Chauncey Billups Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Allen Iverson Commits To New BIG3 League As Player/Coach

January 11th, 2017 at 12:33pm CST by Luke Adams

Hall-of-Famer Allen Iverson has committed to join the new BIG3 basketball league debuting this summer, and will serve as both a coach and a player, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical. Wojnarowski first reported last month that entertainer Ice Cube and former NBA player Roger Mason were working together to launch the league, having secured commitments from several retired NBA veterans.

“I thought of this concept as a fan who got sick of seeing his heroes retire and not play anymore,” Ice Cube said at the time. “A lot of these guys can still play once they retire – just not the back-to-backs or four games in five nights.

“Not only do we get a chance to see these guys keep playing, but we give guys who retired who still got some game – who don’t want to pick up a [microphone] on TV and who don’t want to go overseas to play … some of these guys still want a stage to play on.”

Kenyon Martin, Rashard Lewis, Jermaine O’Neal, Stephen Jackson and Jason Williams were among the former NBA players initially reported to have committed to the BIG3, a half-court, three-on-three professional basketball league. In his latest report, Wojnarowski adds Chauncey Billups to that list of players.

According to Wojnarowski, Iverson will be one of eight dual head coaches/players in the league, which will feature eight teams. In his December report, Wojnarowski indicated that Gary Payton had agreed to be one of the coaches, though it’s not clear if The Glove would be a player as well.

The BIG3 conducted its first official press conference today, fielding questions about the league and introducing Iverson, Lewis, Martin, and Mason (Twitter link via Ian Begley of ESPN.com). A tweet from the BIG3 indicated that the league is expected to launch on June 24, shortly after the NBA Finals end.

Southeast Notes: Millsap, Wizards, Billups

August 1st, 2016 at 5:06pm CST by Luke Adams

It has been a Southeast-themed day so far at Hoops Rumors — we rounded up a few items out of the Southeast this morning, then examined the division’s free agent spending earlier this afternoon. Now, we have another handful of Southeast notes to pass along, so let’s dive right in…

Paul Millsap was the subject of trade rumors this summer, but speaking to Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Hawks big man said that dealing with that talk is just part of the business. “It is what it is,” Millsap said. “I don’t dislike anybody in this organization. I still think they are stand-up people. I still think they are terrific people. Our relationship is going to be our relationship. We are still on good terms.”
Israeli wing Shawn Dawson, who helped Maccabi Rishon win a title in Israel last season, received an invite from the Wizards to attend training camp, but has decided to turn it down, sources tell J. Michael of CSNMidAtlantic.com (Twitter link). Dawson appeared in four Summer League games for Washington last month.
A report in June indicated that the Magic were prepared to make Chauncey Billups one of the NBA’s highest-paid assistant coaches, but the former guard turned down the offer to join Frank Vogel‘s staff. Appearing on The Vertical’s podcast recently, Billups explained that he declined the job primarily for family reasons. “My second daughter has a couple more years of high school, so I didn’t really want to move away,” Billups said, per Vince Ellis of The Detroit Free Press. “It became more of a personal thing than just a coaching job. But it was a great opportunity.”

Eastern Rumors: Magic, Wizards, Noah, Knicks

June 22nd, 2016 at 12:02pm CST by Luke Adams

The Magic were prepared to make Chauncey Billups one of the highest-paid assistant coaches in the NBA, offering him a spot as the lead assistant on Frank Vogel‘s new staff in Orlando, but Billups has turned down the team’s offer, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical. According to Wojnarowski, the former NBA Finals MVP gave serious consideration to joining the Magic before deciding to remain in his current role as a television analyst. However, Billups does have interest in transitioning into a front-office role in the future.

Meanwhile, the Magic are in advanced talks with Timberwolves assistant David Adelman for a post on Vogel’s staff in Orlando, sources tell Wojnarowski.

