L.A. Clippers Guard Chauncey Billups Out For Season
Comments (0)
Billups will be sorely missed by the 15-7 Clippers. (Creative Commons/Culture Shlock).
The 15-year pro fell to the floor, midway through the fourth quarter of the team’s overtime win, on a play that did not involve any contact. On Tuesday, an MRI confirmed the tear.
Even worse, Billups' career may be over. Billups, whose contract expires at season's end, will be 36 years old next season. He'll face a long road to recovery, with doctors estimating a rehabilitation period of at least six to nine months.
Despite Billups' devastating injury and mounting age, he vowed to return to the NBA.
"I'm focusing in a major way on coming back, and without a doubt, my career is not over," Billups said Tuesday. "This has been the story of my career, coming back, fighting, scrapping, and I will play again."
Billups acknowledged the severity of an Achilles tear, but spoke optimistically of medical advances in treating such an injury: “This injury is not what it was 10 or 12 years ago. It’s not an easy injury, but it’s gotten a lot better and easier to come back from."
As of Tuesday night, the Clippers held the second-best winning percentage in the Western Conference, winning more than 68 percent of their first 22 games for a record of 15-7.
Billups had started and played in all but two of his team's games, missing those contests with a sore right groin. He averaged 15.0 points (third on the team) and 4.0 assists in a little more than 30 minutes per game.
The veteran guard, who holds an impressive career free throw percentage of 89.4, was just as accurate this season. Prior to the injury, Billups was shooting 89.5 percent from the charity stripe and earning the team's second most trips to the line, only behind power forward Blake Griffin. Billups led the team in three-point attempts (6.3 per game), where he converted 38 percent of the time. In fact, Billups' 6.3 three-point attempts per game ranked third in the league.
In order to start alongside Chris Paul, the 35-year-old was switched to the shooting guard position this season. Although Billups shot a poor 36.4 percent from the field, he excelled in spot-up situations. According to Synergy Sports, Billups scored 1.29 points per possession in such situations this season, ranking 15th among all eligible players. Billups' defense will also be sorely missed. As D.J. Foster wrote on ESPNLA, the team's defensive rating significantly suffered when Williams replaced Billups on the court.
Foye, who started 24 games last season, will be inserted into the starting lineup. (Keith Allison/Creative Commons).
Billups' two most memorable games as a Clipper came against the Dallas Mavericks and Denver Nuggets. With the Clippers trailing the Mavericks with a second left, Mr. Big Shot nailed a game-winning three-pointer (his fifth of the game) to give his team the home victory. Later in the month, Billups made a triumphant return to his hometown, as he willed the Clippers to a 109-105 victory over the Nuggets. Billups scored 32 points and made 6 of 12 from beyond the arc, as the Clippers completed the road comeback.
Shooting guards Mo Williams and Randy Foye will be counted on to fill the void left by Billups' injury. Williams has embraced his role as first man off the bench after serving as the team's starting point guard last season. Despite only starting one game, Williams is averaging 14.5 points in about 28 minutes per game. He's shooting a stellar 43.1 percent from three-point range and 48.9 percent from the field. Most notably, Williams scored 25 points or more in three consecutive games off the bench.
Foye, who is one of three players to suit up in each of the team’s 22 games, will see much more of an increase in his minutes. Coach Vinny Del Negro has announced that Williams will continue to come off the bench, while Foye will be injected into the starting lineup. Coach Del Negro had been playing Foye about 20 minutes per game, but that number will surely increase.
Both Williams and Foye will be expected to attack the basket more often. As noted above, Billups placed second on the team in free throw attempts, averaging 4.8 per game. According to their current statistics, Williams' and Foye's combined free throw attempts average of 3.2 does not even equal Billups'average alone. Billups' ability to attack the basket not only resulted in additional free throws for himself, but created space for Paul to attack the basket or lob the ball to Griffin or DeAndre Jordan. If Williams and Foye continue to remain purely perimeter players, the Clippers' offense suddenly becomes much more predictable.
