I really hate this quote system.
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Of course it is, but I don't think Billups is special in being able to do this.
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This is partly a question of chemistry. He knows where Rip's sweet spots are, he can kick it out to Sheed for 3s, and he hasn't done badly to feed Webber. He wasn't a great passer when he started out here, but he's gotten much better over the years. It helps that he's had so much time to get to know his teammates, but he has become a good passer, better than most PGs.
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We have a lot of people who could play more uptempo. I don't think Chris Webber would limit that. We have a deep front court if he gets tired, and he played with Iverson after all.
Our team has a lot of weapons, and often it is like we are taking turns with going to certain people on offense, because in limited possessions we can't spread the ball around to all of our threats.
Uptempo also generally suits offensive teams, which is the direction we went with Ben going (though ironically we've been winning a lot by defense lately).
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Yeah, he played with Iverson last year? So? He did get 20 and 10, but he was primarily a jumpshooter, and not a good one. He probably hurt the team's offense by shooting so much, especially since he rarely got to the line. Here, we can slow down, feed him in the post and he can use his smarts to make moves around the basket instead of being primarily a jumpshooter, and his passing has given us a balanced attack.
I agree that some parts we have could be well suited for an uptempo attack. Rip's game wouldn't change all that much, and Prince could probably do well also. But playing fast doesn't necessarily make you a good offensive team. We played slow last year and we still knocked people out offensively. It's a common thought since Phoenix plays fast and they have a high octane offense, but few of the teams that have tried to follow their example (Toronto at the beginning of the year, Golden State) have had that much success, even offensively. Toronto played much better after they dropped the Phoenix-like system, and even though Golden State plays fast, they are completely unable to get to the line.
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He is supposed to be the leader of our offense, and Chauncey's numbers were the ones that went down the most compared to his regular season numbers. And if you think he is the best player on the team, the leader, and worth the max, he needs to take the blame as well as the praise.
Not to mention, it did not sit well to me when on top of that he said he didn't really care about losing in the playoffs and he was worn out.
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There's no defending anyone besides Prince in last year's playoffs. Rip was shooting near 50% for the season and that dipped to close to 40, Chauncey's three point shooting took a dive, as did his assist numbers, Sheed just wasn't the same after getting injured. Ben Wallace was just a disaster. Again, I can't see you putting it all on him, because no one performed up to par. And that may shake your trust in that player a bit, but why Billups exclusively? Saunders should also get his fair share of the blame, since he failed to make any sort of adjustments and lost control of the team after a while as well. Fact is, shots just weren't falling for anyone, blaming Billups alone is kind of pointless. If this were to happen again and if it were easily attributed to Billups alone, I think you might have a case.
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Most guards are faster these days and less are post up types. How many post up pgs are there these days? The lack of speed also hurts him on picks and stuff... even Eric Snow could get by Chauncey in the playoffs last year.
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In some games, Billups is able to switch with Rip so that Rip can cover quicker guards while Billups takes on stronger ones. His All-defense reputation might be a little overblown, as he has looked a step slow on defense sometimes, but he does do a good job on stronger guards. Sadly, we don't have the luxury of Big Ben when our perimeter defenders make mistakes, but I think you might be exaggerating a bit here.
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He [Mo] turns the ball over one more time per game than Chauncey. I don't see how his stats are inflated compared to Chauncey. He plays faster but he dominates the ball less. He actually shoots at a higher percentage than Chauncey, so if his stats were really inflated he'd have more of an edge in scoring, which he doesn't.
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We play slow, probably among the slowest in the league. Milwaukee plays relatively fast. They have more possessions to accumulate stats with.
And if he dominates the ball less, that makes the fact that he turns the ball over more much worse. It means he's turning the ball over with less responsibility than Chauncey. Billups is great at taking care of the ball, Williams this year... really hasn't been (what is it, 3 a game?). We're the best team in the league at avoiding turnovers, and Billups is a big part of that.
As for scoring, when you take account free throw attempts, Billups is vastly more efficient. Williams gets 18.6 points off 16.1 shot attempts, and he takes 3.3 free throws a game. Billups scores 17.7 points off 12 shots, and he gets to the line 6.6 times a game. So he basically scores basically as much while taking four fewer shot attempts and geting to the line twice as much, all that in a slower paced system. Like I said, drawing fouls is a use of an offensive possession. Williams shoots better from the field but he doesn't get to the line all that much.
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42% doesn't make a good shooter, and he was even lower in last years playoffs and for his career. Just because of one good shooting season (that ended in the playoffs), I don't see a reason to expect him to do it again.
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He's a career 39% from 3s, and he takes several a game. Last year he shot better from 3s (43%?) than he did from the field in general. Billups can shoot. Granted, this year, his three shot has been a little off, but that should recover. He's also made it up a little by finishing shots close up. Last year, he blew a lot of layups in close, but those have been falling this year.
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Really, I want to be wrong, VERY wrong, but I can't bring myself to see it, and I'm even something of a homer.
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Sometimes silly internet basketball debates can get heated, just wanted to make sure that didn't happen.
I've spent too much time on this, I have to study, sadly.