Here’s more from across the Eastern Conference:

Add the Wizards to the list of teams with interest in Joakim Noah, says Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News (Twitter link). Noah, who may leave the Bulls and has said he’s looking forward to free agency, is also expected to receive interest from the Timberwolves.
Arron Afflalo and Derrick Williams are opting out of their contracts with the Knicks, and while Afflalo is likely a goner, Phil Jackson is fond of Williams, a source tells Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News.
Stan Van Gundy is confident that the Pistons will get a solid long-term piece at No. 18, but he isn’t counting on that player to contribute immediately, as Keith Langlois of Pistons.com details. In other words, if Detroit drafts a point guard with that first-round pick, that won’t stop the team from potentially pursuing a point guard in free agency. Van Gundy added that if the Pistons get trade inquiries on their pick, they have a good idea of “what would make us listen and what wouldn’t.”
If the right opportunities don’t arise this summer, the Celtics shouldn’t be in any rush to burn all their assets and cap room, writes Steve Bulpett of The Boston Herald, making the case that “wait until next year” might not be a bad Plan B for Boston. Bulpett adds (in a tweet) that the C’s are “trying very hard” to make major deals, and are well prepared with quick counters when different scenarios are raised in trade talks.

Northwest Notes: Saunders, Wolves, Nuggets

May 24th, 2015 at 5:44pm CST by Will Joseph

Despite an NBA-worst 16-66 record this year, Timberwolves coach and president of basketball operations Flip Saunders has the franchise moving in the right direction with some good fortune and solid return on past acquisitions, Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe writes. One positive is that Minnesota has the top pick in the draft. Saunders, who Wolves owner Glen Taylor expects to return next season, must now decide between Karl-Anthony Towns and Jahlil Okafor, Washburn adds. Saunders’ goal is to find the perfect complement to Andrew Wiggins, and trading the pick for an established veteran who may not match the team’s long-term plans is not an option, according to Washburn.

“When you talk about trading the pick, it would have to be a huge-type situation because I feel like there’s three or four players that will be All-Star, All-Pro-type players,” Saunders said. “You’re just not going to give somebody like that away. The positive from our standpoint getting the top pick — we’ve got two great 19-year-olds last year, we got [Adreian] Payne, and we’re waiting to see if [Anthony] Bennett can get healthy and Bennett can develop. They’re all going to be able to kind of mature together. Really similar to the situation Oklahoma City had. We’ve talked about what they’ve been able to do. They’ve been lucky and gotten the right players, and they were able to develop those players, so we’re hoping to follow suit.”

There’s more news from the Northwest Division:

With more on the debate of Towns versus Okafor, Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune examines which player would better suit the Wolves’ style and better fit the team’s needs. Kentucky’s Towns is the new generation big man — a mobile center who can shoot, while Duke’s Okafor is more of a throwback, low-post option, Zgoda adds. In theory, Zgoda writes, going with Okafor spreads the floor and creates open shots for Wiggins, Shabazz Muhammad and Zach LaVine. However, as Zgoda points out, the game has changed with more teams relying — and thriving — on shooting from beyond the arc, and Towns gives the team a way to keep up with everybody else in that regard.
Chauncey Billups wants to be a GM, and not a coach, and therefore the Nuggets would have to give him some say in player personnel matters if the team wanted to offer him the head coaching job, Mark Kiszla of The Denver Post writes in response to a question from a reader. The chances that Denver sticks with interim head coach Melvin Hunt are reportedly improving.

Northwest Notes: Kanter, Billups, Garnett

April 15th, 2015 at 1:29pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Trail Blazers are playoff-bound, though they’ll have a higher seed than their record shows they deserve because they won the Northwest Division. If the Thunder lose or the Pelicans win tonight, Portland will be the Northwest’s only playoff representative. Here’s more from a division that’s proven a drag on the Western Conference’s claim to supremacy this season:

It was obvious to opposing front office executives that the Jazz were under a ton of pressure to trade Enes Kanter at the deadline, as one of those executives tells Sean Deveney of The Sporting News, adding that the Jazz were only seeking a pick for the now-Thunder center. Kanter, a restricted free agent this summer, had pushed for a trade, and when Utah accommodated him, the Jazz received a lottery-protected first-rounder, a second-rounder and the rights to a draft-and-stash prospect along with Kendrick Perkins and Grant Jerrett.
Chauncey Billups tells Mark Kiszla of The Denver Post that Timberwolves coach/executive Flip Saunders reached out to him last spring with the idea of making him the team’s lead assistant this season and its head coach for 2015/16. Billups reiterated to Kiszla that while he’d “never say never,” he doesn’t want to coach. The retired point guard would rather work as a team executive, and Kiszla urges the Nuggets to pursue him for such a role. Denver wanted to hire Billups for a front office job before this season, as the Post’s Christopher Dempsey wrote in October.
Patrick Reusse of the Star Tribune suggests that Minnesota’s trade for Kevin Garnett is more about ticket sales than Garnett’s on-court impact or his influence on prize rookie Andrew Wiggins. Garnett has played only five games since returning to the Wolves.

