 2008

  9:13 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  drnugget writes:

  I heart Chauncey.

• December 2, 2008

  9:31 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  TONE writes:

  You can tell the Piston is missing him really bad. But they had to do what they had to do for 2010. Glad, CB, he came here.
  The only S*UCKKKY thing about this is I can't see them play when they play...AAAAAWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  Well, thats what you get for not living in CO. C'mon, CA is almost CO...hahahahaa

  Even though I can't see them play, I'm still excited about their games now...

  GO NUGGET!!!

• December 2, 2008

  12:10 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  Spider writes:

  You ♥ Chauncey?

• December 2, 2008

  12:11 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  1world writes:

  It was exciting watching the Nuggets with AI, but you would never know what you were going to get. With Chauncey you know that he can play fast, he can play half court and he knows how to change it up if something isn't working.
  Don't get me wrong, I truly enjoyed watching Iverson do his thing. Now I enjoy watching the Nuggets do their thing.
  Thanks to AI for putting everything he had out on the court night after night, but the Nuggets are a better team with CB.

• December 2, 2008

  6:27 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  GOPteacher writes:

  KIMN chicken - I hear you. I was so pissed when they threw him in that monstrosity of a trade for freaking Tariq Abdul Wahad, et al.

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