Billups has a few great games and all we read is ... "Billups is Mr. Big Shot. He's our captain. So smart. Such a great leader. So clutch. The perfect mentor to TD. Huge upgrade over RayRay. The secret weapon in the trade."
Billups has a couple of terrible games coming off of injury, and now it's, "He stinks. Not worth his contract. Toast."
Let's be realistic about what he brings and not base it off a tiny sample size. On the plus side: He's very smart, savvy, experienced, etc. Has as much of these qualities as any pg in the league. He's a solid defender given his limited athleticisim. He's a good guy who will help our youts. He's a great shooter.
On the negative side: He never was terribly athletic, and has lost a step. He can't push the ball. He's old for a pg, so will be more injury prone and slower to recover. He probably doesn't really want to be in NY, although he'd probably rather be here than all but a handful of other places.
What does this all add up to? Though flawed, he's probably about our best realistic option at PG for next year. He probably isn't worth $14M. Do you overpay him for a year? Depends if you want to go all in for a chance at a 3rd superstar -- CP3, Deron or Howard -- and like that $14M coming off the books after next year. And that depends on where the collective bargaining agreement goes and substance of the "off the record" discussions that I've got to assume will take place with these guys or their agents.
And let's also be realistic about Toney Douglas. He is not the answer as our starting PG. He is not Derek Fisher -- a guy with a limited game but who can get the ball to the scorers and let them do their thing. To the contrary, his main flaw is that he too often fails to get the ball where it should be and therefore playing him too many minutes amounts to wasting your investment in Carmello and Stat.