Northwest Notes: Shaw, Neal, Billups

March 4th, 2015 at 4:11pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Timberwolves president of basketball operations Flip Saunders continues to assert that Gary Neal is a part of the franchise’s future, Kent Youngblood of The Star Tribune writes. “We traded for him and everybody — all the experts — thought we were going to buy him out,” Saunders said. “And I said we weren’t. We traded for him. We thought he was a good player and we thought he might have a future. We thought we’d bring him in, let him play with our guys and see how he would blend in.” Neal will become an unrestricted free agent at season’s end.

Here’s more from the Northwest Division:

Now that the deadline has passed for players to reach buyout arrangements and still be eligible to appear in the playoffs for a new team, Neal is staying positive about his situation in Minnesota, Youngblood adds. “I’m a basketball player and Flip has given me an opportunity to come in here and play,” said Neal. “I don’t have any complaints. The way the team is set up, with K-Mart [Kevin Martin] being out tonight, your role can change from day to day. All you ask for is an opportunity to come in and play, and Flip has been fair with me on that.”
Brian Shaw is better off no longer coaching a petulant group of Nuggets, opines Mark Kiszla of The Denver Post. The problem extends to the front office, as Kiszla argues in a separate column, suggesting it would be difficult for any coach to succeed in Denver.
The Nuggets should consider hiring former NBA player Chauncey Billups as their next coach, Benjamin Hochman of The Denver Post opines. Billups, who has expressed some level of interest in a front office position now that his playing career has ended, is not as old school a personality as Shaw was, which would be a more ideal fit with Denver’s current group of players, Hochman adds.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Northwest Notes: Aldridge, Timberwolves, Billups

October 15th, 2014 at 10:04am CST by Chuck Myron

The Thunder have won the Northwest Division each of the past four seasons, but it’s conceivable that the team will receive a stiff challenge from the Blazers this year if Kevin Durant is slow to recover from the fracture in his foot. While we wait to see if there’s a competitive race in the Northwest, here’s the latest from the division:

Portland’s improvement last year was crucial to LaMarcus Aldridge‘s desire to continue playing for the Blazers, as he admitted in appearance with Justin Termine and Mike Dunleavy Sr. of Sirius XM NBA Radio, as Casey Holdahl of NBA.com’s Forward/Center blog transcribes. Aldridge added that was hoping to cash in on the NBA’s windfall of TV money when he passed on an extension to set up free agency next summer, but he suggests that he won’t try to sign a one-year deal this summer to become a free agent again in 2016, when the new TV deal starts. That jibes with a report from The Oregonian’s Joe Freeman, who heard earlier this month that the TV deal won’t affect Aldridge’s plan to sign a new long-term deal with the Blazers in 2015.
Timberwolves backup guard Mo Williams isn’t a fan of the NBA’s experiment with shorter games, as he tells Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune, who hears similar disdain for the idea from Corey Brewer and J.J. Barea. “I come off the bench, man,” Williams said. “They need to put 50 minutes on that so my minutes would be up. I need more minutes, not less.”
Despite fielding interest from the several different teams, including the Nuggets, about taking on a coaching or front office role, Chauncey Billups has decided to join the ESPN crew as an analyst, reveals Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated. Billups cited a long-term commitment to broadcasting and said he’s not thinking of becoming a coach or executive.

Northwest Notes: Billups, Williams, Matthews

October 14th, 2014 at 6:31pm CST by ChrisCrouse

The start of the regular season is just two weeks away and franchises are still trying to finalize their regular season rosters. Teams can carry up to 20 players during the preseason but need to pare that number down to 15 by October 27th. In the Northwest Division the current preseason roster counts are Jazz (17); Wolves (18); Thunder (18); Blazers (17); and Nuggets (18). A number of tough decisions still need to be made by GMs, and a number of the players who get waived may end up in the NBA D-League hoping for a shot at some NBA action later in the season.

