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Billups a Winner, Not a Throw-In

Chauncey Billups is the forgotten man in the three-team deal among the Nets, Nuggets and Pistons.  Most of the attention has been on Carmelo Anthony and when Billups is mentioned, it's in the context of him not wanting to leave Denver, his hometown, for New Jersey (although reports have the Nets guaranteeing him $14.2 million next year).

Billups, as John Schuhmann writes Saturday, is a lot more than a throw-in.  He is after all the winningest player in the NBA over the last eight years, with his teams corralling 465 wins in regular season and the playoffs.  Billups’ teams are 394-178 (.689) in the regular season and 66-38 (.597) in the postseason over the last 7 1/2 seasons, Schuhmann reports.  And Billups got his teams to at least the Conference Finals seven straight years: six in Detroit, then once in Denver.

Does the 34-year-old have anything left?  He won a FIBA World Championship last summer in Turkey and was named Western Conference player of the week earlier this month while filling in for a grieving Anthony.