Image by Getty Images via @daylife I’m sure that everyone has heard by now that Carmello Anthony, Chauncy Billups, and 3 other Denver Nuggets were traded to the Knicks for 4 of their starters, 3 draft picks, and $3 million. For the past few days I’ve heard about how the Nuggets are doomed now that we lost Carmello. I’ve heard people talk about how Carmello will impact the Knicks, both positively and negatively. Why isn’t anyone talking about the player that actually matters in this deal, the X factor, Chauncy Billups?Since coming into the league, Carmello has turned himself into one of the best scorers around. He’s averaging 25 points a game and has been known to get up into the mid 40’s at times. He is in the prime of his career but hasn’t won a thing. The biggest knock on Carmello is that he doesn’t play defense. This is absolutely true but I think that his biggest down fall is that he doesn’t make the players around him better. Carmello takes almost 2 times as many shots as Billups and well more than 2 times as many shots as any other member of the team while 11 of his teammates have a better shooting percentage. Carmello scores 23% of the points that the Nuggets average per game. That’s almost a quarter of the teams points. I heard yesterday on ESPN that he has the second most points off of isolation plays in the NBA, no team involvement after he gets the ball. He has just as many turnovers as assist while his defensive stats are far less than impressive (less than one steal and block per game). These stats are just for this season, but I ask you, where is he making the player around him better?
If you still don’t believe that Carmello hasn’t made anyone on the team better then just look at the post season success as your guide for who is more important. Without Billups in the lineup the Nuggets, led by Carmello, never made it out of the first round. In comes the veteran leadership of Billups, a man that won several NBA Championships, and suddenly the Nuggets make it to the Western Conference Finals and loose to the Lakers. Leadership in a locker room and on the court is far more important than being able to score less than 50% of the time. Billups’s arrival in Denver signified that. We lost Iverson in the trade to get Billups and even though Billups averaged fewer points per game, the team played better due to the leadership he provided.
I have no issue shipping Carmello off to any team, but the Nuggets threw in the only true leader that the team had. He was the only player with a championship and proven to be a clutch player. Who is going to lead the Nuggets on the court during this transition period? Lawson is only in his second year and doesn’t have the clout to be the guy. Afflalo is also very young but has a tremendous upside. Is he a team leader though? Nene has never stood out to me as being a vocal guy. Birdman and K-mart are more like grown children than leaders of men.
I know that getting rid of Carmello was a good idea. I feel as though he had done all that he could here in Denver and needed to go. To be honest, I wanted to keep Iverson and trade Carmello a few years ago. This particular trade was a disaster for Denver in the fact that now we have to start from scratch in the leadership department. I hope that in the off season the team will address that aspect directly and bring in a veteran guy with a proven track record that knows what it means to be on a team.
No comments:
Post a Comment