Here’s more from the Northwest Division:

The Nuggets would love to bring Chauncey Billups into their front office, but it is unlikely to happen this season, writes Christopher Dempsey of the Denver Post in his weekly mailbag. Billups made his preference to join a front office in some capacity known when he retired this summer.
Mo Williams is focused on contributing to a young Wolves team for the time being, but he admits that he has aspirations of coaching an NBA club one day, according to Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune. “I’ve got some years left in me,” said Williams. “But absolutely, they know that, a lot of coaches know it just because of my personality. It’s something when my legs say I can’t do it no more and guys like [Zach LaVine] and [Andrew Wiggins] keep coming into the league, I’ll probably have to start coaching.”
Wesley Matthews doesn’t believe the end of his contract this summer will bring an end to his time with the Blazers, as he indicated to Erik Gundersen of The Columbian. “Every year is a contract year,” Matthews said when asked if he’d feel added pressure to perform this year.

Charlie Adams and Eddie Scarito contributed to this post.

Poll: Is Chauncey Billups A Hall-Of-Famer?

September 9th, 2014 at 10:27pm CST by Charlie Adams

News broke tonight that the 37-year-old Chauncey Billups has decided to throw in the towel, announcing his retirement after 17 seasons in the league. The story was a bit surprising, given the Cavs’ reported interest in the veteran guard, but recent health woes led the former third overall pick to make the decision to retire, even amid interest from a potential title contender in Cleveland.

A five-time All-Star and one-time champion, Billups has already been pegged as a potential Hall of Fame candidate by some analysts around the league. Vincent Goodwill of the Detroit News thinks it’s a conversation worth having on whether or not the now-retired combo guard should get into the Hall, given his complete resume encompassing college, NBA, and FIBA play (Twitter links).

While he made stops with seven different teams in his lengthy career, Billups’ arguably finest years were spent in Detroit. “Mr. Big Shot” played a critical role in the Pistons’ 2004 title, earning Finals MVP and helping bring the Motor City its first championship since the 1989/90 season. Over his career, Billups averaged marks of 15.2 points, 2.9 rebounds, and 5.4 assists each night. He drained 41.5% of shots from the floor and put down an impressive 38.7% of his treys. His 89.4% free throw percentage ranks fourth all-time.

Unfortunately, injuries limited Billups to appearing in an average of just over 61 games per season, and he was never able to recover from tearing his Achilles as a member of the Clippers during the 2011/12 campaign. Still, Billups was largely effective while on the floor during his career, as his his 18.8 PER helps demonstrate.

What do you think? Does Billups have the credentials to put him in the Hall of Fame? His career was definitely impacted by injuries, but he proved to be a top flight guard when he was healthy enough to stay on the floor. Vote below and let us know how you came to your decision by posting in the comments section!

Chauncey Billups Retires

September 9th, 2014 at 8:46pm CST by Charlie Adams

Chauncey Billups confirmed that he won’t be returning to the hardwood next season, telling Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports that he’s retiring after 17 seasons in the NBA. The Pistons turned down a team option earlier this summer that would have paid the 37 year old $2.5MM to return to Detroit. He worked out for the Cavs in August, and although he was reportedly interested in teaming up with LeBron James in Cleveland, the veteran point guard has decided to hang up his jersey and move on from playing in the NBA.

While Billups acknowledged that he still had “a couple opportunities to play” if he had opted not to retire, the 2004 Finals MVP said he couldn’t ignore his deteriorating health that has limited him to appearing in only 49 games over the past three seasons. “It’s just time. I know when it’s time,” Billups said. “My mind and my desire is still strong. I just can’t ignore the fact that I haven’t been healthy for three years. I can try again and get to a point where I think I can go, but I just can’t sustain. Me not being able to play the way that I can play, that’s when you kind of know it’s that time.”

Billups expressed interest in taking a front office role at some point, but he told Spears nothing is imminent for the time being. The Timberwolves were reportedly likely to target Billups earlier this summer for an assistant coaching role, but the former Pistons stud indicated he’d be more interested in taking a television position or a job in a front office.

Over his career, Billups averaged 15.2 points, 2.9 rebounds, and 5.4 assists per night in 1043 games. He shot 41.5% from the floor and an impressive 38.7% from beyond the arc. The former third overall pick took home the NBA championship with the Pistons in 2004 and appeared in five All-Star games. According to Basketball-Reference.com, Billups earned $107,227,720 during his time in the NBA, having spent time with seven different clubs.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.